The Family Biz

Vicki Phelps-chancellor Never Dreamed She’d One Day Be An Entrepreneur. Now She’s A Successful Franchisee.

- Donna M.Owens

Long before I owned McDonald’s restaurants, I saw women role models in business. Two of my aunts were hairstylists who had their own shops in my home state of Pennsylvania. They showed me that women could be entrepreneurs, control their lives and produce revenue to take care of themselves and their families.

My mother died when I was 10, and my older brother, Ronald, raised me and my siblings. We didn’t have much money, but we had a lot of love, which gave me the confidence that I could do anything. After promising my grandfather James that I would go to college, I became the first in my family to receive a degree. Postcollege, I taught high school in Rochester, New York. One colleague there would often compliment me, saying I had such original ideas. He suggested that I go into business.