Success Stories

In 1969, when high school senior Rodger Head took a job at a Burger King, he had no idea he was entering the business he would stick with for his entire career. One big reason was veteran restaurateur and franchisee Billy Trotter, who took the young man under his wing. "He had 19 Burger Kings then, and I stayed with him as he grew his company," says Head. "And I grew up in that company."
In 1985, when Trotter sold his company and started Rally's Hamburgers, Head, whose responsibilities also had grown, went with his mentor. They also became Papa John's franchisees and remained together until 1995, when Trotter retired.
In 2000, Head became president of Shoney's. During his six years, he brought the organization's sales figures back into the black for the first time in more than a decade...

Robert Branca, Jr., and his family of Dunkin' Donuts multi-unit franchisees offer the kind of advertisement for franchise success that money can't buy.
Case in point: Branca and his close family own 60 Dunkin' Donuts in New England. His extended family, including in-laws, their siblings, spouses, children, and cousins, own more than 700 Dunkin' Donuts in all and dominate the brand in New York and New England.
"We're all multi-unit franchisees," says Branca, who is married to the former Lisa Batista and was the family lawyer for years before he joined the family business. He learned about franchising and Dunkin' Donuts from the best: his father-in-law John Batista, a Dunkin' pioneer who came to the U.S. from the Azores and today owns the first-ever franchised Dunkin' Donuts store...

When Sunita Sagar was a teenager working as a part-time cashier at a Jack in the Box in California, she dreamed of the day she would become a doctor. The dream stayed alive as she worked her way through the University of California, San Francisco, simultaneously rising through the fast food world to assistant manager and part-time manager.
After earning a B.A. in science and working in hospitals for a few years, she realized that the last thing she wanted to be was a doctor. About then, it became apparent that her future already had been part of her life since she'd taken that first job at Jack in the Box.
"My husband and I wanted to go back into the restaurant business," says Sagar. Only this time, she wanted in as an owner-operator, where she could put everything she had learned firsthand to use growing a multi-unit franchise organization...

When Michael Ansley was a teenager helping his father, a painter, with work at KFC and Wendy's restaurants in Springfield, Ohio, he soaked up both his father's entrepreneurial spirit and a basic knowledge of the food and franchising business.
After earning degrees in business administration and marketing at the University of Dayton, the intense young man worked as a sales manager for a large company, calling on Builder's Square, Home Quarters, and other stores across Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Although he finished number-one in merchandising in the country, Ansley decided he didn't want to work for a big corporation. "I wanted to do my own thing," he says.
In 1996, he and his former college roommate asked their fathers for loans to buy their own Buffalo Wild Wings (then called BW3) unit near Ann Arbor, Mich...

Many companies use a customer loyalty scheme whether it be miles, points, or other free stuff. All are based on dollars spent and frequency of usage.

None of that is big news.

I am a member of plenty of these programs. And many of us will admit, some of those companies we really do not like yet the attraction of the benefits keep us using the product or service. But I have to tell you about one that has my attention.

Last summer Panera Bread Company introduced MyPanera.com.  Enrollment requires a visit to the website to enter the needed information.  The card is presented to you at the store. Here is what I like about their approach - you can go to an in-store terminal and register immediately...

In 1969, when high school senior Rodger Head took a job at a Burger King, he had no idea he was entering the business he would stick with for his entire career. One big reason was veteran restaurateur and franchisee Billy Trotter, who took the young man under his wing. "He had 19 Burger Kings then, and I stayed with him as he grew his company," says Head. "And I grew up in that company."
In 1985, when Trotter sold his company and started Rally's Hamburgers, Head, whose responsibilities also had grown, went with his mentor. They also became Papa John's franchisees and remained together until 1995, when Trotter retired.
In 2000, Head became president of Shoney's. During his six years, he brought the organization's sales figures back into the black for the first time in more than a decade...

Tom DiMarco knows his numbers--and they're getting bigger every year.

When he was recruited 27 years ago as controller for Salo Inc., a franchisee of Interim HealthCare, the company had only four locations. As Salo has grown, so has DiMarco's career. Seven years ago he was tapped to become the president of the organization, and today the fast-growing business has 45 Interim HealthCare locations in 5 states.

Salo, based in Columbus, Ohio, offers full- and part-time work to 8,300 employees, up from 6,600 people just a few years ago. The company is still growing steadily--along with a healthcare industry that continues to expand even as the economy languishes--and has become the largest provider of home healthcare Medicaid services in Ohio, providing everything from pediatric to geriatric and skilled nursing services...

Robert Branca, Jr., and his family of Dunkin' Donuts multi-unit franchisees offer the kind of advertisement for franchise success that money can't buy.
Case in point: Branca and his close family own 60 Dunkin' Donuts in New England. His extended family, including in-laws, their siblings, spouses, children, and cousins, own more than 700 Dunkin' Donuts in all and dominate the brand in New York and New England.
"We're all multi-unit franchisees," says Branca, who is married to the former Lisa Batista and was the family lawyer for years before he joined the family business. He learned about franchising and Dunkin' Donuts from the best: his father-in-law John Batista, a Dunkin' pioneer who came to the U.S. from the Azores and today owns the first-ever franchised Dunkin' Donuts store...

