When Brooke Wilson university graduate With a graphic design diploma, she imagined a future full of advertising campaigns and customer land. “I wanted to be a creative director in an advertising company,” she said. “It was my goal.” But first, she needed a pay check.
Just outside the school and living in Durham, in North Carolina, she took what she thought was a temporary summer job with a room Two men and a truck franchise. Then something surprising happened. “I fell in love with the business,” she said. “It was very dynamic; every day is different. You solve problems and work with staff and customers – it was a bit exciting.”
This excitement has become ambition. Wilson quickly crossed the rows of the company and, at just 23 years old, opened his own two men and a truck franchise In Durham in 2017. But at the beginning, success reached a high cost.
Comments that “have changed everything”
As a business owner for the first time, Wilson encountered a common problem: professional exhaustion. She tried to do everything herself, and often. “I worked in the company from 7:30 am at least 7 a.m., then I had to own the company after that,” she said. This meant to make books, manage the pay and everything that fell outside daily operations. “I was doing.”
She was not only tired – she was stuck. Growth had blocked and the company showed signs of tension. Then she had an unexpected opportunity: MBA students At Duke University Fuqua School of Business were looking for local businesses to assess. Wilson agreed to let them dig in his business, but it was not easy. She had to open her books and have candid and frank conversations on how the company was taking place.
Their evaluation was frank – and which has changed life. “They said,” You hold your business because you try to do everything “”, she recalls. “‘You have to let go.” “”
The students advised him to hire people for accounting, finance and human resources. “They said they find the things I am really good in and delegate The rest, “said Wilson. With this external perspective, she started to hire and trust others to lead. This only moment, she says, is what is ultimately unlocked.” It was incredibly revealing, “she said.” This feedback has changed everything. “”
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Learn to direct the right way
Once she fell, Wilson business speaker. It has added two other territories in the “triangle” area of North Carolina, made up of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, in the past five years, and today these franchises generate more than $ 5 million in annual income. Wilson attributes its long -term success to the same thing that saved it from professional exhaustion: its staff. “If we focus on our employees, then our employees will focus on the customer side,” she said. “The employees will take care of the company, then the company will develop from there.”
During hiring, she first seeks a cultural adjustment – not just ambition. “Many leaders believe that each hiring must be someone who wants to climb the ladder,” she said. “But there are people who love their work and contribute significantly. They have just as much value to the organization.”
Two men and a truck brand president, Randy Shacka, who started with the company as internal In 2000, Concorde. “Finding someone who has this incredible attitude, who wants to be part of team culture and corresponds to our goal to advance people is what is most important to us,” he said. “It’s about finding people who believe what we believe, above all.”
In addition, Shacka claims that 40% of the brand’s franchise owners started in their home office, working on phones or working on the field on a truck.
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Content, but competitive
As the Durham region has developed, Wilson’s affairs, but it does not rush to develop for expansion. “I wouldn’t say that I am interested in buying more territories just to grow,” she said. “But if the right opportunity arose, I always listen to. This competitive nature instills me.”
Wilson says she never saw himself as an entrepreneurAnd that’s why overlooking work. “There is a demonstrated brand and process. It is almost like a cutting and brown sugar model,” she said. “It must still be personalized by the market, but it is a great way.” His biggest advice for others seeking to enter an unexpected opportunity? “Be open and always take care of your employees. Because the employee is the backbone of any business.”
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When Brooke Wilson university graduate With a graphic design diploma, she imagined a future full of advertising campaigns and customer land. “I wanted to be a creative director in an advertising company,” she said. “It was my goal.” But first, she needed a pay check.
Just outside the school and living in Durham, in North Carolina, she took what she thought was a temporary summer job with a room Two men and a truck franchise. Then something surprising happened. “I fell in love with the business,” she said. “It was very dynamic; every day is different. You solve problems and work with staff and customers – it was a bit exciting.”
This excitement has become ambition. Wilson quickly crossed the rows of the company and, at just 23 years old, opened his own two men and a truck franchise In Durham in 2017. But at the beginning, success reached a high cost.
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