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FranklinSquires is a privately owned business development company founded by C. Rick Koerber. After being surprised by the dot-com collapse in 2000, Koerber found himself scrutinized by State regulators and buried in almost $1,000,000 of debt. After settling with the bureaucrats and subsequently filing for federal bankruptcy protection, Koerber left the business community and began researching what he later came to call the “ancient principles” of economic prosperity.
In an attempt to repay his previous investors, operating out of his home, Koerber began investing in residential real estate and teaching a small handful of students his creative real estate techniques packaged within the framework of the ‘ancient principles’ he had discovered.
The venture proved successful and in early 2004 he, along with seven of his best students, partnered to form The FranklinSquires Companies, LLC as a business development company with a mission focused on helping individuals, families and businessmen worldwide achieve personal self-reliance, economic independence, and the liberating consequences of prosperity.
The newly formed “FranklinSquires” established its commitment to developing an infrastructure of education, media and finance by working with inspired entrepreneurs to build world-class companies dedicated to this mission.
The first venture of The FranklinSquires Companies, LLC was “The FranklinSquires Institute” where individual students from all across America learned “principle-based” creative real estate investing with a guarantee from Rick that “any student not realizing at least twice the tuition paid” would receive a full refund. The Institute grew to become an Internet-based distance learning institution offering a myriad of courses covering a full range of liberal arts and vocational topics, and was later spun off as its own independent business named American Founders University.
In 2005 FranklinSquires established The Equity MillTM- which worked to implement a unique approach to buying and selling real estate. In 2005, the Equity MillTM and its related companies (also started by FranklinSquires) Hill Erickson, LLC, New Castle Holdings, LLC and Founders Capital, LLC generated over $110,000,000 in annual revenues.
In the first few years of its operations FranklinSquires added to its portfolio (meaning companies that were either started by FranklinSquires, restructured by FranklinSquires, or received a substantial investment of resources and consulting from FranklinSquires) more than three dozen individual companies. FranklinSquires has helped several companies start from the ground floor and spun them off as successful independent entities encouraged to adhere to the basic principles originally advocated by Koerber and central to the company’s mission. While such portfolio companies vary in size, kind, type and operations, each is an independent company operating on its own merits and under the direction of its owners and managers.
Today as FranklinSquires continues to change and grow it remains dedicated to its original mission.