How did it get started?
I took an H&R Block course 55 years ago.
Loved it.
12 years later is running 250 H&R blocks.
And my dad decided we should computerize taxes.
So we both quit our jobs and built the first tax software for an Apple computer.
1981, no one wanted it.
Got lucky and found a company in Virginia Beach called Mel Jackson Tax Service.
We merged the two companies, changed the name to Jackson Hewitt, built it into,
built it and sold it for public company for $483 million.
I had a three year not compete, but it didn't cover Canada.
And having grown up in Buffalo, I knew the Canadian tax system.
So it didn't cover Canada because Jackson Hewitt never went to Canada.
But H&R Block is very successful in Canada.
We opened Liberty Tax in Canada and within three years became a top 100 retail chain.
Came back to United States in 2000.
Now I had to compete against my own name, my own company, my own people.
And yet we grew faster than Jackson Hewitt and Block combined.
Liberty Tax opened 4,000 offices in 12 years.
So my two companies, Jackson Hewitt and Liberty, grew to 10,000 locations.
Jackson, or Liberty was also a public company worth, worth $500 million.
Sold that and started loyalty brands.