Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2016 | Page 28

MULTI

BRAND

“I tell my crew, ‘I don’t care how bad it is, I just have to know.’”
MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: Two things: You have to be a good seller and you need
to leave a little on the table for somebody else.
Management method or style: I’m a consensus builder. It works for me.
Greatest challenge: Finding good employees.
How do others describe you? People think I’m a lot more authoritative
than I really am, but they respect me and call me when there’s no other way to
get something done. They know I care.
One thing I’m looking to do better: I’d love to play golf better.
How I give my team room to innovate and experiment: I try to hire
people who are right for the job and qualified to do the job, then give them direction and let them get the job done. If the job gets done, I don’t insist they do it
the way I would. If I just wanted robots, I wouldn’t be hiring anybody. You’ve got
to respect people you hire and give them the ability to do the job. If there’s a problem, fix it. If not, let them do it their way.
How close are you to operations? Pretty close.
What are the two most important things you rely on from your
franchisor? Strong marketing and promotions, and the ability to bring innovation and new products to the table.
What I need from vendors: Competitive prices, reliability.
Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the
economy? How? Getting into social media has been our biggest change. In

pizza, we do 85 percent TV, but we’re adding more money to the social media
budget and just hired somebody dedicated to that. Our customers skew a little
older, but now more of the 50-and-older group are using social media. With Sonic,
we’re using social media quite a bit. We ran a social media–only special last week
and it did really well. Golden Corral just started putting together a club so we’ll see
how that goes.
How is social media affecting your business? Positively so far. The
more we do it, the better results we’ll see.
How do you hire and fire? In my position I only hire a few people, and I
look for experience, ability, and personality. I fire reluctantly, but do it quickly if it’s
not working. You’re not doing either of you a favor by letting it go on.
How do you train and retain? Each concept has a formal training program
for employees. Golden Corral and Sonic are e-training, and Abby’s is digital and
on-the-job. We retain by paying a decent salary, paying for uniforms, offering a
scholarship program, and bringing them along so they’re qualified to do other jobs
with a better path to higher wages.
How do you deal with problem employees? We work with them and
give them a chance, but if they can’t do it we have to pull the trigger.
Fastest way into my doghouse: Not telling the truth. I tell my crew,
“I don’t care how bad it is, I just have to know.” It’s harder to deal with if I’m
blindsided.

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: $48 million to $50 million (total for all brands).
2016 goals: To up sales comps and lower costs.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? In sales, year
over year, week over week. We have the numbers to show all that.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years?
I don’t mind working another 5 years and finding someone who can take it over
with a little direction, maybe put money in and earn an equity position. In 10
years, I’d like to be sitting on the beach in Mexico and enjoying everything I spent
a long time earning.
How is the economy in your regions affecting you, your employees, your customers? The Oregon economy has gotten better in the last few
years; things are starting to flatten out. The problem with Oregon is that minimum
wage is going to be up to $14.50 in Portland over the next 5 years, and there’s
now 30 days of paid family leave for employees. Things are becoming tougher.
Washington is similar. Things are different in Idaho and Arizona. Arizona is growing
a lot again, and this year we’re experiencing up sales comps.
Are you experiencing economic growth in your markets? Yes.
How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business?
With employee costs going up, we have to be a lot quicker in making decisions
as to wage and labor costs. Automation, in orders or whatever else, to move
some employees out of the equation is going to be more important as we move
forward.

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How do you forecast for your business? By really seeing what last
year was like, what the economy was like, what the weather was like. The pizza
parlors have been around for 51 years (they started them in 1964), so there’s a
lot of history there.
What are the best sources for capital expansion? Internally generated funds is one. Equity markets are not available for mid-sized companies like
ours. We do our real estate financing through major banks and capital groups.
Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other
institutions? Why/why not? Local banks are the best source, and we’re
lucky to have good local relationships. They know you and you know them, so
there are no surprises.
What are you doing to take care of your employees? All the standard things: vacations, meals, healthcare.
How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum
wage, healthcare, etc.)? We have to raise prices, and we’re looking to automate our system wherever we can.
How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? All our
managers and everybody from that level up receive bonuses on profitability.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? I wish I had one. If
you’re small, there are lots of opportunities. And if you’re large, there are lots of
opportunities. There aren’t a lot of buyers looking at that $40 million to $50 million middle group, unless they need to get into an area.

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