Despite the strides in female representation in virtually all other industries, the statistics regarding women working in the automotive dealership industry are bleak. While research shows that women comprise 62% of car buyers, only around 7% of dealership jobs are held by females. And, if you look at the number of women in management positions at dealerships, that number plummets to below 5%. Even in 2023, dealerships continue to be a male-dominated workplace across the United States.
Granite Automotive’s new owner, Terishka Franco, aims to change that.
“I’ve been in [the automotive] industry for 40 years, and it’s changed very little,” Franco explained. “And, if females do work at a dealership, they’re often receptionists or work in the office. They very rarely have sales, service, or management roles.”
In 2023, Franco, along with business partners Sam and Ray Agha, made the decision to buy Granite Automotive after Ross McKie, whose family owned the dealership for over 40 years, opted to step down and sell the business.
As part of her new role, Franco will work on location to oversee all operations at both of Granite Automotive’s dealerships: Granite Buick GMC and Granite Nissan. Since her arrival, Franco has exuded a tenacity and calm demeanor that has resulted in a smooth transition for both her and Granite’s employees. However, Franco has faced many obstacles on her path to becoming one of less than 100 women owners of car dealerships in the United States.
Starting Up the Ladder
Terishka Franco got her first taste of the dealership world at the age of 15 in Kalispell, MT. At the time, Franco was in high school and worked at a bank, where she often assisted with the titling process for a Toyota dealership. During her time at the bank, she streamlined the process, turning an hours-long ordeal into a five-minute task.
After observing her ingenuity and problem-solving skills, the owner of the dealership, Dugan, offered Franco a management position in his finance department, which she accepted.
Over her three years of employment, Dugan became her mentor, showing her the ins and outs of how to successfully run a dealership. Her hard work resulted in the small Montana dealership becoming one of the top Toyota dealers in the entire Western region, beating out dealerships located in large metro areas such as Los Angeles and Seattle. She was invited to share her expertise in customer service at a week-long dealership seminar in California.
When she returned to the office on Monday morning, Franco was in tears. “Dugan laughed and asked me if I got a job offer,” she recalled. “I told him I got five.”
The recent high school graduate was considering college at the time, especially after receiving a scholarship. But at that point, she was already making more in the car business than many of her friend’s parents. Dugan eventually convinced her to continue her career in the automotive industry and helped her choose the best out of the five job offers, an auto group located in San Francisco, CA.
Although she was only 18 years old and had never been to San Francisco, Franco was ready for her new venture. She packed up her bags, loaded up her car, and headed to California.
Overcoming Adversity
In San Francisco, Franco settled into her role of Finance Director of five stores. Still a teenager, she was now in charge of a group of all men, many of them her parents’ age. It was then that she really experienced the discrimination of being a woman in the auto industry.
“I was managing 40-year-old men who thought they knew it all, and all of a sudden I come in and ruffle up their world because I had a different way of doing things,” she said. “I would call Dugan crying, and he would tell me ‘You gotta stick it out kiddo. You know your stuff. Don’t let anyone get in your head.’”
“I had people come after me personally, professionally,” Franco continued. “It’s hard to not let people get to you, especially people who are jealous and threatened.”
Despite the hardships, she never gave up. At 23 years old, she was promoted to Vice President of the auto group and oversaw the operations of all the group’s stores.
Witnessing Franco’s commitment to learning the auto industry and her vast potential, the president of the auto group sent her to a General Motor’s university program. As part of the program, she held every dealership position, from front desk to the service department, for at least six months. This experience was crucial to her future success. “It set me up to becoming the owner of a dealership long before I even thought about being a dealer,” she said.
Franco’s career was on the fast track and the possibilities were endless. Then she had her first child, and, all of a sudden, her perspective and priorities changed.
Making the Hard Decisions
A new mother, Franco was still putting in long hours in her executive role. After a year, she was still putting in 15-hour days and working seven days a week. She had three caregivers for her son and was having a hard time not spending more time with him. Unlike her male peers, many of which had stay-at-home wives to care for the family, Franco was struggling to solely handle all aspects of her life.
“To me, it was unfair because I felt that I had to choose between being a mom and my career. I worked so hard to get where I was. In the end, there was no choice – my son needed me. I couldn’t keep working those kinds of hours,” she explained.
A co-worker connected Franco with one of the dealer group’s vendors, and she accepted a position. Now working on the opposite side of the auto industry, Franco was working fewer hours and making less money, but was able to achieve the stability she needed to raise her son.
Although her new boss was a female, Jill, who also became a trusted mentor, Franco quickly realized that it was very male dominated on the auto industry’s vendor side as well. “I was up against men, everywhere I went. Managing men much older than me with more experience than me, that doubted my expertise and ability.”
Nevertheless, Franco continued to excel. In her new position, she evaluated struggling dealerships and determined if they were able to recover, or if their franchise should be closed. Her experience working in every aspect of a dealership made it easy for her to identify issues and create plans to fix them. She helped dealers grow their business, buy businesses, sell business, get profitable, and navigate through problems.
“I did that for over 28 years,” Franco remembers, “And that’s where I was when I met Sam.”
New Horizons
When Franco started working for Sam, she not only had expertise in running a store, but she also had marketing and business experience on the manufacturing side as well. Sam Agha recognized this, telling Franco, “You have helped so many dealers become millionaires or increase their millions. You should put that skillset to work for you. If you do well as an employee, imagine what you will do as an owner.”
“I always came close to being an owner. It was always the next step, but a man would always be chosen,” she said.
When Franco and the Aghas came across the opportunity to buy Granite Automotive, they grabbed it. At the time, Sam and Terishka were running a dealership in Los Angeles, CA, and were experiencing high turnover and other issues that go along with managing a dealership in a large metro area. They liked the fact that Granite Automotive was located in a more rural setting and maintained the family-owned, small-town feel that could not be found in California.
Franco’s appreciation for Granite solidified when she first sat down with the dealership’s executive management team and looked around the table. “I realized we are all women! We stepped into that, we didn’t create that. And I’m very proud of it.”
The Future of Auto is Female
As a female auto dealership owner, Franco hopes to bring more women into the industry. “I’m going to broadcast loudly that Granite Automotive is a female-run operation,” she exclaimed.
One way she hopes to achieve her goal is to partner with area schools to encourage more females to choose automotive careers. “I don’t think that women think of [automotive careers]. I want to show that it possible for females to get far in the industry.”
“I’m all about leadership and women empowerment,” she continued. “I realized out of the gate when I was 15 years old that I’m in a male-dominated career, but I really liked it and was good at it. So, I was either going to continue in my career that I loved, or I was going to let men dictate that I wasn’t welcome. I chose the former.”
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