Jerry Flanagan With JDog Brands

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Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Jerry Flanagan with JDog Brands. Welcome, Jerry.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:00:42] Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about JDog. How are you serving folks?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:00:49] Yeah, sure. So JDog is the world’s largest military veteran franchise system. We started in 2011 just with one truck and one trailer, and we’ve expanded and exploded into over 270 locations around the country. And we’ve added a carpet cleaning and floor care service as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] So can you talk about the beginning days? What was the genesis of the idea?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:01:13] Well, my wife and I had come off of a personal bankruptcy. Our business had failed. Coming off the recession, we were in the retail world and I needed to do something that was recession proof while I looked for a real job. And it turned out that junk removal was a recession proof business. So I had a jeep. We took we took the jeep and we bought a trailer and I started hauling junk in my neighborhood. A customer found out that I was a military veteran. They thanked me for my military service and they said, You should let the entire world know that you’re a military veteran service in the community. And that’s what we did. We started branding JAG. We put a big bulldog on the truck and camouflage, and everyone knew that we were in the military.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:54] So what was how did you even think of, like, junk removal like?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:01:58] So when I was researching for recession proof businesses, the businesses that were the most popular were pharmaceutical sales, the medical field, trash and junk. And I said, you know, junk removal. I’m a pretty strong guy. I can pick up pianos, refrigerators, hot tubs. I think I’m going to go into that space. And when I started hauling junk, my wife and I just put index cards out with our phone number on and we said veteran, owned and operated. The entire community got behind the business.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:28] But what about how did you know about the math of the business that the math was going to work out?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:02:34] Google is your best friend, right? Youtube videos. I researched what the other guys were doing. There’s a company called one 800 Got Junk and Junk KING And all these other companies that kind of laid the groundwork for the business. So I kind of looked what they were doing and lowered my prices and offered a stronger and better and more personal service. And especially being a military veteran, customers would open up their door and thank me for my service before I even started.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] And then when did kind of the light bulb go off and go, you know what, this could be a franchise.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:03:05] Well, that was my wife’s idea. That was in 2012. Our previous business was a franchise model. We did swing sets, birthday parties, and that failed, but we did have some franchise experience. So it was her idea. She saw the unemployment rate for veterans was around 12% back then and she said, we already know how to franchise. Let’s put something together, put a playbook together and let’s franchise to our our fellow veterans.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:29] And was it that simple? Build it and they will come.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:03:32] You know, a lot of hard work, a lot of marketing dollars had to be spent. I had to raise money with some investors. And finally, in 2014, we were able to really go national.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:43] Like, what were some of the breadcrumbs that gave you clues that this thing had traction and it was going to work?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:03:48] Well, I would haul junk away in. The margins were great and I was able to recycle the items. I was able to donate a lot of the items. So my cost to dump the items were really low. I was keeping everything out of the landfill I could and those customers were calling me back saying, Hey, I have a friend, they want to use you. My church wants to use me, my mom wants to use you, my office wants to use you. Everyone wanted to use our brand because it was a military brand. They wanted to give back to the military. And it was very fortunate for us that this is going on all over the country.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:19] And then you said, let’s just lean into this and then let’s see where it takes us.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:04:24] Yeah, because when you’re a military veteran, I served in the Army. When you get out, you don’t have any real direction. You get lost. When you’re in the military, you’re consumed with brotherhood and sisterhood and the work ethic that you learn and the things you do together. And the country is missing that. And I noticed that over the last decade that when we open this thing up, people are coming to JAG to buy a franchise so they can hire their brothers and sisters. I mean, the goal for the company is to get the unemployment rate for veterans to under 1%. And we’re finding that when a franchise opens up, that’s what they want to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:00] Now, one of the you educate the listener a little bit about what it’s like when you do leave the military service. I think there’s some misconceptions that they think that, Oh, you’re just on some sort of a path and they’re taking care of you, but it’s kind of they’re cutting the string pretty quickly.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:05:15] They cut it very quickly. They put you through something called TAPS, which is a transitioning program, and they send you on your way. And if you don’t have the right experience when you apply for a job, most human resource people don’t know what your military experience means. They don’t know that you oversaw ten. 30 people or you managed millions of dollars of equipment. They don’t understand your leadership skills. You can’t put it on a resume because they don’t understand it. So I think that the hiring process is a problem from the civilian space.