Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2017 | Page 17

2017 MVP AWARDS
“I just have a high tolerance level for risk.
I like to get away from the trunk of the tree—
I like to get out on the limbs.”
PERSONAL
Formative influences/events: My father and
my grandfather’s entrepreneurial spirit rubbed off on
me. Audra comes from a family where they believed
in getting a job and staying with it. Her father was
with his company for nearly 40 years. My father did
farming, sold real estate, and had a self-starting, en-
trepreneurial spirit. My influence was my family, so it
wasn’t that big of a leap for me. That’s what I knew
as the norm. When I had a job with Honda welding
seat frames and left to sell real estate, my in-laws
went nuts. I just have a high tolerance level for risk. I
like to get away from the trunk of the tree—I like to
get out on the limbs.
Key accomplishments: My family is involved
with me in my Buffalo Wings & Rings business. That
is a huge accomplishment, but it’s difficult at times.
What a huge accomplishment it is to sit down at
Thanksgiving and open presents at Christmas and
then still have some, let’s call it “candid” discussions
about business and practices together. Another key
accomplishment for Audra and me is that we are so
proud of the retention of our employees that we’ve
had since day one. We’ve had nine people who
have risen through our ranks to become managers
at our stores. Of those people who we promoted up
the ladder from servers, hosts, and bartenders, we
have 100 percent retention. I think that’s a huge
accomplishment.
Work week: It really is a work week.It’s a seven-
day-a-week job. It’s like Jim Collins says with the
“20-mile march.” It’s the things you do every day.
For me, I keep a written log of the sales, bank ac-
count balances, and sometimes even where we rank
in the system. I do that every morning with my cup
of coffee, even on Sunday morning before church.
On Sunday night, Audra and I will be at Bob Evans
or somewhere having coffee and talking about the
week coming up. I take my time off like everyone
does. But there isn’t a day that goes by where I’m
no t thinking about or talking about the business. If I
go on vacation, my briefcase comes with me. I don’t
view it as work. I love to do it. We try to get to the
different stores as often as we can and balance that
with our 14-year-old daughter’s school activities. We
have four grandsons too, so we make time for them.
We are sending emails at 12 minutes after 6 in the
morning and sometimes at 10:30 at night. It’s what
we love to do. I don’t complain about the hours,
MANAGEMENT
because we love to do it. Audra loves communicating
with the managers every day of the week. We aren’t
bosses who just sit there and cross our arms. We tell
them that they’re not working for us, they’re working
with us. They see me in the apron in the dish area or
Audra setting up the food and I think that motivates
them. When you work with employees, they work
better. We have a challenge at one of our stores
where they try to race me to the tables when a party
leaves. I have the rag in my hand and they try to get
to the table before I can. They respect that when you
work with them.
What are you reading? We’re currently read-
ing TJ Schier’s book S.M.A.R.T. Restaurant Guide to
Effective Food Service Operations. I recently read
Liar’s Poker about Wall Street by Michael Lewis. I like
to read things that have some realism to them. Bill
O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus is one I recently read. I have
Killing Reagan but haven’t started it yet. Think and
Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Goal by Eliyahu
M. Goldratt are two good ones. Then we read all of
the publications, the franchising news, and everything
we can get our hands on. We have always wanted to
see ourselves in those magazines—and I guess now
here we are.
Best advice you ever got: My grandfather,
Russell Fetter, never wore a watch. He said that you
weren’t done based on the time on a clock. You were
done when the job was done. I spent a lot of time
with that old man, and that’s how I’ve tried to ap-
proach life and how I’ve tried to mold my work ethic.
What’s your passion in business? Audra and
I spoke about this recently. Whatever we do, we like
to build things and to build the infrastructure to sup-
port it and develop the staff to support it. I’ve built
up several businesses and I’ve sold some. It’s tied to
my approach in coaching. I’ve coached high school
girls basketball. The girls had only won about 125
games in 30 years. It was a pretty horrible program.
In 3 years, we won a conference championship, a
sectional championship, and had a winning record. I
also coached Midget Football for 17 years. When I
became the head coach, I was so driven to build the
program. We never had a losing record in more than
a dozen years. So I like to win at everything—but
I really enjoy the challenge of taking something
from nothing and making it great. It’s the same with
business.

Business philosophy: If you’re not willing to
do it yourself, you can’t ask someone else to do it.
Lead by example. That goes from the words you
use to always speaking the truth.
Management method or style: I have a very
hands-on management style. Just do it. I like to be
visible and active in the restaurants. Watching and
observing is important at times, but I like to get up
and be involved. We have working managers who
have learned that management style from Audra
and me. If they accept a management role with us,
they know what we’re expecting because they’ve
seen us in action.
Greatest challenge: Initially, financing and
learning that piece of the puzzle in franchising was
a challenge. Secondly, learning how to stage your-
self for growth. One to two stores is a big jump,
but then two to eight is a whole other ball game.
It takes different skill sets and different types of
support to make it successful. We’re speaking with
consultants. We aren’t arrogant enough to think we
have all of the answers. So we asked corporate and
they helped us to work with folks to develop a pro-
cess to get to the next level. The learning continues.
How do others describe you? I hope that
people would describe me as hardworking, honest,
fair, and consistent. I’ve learned in coaching that if
you aren’t fair and consistent, you lose credibility
quickly. They’d also probably say that I don’t get
mad very often, but if I do, boy you better run and
hide (chuckles.)
How do you hire and fire, train and re-
tain? We hire through Indeed. We also tell good
servers and good bartenders to refer their friends
who they know will be good employees. We train
very hands-on and it’s constant. Each general
manager needs to have a trainer and we train for
a week. We do menu testing and other testing so
that when they hit the floor they are a good repre-
sentation of the brand and ourselves. If someone
doesn’t do well on testing, we go back into training.
Corporate has told us that our retention is incredible.
We took a picture when we first opened, and I can
count a dozen or so who are still with us. We try to
show them the ladder to success.
MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S U E III, 2017

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