JDog Brands Establishes New Franchisee Training Center To Accommodate Increased Volume

JDog Brands, the parent company of JDog Junk Removal & Hauling and JDog Carpet Cleaning & Floor Care, provides business opportunities to Veterans and their families, promoting a smoother separation from the military and alleviating some of the stress that can accompany the journey to applying military skills to civilian life. Over the last few years, the brand has received such a high volume of new franchisees that it worked to establish a brand new franchisee training center.

“We’ve had so much volume over the last two years since moving into our new office,” explained Kevin Kopa, president of JDog Brands. “We’ve been selling too much and having too many discovery days and trainings, which are all good problems, but we saw the need to have dedicated space for training.”

Not only does this provide newer franchisees an opportunity to learn in a spot out of the way of other corporate operations, but the room itself is also much more conducive to learning and provides all of the resources needed to have each JDog franchisee fully trained up in time for their own opening.

Unlike the old conference room space, this training room is set up like a classroom. It has a podium, television and even a camera that allows the lessons to be streamed to active franchisees.

“If somebody wants a refresher on a specific topic, or if somebody has a new general manager that can’t come to the physical, in-person class for a week, they can do it from home,” Kopa added. “They can sit in on the whole classroom experience for the week of JDog University.”

For practical learning, the room itself is made of seven different flooring types and three different backsplashes, allowing learners to simply move across the room and have hands-on experience with whatever material is in question.

“Instead of doing a bunch of tables, we just did classroom chairs with the attached desks, so it makes it pretty easy,” Kopa said. “If they want to clean one section of floor, they just have to move a couple chairs out of the way. Right outside the door, they can have the van set up, walk outside to get the van to the right temperature and pressure settings, get the correct tools and come right back into the room.”

For Veterans and their families, the new training center and processes feel very familiar to what was experienced in the military. A structured learning process and continuing education are familiar to many military members, and JDog’s training center allows the brand to replicate that.

“James, who is our VP of Training and Development, has really set up a lot of the classes and the structure of the week similar to what you might find in a military school,” Kopa said. “Being in the military, you have your basic training or recruit training or whatever it might be called for your respective branch, then you go to a number of specialty schools throughout your career.”

For experienced Veterans, the sequence of adequate training, assessment and approval to complete a job is universal.

Further, Kopa explained, new franchisees have an opportunity to go along for a day in the life with an existing franchisee for even more experience with the practical applications, and this is reminiscent of training in the field and going through dry runs before executing a mission.

In addition to the training center, JDog has become a bit more structured with its post-training follow-ups to ensure franchisees can receive any support or intervention as soon as they need it rather than relying on franchisees to reach out as they see appropriate.

“We do 60 to 90 days of ramp-up calls following the training, so there are specific items that franchisees are expected to do week over week, month over month, during those first three months as they get ramped up,” Kopa added. “That process has really helped us ensure that they leave here, continue the ramp-up process and don’t get stalled on things like networking, scheduling or truck delivery.”

The total investment necessary to begin the operation of a JDog Carpet Cleaning & Floor Care ranges from $37,909 to $169,947, including a $10,000-$25,000 franchise fee. The total investment necessary to begin the operation of a JDog Junk Removal & Hauling ranges from $30,000 to $110,000, including a $35,000 franchise fee.  For more information on franchising with JDog, visit https://www.jdogbrands.com/own-a-franchise.