Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2014 | Page 32
MULTI-BR A N D 50
MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: Again, I am a little OCD about what the stores are
doing and what they look like.
Management method or style: I’m a combination of tough and easygoing. When I see things I like, I’m the nicest guy in the world.
Greatest challenge: In my position, it’s finding locations that work right for
our company and meet our criteria. You have to do a lot of fishing and throwing
them back before you catch the right one.
How do others describe you? They tell me I work too hard, that I’ll never quit working. I have worked since I was 11 years old, and between working,
the military, college, and this company, I’ve never stopped.
One thing I’m looking to do better: I always try to improve what we
do as a company. There’s always room for improvement in how we do our jobs.
How I give my team room to innovate and experiment: I don’t
micromanage people. I’m a quiet manager as long as everything is okay. I give
them a lot of rope to do what they want. If I see something that’s a problem, I
will get involved.
How close are you to operations? I keep up by reading reports. If I
see something I don’t like or understand, I get the VP of operations up to talk
about it.
What are the two most important things you rely on from your
franchisors? It’s important that they keep our products fresh and on the cutting edge, and we depend on them to do inspections to ensure our personnel
are preparing the food right.
What I need from vendors: We need products to come in on time.
Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the
economy? How? We don’t do much marketing because most of our locations are in what we call non-traditional environments, like airports and outlet
malls. We don’t go after people—they’re generated to us.
How is social media affecting your business? We don’t use it much
for the same reason we don’t do much marketing. Some airports have websites, and it’s helpful to see positive comments.
How do you hire and fire? Each location does its own hiring and firing.
How do you train and retain? Each of our unit managers is trained by
the franchise concepts they operate. Our operations team is constantly visiting
the units and conducting staff training.
How do you deal with problem employees? Generally, communication is the best approach. If you deal with people out of respect, you can
resolve most problems head-on.
Fastest way into my doghouse: If someone doesn’t do what they told
me they would.
BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: $30 million to $40 million.
do the best we can.
2014 goals: We like to get one or two new locations each year. That’s how
we grow, although that’s not always under our control because of the environments in which we work.
Is capital getting easier to access? Why/why not? It’s about the same.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? We look at
growth on two levels. First, did we add new units to our portfolio? Second, and
just as important, we closely track same-unit sales against the previous year.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years?
Slowed down. In 5 years, I’d like to be involved in the day-to-day business, but
in 10 I’d like a more passive role.
How is the current economy affecting you, your employees,
your customers? The current economy is better than 2008 in every location
we have. Now we’re getting back to pre-2008 numbers.
Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Yes.
What did you change or do differently during the economic
downturn that you are continuing to do? We right-sized where we
needed to. When volume drops, we have to adjust our labor force. We’re computerized and sophisticated in our labor and food cost management. We watch
them constantly, daily.
How do you forecast for your business? We do budgets each year in
November and December. We go to each location, get out our crystal ball, and
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MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE II, 2014
Where do you find capital for expansion? Historically, we’ve used
private investors.
Have you used private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? For 20 years, we’ve had a network of
private investors we use. I have borrowed from local banks on a personal basis,
but the majority of our funds comes from our investors.
What are you doing to take care of your employees? We offer a
comprehensive benefit package, including insurance, paid vacation, and retention bonuses. We also have a bonus system for all of our management team
members. Our key people share in ownership, which is something you have to
do to retain good people.
How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, healthcare, etc.)? It’s a constant work in process, a constant challenge. We try to
project ahead of ourselves and make adjustments as needed.
How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? Bonuses, monetary awards, and company-wide recognition.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? I realize that in
the next few years I have to bring in someone younger who knows how I think
and shares the same goals and objectives.