Sheri Granger and Susan Trumble are both Mr. Transmission franchisees. As women working in a male-dominated business, they tell us how they lead and how they have learned the business. Both able to adapt their career paths at different times in their lives, they can teach us a lot about going for it!
Meet Sheri Granger, Mr. Transmission Owner
I was born 2/2/1968 in Chicago IL and raised there with my mom, dad and little sister. I went to Columbia College in Chicago for sound engineering and worked at a few recording studios in Chicago. I moved to Melbourne Fl. when I was 26 and got into the medical field doing office work. I lived there for 15 years and had a son, Eric.
I moved back to Chicago so Eric could be raised around family. That’s when I met Bill, my husband. He adopted Eric and we got married in Vegas. One year we took a trip to Florida and I told Bill I would like to move back to Florida one day. He left his great paying job at BP as an oil operator so we could move to Bradenton Fl. By this time I had been working in the medical field for 25 years doing everything from medical assistant, scheduling, billing, payments and coding.
Bill asked if I wanted to open up a franchise. Bill did not like his job here much because he was on call 24/7. If he wanted to take a day off they had to fly someone in to cover him. We looked at gyms, coffee shops, garage door repair and auto repair. Being that Bill was a master technician for 20 years when he lived in New York and Indian I always felt comfortable with the auto industry. I liked the idea that he would know what the technicians were talking about. I also felt like the auto industry is more secure than a gym or other industries being that people always need their cars to work.
We looked at Aamco, Midas, Maaco and Moran. Bill told me after the first phone call with Ben Reist at Moran I was going to want to go with them because their corporate office was right down the street from my family and friends’ houses. That was a plus for me but not why we chose Moran. We liked that they were not as big as Aamco or the other franchises. The others gave me the impression that once they got you to sign with them you were on your own. Moran was not like that.
After a year of looking at buildings to purchase we purchased an existing tire shop. The first 2 months were a mess, trying to get set up with vendors, computers and employees was a lot. We have now been open over a year and I feel like I have more of an understanding and have our flow down. Now it is fun coming to the shop every day and working by my husband’s side is the best!