These military veterans have found a second career in local franchised business ownership
By Alyssa Thulmann
Franchising provides business owners with the unique benefit of being supported by a whole system eager to see their success. Still, at the heart and soul of each location is the franchisee themself, a local member of the community who gets to give back through their goods and services. For military veterans, franchising can offer a fantastic option for a second career, giving them the chance to lean on certain skills they’ve gained in their service while also building a business of their own. Franchise Canada sat down with two franchisees who’ve taken up new careers after their time in the military and made incredible feats in business.
Rick Davies, PropertyGuys.com
Rick Davies spent nearly 25 years with the Canadian military’s Air Force branch. An avionics technician, he began as an IS (Integral Systems) technician working on aircraft electronics.
During his time with the military, he visited nearly every province and territory in Canada; after basic training in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, and basic trades training in Kingston and CFB Bordon in Ontario, he was posted to Comox, British Columbia, then to Gander, Newfoundland—where he was posted for about five years with the search and rescue units—before going to Shearwater, Nova Scotia. In Shearwater he trained on the Sea King helicopter, and once trained, he was posted to Esquimalt, Victoria to work on the back of a ship with the Sea King, spending another three years there.
“I went to all kinds of cool places,” Davies says: New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, Tahiti, through the Panama Canal, up the Columbia River and many other destinations—“Just about everywhere you could go off the west coast of Canada.”
Trenton, Ontario was Davies’ next stop, where he was the sergeant in charge of an IS and Safety Systems training cell. Once he was promoted to warrant officer, he was directly responsible for a crew of roughly 70 technicians, before transferring to MOCC, the Maintenance Operations Coordination Center. “We basically chose which aircraft did which missions and so on from there,” he explains.
Davies received a promotion to master warrant officer, but his family was tired of moving around. He wanted to set down some roots for his family, and never actually wore the rank. “I had two young school-aged kids then, my two youngest daughters, and my wife Donna and I decided it would be a good time to ‘pull the pin’ on my military career,” Davies says.
“But I just really missed everything that the military offered as far as the social aspect of it,” says Davies. “When you’re in such a social and demanding job and retire from that, you really miss it.”
So, he started to look into new career opportunities. “Actually, Franchise Canada magazine was one of the magazines I’d pick up all the time from Chapters,” Davies says. “I just started to look for something that would fill that void for me.” He’d always been interested in real estate, and looking through the opportunities in Franchise Canada, he found that PropertyGuys.com checked most of his boxes. “I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’”
Initially, Davies joined the PropertyGuys.com franchise system alongside his brother and a coworker of his, both of whom were also military. The other two have moved on since then, but for Davies, this franchise was it.
At first the three of them bought three franchises, and later a fourth, before Davies eventually amalgamated some of them. Now, he has two PropertyGuys.com locations, Hastings and Prince Edward County, and Northumberland County. “I’m coming up on 20 years next year,” he says. In this time he’s built himself a team and is even one of the few PropertyGuys.com franchisees with an actual storefront location. He received the brand’s first-ever Person of the Year award from the PropertyGuys.com head office, a prestigious honour for the entrepreneur.
That wasn’t the only honour he received through his franchise system. In 2012, Davies had the unforgettable experience of being selected by the president of the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) and the CEO of PropertyGuys.com to meet Prince Charles, during the royal’s visit to Canada. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that highlighted the unique and meaningful journey I’ve taken from military service to business ownership,” Davies says.
When asked if his time in the military has helped in his second career, Davies credits the responsibility and discipline he learned, “which are good things whether you’re civilian or military.”
That being said, there was still a learning curve. “When I was in the military, I was given a budget,” he explains, “I never had to earn that budget first.” But being part of a franchise system provides business owners with a network to lean on. “I’ve always had top notch support from home office. Again, I know I’m responsible for my own success. You know, in the military, we’ve got a saying: one man, one kit. Basically, you’re responsible for your stuff, and pointing fingers in responsibility for my success anywhere but myself just doesn’t make sense.”
He also found that getting involved with the Chamber of Commerce gave him access to even more support, “What challenges you have within your business are probably very common challenges that other small business owners face on a daily basis.”
As for his future, Davies plans to keep growing his business, and thanks to the flexible model combined with his team’s support, he plans to travel more too, including a trip to walk the El Camino in Spain.
Janin Delorme, The UPS Store
“I’ve never thought really about being a business owner until the [past few] years,” shares Janin Delorme. From the ages of about 18 to 21, he was in the military, specifically artillery. At first, he was in the reserves part time while he studied during the school year, then full time in the summers.
He started working as an electrician, but wanting more, he attended college to become a technician of electronics and automation while in the reserves. He was subsequently involved in an unfortunate accident, wherein he was struck in the back with a metal pole, resulting in limited mobility in his left arm. Unable to continue his career in the military, he decided to go to university, and became an electrical automation engineer.
From there, Delorme worked as a robotics engineer, travelling and living in the U.S. until just after 9/11. “After that, it became more difficult to cross the border. So I came back here and I worked as an engineer for a few more years,” he explains. When an opportunity to teach came along, he jumped in with both feet, taking a masters degree in teaching to ensure he had the skills.
In 2018, Delorme faced a new challenge; he had a stroke. “That changed my life. At first, I lost my language, and I had to relearn that,” he says. He also lost sight in one of his eyes, “And more, I lost the ability to work as an engineer because there’s some, you know, brain calculation stuff that I cannot do anymore.”
The next two years were spent in rehabilitation. “The words were not coming up when I wanted to say them. I was forgetting every word I needed. [It was like they were] behind doors that I need to open and it took time until I find the right one,” he explains.
“And so after two years of doing nothing except working on myself, I thought, okay, now I need to do something because I’m going to go crazy.” He considered a few different paths, but after seeing some lists of top franchise brands online, The UPS Store caught his eye—he was impressed by how high they ranked.
His previous life experience had equipped him with the ability to speak French and English, and he was familiar with customs and paperwork. “I might not be able to build bridges and program robots anymore, but I can take care of a computer and printers and stuff like that,” he thought.
In the beginning of 2020, he approached David Druker, the CEO of the UPS Store Canada. He had done all his research and made himself a business plan. Delorme says, “I wanted to be part of their team and I had a plan and he took it. He gave me a chance.”
Since then, Delorme has gone on to build two new The UPS Store locations, both located conveniently inside of Wal-Mart stores.
In his town of Victoriaville, Quebec, he worked to show his community that his The UPS Store location was locally owned and operated, and does more than just shipping. In fact, his store deals mainly in printing, “In my small town, if I don’t print, I don’t make it,” he explains. Now, his location in Trois-Rivières (Janin’s second The UPS Store franchise) is the leader in print of The UPS Store locations in all of Quebec, “and this is my biggest accomplishment.”
While the military didn’t provide him so much with the technical skills he’s utilizing now, it taught him resilience and discipline. “To be able to start a business and make it work, you need to be really focused,” says Delorme.
Being part of a system, Delorme has a network of support from the franchisor and the other franchisees. “The strength of being a group of franchisees is that the knowledge base is huge. It’s like a mini internet just for us. So, we’re not alone,” he says. He credits this team-mentality as one of the biggest advantages to franchising.
For others considering franchising, he recommends making the most of this network as well as the local Chamber of Commerce. “Every time I go to a special evening—or maybe it’s just a breakfast event—I get out of there with a couple of names.”
Looking forward, Delorme is planning to use the learning curve from his first two stores to open more: “That’s the thing, you know—try to be better, every time, at what you do.”
