Serial Entrepreneur: Operator Finds Franchise Growth in Home Services

Name: Cameron Gentry
Title: Owner
Company: CJG Management
No. of units: 17 Budget Blinds, 1 The Tailored Closet, 1 PremierGarage
Age: 46
Family: Wife, Josie, and 4 daughters, Baylee, 18, Pyper, 16, Maycie, 13, and Quinn, 10
Years in franchising: 21
Years in current position: 7

“I lead the way I operate: hands-on but focused on building leaders who share the same vision rather than a sense of entitlement.”

Cameron Gentry has spent nearly half his life building franchise businesses. At 46, he has already operated eight brands, mostly in the food sector, following a straightforward playbook: acquire territories, grow the business, and sell at a profit. Now, he’s taking that experience into home services with 17 Budget Blinds territories leading his portfolio.

Gentry’s franchising career began at 25, when he bought his first Little Caesars restaurant. Three years later, he became the youngest franchisee in Five Guys history. Gentry estimates he worked approximately 80 hours a week while operating and scaling both franchises. He eventually sold all his stores and used the money to purchase a trampoline park entertainment center in Atlanta.

In 2018, a former Little Caesars franchisee introduced Gentry to Budget Blinds and suggested that his operational experience would translate well to the home services industry. Gentry had never heard of the brand, but the opportunity piqued his interest. He reached out to the local franchise owner in St. George, Utah, who operated the business only on weekends. He made an offer to acquire the territory. Gentry said he took a leap of faith, bought a franchise with no office or employees, and worked his “guts out for six months.” The effort quickly paid off. Gentry earned $30,000 in his first month and then tripled the volume the following month.

“I was really good with operations, and I knew my numbers inside and out,” Gentry says. “I also knew how to hire people. I jumped with both feet in and trusted everything Budget Blinds told me. I tell other franchisees that’s why they bought into the brand, and they’ll want to follow the rules. Life is a lot easier when you stop trying to recreate everything.”

Gentry has since expanded his Budget Blinds business to 17 territories. The business is supported by eight offices and a team of more than 100 employees. Along the way, he has continued to build and refine his franchise portfolio, buying and selling four Crumbl Cookies locations and adding single-unit franchises with The Tailored Closet and PremierGarage. After the Great Recession and the pandemic hurt his previous businesses, Gentry says he has found the home services sector to be the best fit for his entrepreneurial approach. Those experiences have also shaped how he is building his business today by placing greater emphasis on sustainable growth and resilience.

“Things happen, but you can’t dwell on them,” Gentry says. “You’ve got to move forward and count your losses. I learned the importance of spreading out my net. I don’t want to put everything in one basket. That is why we have a bunch of different locations across multiple states with Budget Blinds.”

Three years ago, Gentry took a strategic step back to focus on the back end of the business. His business partner, Stetson Southwick, now oversees daily operations while continuing to drive the franchise’s expansion. Gentry jokes that he is “always for sale,” but for now, he is pleased with the business’ trajectory and its potential to scale. His focus has shifted toward strengthening operational systems and creating opportunities for employees to become partners in the business, positioning the company for continued growth while giving its team a stake in its success.

Personal

First job: Working a paper route for the Daily Herald in Utah starting in second grade and running through eighth grade. I delivered to 60 homes a day for $100 a month, assuming everyone paid their $8.25 monthly bill.

Formative influences/events: I was raised around entrepreneurship. My mom owned a flower shop, and I spent countless hours as a kid in the shop watching “Sesame Street” while she built relationships with her customers and put arrangements together. That’s where the entrepreneurial bug started. I also served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London, England, from age 19 to 21, working closely with people from every walk of life. That experience shaped how I lead and serve to this day.

Key accomplishments: 2026 IFA Franchisee of the Year, Budget Blinds Franchisee of the Year, and Lutron Franchisee of the Year. Building a 17-unit Budget Blinds footprint across five states plus The Tailored Closet and PremierGarage in Southern Utah and launching our own proprietary brand, Halo Automation.

Biggest current challenge: Finding the right employees who genuinely want to grow with us. A lot of people want the title or the position, but far fewer are willing or able to put in the work it actually takes to win.

Next big goal: Keep growing within the system while maximizing profitability against rising costs. We’re also pushing hard to grow our own brand, Halo Automation, alongside our Budget Blinds locations as the right opportunities come along.

First turning point in your career: Buying our Five Guys territory. At the time, we were the youngest franchisees ever accepted into that system and signed a development agreement for 11 locations. I was stretched thin overseeing our Little Caesars locations while barely scraping by to get Five Guys off the ground, but it taught me how to operate under real pressure.

Best business decision: Bringing on my business partner, Stetson Southwick. Finding someone with the same tenacity and drive to help run and grow the business reignited my own fire and has completely changed the trajectory of where we’re headed.

Hardest lesson learned: Learning that not every business you’re certain about will end up being successful. I’ve had real failures and close calls where we nearly lost it all. Shutting down a failing business during Covid was one of the hardest lessons of my career but also one of the most valuable.

Work week: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., but my phone is always on. If a team member or customer needs me, I’m there for them regardless of the time.

Exercise/workout: Nonnegotiable, every day; it sets the tone for everything else. My family and I have been competing together in HYROX events, an indoor fitness racing series combining 8 km of running and eight functional workout stations.

