The alarm goes off. I’m an early riser, so that I can get some personal time before work begins.

I hit the gym for an hour for a workout with my son, Trey, who’s 10 and is on a competitive basketball team. The kid loves to train, so doing it together makes us both love it even more. Then we go home, shower, and eat before Megan and I drop Trey off at school.

I show up at our first store. We bought it for a steal at $225,000, and now it’s bringing in $1.4 million. As you can see, the sign in front still says “Batteries + Bulbs.” We bought it after Batteries Plus rebranded to that name; now it’s back to Batteries Plus, so we’ll have to update the sign at some point. Today, I’m here with Megan, who handles all of our back-office stuff — the bill paying, payroll — man, I could go on and on. I am involved in the hiring and training—all of those things. She’s such an optimist, and it balances out my seriousness.

When we first became franchisees, we were deep in operations. I was heavily involved in the day to day, going in from 8:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. This was 2020 and during COVID,  when — you know, masks and six feet apart. And retail really slowed down. But the schools and hospitals were still buying from us—and the Air Force base, the county, state, and utility companies as well.  That was an eye-opener for me. So my focus went from the daily grind of retail to allowing others to handle that, while I took on a new role. And that was going after more B2B business, which has been a lifeline for us. Now we have 11 employees between our two stores, so I don’t have to worry as much about day-to-day management. Still, when I’m at a store, I’m always happy to jump in and help with the little things. At this moment, my staff was all busy with other things, so I answered the phone to help a customer with a question about his car battery.

I like to walk the stores looking for efficiencies and opportunities. Today, I noticed that a certain kind of car battery was taking up a lot of shelf space. I asked the store manager: “Are we selling enough of these to justify all that space?”

I start driving to our store, where my retired father now works part time. It’s about 30 minutes away. I usually listen to something motivational or entrepreneurial — today it’s Jay Shetty’s podcast [On Purpose].

I arrive at the second location. We weren’t initially looking to buy two stores, but then spotted an opportunity: We saw the performance numbers for a struggling Batteries Plus store across town. (Franchisees are sent this kind of info; it’s really helpful.) Megan and I knew we could do better, so we hand-delivered a letter to the owners that said, “If you decide to sell, call us.” They did. And within four months, we’d bought it.

I’m in the office reviewing reports. Then I talk to our store manager to see how I can support him. We have seasonal items like mosquito repellent gadgets in the summer and hand warmers in the winter. So I’ll review past sales and discuss how much to bring in. I’ll also check in on his new baby girl — I think that’s important to show my commitment to as well. When we bought this location two years ago, it was doing $250,000 in annual revenue. Now we’re at $400,000, but the store still keeps me up at night. There’s so much more we can do here.

Usually, I fetch Trey from school at 2:15. But today, his class is hosting a presentation for parents: They’re going to show us the planets and solar system. So Megan and I leave the stores, grab our 4-year-old son Carter, and come to watch. 

Now it’s family dinner time — yes, at 3:30 pm. Trey has basketball practice at 6:30, and I coach his fourth-grade team. It’s been a thrill. Our team has been so competitive that we were invited to play on the Adidas circuit. I spend a lot of time with them — so we’re used to very early dinners.

We’re back from basketball practice, the kids are asleep, and you’re now witnessing a rare occurrence: I’m at my computer checking on a work detail. Most evenings are all family, but I make exceptions when necessary.   I’ve had people ask, What’s  the best thing about being an entrepreneur, and the worst? So the worst thing is that I get the call at 3:00 a.m. that “Your glass-breaking sensor has alerted us. Do you need the police?” And I’m the one who drives down there to talk to the officers. And if an employee’s son is sick on Christmas Eve, I leave my own sons to go to work. But the best part of it is the freedom to do what you want with your time. And I can’t tell you how many vacations Megan and I have taken, getting only five text messages in 10 days for minor things — and that’s because we have really great people running the business. So the good definitely outweighs the bad.

I’m in bed. Five o’clock comes around pretty quickly the next morning.