At AAMCO, franchisees are encouraged to keep their businesses personal. Fifty-three AAMCO centers are operated by second-generation dealers, and the company has established the AAMCO Transmissions' Second Generation School, a training program for the sons, daughters, husbands and wives of current AAMCO dealers, who plan to take over the family franchise. The school awards "life experience credits" to attendees for the time they have already spent in on-the-job training.

Students already know the basics of running an AAMCO center, so the course concentrates on advanced practical management training, strategic growth tactics, and building wealth. More than 20 franchisees have completed the program. Among them is Mary Dunn, daughter of longtime AAMCO dealer Jack May. Notably, Dunn and other women like her are the majority at the AAMCO school. In an industry dominated by men, four-out-of-seven attendees of the most recent course were women.

Dunn's is a success story of a woman who worked to become a multi-unit franchise in a tough field. She operates centers in Blacksburg and Roanoke, Va. and plans to open a third this December in Charlottesville. But for Dunn, breaking into the family business was more of a challenge than building her franchises. "It took a lot more coaxing for my father to let me into the business, just because I'm a woman," she says. "I work in a man's world. Many, many times customers will walk right by me because they don't want to ask me a question," she says.

From age 12, Dunn worked for her father in some way, either answering phones, filing or in sales, and she was hooked right from the beginning. What hooked her? "The money," she laughs. After watching her father become successful, and then her four older brothers, all of whom operate AAMCO centers, Dunn knew this was the career for her.

When she finally convinced her father, the two became partners in her center in Blacksburg. From the start, Dunn was in the driver's seat, because her father was living in Lynchburg, Va. and running a shop there. He would visit the store once a week and she would call him often for advice, but all decisions were ultimately hers.

That freedom allowed her to hone her management skills, to which she attributes her success. "It's about having the right people in the right places," she says. "I can't rebuild transmissions, so I hire someone who can and who I trust. That's my job as owner. When you put key people in key places you can't help but be successful."

Dunn's father passed away recently, but the lessons he taught her have helped her to expand her business. "If I could be half the businessperson as my dad, then I will be totally satisfied with myself," she says. As for the future, Dunn fully intends to pass along her businesses to her children, if they are interested.

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