Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 36

M U L T I - B R A N D
By KERRY PIPES

Future Certain
Third-grade wish comes true

W

hen Brandon Jones was in
the third grade, his teacher
asked the class to write about
what they wanted to be when
they grew up. “Most kids said things like
‘Be a policeman or a firefighter,’” says
the 33-year-old today. “I wrote ‘Own a
bar with my dad.’” It may have sounded
funny to his teacher, but that’s exactly
what he went on to do.
Jones grew up in La Porte, Ind., a town
of about 22,000. He was a hard-working
kid who was throwing newspapers by
age 13, earned enough money to buy his
own moped at 14, and stayed busy doing various jobs when he wasn’t on the
athletic field or in the gym. When Jones
was still a toddler, his father converted
an old house into a small tavern, and it
was there that Jones would finally fulfill
his third-grade desire.
“The day I turned 21, I went to work
with dad in the tavern,” he says. That’s
where he spent the next six years, learning the ropes of the retail food and beverage business. With that under his belt,
Jones, then in his late 20s, partnered up
with his father to open their first Buffalo
Wild Wings restaurant.
“We loved the concept and the busiName: Brandon Jones
Title: Franchisee
Company: Flip Flop Shops,

Smashburger, Buffalo Wild Wings

No. of units: 6 Buffalo Wild
Wing, 2 Smashburger, 1 Flip Flop
Shops
Age: 33
Family: Three kids (two boys, 10

and 7, one girl, 4)

Years in franchising: 6
Years in current position: 6

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Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue II, 2013