Mediaboss Marketing

Charles Lawson, 27, a Naples High graduate, Iraq War vet and University of Miami graduate, is a franchisee of a new eco-friendly carpet cleaning business called Oxi Fresh in Naples. Lawson pitched his product at the fifth annual event hosted by the Naples Humane Society at Mercato on Sunday, March 26, 2017, in North Naples.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)Buy Photo

Charles Lawson has big plans, and they start with cleaning carpets.

Lawson, 27, a Naples High School graduate and an Iraq War veteran, plans to open Southwest Florida's first Oxi Fresh franchise in the coming weeks after months of preparation and even longer discovering his entrepreneurial impulses.

"I've been wanting to start this for a long time now," Lawson said. "I'm getting antsy. I want to start my career, you know."

Lawson acknowledges he wasn't that interested in school back at Naples High.

When he graduated in 2007, he joined the Air Force as a "way out," he said.

He went to basic training in San Antonioand then on to logistics and transportation training in Biloxi, Mississippi, and then back to San Antonio before landing at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico.

He served seven months in 2010 and 2011 in Dohar, Qatar, during the Iraq War.

His unit's job was to ship everything from aircraft parts to bombs even a few military casualties to wherever they needed to go, a job he said was stressful.

"A lot of people were counting on us," Lawson said.

By 2014, Lawson had cut ties to the Air Forceafter a few years in the Air Force Reserve. He would travel one weekend a month to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa from Miami, where he was going to school. This time school was different, though.

Lawson loved college and the freedom, friendships and mental challenges that came with it, he said. He transferred from Miami-Dade Community College, where he got all As and one B,to the University of Miami with a 3.95 GPA.

After college, he went to work as a financial analyst fora telecommunications company in Boca Raton. It lasted 10 months. He said he didn't like the office grind.

"I couldn't see myself working in financial institutions," Lawson said. "It's not what I wanted in life."

That's when he started looking for businesses to buy. Oxi Fresh caught his eye, he said.

Charles Lawson, 27, a Naples High graduate, Iraq War vet and University of Miami graduate, is a franchisee of a new eco-friendly carpet cleaning business called Oxi Fresh in Naples. Lawson had a booth at the fifth annual Woofstock event hosted by the Naples Humane Society at Mercato on Sunday, March 26, 2017, in North Naples.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

The company markets itself as an eco-friendly alternative to most carpet cleaning companies becauseits machinesuse less water and more naturalcleaners. He figured it could be a way to stand out from the rest of the carpet-cleaning crowd.

Lawson went to Denver for a weeklong training and came away impressed with the franchise support system behind Oxi Fresh, from tracking customer satisfaction to marketing options.

Oxi Fresh franchise developer Matt Kline, who has been working with Lawson to set up his business, said Lawson struck him as a go-getter and an easy choice to be awarded a franchise, in part because of his military service.

"As long as you put a path in front of military veterans, you don't have to worry about getting the effort out of them," Kline said.

Lawson has been no exception, despite challenges in getting a loan to startthe franchise because of his lack of credit history and business experience,Kline said.

Lawson is in the final stages of getting a Small Business Administration loan, a grueling process.

"I think most people in his position would have given up a long time ago," Kline said.

Instead, Lawson has soldiered on. He hascompany T-shirts on order. He hasbusiness cards and coupons printed. He hasa Nissanvan picked out, and he's been talking with a company to get it wrapped with the Oxi Freshlogo.

The plan is to do all the jobs himself for the first six monthsand then start hiring help so he can focus on growing his business. He wants to take over the Fort Myers-Cape Coral franchise area in a few years.

He plans to target pet owners at the Humane Society. He plans on knocking on doors of property managers and apartments to drum up business, emphasizing the quick-dry nature of the Oxi Fresh system.

By the time he's 35, Lawson said, he wants to branch out into other franchises, maybe opening a Chick-fil-A or a Jimmy Johns. He can rattle off the buy-in fees they charge and the percentage they take.

Somedayhe'd like to go back to school and get a master's in business administration, but he says he can always fall back on his finance degree if his franchise plan fails.

"I don't think it will, though," Lawson said.

Charles Lawson, 27, center, greets Dominique Colas and his Chihuahua Zora as well as other passers-by while representing his Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning franchise during the fifth annual Woofstock event hosted by the Naples Humane Society at Mercato on Sunday, March 26, 2017, in North Naples. The Naples High graduate and Iraq War veteran is a new franchise owner of the eco-friendly carpet cleaning business in Naples.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

Read or Share this story: http://nplsne.ws/2ndFoIK

Visit link:
Naples High grad, Iraq War vet ready to clean up - Naples Daily News