Helping Older Neighbors Was Already Second Nature, and Now Katie and Chris Kenney Built a TruBlue Home Service Ally Franchise Business Around It

Before Chris and Katie Kenney ever heard the name TruBlue Home Service Ally, they were already doing the kind of work that would eventually draw them to the home services franchise. Chris golfs regularly with three men in their 70s and 80s, and the couple has spent years looking out for older neighbors and parents in their orbit. They showed up with tools when someone needed a grab bar installed and once caught a 71-year-old friend halfway up a ladder he had no business climbing.

So when Katie was laid off after a career spent running large-scale operations and the couple began considering what might come next, a senior-focused home services business felt close to what they were already doing for the people around them.

Choosing TruBlue also gave Katie and Chris a way to combine the experience they had built throughout their careers. Katie brought nearly 25 years of executive operations experience in telecommunications and wireless infrastructure, while Chris had more than two decades of hands-on maintenance and technical experience. Together, they saw an opportunity to build a business that could serve their community while putting those skills to work.

That commitment is already leading the North Carolina couple to think bigger. Just seven weeks after launching TruBlue of East Wake and Northern Johnston County on Aug. 3, they officially purchased a second territory of roughly the same size. Their current territory covers nearly 200,000 households across Clayton, Wendell, Garner, Zebulon, Knightdale, Selma and Smithfield, giving the couple an even larger community to serve as they expand.

1851 Franchise spoke with the Kenneys about leaving corporate life, bringing their professional experience together and building a business around a service they were already providing to the people in their community. Here's what they had to say:

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What do you want us to know?

Katie Kenney: We were ready to be rooted in our community and needed something that would let us actually do that. TruBlue lets us join our neighborhood, work in people's homes and meet the people around us instead of just living near them. It fit our personality and it fit where we wanted to be in our 40s.

Chris Kenney: My golf group is an 83-year-old, a 71-year-old and a 74-year-old, and one of them is basically my best friend. We've caught him climbing a ladder more than once and had to tell him to get down while we grabbed our own tools to finish the job for him.

That instinct to look after the older people in our lives was already there long before we knew handyman franchises existed. TruBlue gave us a way to do that same thing for an entire community, not just the people who happen to live near us.

1851: What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Katie: I spent close to 25 years in executive operations roles in telecommunications and wireless infrastructure, running large teams and carrying full responsibility for financial performance and safety across multiple markets. When I was laid off, I knew I did not want to go back into that world.

We started looking at franchises on our own, even got as far down the road as a pizza franchise before deciding against it, and eventually a franchise coach walked us through six different options in a matter of days. We chose TruBlue within the hour because it lined up with how we already live.

Chris: My path looked different but landed in the same place. I'm a veteran, and I’ve spent more than 20 years in hands-on maintenance and technical work, including time supporting robotics and complex equipment in high-precision industrial settings. That work is all about diagnosing problems correctly and fixing them right the first time.

When we looked at TruBlue, I realized that discipline translates directly into someone's home. Katie runs the systems and the business side, and I handle the technical side, and honestly, that's how we've always worked best together.

There wasn't a version of this where I stayed at my job and Katie ran it alone. I quit; we put our 401(k)s into it. I couldn't let her do this by herself, and honestly, neither of us could have pulled this off without the other one. We went in together completely, savings and all, because we'd already decided that if we were in, we were in.

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Chris: We went in asking a lot of questions, checking around with other franchisees to see if the culture was as genuine as it sounded, and it held up from the top of the organization to the bottom.

What I'd tell people now is that it costs a lot more to operate than most assume. There's a misconception that handyman work is a $20 or $30-an-hour job. We carry insurance, we run background checks, we pay real wages, and we are not the cheapest option out there on purpose, especially when the person on the other side of the door is 80 years old and needs the job done right the first time.

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Katie: It was the people first. Every owner we met through our training class had that same instinct to help others, and TruBlue protects that culture by being careful about who they hand a franchise to. It's not a rubber stamp process.

Beyond the culture, TruBlue also respects territory boundaries instead of letting franchisees cannibalize each other, which mattered to us. And the work itself excites us because it's exactly what we were already doing informally. We carry insurance and run background checks, so when we walk into a senior's home, we're not just another guy with a ladder strapped to his Honda Civic. We're a white-glove service people can actually trust.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth?

Chris: We're already negotiating to add a second territory of roughly 200,000 more homes, just seven weeks after our launch. Raleigh doesn't know us yet, so our immediate goal is to build that brand recognition.

We want people to see our trucks, recognize our name and know that when TruBlue shows up, they're getting someone they can trust in their home.

Closer to home, we want to keep our technicians' schedules full so they can count on steady hours. Watching a fully booked week come together for our crew has been one of the best feelings of this whole experience.

1851: Is there anything else about your story you want us to know?

Katie: We're a veteran-owned, woman-owned and family-operated business, and we're active owner-operators, not people who bought a franchise and stepped back. That matters to us.

We tell our friends who are considering this not to wait for certainty before they leap. Chris and I don't do anything halfway, so we jumped in with both feet, sold on each other and on the brand before we had every answer figured out. Other owners are moving slower and building up to it, and that's fine too. Either way, you figure out the landing on the way down.

Honestly, some days it still feels like we're just doing what we did for our neighbor on the ladder, except now it's our job. We're proud of what we've built in seven weeks, and we're just getting started.

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, preventive 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.