Soon everybody in town knew about the salon and its young owner. Surrounded by Supercuts, he and his team started branding Fantastic Sams in the community even before it opened by using logo-emblazoned trailers, cars, and trucks and blanketing the area with stickers and flyers. The grand opening of his first salon in Turlock, Calif., was a huge affair with community marketing and direct advertising. He took the plunge, taking on Best Western and Fantastic Sams franchises in California near his family. As he learned about his new country, he began to understand the concept of franchising and how people are drawn to brands with a reputation for good food or products and great service. I wanted to own my own business and make my parents proud and ultimately support them at some point," says Sarkissian, winner of Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine's 2012 MVP American Dream Award. When he graduated from high school, he went to work building out hotel franchises in Denver. When he got his bike, he rigged it with a radio so he could listen to music while he rode and began saving for a car. To earn money for a bike, the young Sarkissian rode the bus to work at McDonald's. I take good care of them because I learned how to appreciate everything I have." "Now, my laptop and electronic devices are in perfect condition. "It had a lot of problems, but just moving the mouse made me so happy," Sarkissian says. I was so sad that day," recalls Sarkissian, now 28.įortunately, a church member donated an older computer to him. My mom tried to get a credit card, but because we hadn't been here that long she was declined. I remember being so excited to go to Best Buy and look at computers. "When we arrived in America, we didn't have much. Believe it or not, once in America, one of the first things the young Sarkissian longed for was a computer. Edwin Sarkissian escaped the oppression of his native Iran with his family in 1996.
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