What they do: Sell powersports equipment, parts, accessories and service through 14 dealerships in North Texas, Georgia and Alabama. Named No. 1 U.S. dealer in the PowerSports Business 2017 Power 50.
Employees: 57 Fort Worth, 330 companywide
What employees love: Entrepreneurial, family culture, in which employees can advance; group dinners for teams that hit goals; bonus program; monthly volunteering with Ronald McDonald House. Kevin Lackey, the founder and CEO, started at the bottom in one powersports store and rose to own Freedom, so it’s no surprise the company spends a lot of time talking that story up with recruits. “He started as a porter and worked his way up,” Caren Quinn, the company’s U.S. recruiting director, says. “It gives people hope [that they can advance]. He’s very big on promoting from within; he wants all the managers to duplicate themselves.” Sarah McVean, the chief marketing officer, started as a photographer. “You build your own path through the company,” she says. “I kept raising my hand.” The 5-year-old company unleashes new stores in spurts; it projects to grow to 30 by 2020, and that presents opportunity to move up in progression that moves from sales to sales manager, general manager, and regional manager. Store sizes range from small four or five employees, to more than 30, like the West Fort Worth store. The company’s growth also presents challenges; Lackey has said it’s been constrained by the ability to develop new managers. “That’s something we’re working on,” McVean says. Freedom is focusing on its core values to develop new leaders, McVean says. “We had a core base,” she says. “We’ve diluted it. We’ve maxed out.”
Cool benefits: Get to work with powersports equipment all day long and customers who want to have fun. “People are here to have fun,” Taylor Jasper, marketing specialist, says. “They come here for that.”
“I've been working at Freedom Powersports since February of this year, and I have loved every second of it. The thing that sticks out to me is the family atmosphere amongst the employees and management. I know that if I needed help after hours, that I could call any one of them, and they would drop whatever they were doing to help, because that is what being a part of the Freedom family means.”
- Billy Lenard, Salesman