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:43] And then this is where somebody like you can come in and give them a path that makes sense. It aligns with their values, it aligns with their skill set, and it gives them a path out from feeling that sense of being lost or disconnected.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:05:58] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our motto here is respect, integrity and trust. And we put that to work. When we show up early at the customer’s home, we say, yes, sir, yes, ma’am. You know, the service industry is missing that. And we provide that with our military veterans when they come to work every day. And when the veteran starts opening up in a market, they go crazy. Everyone’s like, I look, I love the veterans. I want to see the trucks. You know, our bulldog is our mascot. And it’s really cool. It’s cool to get a service experience with the civilian people to say Thank you for your military service. I didn’t know that much about the military until I met you. Come into my home.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:32] And then the flip side of that is not every vet thinks of themselves, maybe as a business owner or entrepreneur, by opening their mind to that and kind of opening the mindset to an entrepreneurial lifestyle that really can be a game changer as well.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:06:49] Yeah, the beauty of franchising and the reason we went there is because we can control it. You know, it’s a playbook. It’s one week here at J Dog University. We train you how to pick up the junk, how to clean the floors, what your pricing should be, how to build SEO marketing, how to manage your dollars, your budgets, your pal re review your panels with you so you’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. And the formula works really well because if you get the right veterans in our system, they do follow orders pretty well.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:19] And that’s the key. The right veteran. Right. This isn’t for everybody.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:07:24] It’s not for every veteran. Just like in the real world. Right? There’s veterans out there that just they served and they don’t want to listen to anybody. Well, that’s not that’s not our model. You need to listen to us. You need to follow the playbook. This is not something where you sign on the dotted line and you’re free Willy out there. You need to follow our franchise system. And and that’s why it’s really important we have a process here where you’ve got to go through multiple calls in an in-person interview to be approved for a franchise.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:50] So what are some of the qualities you’re looking for? You mentioned the ability to be coachable. That’s an important component. But also you don’t want the kind of the the free willy or the maverick out there saying, hey, that’s good, what you started. But, you know, I got some my my own ideas over here.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:08:09] Yeah. I mean, the company really has become a brand and you need to really believe in the brand. I mean, the three things we focus on, AJ Dog is to get the unemployment rate under 1%. So we need you to go out there and try to find veterans and hire them. Number two, you need you want to be a business owner. We want to put veterans into business ownership so they can really create real equity value for themselves. And number three, we want to focus on the mental health of veterans and prevent veterans suicide. If you feel those three things are important to you, you’re going to make a very good franchise for us. As far as the other technical things go, we’ve got it all figured out. We know how to take apart computers, we know how to recycle. We’d have stripped wire. We’ve done all those things we’d have had. We’d had to put all that type of stuff together. But it’s really the work ethic is what we’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:54] Right? So you’ve got to follow the playbook, but bring your best self and really believe in the mission because that’s at the heart of all of this.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:09:01] Yeah, you have to believe in the mission because again, like I said, there are certain veterans that get out just don’t want to do anything with the military. And that’s not us. We want other companies to see what we’re doing, how we’re hiring veterans, how what effect we have on the community. We people love what we do. They use us all the time. It’s great because we have competition that’s been out there for 30, 40 years and we’re able to go in and take some of that business simply because we have a relationship with that customer.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:29] Now, talk about this partnership you have with Irreverent Warriors.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:09:34] Sure. So irreverent warriors. Basically, what they do is they want to focus on the mental health and preventing veteran suicide with humor. They have these silky hikes that are nationwide and they bring hundreds of veterans together and they just do a simple ten mile march, walk right through all the cities around the country. And it’s fantastic. A lot of the veterans that are really dealing with PTSD and problems and issues, they miss the camaraderie. And when you put some selfies on and you’re marching through the heat or even in the wintertime with your fellow veterans, you get to meet people that you haven’t seen, talk about the military, your experience, and it really gets their mind off of some of the problems they’re dealing with.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:15] And then how did that come about?