Business View - August 2015 103
an annual, national championship match between the
top two crews. The morale boost engendered by these
good-natured activities is not lost on Grease Monkey
management: “When employees enjoy what they’re
doing, they’re going to do the best job that they can,”
say Schneider.
However it’s not necessarily automotive experience
that these company execs look for when deciding
which prospects ultimately get awarded a Grease
Monkey franchise. Yarusso explains: “We almost pre-
fer that they’re not from the automotive background,
because we prefer to train them our way. Sometimes
it’s more difficult to take an existing store owner or me-
chanic and try and make him or her a Grease Monkey
franchisee because they’re kind of set in their ways.
Sometimes it’s a little bit easier for us to start with a
clean sheet of paper.
“What we’re really looking for is good businesspeople
– people who understand customer service and who
have good leadership skills. Hiring technicians is not
that difficult but finding the right customer service
people and people who have good accounting skills
– that’s a little bit more difficult.” Schneider concurs:
“They do not have to have an automotive background;
it’s great if they do but that’s something that we can
teach them. We can teach them the technical aspects.
A business background is definitely a plus. But we
have a great training program that teaches both the
business side and the technical side.”
In addition to an online university for its franchisees
that contains approximately 200 courses, and what
Yarusso qualifies as “an immense field support team,”
one the most important benefits of being a Grease
Monkey franchise owner is the ability to take advan-
FRANCHISE
