Retired NFL offensive tackle Tony Jones and his wife, Kamilla, have heard the horror stories over the years about professional athletes who lose their fortunes within a few years of retiring. In fact, in 2009 Sports Illustrated reported that 78% of NFL players will have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress within two years of leaving the league.
That’s why the Joneses set up a 10-year plan with a financial adviser during Tony’s playing days and invested in several entrepreneurial ventures, including restaurants, shopping malls, and a barbershop. The couple also managed to save about 95% of Tony’s salary and lived in relatively moderate 2,000- and 3,000-square-foot homes during his playing days. Tony focused on developing a long-term savings and investment plan early in his career, and the family lives on the income generated from their small business investments.
This frugality enabled the couple and their three children to live comfortably in a sprawling $2.85 million mansion in Duluth, Georgia. And perhaps the best part: They were able to fully pay off the mortgage on their dream home. “We followed all of our plans up until he retired and we met our 10-year goals four years early,†says Kamilla, 42, adding that she was never worried about Tony mismanaging the $15 million to $20 million he earned over the 13 years he played in the NFL. Tony, 45, is a two-time Super Bowl champion who began his NFL career in 1988 with the Cleveland Browns and ended it with the Denver Broncos in 2001.
Among the family’s entrepreneurial investments is Salon Studio Suites, which offers 20 individual mini-salons for hairstylists and other beauty professionals under one roof. Launched in 2005, Kamilla’s business generated about $200,000 in 2010. Since she opened the business, current NFL and NBA players along with business executives have approached Kamilla about becoming a franchisee, and she has even helped seven people open salons around the country. “That’s what made me even think about franchising Salon Studio Suites, because it’s a need and people are coming to me because of my success and my track record,†says Kamilla. However, neither Kamilla nor Tony knew what it took to become a franchisor. Then they discovered the Professional Athlete Franchise Initiative.
PAFI educates professional athletes and their spouses about the franchising industry and encourages them to take control of their assets by setting themselves up with their own businesses as they approach retirement. A partner of the International Franchise Associ
ation, the industry trade group, PAFI founder Michael Stone, who retired from the NFL in 2008 after hip surgery, created the initiative in January. Stone says many athletes are entrepreneurial-minded but “make the mistake of trying to start a business from scratch.â€PAFI held a summit in July, which Tony and Kamilla attended. A key element of the program focused on how professional athletes should handle their personal finances. The sessions revealed why it is important for entrepreneurs not to commingle personal assets with business finances. “The business stuff, you can write that off, but the personal stuff you can’t. We turn everything over to the IRS and if they see things on the personal side they start to question, ‘Well, what is this for?’ So it’s important to keep things separate,†Kamilla says.
George Tinsley Sr., a PAFI board member and a KFC and T.G.I. Friday’s franchisee, says individuals using entrepreneurship as a way of building wealth often achieve quite the opposite when they mix personal and business’s finances. “They spend the cash flow and get themselves in trouble,†says Tinsley, who is a past president of the NBA Retired Players Association. “First thing people do is take the money from the business and buy a brand-new car or a brand-new home, and it’s really not their money to do that. It really belongs to the business.â€
How They Did It
Create a long-term personal financial plan and stick to it. Tony’s financial planner provided the couple with a sound piece of advice that encouraged them to be debt-free: If you can’t take money out of your pocket and pay for it in cash that means you can’t afford it. Kamilla says they squirreled away most of Tony’s NFL earnings and lived off about 5% of it–roughly $750,000 to $1 million–while he played. She says they realized that NFL careers are short-lived and they didn’t want to incur a lot of debt during his retirement. “We live better now that he’s retired than when he was playing football,†Kamilla says.
Structure your investments to complement your lifestyle. An establishment like Salon Studio Suites requires very little of Kamilla’s time and she doesn’t have any employees to manage, allowing her to spend more time with her family. On the other hand, if she were a fast-food chain franchisee, she’d have to be there daily and constantly monitor the cash registers and workers. “You’re going to have to pick something that you’re going to enjoy doing every day,†Kamilla says, otherwise you could lose motivation and the business could possibly fail.
Allow your investment to grow. The first three years of a business are critical and even though it may be tempting to pull money out during that time, Tinsley says don’t. “In setting your business up, you definitely want that business to be able to take care of itself and flow on its own merit. Let the cash reserve and the business keep itself going and if it’s growing, it grows out of its own entity.â€