Successful franchisees launch next concept ‘In a Wink’

Some folks just aren’t cut out for early retirement. At least not Jerry and Lisa Winkley.

After building a small empire of ServiceMaster Clean In A Wink franchises in south-central Kansas, the Winkleys sold their operation in 2014 to the corporate company, which now uses the Park City headquarters as one of two training facilities in the United States.

By June of this year, the couple was back in business with a different concept: a storage and truck rental business called Store In A Wink.

“I’m like him,” Lisa said of her husband. “I like to be busy and doing things.”

“It looked like a very family-friendly business,” Jerry Winkley added.

That’s the other motivation for the undertaking: It provides a job for their son, Jonathan, who’s 28 and has autism. He maintains the property and provides security, and with time may work his way into the customer service side of the business, his parents say.

Already employed by a Dillons supermarket, Jonathan is “showing that adults with autism can do much more than people imagine,” Jerry Winkley said.

Their daughter, Wendy, 22, works there part-time as an officer manager while also training to be a chef. Lisa Winkley does the bookkeeping.

Store In A Wink has traditional mini-storage units in several sizes along with RV, boat and vehicle storage in both covered and open spaces. It’s located next to the ServiceMaster headquarters, which is on land the Winkleys still own and lease to the corporate owner.

“It was just grass that we mowed,” Jerry said of the Store In A Wink site, which is now covered in metal buildings surrounded by a security fence.

The Winkleys are also a U-Haul affiliate, renting trucks and selling moving supplies. Jerry Winkley said U-Haul wants its customers to have access to an affiliated storage business “basically anywhere you move with a truck.”

The family doesn’t downplay the struggles they faced with Jonathan’s autism. He was 1 day old when the couple bought their first ServiceMaster franchise.

Jerry Winkleman said his wife “poured her heart and soul into helping all of our children succeed” while he focused on the business, which provided residential and commercial cleaning along with fire and water disaster restoration services. Jonathan has learned “many life skills” and, in addition to working, serves as an usher at church, his father said. Jonathan greets a visitor to the business with a firm handshake.

Jerry Winkley never really retired in the first place, running a consulting and sales training business called Business by Design that caters to ServiceMaster franchisees, among other clients. He has a small studio in the Store In A Wink office where he conducts video conferences. Within a short time of selling the ServiceMaster franchises, he figured he would make more money going back into business than relying on his investments.

The North Hydraulic property seemed ideal for a storage business because of its access to major highways and the fact that it’s “a nice, safe neighborhood,” he said. Similar to ServiceMaster’s varied line of services, Store In A Wink has space for both residential customers and commercial clients that might want to store equipment there.

“I purposely built a blend,” Winkley said.

Without 100 employees to supervise, the only personnel issues he faces can hopefully be resolved at the family dinner table. And, he notes, “I don’t have to go out on disasters in the middle of the night.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Successful franchisees launch next concept ‘In a Wink’."