JDog in the News – Page 9

JDog Brands, the Veteran-founded and focused parent franchisor of JDog Junk Removal & Hauling and JDog Carpet Cleaning & Floor Care, has been selected by Balfour Beatty Communities, a leading residential real estate investment and management company, to provide junk removal and floor/carpet cleaning services to its military housing communities located across the United States.

JDog Brands, the nearly 300-unit Veteran-centric franchisor, provides the structure and camaraderie many Veterans seek after military retirement. Transitioning back to the civilian world can present a challenge, and the JDog franchise model has been built in a way that caters to Veterans’ needs. Because the structure and teamwork required of first responders are quite similar to that of Veterans, firefighters tend to excel in the JDog system as well.

Retired Sergeant Major Jason Green, a JDog Junk Removal & Hauling franchise owner in Pittsburgh, spent 24 years as a Marine. After retiring, like many Veterans, he wasn’t quite sure where to go next. Green spent time in college, worked at a Veteran-focused nonprofit and started a small business through Amazon before finding JDog.

The former professional baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wes Freeman, recently opened JDog Junk Removal & Hauling in the Lakeland, Florida area with his two business partners. When Freeman left the league, he didn’t know which career path he wanted to take, but he did know that he had a passion for helping others. After a few years in other jobs, Freeman discovered JDog, the Veteran-centric national franchise, and knew that the brand was the right fit for him.

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carol Vaillancourt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Another man’s junk is another man’s…business? That’s the case for Tony Gregg, the owner of a JDog Junk Removal & Hauling franchise in St. Petersburg.

JDog Brands, the parent franchisor to JDog Junk Removal & Hauling and JDog Carpet Cleaning & Floor Care, has had a monumental year. The concept has both experienced a record year in terms of system-level growth and made incredible progress in terms of its mission-driven efforts.

In 2011, when Army Veteran Jerry Flanagan noticed the struggle many Veterans had when coming back into civilian life, he and his wife created JDog Junk Removal & Hauling. He started with a Jeep and a trailer and hired a few Veterans from Coastal Hospital. They found immediate success, so the couple began franchising the brand so Veterans across the country could take on leadership positions and hire other Veterans in their communities.

Joe Yurick joined the U.S. Army in 2000. Shortly after he completed basic training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training), the 9/11 attacks occurred, and he was deployed. After an honorable discharge in 2004, he worked in a variety of industries — trucking, sales, concrete and more. Coincidentally, a previous employer encouraged him to attend a JDog Brands mixer to learn more about the company.

In October, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the Veteran unemployment rate dropped from 4.1% to 2.7% over the year. But Tracy Flanagan and her husband, Jerry Flanagan, are looking to continue to lower that rate to under 1% nationwide. The Flanagans have created a unique opportunity for Veterans to own small businesses and hire other Veterans in their communities through their company JDog Brands. The company offers home care services through its two brands, JDog Junk Removal & Hauling and JDog Carpet Cleaning & Floor Care. The couple has created a brand based on the military values of respect, integrity and trust.