66 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / March 2020to never be trivial or give people
reasons to question what kind
of person you are.So how would you describe
your leadership style today?
I really feel like I’m a servant
leader. I have what I call a “no
door” policy—I don’t want to be
the bottleneck in the company,
and I want my team to feel com-
fortable interrupting me if they
need a fast decision in order to
take action. Don’t be the guy who
keeps progress from happening.In addition to being a Baskin-
Robbins franchisee, you spent
nearly two decades in the
corporate office of RE/MAX.
SpeedPro’s services and cus-
tomer base are very different
from both of those businesses’.When you joined SpeedPro,
what were some of the first
changes you made as CEO?
I saw a chance to build a better
onboarding program for our
franchisees. We created an
intensive program starting with
one week of business training at
our Denver HQ, which covers
everything from maximizing our
POS system to financial man-
agement to sales and marketing.
From there, we pair new owners
with a “buddy studio,” a nearby
location where they can go and
sell the products and services.
Then we bring them back to HQ
for another week of production
training. And then when they
open their doors, we’re there to
provide on-site support.What did training
look like before?
Just a week’s training and some
online courses. What we have
now is something I wish I’d
had when I was a franchisee at
Baskin-Robbins—especially the
financial part. Having someoneHow did you get up to speed on
this kind of client?
Reading. And listening. I read
about eight trade magazines
regularly, and that makes it
easy to understand developing
trends and where business
shifts are headed. You can
build strategies around that.
And last year, we did our first
set of town hall meetings with
franchisees. Listening to our
owners—the folks talking to
our customers each and every
day—gave us a lot of ideas
for initiatives that launched
last year and more this year.
From new marketing and sales
initiatives such as targeting
commercial interior designers
as customers, we’re finding
better ways to own our space
and deliver the best service.really help you understand how
this business can and should
make money is invaluable.How much has your time as
a franchisee influenced the
way you work as a franchisor?
My entire leadership style
changed at Baskin-Robbins.
I owned two stores in the ’90s
and started it as a sideline
business—I was working full-
time under a union shop in the
airline industry, and I was not
a kind guy. But when you own
your own business, you realize
how easily you can lose your
team members if you do the
wrong thing. At my first store,
I had an exceptional manager
who one day left her clean cof-
fee mug on the counter instead
of putting it in the back. I’m
embarrassed by this, but I left
a note on it that said, “The next
time this is left here, I’m throw-
ing it out.” Almost immediately,
I realized it was a mistake, one
I never forgot. I was making
myself vulnerable. It taught meFranchisor
W
hen Larry Oberly entered the
franchise world 29 years ago, he wasn’t
a great leader—and he’s the first to
admit it. But with nearly three decades
of experience across such brands
as Baskin-Robbins, RE/MAX, and the
sign and graphics printing company
SpeedPro, which he joined as CEO in 2017, he’s
learned that leadership is more about accessibility
than strict processes. Now he listens—to his staff,
to his 135 franchisees, and to his customers—in
order to build sustainable growth and spot fresh
opportunities for the $74 million business.The Power of Personal Growth
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESY^ OF^ SPEEDPROSpeedPro president and CEO Larry Oberly learned to lead by making mistakes. by STEPHANIE SCHOMER