When Becky Edgren left her leadership role in manufacturing, she wasn’t looking for a fresh start; she was looking to build a generational legacy. She had spent her career working in the Dayton, Ohio, tooling and machining business her father had started. But when her family sold the business, she found herself working as the CEO under the new ownership and something didn’t sit right.
“Once you’ve been a business owner, it’s really hard to go back and work for somebody,” Edgren tells Entrepreneur.
She realized she no longer wanted to grow someone else’s dream; she wanted to create something lasting for her own family — and not just a business, but a legacy her daughters could one day lead.
“I made a decision that I wanted to find something I could turn into a family business, for myself and my three daughters,” she says.
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Image Credit: PuroClean
Finding the right business
From the start, Edgren was thinking long-term. She began searching for a business to buy and nearly purchased a small independent restoration company from a friend.
“I didn’t even know what restoration was,” Edgren says. “But I knew I wanted something I could grow into a multi-generational business.”
When that deal fell through at the last minute, she kept searching, eventually discovering PuroClean in 2007. With no prior experience in restoration, Edgren recognized the franchise system offered the structure and scalability she needed to get up to speed fast.
“I had no baseline, no industry knowledge,” she says. “Franchising gave me a foundation, and PuroClean gave me a roadmap.”
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Building a 3-year plan
She bought two PuroClean territories in 2008, planning to eventually bring in her three daughters, each of whom had careers of their own. Together, they mapped out a three-year plan to make it happen. Her middle daughter joined first as operations manager, followed by her marketing-savvy youngest. Eventually, her oldest daughter left her corporate job to handle the accounting.
Together, they’ve grown the business into a $2.5 million-a-year operation serving the Dayton–Cincinnati region with a team of about 20 employees. But running a family business isn’t without challenges. Edgren says setting clear boundaries and defined roles is the key to success — and sanity.
“Family businesses can either be the best thing that ever happens or the worst,” she says. “Without setting clear expectations and boundaries, it can wreak havoc.”
The boundaries include a strict prohibition on work talk during personal time, despite restoration being a 24/7 business. At family gatherings, the daughter who’s on call may have to step away to handle a job, but once she returns, business talk is off-limits.
“You have to be intentional about separating work from home,” she says. “Otherwise, it consumes everything — and that’s where resentment can build.”
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Changing the industry
Edgren’s leadership has helped shift perceptions in an industry that hasn’t always been welcoming to women. Restoration, like the manufacturing sector she came from, remains heavily male-dominated, especially when it comes to ownership and fieldwork.
Early on, Edgren found herself being underestimated, especially on job sites. She recalls one instance at the start of her career when she arrived at a mold inspection with her ladder and tools, ready to get to work. “An elderly couple answered the door,” she says. “They looked past me for someone else.”
Then came the comment that would stick with her.
“I explained everything, answered all their questions, and, before I left, I asked if there was anything else I could do for them. They said, Yes — send a man next time,” Edgren recalls. “I just laughed and said, Well, I’m the best you’re getting.“
Moments like that could have shaken her confidence — but instead, Edgren leaned in. Through her role as chair of PuroWomen’s Growth Group, she has made it her mission to help other women gain the confidence needed to succeed in the restoration industry. The group, which started as a small support circle more than a decade ago, now includes franchise owners, spouses, and female leaders from across the brand.
“It started out with women just needing to support one another. Now, it’s also about strategy, marketing, hiring, profitability,” she says. “There’s a powerful bond among us.”
Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed at PuroClean, either.
Margaret Chebat, PuroClean’s vice president of account management, told Entrepreneur that Edgren “embodies the very best of what our brand represents — integrity, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.”
“Her leadership, both in her business and through her role in guiding the PuroWomen’s Growth Group, has been instrumental in shaping the culture of our network,” Chebat adds.
Edgren believes the shift toward more women entering franchising, especially in blue-collar or field-service businesses, is partly because of this growing support system. “Some women hesitate to jump into industries like restoration because they’ve never been encouraged to thrive; we’re changing that.”
Related: How Entrepreneurs and First-Time Franchisees Can Become Effective Leaders
Working with family
If you’re considering starting a business with your children, Edgren has some hard-earned advice: Set roles and expectations early and treat them like professionals.
“You have to allow them to make mistakes,” she says. “That’s how they learn. If you try to protect them from every failure, you’re holding them back — and possibly the business too.”
She also encourages prospective franchisees to build a strong support network outside of their family. “You’re going to have bad days, and you need someone to lean on who’s not emotionally tied to the business,” she says. “Whether it’s another franchisee or a mentor, that outside perspective can make all the difference.”
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