Best advice you ever got: You can only bet on yourself. That is something I’ve heard from a lot of people.

What’s your passion in business? Watching what you can build and taking it to a whole new level. It is fulfilling to create real opportunities for other people to succeed alongside you.

How do you balance life and work? Family and travel are everything to us. Boating, mountain biking, working out together, and this past year competing in HYROX. Taking care of myself physically every morning is what makes the rest of the day possible.

Guilty pleasure: Being out on the lake with a peach cobbler made in a Dutch oven.

Favorite book: The Book of Mormon.

Favorite movie: “Tommy Boy.”

What do most people not know about you? I’ve had a tumor in my spinal cord. Thankfully, it wasn’t cancerous, but the odds of paralysis were high. Going through that changed how I see everything. It taught me not to take life, or opportunities, for granted.

Pet peeve: Hearing someone eat Grape-Nuts cereal.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A professional athlete first and then a pilot before landing on entrepreneur.

Last vacation: A week on a houseboat at Lake Powell with family and friends in June.

Person you’d most like to have lunch with: My grandma Ellen. She always asked if I’d cleaned behind my ears growing up and was endlessly proud of me. I miss her dearly.

Management

Business philosophy: Don’t micromanage. Find people who you genuinely want to work with and are willing to put in the effort and then get out of their way.

Management method or style: I lead the way I operate: hands-on but focused on building leaders who share the same vision rather than a sense of entitlement.

Greatest challenge: Building a team and leadership group that all share the same vision without slipping into an entitlement mindset.

How do others describe you? A serial entrepreneur who doesn’t stop.

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? I haven’t had a formal mentor. Most of what I know came from experience, failure, and figuring it out in real time across every brand I’ve operated.

One thing you’re looking to do better: Continuing to strengthen our team and always finding ways to improve at every level of the customer interaction.

How do you give your team room to innovate and experiment? We meet constantly to talk through ways to improve, and we make a point to invest in the team beyond just work. We organize team activities at Christmas and in the summer. We build genuine friendships across the company.

How close are you to operations? Still close to day-to-day, but I’ve intentionally stepped back to let my business partner run point.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Support and trust that they will continue to provide the tools and assets that keep our brands strong.

What you need from vendors: Trust and loyalty in both directions. The vendors who make us jump through hoops are the ones we lose focus on. The ones who work with us, show up with us in the field, and see what we face on a day-to-day basis are the partners who earn our business. A treat now and then is nice too, but showing up matters more.

Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How? Yes. We have pushed marketing harder and focused on adding new products beyond the standard blinds experience, particularly automation, so we can offer style and service at a high level for any budget.

How is social media affecting your business? It’s been huge for staying relevant. Raw, authentic customer testimonials carry real weight with today’s buyers.

In what ways are you using technology (like AI) to manage your business? Our entire sales team uses AI daily to help customers visualize their space. This includes AI-generated imagery to bring their vision to life before a single product is installed.

How do you hire and fire? We interview as most companies do, but we also bring in other team members from the position we’re hiring for to weigh in. When it’s time to let someone go, it’s always done in person with a manager present. It’s never done alone and includes documented write-ups along the way.

How do you train and retain? Heavy, hands-on training across every position. We do a lot of shadowing before anyone is signed off as fully capable. Communication is the key to all of it.

How do you deal with problem employees? We address it directly and document it. Write-ups are done with a manager present and always in person.

Fastest way into your doghouse: Any of these are an instant problem: a no-call no-show, treating a customer poorly, or disrespecting another employee.

Bottom Line

Annual revenue: $6.5 million.

Goals over the next year: To increase profitability and identify and act on the right new opportunities when they present themselves.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? Not just by adding new territory, but by getting better and finding new ways to improve the business and life alongside it.

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? Still pursuing the same passion of taking something and making it awesome while enjoying my family and continuing to grow the business.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? Yes. Budget Blinds, The Tailored Closet, and PremierGarage complement one another and make the overall customer experience even stronger.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? It’s a rough environment right now. Payroll costs are high to retain great people, and customers are doing a lot more homework before they buy. We’re still winning; it just takes more interaction and more focus on building trust and relationships.

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Yes. We are continuing to see growth, but it requires more work to earn than it used to.

How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? It means more relationship building and more trust building with every customer rather than relying on the sale coming easily.

How do you forecast for your business? We work closely with our accountant and bookkeeping team, watching costs and numbers closely across every location to guide our decisions.

What are the best sources for capital expansion? At this point, we’ve gotten to where we largely fund growth with our own capital.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? We’ve reached a point where we operate primarily on our own capital and manage our growth rather than leaning heavily on outside financing.

What are you doing to take care of your employees? We reward top performers with prizes and incentives. We stay closely engaged with the team daily and not from a distance.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? We monitor the numbers and manage costs carefully across every location so that we can continue paying for great quality without losing ground.

What laws and regulations are affecting your business, and how are you dealing with them? We stay closely tied in with our accountant and bookkeeping team to stay ahead of changes and manage them proactively across our multi-state footprint.

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? We host an annual company trip for hitting attainable goals. Past destinations have included an island getaway and Alaska.

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? We’re always keeping an eye out for the right acquisition or exit opportunity, but we’re not pushing until it feels right.