As my three partners and I arrived at the location of the automotive-service retailer, we wondered what all the fuss was about. The year was 1979. The facility was full, and cars were backed up into the street. We walked into the building, found the manager, and asked, "Why are all these cars here?" The manager sarcastically replied: "To have their oil changed. Why else would folks bring their cars to Jiffy Lube? You guys must be from the East Coast, right?" One of my partners turned to me and said, "If they do this much business in Ogden, Utah, how well do you think we can do in Boston or L.A.?"

It wasn't long before our group -- which had been on the prowl for an entrepreneurial opportunity -- struck a deal to acquire the assets of this small firm. It had been called Jiffy Lube, Inc. The night before we closed the deal, we pondered what to name our new company. "Jiffy Lube International" was the unanimous choice.

What motivates a small group of entrepreneurs to name a firm consisting of seven local retail outlets "International"? The naming decision trumpeted a vision of the possible and an absolute commitment to growth. In our case, growth would be through franchising with an eye toward acquisition. More importantly, as a lesson for other entrepreneurs pursuing expansion, it would be guided by a carefully constructed strategy.

FRENZIED FIXATION.  Shortly after buying the local Jiffy Lube, we spent scarce and precious resources on a marketing study that helped us identify the nature of the demand for oil changes. The results revealed dissatisfaction with the current delivery systems. Market trends, such as conversion of garages to self-service gas stations and an aging population, meant the quick-lube concept would be well accepted. Critically, the study also revealed that the 30 largest markets in the United States had room for at least 1,000 specialty oil-change shops.

Penetrating those top 30 markets became the core of our growth strategy. We understood, all too clearly, that our only competitive advantages would be our brand name, Jiffy Lube, and our understanding of the operating system necessary to deliver quick lube service (much like McDonald's for delivering quick lunch service) -- both of which we would need to develop. Our commitment to growth became a frenzied obsession with first-mover advantage and brand-building. We had to dominate the top markets to create a critical mass for marketing and achieve economies of scale in advertising.

EXECUTION IS VITAL.  We soon discovered that the strategic imperative to grow must be quickly wed to an enabling execution strategy. However, we also faced a common entrepreneur's problem: a sense of urgency to grow and a lack of currently available resources. The solution? We decided that franchising would be the principle method for developing new outlets.

We dove into the execution, and within a few years we had almost 200 stores, most of them franchises. In addition, we opened some company stores to enable us to become knowledgeable about the business and be credible with the franchisees we would be pursuing.

As we opened stores, we tracked a growing number of competitors that were regionally based. It seemed clear to us that some of these competitors were good operators and, even with a regional approach, might box us out of major markets. If enough of these competitors dominated regions, our national growth strategy and its inherent economies of scale could be thwarted. If we could buy the best of these competitors, on the other hand, we would achieve two objectives. First, we would expand even faster, and second, we would eliminate potentially dangerous competitors.

IF YOU CAN'T LICK 'EM.  Because we were starved for cash, with every penny going to build new stores, our acquisition strategy included refranchising the acquired stores as soon as possible. In some cases, we were able to execute on the core of our acquisition strategy, which was to convert competitors to Jiffy Lube franchisees.

Our message to competitors was that Jiffy Lube was best positioned to dominate the market. They could join us and grow with us as a franchisee, profit from us by selling -- or compete with us and lose. We made it clear that we had to enter major markets, and that, in fact, we were already getting into those markets. We were on our way. The train had left the station, and their only choice was to get on or get run over.

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