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As a little kid, Brian Hilgenberg, 51, always dreamed about being a firefighter. But as time passed and Hilgenberg started looking toward college, that ambition faded and his new passion to become a banker emerged. Yet with the twists and turns of everyday life, his ambition changed once again, and after graduation, Hilgenberg started his career in retail, and later moved into the corporate world. Finally, Hilgenberg’s ambition changed once and for all: This time, he wanted to become a business owner. So after 26 years at American Greetings Corp., Hilgenberg decided to invest in a franchise.

It was one of those things where I certainly had a decision. They were going through changes like a lot of corporations do, and they gave me an option, and I said, “Well this is the option I want.” It wasn’t hard to do – I thought it was going to be – but it was good timing. I was ready, I think, for something else, and noticing that there were going to be a lot of continuing changes in the corporate life and just the uncertainty, and at my age, now is a good time to try something else.

What is your educational background?

I have a degree in economics from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Was it a hard transition from a corporate job to owning your own business?

I don’t know if it was a hard one, (but) it was a good move; largely because you can control a lot of the things. You have a little bit more control within your own realm of what your outcome may be. Not that you still didn’t have some control in the corporate world, because you’re still a person that still needs to do a job, but it’s just a lot more fun knowing that the decisions you make have an impact on your business and you can make some of the those decisions to affect your business one way or the other, hopefully in a positive light.

Why did you choose to invest in a Senior Helpers franchise?

When we continued to look at Senior Helpers, the blueprint that they had was very impressive. And how they built the business and the values that they associated with doing business really kind of fell into line with the values that we held strongly, and that would be integrity, communication, positive attitude, quality of life and those types of things. So, all those things just kind of came together and it sounded like a good thing.

What are your work hours?

(My wife, Lyn, and I) think about it a lot, so hours are all the time. But, as far as actual work, I am usually here at 8 a.m. and we are usually here until 6 or 7 at night. My wife is not fully involved yet with this, but she will be within the month. She does have another job right now, so she comes over in the late afternoons and spends early evenings here, and then we spend a lot of time on the weekends in here. Mentally, it’s pretty much day and night.

What is one thing you do to get away from work?

My wife and I like to go to a movie here and there. We both like to golf. Unfortunately we haven’t done that yet this summer because just starting a business, most of our weekends are here. But, those are probably two fun things we like to do. And probably spend time with family. Oftentimes we’ll get together for a cookout or go to a movie together. We’re still amazed that our boy, who is 25 (years old), still likes to go to a movie with his parents.

How did you make your first dollar?

I was probably one of those kids that had a lemonade stand. You put the little stand out there and you say, “Let’s see if we can sell some lemonade” – that’s probably my initial first dollar. But, in high school, I worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken one summer; that was probably one of my first jobs with a paycheck. Cooking the chicken and stuff like that – the special recipe – sworn to secrecy. I couldn’t tell anybody what the secret recipe was, but we didn’t know anyway.