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Columbia, SC Pizza Franchisee Recognized by SBA

Joe Walker
Mike Switzer/SC Public Radio

  After spending four years in the US Army, including serving in Iraq, our next guest decided to return to civilian life and while looking for a new career, he noticed the similarities between franchising and the military, and decided that that familiarity would work for him.  And the US Small Business Administration agreed recently when they named him the 2016 South Carolina Veteran Small Business Person of the Year.

Mike Switzer interviews Joe Walker, a Marco’s Pizza franchisee in Columbia, SC. 

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.