Mark McKee

After working sixteen years as a mechanic for Northwest Airlines, Mark decided to opt out of corporate America and take on a new challenge – to work for himself. He contacted us late last June in anticipation of taking a severance package in July.

This wasn’t the first time we’d worked with Mark. He contacted us in 2003 to investigate franchise opportunities at that time. He even got about 70% of the way there. Then, he and his wife Cindy decided to start a business for her instead, so Mark’s plans were put on hold.

“I’ve decided leave Northwest so I knew I needed to call my good friends again at The Entrepreneur's Source.”

When we reconnected, Mark’s goals hadn’t changed. He wanted to maintain his standard of living and spend time with his wife and twin daughters. He preferred regular business hours, no “sales”, repeat business and potential for expansion.

Since we had narrowed the field the first time we worked together, it made the second lap go more quickly.

Within a few weeks, Mark was on a plane to visit the headquarters of two franchise systems to meet the executives and support staff of each franchise. It was a tie. Upon his return, he visited with the local franchise owners and made his choice.

He chose Maaco. In his conversations with franchise owners, he learned that one of the franchisees was interested in selling his business so the negotiations began. As is the case with some resales, there was a lot of “hair” on it so the timeline continued to expand.

“It’s all in good humor.”

I heard this line no less than 17,283 times over the course of Mark’s acquisition experience. Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration. But to say that Mark has the optimism of an entrepreneur and the attitude to “not sweat the small stuff” yet “tend to the small stuff”, leads me to believe he’ll be a great success.

Please stop by and introduce yourself to Mark if you’re in the neighborhood. He’s located at 7004 Oxford Street in St. Louis Park. I can assure you that it’ll all be in good humor.