Dave Ramsey unveils new headquarters in Franklin alongside Gov. Bill Lee (2024)

In 2015, Ramsey Solutions, the personal finance company, purchased 47 acres of land just off I-65 in south Franklin with the goal of eventually opening a new headquarters to replace their offices in Cool Springs.

On Friday, that goal became a reality, with Dave Ramsey, Gov. Bill Lee, Franklin Mayor Ken Moore and others celebrating the new headquarters’ unveiling with a ceremonial ribbon cutting, as well as a tour of the building.

With more than 223,000 square feet of office space, the new headquarters houses up to 1,000 employees, features a coffee shop and bookstore, as well as areas for guests to watch Ramsey broadcast his radio show live across the world in his studio.

Before taking media on a tour of the new building, hundreds of Ramsey Solutions employees gathered together at a large amphitheater to hear Ramsey and Lee say a few words.

“Sometimes when people do things like this, it’s a monument — this is not a monument,” Ramsey said.

“This is a living, breathing testimony that God restores lives, starting when he restored my life after we lost everything [and] had to start completely over 30 years ago. And here, a broke kid from Antioch standing here… this is a trip — an absolute trip. It’s a living, breathing testimony that if you help enough people, you don’t have to worry about money.”

An Antioch native, Ramsey spent the mid ’80s building his real estate portfolio, which had amassed millions in worth by 1986. A series of events unexpectedly led the bank that was financing Ramsey’s loans to demand immediate repayment, which ultimately led to Ramsey declaring bankruptcy in 1988.

Through perseverance, Ramsey had eventually recovered financially, before ultimately launching the Dave Ramsey Show in 1992 — the rest is history.

Ramsey told the Home Page that when deciding on a location for a new headquarters, leaders from cities such as Dallas, Texas and Orlando, Florida had done everything they could to try to sway Ramsey Solutions to move to their city, including “throwing some serious coin at us,” as Ramsey put it.

Ramsey said that ultimately, both Tennessee’s and Williamson County’s business-friendly atmosphere led him to stay in Franklin.

“For a guy like me, we’ll get our business done if you’ll just get out of our way – and really, that’s what the state of Tennessee, the city of Franklin [and] Williamson County does such a good job of,” Ramsey said.

"They’re not letting us run roughshod over the top of code or over-zoning or something, we have to abide by the rules, but they don’t make it where it’s so hard to do business that you wish you didn’t. If you’ll just get out of the way, guys like me will go do stuff, so that’s kind of the way we looked at it.”

Ramsey Solutions has announced it will hire 400 more team members by 2023, and another 400 by 2028 — a fact that thrilled Gov. Lee when he spoke at the podium.

“People’s lives are changed when jobs are created, and government doesn’t create jobs — private sector creates jobs,” Lee said.

“But the government can play a role and can protect rights, liberties and freedoms, and create an environment where we the people transform our communities, and that’s exactly what’s happened right here.”

Lee said he considered to be the reason for Tennessee’s — and more specifically Williamson County’s — strong pull for businesses.

“We’ve worked really hard to make this state business-friendly; we do that by having low business taxes, low personal taxes… we’re one of the lowest taxed states in the country,” Lee told the Home Page.

“That’s very attractive when companies consider either reinvesting — as Ramsey Solutions has — or whether they consider locating here from another state. The other thing that we’ve worked really hard to do is create an environment where regulation is at a minimum, where we work really hard to stay out of the business of businesses, and to let them do what it is that they do.”

“This particular region, there’s a lot of economic activity here; there are a lot of companies moving here, the quality of life in Williamson County is high, the quality of schools here is very good, so when companies think about either reinvesting or moving, Williamson County’s certainly one of the bright spots in the country for that.”