Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2012 | Page 22

M U L

T

I

-

B R A N D

Name: Craig William Colby

Age: 48

Title: President

Family: Wife Krista, sons Tyler (20), Shane (18), Dylan

Company: The Colby Restaurant Group, Colby Brands,

(14), daughter Emma (9)

Mid-Atlantic Restaurant Concepts

No. of units: 4 Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, 4 Così;

agreement for 5 Tio Juan’s Margaritas

Years in franchising: 18
Years in current position: 10

PERSONAL
Key accomplishments: Owned 15 Burger Kings with my twin brother
Michael.
Biggest mistake: Jumping into the full-service restaurant business from the
fast food business and thinking that my experience would directly translate.
During our successful years at Burger King, I decided to purchase a Ground
Round restaurant. There were many reasons why it was a failure for us—
beautiful new restaurants popping up (ours was very old), the franchisor was
having major problems (and eventually went out of business), etc.—but it
really comes down to not knowing what I was doing. It was a very expensive
mistake.
Smartest mistake: This is funny because I am going to give you the same
answer. Buying the Ground Round was not only the biggest mistake, but also
my best mistake. I found what I loved about the restaurant business. Fast food
was a nice business for me and made us some money, but I found out I had
passion for casual dining. I absolutely love everything about it—the energy,
the food, the fun, the atmosphere. I would make this mistake over and over
again because it got me to where I am now.
How do you spend a typical day? It varies, but I will usually stop
at one or two of my restaurants to talk a little with the managers and team
members. I know when I don’t do this enough because I’ll go into one of our
restaurants for dinner with my family and the hostess will ask if we’ve been
there before. That’s a reality check that says I’m spending too much time on

20

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue II, 2012

new ventures and ignoring my older ones. But I do like to stop in and hang out
for a while, help with some problems that maybe the managers can’t solve,
and keep my face out there. It gives me a chance also to look around and see
if they are keeping up with my standards of maintenance and cleanliness. I’m a
clean freak. I always tell my people that a guest should be able to go eat their
dinner sitting on the floor of our restrooms. It’s got to be that clean. The other
parts of my day are filled with meetings, making deals, financing deals, visiting
potential sites and restaurants, and eating great food under the pretense of
“testing it out.” It sounds like a great job and it is.
Work week: I have a very reasonable work week. I work Monday through
Friday, basically 8 a.m. until about 3 p.m. outside the house. I like to try
to pick up one of the kids at school if time permits. Then I’ll go home and
exercise until dinnertime since we have a gym in our house. After dinner, I
start responding to all the emails and phone calls I rec