"It was right in the middle of the 'star wars' programs and the aerospace companies were offering a ton of money for electrical engineers," he recalls.

He went to Hughes Aircraft, which soon was acquired by General Motors Corp., and Brunhild did some work on GM anti-lock braking systems. After getting married, he and his wife, a Michigan native, were in Florida for several years, where he worked on early Internet start-ups.

After working his way up through the project management ranks, Brunhild moved into sales and eventually became a sales director, overseeing about 150 employees at the firm.

"I've seen people at 50 whose divisions were sold off or cut, and at that age it was hard for them to find something, especially at the salary they were looking for," Brunhild says. "I thought, 'I'm in my mid-40s, so if I'm going to do it, I have to do it now."

Brunhild also wanted to get out of the technology field, so he decided to look at franchise opportunities. After reviewing several, he was surprised to find his brother was considering the same move and was interested in the same franchise -- BatteriesPlus, which sells more than 12,000 types of batteries and related products, both in stores and on a commercial basis.

"I decided that if I'm going into a business that I don't really know, I needed a franchise," he says.

Brunhild left Compuware in February. The brothers have opened a Farmington Hills store, have business-to-business distribution going and signed a lease for a Plymouth store.

"The biggest stumbling block is money and how to live without income," he says. "Our revenue is right on track with our projections, but our costs are higher."

Another focus is on learning all aspects of the new business.

"You don't know what you don't know," he says. "You've got to learn fast, especially on the commercial side."

"Make sure you're well-capitalized," he says. "This takes two or three hundred thousand per store to open, and if you want to do a multistore deal you have to have real good sources of capital."

Another point he stresses is that a franchise business is more about security than huge financial gains.

"I'm not going to become a real rich man doing this, but at the same time, my risk is significantly lower," Brunhild says. "I know this is a model that works."

Another plus is the independence that comes from owning your own operations, he adds.

"You don't do this just for financial gain. It's the quality of life. It's the ability to figure out what I want to do when I hit 60 and 65 and not have someone else tell me what I'm going to do when I hit 60 and 65," Brunhild says. "That's what I'm buying in this."

You can reach Brian O'Connor at (313) 222-2145 or boconnor@detnews.com.