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:10:18] So I’m heavily involved with the veteran community. I met one of the the vice president there at a Reverend Warriors, and he told me about it. I said, You know what, I’ve got to try this thing. And so I went out and I was actually just got done by. Back surgery, so I couldn’t do the march. So I jumped in the truck and I was a safety vehicle. And my wife and I followed these veterans all around the city of Philadelphia. And I’m watching people coming out of their homes clapping, waving, cheering them on. Just so proud of the service that all these veterans had given. And, you know, we’re missing that in America right now. We’re missing that. These veterans that put their life on the line and went overseas and and did all kinds of things for us, you know, the civilian community doesn’t know much about them. So when you see them out there marching around, having a great time, Tracy and I fell in love with the mission. And our company is is a sponsor and a donor and we’re definitely a fan.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:09] And these events like what is the irreverent mean? Like, how is the fun part kind of part of this?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:11:15] You know, what happens is they get together, they’re in their silks, they sign up and they do a march like you did in the military. If you were in the military, you did these 15 mile road marches and then they do a little bit of bar crawling. They do it hit a couple of restaurants, a couple of bars. They have lunch. And it’s it’s so simple that unless you experience it and you’re a veteran, you really don’t understand it. But we know what the outcome is. The outcome is they make friends. They connect on Facebook and LinkedIn, and they’re a phone call away in case someone needs somebody. So it’s really important.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:50] So they took something that was kind of drudgery in the military and tried to make it fun and relatable because they’ve all all the people in the military have gone through a version of this. But this is kind of a funner version of it.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:12:04] Yeah. You’re almost making fun of ourselves, right? Like, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me on a picture of me, but when I threw Silk is on, it was hysterical. My whole office was laughing, and it’s just something that just gets your mind off reality every day. And a lot of these veterans are suffering more than others. And it’s just another tool. Instead of going to the VA or going on prescription medicine, this is just fun, humor and camaraderie.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:29] Right. But it’s still in the framework of something they’re familiar with from the military.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:12:33] Absolutely. There’s a little bit of cadence that goes on and there’s some singing and it’s really fun.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:40] Well, that’s great that you connected with them and that seems perfectly aligned with your brand.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:12:45] Absolutely. Yep. We’re we’re expecting to do maybe 13 to 15 hikes with them this year. So our fellow franchisees are all around the country are getting involved, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:56] So that that organization is nationwide as well.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:13:00] Correct? Yep. They do over 100 hikes a year.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] Wow, that’s great. Now for you, are you looking to continue the expansion in certain regions or is kind of the world your oyster at this point?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:13:13] Oh, we’re we’re growing everywhere. I mean, our plan at J. Dog is to make sure a military veteran that served in every zip code in the country, it belongs to our organization and can buy a franchise even when their towns are maybe ten or 20,000 population in the middle of the country, we have a program that’s a lower tier, very affordable program where you can still haul junk in your community but be part of our bigger mission. So we’re looking at major cities, we’re looking at suburbs and we’re looking at the smallest towns in America. We just want to make sure that if you’re a military veteran, you have a chance to own your own business and reap that reward, you know, of of equity and building a nice life.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:55] And you’re trying to do it pretty much for anybody, no matter how much money they have.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:14:00] Exactly. And we’ve lowered our tier dollar investments for smaller communities. So if you’re in a small community, we have a tier three. If you’re in a big community like a Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or one of those other towns, then then it’s a tier one, but it’s all related to to the amount of business we think you can do in a market.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:19] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the coordinates?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:14:26] Yeah, it’s very simple. It’s a jd.com, JD JD.com. And when you go to that site, you can read all about our foundation. You can you can apply for a job. If you’re a veteran, look into the franchising or you can schedule a service. If you’re just a customer, you can schedule a carpet cleaning service or a junk removal service.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:45] Now, has there been any cases where somebody started as an employee and eventually got their own franchise?

Jerry Flanagan: [00:14:51] Yeah, as a matter of fact, my first employee was was a guy here in my area. He built up four locations and he recently sold those four locations for a substantial amount of money. So he went through the whole process. He was ten years of working in Georgia, built up his market and sold.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:09] So there’s a path for pretty much everybody if you kind of believe in the mission and want to do the work.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:15:15] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:16] Well, Jerry, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jerry Flanagan: [00:15:21] Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:21] Me. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.