That’s the case with Jack Westermeyer and Denise Dobbeck, a Bel Air couple who opened an EmbroideMe franchise in the downtown business district in October of 2009.
In late 2008, with the country descending into recession and the subsequent decline in auto sales, Dobbeck wasn’t too surprised to learn she had been laid off from her job selling imported cars.
“I was just putzing around the house and Jack said, kind of joking, that I should go on the Internet and find a franchise,” she said.
Westermeyer, an automotive instructor at Sollers Point Technical High School and retired Baltimore County police officer, said, “I had owned businesses in the past, so I told her to go online and find something, and that I wouldn’t lay her off.
“I came home and she dragged me into the office. I had bought her an embroidery machine five years before. This opportunity took her hobby and franchised it. We investigated, fell in love with it and here we are. It was only nine months from her finding the franchise to writing the check,” he said. Carry on reading.