A Change of Plans Brought This San Diego Family Together Around a TruBlue Home Service Ally Franchise

For Allie Thornbrue, opening a TruBlue Home Service Ally franchise in North County San Diego is about more than starting a new business. It is about creating a path forward for her family.

For years, Allie and her husband, James, had kept the idea of a family business in their back pocket. After more than 30 years in the same career, James was looking toward an eventual exit and wanted his next chapter to involve his children and their spouses. At the same time, their daughter, Tessa, and son-in-law, Mike Brugger, needed a Plan B after the financial realities of graduate school made their original career paths no longer feasible. 

Those circumstances created what Allie described as a “perfect storm of events.” With AI reshaping the job market and the high cost of living making it hard for Mike and Tessa to build lives near them, the family began seriously looking at a business they could build together.

TruBlue became the opportunity that checked those boxes. Allie and Tessa had backgrounds in in-home respite care, while Allie and James enjoyed home improvement projects and had long wanted to help Mike and Tessa build wealth through real estate. For Mike, the opportunity has also expanded his idea of what his and Tessa’s future could look like. Instead of the fixed career path they had envisioned through graduate school, he said TruBlue has pushed him to “think big” and reconsider the limits of what they can build.

The family sat down with 1851 Franchise to discuss what brought them to TruBlue and what they hope to build together in North County San Diego. Here’s what they had to say:

1851 Franchise: Tell us your story in one sentence.

Allie Thornbrue: Long story short, we've had this idea in our back pocket for years. James has always wanted an exit strategy from his current job. He's been sitting in a chair for over 30 years, and at some point, he wants to do a project. He's always wanted to do a project with his children, sons-in-law and daughter-in-law. We have one son.

A perfect storm of events came together, and we decided to pull the trigger. Some of those things were that AI is disrupting job opportunities for our children. They've either graduated from college or are in the middle of college, and we were trying to find something AI can't take away. We live in one of the most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S., and we were trying to figure out a way to help our kids raise their families locally. This idea checked all those boxes.

Federal student loan rules changed, and some of the paths my children were pursuing were no longer viable. This seemed like a project that would fit everybody's needs, and we could all work together on this family business.

1851: What was happening in your life that made you realize it was time to make a change?

Tessa Brugger: We had just graduated from college and gotten into some grad schools, but we couldn't make the finances work. It just wasn't going to work. We were looking at Plan Bs, and my parents said, "Hey, we've been thinking about this idea for a while. Now that you guys suddenly have free time and need a job, do you want to come help us do it?"

1851: Why did you choose this franchise over every other opportunity?

Allie: Tessa and I both have experience with in-home respite care and caring for people. This was a new, different idea. Those home care solutions are oversaturated in the market, and we saw this as an original idea where no one is taking care of the home. That was something a little bit different.

We like home improvement projects. That's what James and I like to do together as a couple. That's the fun thing that we do together. So this kind of combined all of that, and we've always been interested in helping our kids build wealth through real estate. This seemed like a way to tap into that hobby.

Also, we really like the value system that TruBlue offers.

1851: What is it really like owning a TruBlue franchise?

Allie: It's unlike anything we've ever done before. It's a mixed bag. On one hand, there's stress I've never experienced because I'm doing something I've never done. I'm learning faster than I ever have before, and I've made mistakes we've had to go back and fix.

Sometimes you feel like you have to wear lots of hats. One day you have to be a CEO, another day you have to be a lawyer, another day you have to be a doctor or a contractor. You wear so many hats.

That can bring a different level of stress, but it also brings a strange amount of hope for the future. Right now is hard, but I can look down the road and feel a sense of peace because there is a plan, there is a path forward, and I can see the possibility of financial freedom for my children. I can't think of any other way that they can get there.

1851: How has owning this franchise changed your life?

Mike Brugger: I guess with Tessa and me and the plan that we had for graduate school, that was kind of our next 10-year plan. We were going to get whatever certifications we needed to get a job, and it was going to be a fixed income. That's what our life was going to be from that point on.

I'm from a small town in Idaho, so I'm not really used to thinking big, but TruBlue has a lot of ideas for growth, and our business is following that. That's something that I'm not really used to, but it's exciting, and it's helping me, as Allie said, have more hope and not really put limitations on what we can do.

Allie: There's no ceiling. Many of the career paths you can choose from do have ceilings. You can do honorable work and provide for your family, but you'll be living a life just getting by. You'll be limited in the opportunities that you have later to serve other people and give back if you're just trying to put food on your table.

1851: If your best friend had enough money to buy this franchise tomorrow, what would you tell them?

Allie: I've already told a friend to pursue this. They've been out of the country, and now they're trying to come back to their lives and say, "Now what do we do?" I said, "Well, let me tell you what we're doing."

My brother is a nurse, and he's trying to figure out a way to move here because we're close. We have a lot of fun together, but right now the cost of living keeps him out. We've been trying to figure out how to get his family here, and we've entertained the idea that, well, maybe my brother needs to come here and try this out.

So I can definitely see the path forward, and I'd absolutely have somebody try it out.

1851: What's the one thing you wish someone had told you before you bought this franchise?

Allie: I feel like a lot of our training comes from the experience of people in the Midwest or the East Coast, and California is its own entity. There are a lot of rules, obstacles and hurdles to overcome before you can follow the formula. It would have been nice to have someone who has done this in my state say, "Here's what you really need to do."

So I would have done things differently. I feel like, in some ways, I wasted time doing things I shouldn't have been doing yet. Good experience, of course. I've already told my kids I would love an opportunity to teach someone else how to do this once we've made all these mistakes.

But I think that was the hard part.

About TruBlue Home Service Ally:

TruBlue Home Service Ally® provides a unique and affordable approach to helping busy adults and seniors live a worry-free life by offering trustworthy handyman, home maintenance and senior modification services. Helping you maintain your home both inside and out, TruBlue’s services include handyman projects and to-do list chores, preventative home maintenance programs, kitchen and bath remodels, seasonal work and senior modification services, all handled by professional, bonded and insured Tru-Pro® Technicians. TruBlue franchise owners are required to complete senior home safety certification programs through the NAHB and Age Safe America. As certified specialists, TruBlue franchisees are able to perform aging-in-place home safety assessments and can make recommended safety modifications as needed.

All locations are independently owned and operated. Service offerings, certifications, and licenses vary by location.