For Jennifer Hernon, the road to becoming a business owner hasn’t exactly been easy. But her perseverance, grace and fortitude led her to own and operate a HoneyBaked franchise that affords her opportunities to provide for her family and the community around her.
Her Journey Began Six Years Ago
As Jennifer’s husband Dennis was approaching retirement, the two of them began looking into what he might like to do once he had the freedom to live the lifestyle he wanted. But after deciding to open a HoneyBaked franchise location near their home in eastern Tennessee, Dennis was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The couple put their entrepreneurial aspirations on hold to focus on Dennis’ comfort and care. Tragically, he passed in March of 2016. Jennifer made it her mission to achieve their dream of business ownership. She says, “In January of 2018 I started looking into HoneyBaked again because I promised my husband I was going to open the store. So that’s what I did.”
What HoneyBaked Meant for the Hernons
Since both Jennifer and Dennis had extensive experience in nutrition and food science as registered dieticians, they wanted a franchise that focused on food safety and a healthier product.
“We knew we didn’t want to work in traditional fast food,” says Jennifer. “We wanted a more nutritionally sound product we could be proud of. And at HoneyBaked, the sandwiches are fresh, the products are very high quality. There’s no deep fat frying so their products are lower calorie options with higher nutritional value than a typical QSR franchise.”
But that wasn’t all. Business ownership was an important goal to the Hernons because they wanted to be able to provide a job for their sons, particularly their eldest, Alan, who has had a difficult time finding steady employment because he’s diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. And it was during her Discovery Day experience at HoneyBaked headquarters that Jennifer felt truly confident in her decision to invest in the brand.
“Alan and I went down to Discovery Day together and they were so friendly and encouraging. They were realistic about the business and what they thought would work, but they were very kind and accepting of Alan’s disability and that really impressed me. And I knew I could work with them.”
Building a Business She Can Be Proud Of
Since opening her Morristown, Tennessee HoneyBaked store, Jennifer has felt optimistic about the business, reporting they had a strong holiday season which has allowed them to focus on bolstering their lunch and catering sales before they head into Easter.
She’s also grateful to be able to provide employment to those who struggle to secure good jobs due to disabilities. In addition to her son, Jennifer’s hired another person with a disability, Tracie Spencer, who’s quickly becoming a food prep aficionado.
But Jennifer says the greatest moment of her journey so far has been finding the right assistant manager – a moment of true serendipity. “Staffing is always a hard thing in foodservice. As fate would have it, I found Carrie Lott – she had been an area manager for another franchise working 60+ hours a week, going in a 4am every day. She has lots of experience in foodservice management but she needed to be able to reduce her working hours to spend more time taking care of her husband, who’d recently been diagnosed with ALS. And that made me feel less nervous about doing all this, when I found her.”
