DIARY of a Franchisee

Raul Larez owns two Batteries Plus franchises, but still has plenty of time for family. We asked him to keep a diary of one average day—so you can see what his life is like.

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Franchisee stories don't get any more classic than this. When he was a 17-year-old kid in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Raul Larez started working at a Batteries Plus store after school. He kept going through college, and eventually became manager. In his first year, he increased the store's revenue from $700,000 to $1 million. He kept growing the numbers until the pandemic hit in 2020, and the owners decided to close shop.

That night, Larez came home and told his wife, Megan, that the store was closing. "Why don't we buy it?" she replied. And so they did.

Today, they own two locations that were on track to do $1.8 million in 2025, and they plan to open a third this year. It was a lot of work at first, but now they have the right team and operations in place, and the stores need less of their time. That makes work-life balance a lot easier.

Larez kept a diary for Entrepreneur on one average day in November 2025. Here's what his life is like.

5:00 a.m.

The alarm goes off. I'm an early riser, so that I can get some personal time before work begins.

5:30 a.m.

I hit the gym for an hour for a workout with my son, Trey, who's 10 and is on a competitive basketball team. The kid loves to train, so doing it together makes us both love it even more. Then we go home, shower, and eat before Megan and I drop Trey off at school.

8:00 a.m.