From Badge to Business Owner: Making the Transition from Public Service to Franchising

When law enforcement officers trade in their badges to become franchisees, they not only serve, honor and protect the public through new ventures, but discover new ways to spend more time with their families.

By Monica Feid

A passion to serve, honor and protect is perfect for a life in law enforcement. And when the time is right to exit that career, those same qualities are proving useful for a growing number of men and women embracing a new way to serve: as franchise owners.

Ironically, men and women who keep the peace hardly think of retirement as a time to kick back and relax. Those with a pension don’t easily let go of the adrenaline of their working lives. And for others who voluntarily leave law enforcement for a career change, risk and survival are things they have already embraced and conquered in uniform. Why not do the same in business?

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund estimates that more than 900,000 sworn law officers serve in the U.S., which is the highest figure in the nation’s history. But the idea of making that the only career is changing. With increasing frequency, our nation’s peacekeepers can be found using their training and job skills in new ways with the title of “boss” as franchisees. 

After all, this workforce comes with a good dose of discipline, a great gift for communicating with others, and a respect for following a system. Those happen to be some of the same qualities that can help set up a franchise owner for success.

Being part of a team

For Jeff Baker of El Dorado, Kan., the idea of going to work never meant going to an office. First, as a member of the U.S. Air Force and then as a member of the El Dorado Police Force, he was always outdoors, hands-on and serving others with fellow military and police. 

Then when a side business mowing lawns showed potential to become a full-fledged landscaping and maintenance operation, Baker left the police force and turned to The Grounds Guys to open a franchise and join a new team — his fellow franchisees.

After 12 years on the police force, part of him was ready to run his own full-time business if it came with the right marching orders.

“I’m definitely a person who believes in structure and having systems in place to deliver certain things,” Baker said. He also values a team. 

“In the military and on a police force, the people you rely on are the people you’re with,” he said. “Franchising is kind of the same thing. When you are part of a franchise, you can call on people with the very same brand, and those people are going to give you solid advice. They are not really competing against you. You are all advancing together.”

Training that translates

For Huddle House multi-unit franchisee David Worthley of Virginia Beach, Va., the idea to advance included a focus on training and compliance. That’s how he describes almost 10 years as a special agent with the FBI and his ultimate attraction to investing and operating multiple locations for Huddle House, a rapidly expanding franchise of 24-hour restaurants across the country. 

“The one thing for me about law enforcement, in particular the FBI, is that they invest a great deal of time and energy in training you.  It’s very intense,” Worthley said. 

Today those analytical skills have helped him in a retailing and restaurant world as well.

“The skill set was easily transportable,” he explained. “You want to be prepared. You want to give good service, anticipate peak times of need, and also see issues and address them before they occur.”  

It was true for a life with the FBI, and it’s true today as a Huddle House franchisee. In fact, he learned to forecast and execute so well with the FBI that he looked specifically at a franchise opportunity not only for what it could deliver today, but also far into the future with multiple locations.

Redefining shift work

Reporting for duty has been Scott Drummond’s entire life. For three years in the Army and 21 years with the New York City Police Department, Drummond saw it all. 

“I was doing midnights for about seven years,” Drummond said, describing his police work. Owning the graveyard shift meant being an expert as a first responder. 

“When you called 911, I was the first on the scene,” he said. “It probably wasn’t a good day when you saw me.”

He had to log every call in a book. And today, in retirement, he has hundreds of those books to remind him of what he survived. It’s that very survival that made him hungry to do more than sit at home, grow old and collect his pension.

“The life expectancy of a male police officer after 20 years is not good,” Drummond said. “Most cops that retire in their 40s can be dead in their late 50s. After being in the rush and having that adrenaline to just sitting around and doing nothing, they just die of boredom.” 

In contrast, Drummond was ready to tackle something new within a few months of retirement. And he wasted no time heading to Discovery Day and a chance to call the shots in his next job.

Today, as a franchise owner for a Pinot’s Palette paint and sip studio in Brooklyn, Drummond never has to worry about a graveyard shift again. His new job involves crowd control of the best kind with happy guests sipping wine, painting canvases, and having fun. He calls owning a business a new kind of stress, but one that he enjoys.

Family on the (Work)Force

For many who make the switch from law enforcement to franchising, it’s also a chance to work with family. 

“We’ve worked so long and hard. Now it’s our chance to do something we want to do together,” Drummond said.  

His wife no longer makes a long commute into Manhattan for her job. Today she helps run the Pinot’s Palette studio in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Their daughter, who has a fine arts degree, is an artist-instructor in the business. Their son handles the inventory and serves as a bartender. 

Worthley’s Huddle House operation was his chance to hire away his daughter and son-in-law who worked in the restaurant business. 

“I specifically looked at a business where I could involve my family," he said.

Life in law enforcement usually meant working holidays, missing milestones with kids, and serving the public. Today, in franchising, it can be a family affair and the kind of service to guests that allows time with loved ones too.

That makes franchising an enterprise these franchisees are more than happy to serve, honor and protect in their new journeys.

Monica Feid is a partner and vice president at BizCom Associates. Find her at fransocial.franchise.org.