From Gas Station to CEO: How Shirin Behzadi Scaled a Multi-Brand Empire

What does it take to build—and sell—a thriving business born from resilience and clarity of purpose? Few stories capture it as powerfully as Shirin Behzadi’s. At 17, Shirin fled Iran alone during the revolution, arriving in the U.S. with little money and no family. She started as a gas station cashier—and eventually rose to become CEO of Home Franchise Concepts, the parent company behind Budget Blinds and several other national home-service brands. Under her leadership, the company more than ...