FreedomRoads was created in May of
2003 with the knowledge that the RV industry was fragmented.
Marcus Lemonis, the company’s chairman,
saw that there was a tremendous opportunity to consolidate the top dealers in the top
100 markets. Other key factors included the
future rights to acquire Camping World and
the overwhelming statistic that 400,000
Americans turn 50 every month.
The difficulty in launching this concept
was finding, growing and keeping great people. Lemonis knows that the ability to buy
the business is not as challenging as keeping
the original owners engaged and finding
new blood to continue on the legacies in the
local markets.
For Lemonis, entrepreneurship is the
foundation of his company, is synonymous
with risk and is the basis of how he operates. Any successful entrepreneur knows
that risk takes on three forms: personal,
emotional and financial. The first challenges one’s credibility and reputation, the
second defines one’s self-confidence and
the last proves that personal financial
investment and opportunity will guide one’s
choices and will lead to a more precise calculation of risk.
His company faced skepticism and criticism by competing dealers, manufacturers
and the banking community. Throughout
the last five years, Lemonis has proven his
business model, improved on it and been
able to learn from its best practices.
Learning from success and failure allows
the company to establish new vertically
integrated products and services, open and
acquire new businesses and, most of all,
offer new opportunities to its people.
HOW TO REACH: FreedomRoads, www.freedomroads.com