Business ownership a dream come true
Felicia Torres and her husband, Nathan Mentor, hadn’t really thought about owning their own business. Torres was a manager of Starbucks coffee house and Mentor worked in heavy machinery.
But a chance phone call several years ago changed their life.
“We were looking to rent an RV,” Torres said.
Instead, they wound up talking to Steve Franklin, the owner of the franchise American Dream Vacations, who convinced them to try their hand at business ownership.
“He and his wife flew out to Albuquerque,” Torres said. “They convinced us to open one here so we jumped right in.”
The company has a interesting business model in that the company doesn’t own the RVs that it rents out — individuals do.
“It’s a like a time share with RVs,” Torres said.
The company, which has 13 franchises from Florida to Arizona, stores the RVs — in Albuquerque on a 3½-acre lot near the airport. Customers rent the RVs and the business and the RV owner split the proceeds down the middle, she said.
“When we started, there was a large learning curve,” Torres said. “But they do everything they can to make sure you are running a successful business. They even started our fleet by consigning us our first six units until we could get our fleet started. It was a whirlwind.”
The Albuquerque franchise is now up to 45 units, including a few for sale, with room for more than twice that many as it continues to grow.
Sizes range from small to large motor homes, as well as large and small fifthwheel travel trailers.
“That first year (2012) we didn’t do half bad,” Torres said. “We did everything we could to let people know we existed. We really made a big push for units.”
The best thing about it, she said, is it’s a win-win for RV owner as they have a place to store their unit, they can make money off it and write off expenses, and they can use it whenever they want to take it out.”
“It really works okay,” Torres said.