We talk a lot about keeping things local in the Upstate business landscape, but it’s worth taking a look at who, exactly, is behind the counter at many of the region’s most-visible franchise locations. That McDonald’s down the street or the Starbucks on the corner might be run by your neighbor, someone with the same love for the Greenville-Spartanburg area that you have. We’re talking about franchise owners, the sometimes hidden faces who are just as much a part of the local economy as the mom-and-pop shop owners.
Franchise: Tropical Smoothie Café
Co-owner: Bill Ruby
Locations: 4
Why he became a franchisee:
“After I left the corporate world, I wanted to kind of do something on my own,” Ruby says. “I really wanted the structure and support of a franchise system. I really liked the idea of Tropical Smoothie Café as a healthier proposition and it’s something that wasn’t here in the Upstate. So I think the combination just really appealed to us.”
Keeping it local:
“If you read social media everybody’s always saying, ‘shop local, shop local,’” Ruby says. “I cringe a little bit when I read that because we are local. We go to school here. We pay taxes here. We hire employees here. We’re part of the fabric here in the Upstate, so it is very local to us.”
Franchise: Clothes Mentor
Owners: Sadie & Bill Cherney
Locations: 3
Why they became franchisees:
“I think for both of us, we’ve always had an interest in being small business owners,” Sadie Cherney says, “and when we looked at the franchise model, what’s so appealing about it is that it’s kind of like a recipe book. You have a general idea of what you want to do but you have the benefit of advice and notes from people who have done it before you.”
Keeping it local:
“One of the things that we’re really proud of is the charities we’re able to contribute to,” Bill Cherney says. “For example, in Greenville, items that are either directly donated to us or pieces that we aren’t able to purchase for the store, we give those to the Junior League of Greenville. In Spartanburg, we make similar contributions to Miracle Hill. And that’s something that’s really important to us.”
Franchise: ARCpoint Labs
Owner: Byron Berry
Locations: 3
Why he became a franchisee:
“My road is much different than the typical owner,” Berry says. “I was hired by ARCPoint Franchise Group 12 years ago to help with the sales development side of our business. As things progressed, I was traveling quite a bit, and because of that I decided to take a step back last year and I moved on to work specifically where I do now.”
Keeping it local:
In addition to providing fast, reliable COVID-19 testing in the Upstate, ARCpoint Labs offers drug testing, which Berry notes is a valuable community service: “We do give back to the community in a number of different ways,” Berry says, “and one of them is truly saving someone’s life. Keeping them clean, keeping them away from using drugs. We’ve had people come back to us and say, ‘Hey, I can’t thank you enough, I didn’t like you so much when I first started doing this but your testing services — what it did for me in conjunction with the 13th judicial court — helped save my life.’ There’s nothing more rewarding than that.”
Franchise: Burn Boot Camp
Owners: Adam & Lindsay Phillips
Locations: 1
Why they became franchisees:
My wife, Lindsay, started out as a member working out at Burn, and she got me involved in it in late 2017,” Adam Phillips says. “The former head trainer there saw a lot of potential I had to actually be a trainer, and I went to something called Burn University to get a lot of internal training. I really fell in love with the core values of the company and how they viewed people in general, and came back knowing that I wanted to own one on my own one day.”
Keeping it local:
“We’re the ones that are out there in the community trying to change things,” Adam Phillips says. “We get cards or letters that tell us how much we’ve changed people’s lives, and we’ve had a couple tell us that we saved their lives. That’s why I do what I do.”