For Dev and Sunita Sagar, branching out from their Denny's restaurant into Baja Fresh and Jack in the Box allowed them to cover different segments of the restaurant business in Northern California: 24-hour family dining, fast casual, and QSR. The mixed bag of concepts reduces risk, Dev figures. But by keeping all the businesses under the food-service umbrella, operations are simplified.
"Customer service is customer service," says Sunita. "The food is different, the POS system is different, but the skills are the same. You offer good food and good service in a clean environment. It's all about using the basic skills."
The Sagars' first location, a Denny's in the San Francisco Bay area, was financed out of their own savings, with the help of local, community banks...

On the cusp of turning 30, Bryan Selden was looking to grow his business.
"Twenty-five years ago I was in the convenience store business," says the Texan. "And back then, if you wanted to look for a business, you looked in the want ads. I saw a blind ad for specialty retail, so I called."
The ad was for a Great American Cookies franchise. In 1987 he bought one location and built a second. Three more followed in Dallas.
When Selden first got into franchising, he rolled up his sleeves and learned the business in the trenches. He went at it alone, opening and closing his first location and generally trying to shoulder as much of the daily work as he could. Adding more locations meant hiring more people, but the work remained all-consuming...

Brothers Joe, Ricky, and John Rosa were no strangers to the restaurant business. The three had grown up working in the Italian restaurant their mother and father operated. Ricky even went on to operate his own restaurant for three decades.

But three years ago when the Houston trio saw a television news story on "Nightline" detailing new restaurant concepts that were thriving in a down economy, they took note. One of the restaurants in the story was Texas-based Twin Peaks, a casual restaurant known for its mountain sports lodge setting and attractive female servers.

"We were looking for the right concept to invest in," says Ricky Rosa. "After watching that special and meeting with the Twin Peaks executive team, it was clear Twin Peaks was the right fit for us...

When Michael Ansley was a teenager helping his father, a painter, with work at KFC and Wendy's restaurants in Springfield, Ohio, he soaked up both his father's entrepreneurial spirit and a basic knowledge of the food and franchising business.
After earning degrees in business administration and marketing at the University of Dayton, the intense young man worked as a sales manager for a large company, calling on Builder's Square, Home Quarters, and other stores across Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Although he finished number-one in merchandising in the country, Ansley decided he didn't want to work for a big corporation. "I wanted to do my own thing," he says.
In 1996, he and his former college roommate asked their fathers for loans to buy their own Buffalo Wild Wings (then called BW3) unit near Ann Arbor, Mich...

One common thread linking this year's group of multi-unit dominators is how none planned a career in franchising.
Think about it: When you were young, how many kids did you know who said, "When I grow up, I want to be a franchisee!" In the seven years we've been profiling successful multi-unit operators, we've heard it again and again: after embarking on the career of their dreams, working hard, and succeeding at it, they found their way into (or, after a "starter job" at a fast food franchise, back into) franchising.
The individual reasons vary, but what all share is a passion for people, for business, and for running their own business--a burning desire to control their own destiny and to help others. And, as we've also seen, once they succeed at building a high-performance franchisee organization, they often want to "pass it on," mentoring their managers and employees on how to do it for themselves...

On the cusp of turning 30, Bryan Selden was looking to grow his business.
"Twenty-five years ago I was in the convenience store business," says the Texan. "And back then, if you wanted to look for a business, you looked in the want ads. I saw a blind ad for specialty retail, so I called."
The ad was for a Great American Cookies franchise. In 1987 he bought one location and built a second. Three more followed in Dallas.
When Selden first got into franchising, he rolled up his sleeves and learned the business in the trenches. He went at it alone, opening and closing his first location and generally trying to shoulder as much of the daily work as he could. Adding more locations meant hiring more people, but the work remained all-consuming...

Def Jam recording artist Rick Ross is a busy man. Last summer he was touring with fellow rap star Lil Wayne while also preparing for the release of his fifth studio album, which was being released by his own Maybach Music Group Empire. What more could he be involved in? Turns out he was also inking a new development agreement with Wingstop to open several units in the Memphis market.

The platinum-selling recording artist who received the #1 Billboard billing for each of his first three albums, actually rapped about the Wingstop brand in one of his songs.

"After tasting Wingstop's signature Lemon Pepper-flavored wings in Miami, I knew this was a franchise I wanted to add to my investments," says Ross.

Ross joins a growing list of high-profile franchisees, including NFL and NBA athletes, who are attracted to Wingstop as a business investment...

John Scharnweber grew up in the restaurant business, starting at the bottom as a dishwasher and busboy growing up in Minneapolis. He went on to major in hotel, motel, and restaurant management at junior college, eventually breaking into good jobs managing restaurants. These days, he oversees the operation of seven top-performing franchise locations in the Dakotas.

Scharnweber's big break came after he had risen to the top job as general manager at a Ground Round restaurant in Bismarck, N.D. The partners at the restaurant were looking at opening a different kind of restaurant franchise. They selected Denny's and brought Scharnweber in on the deal. "It helps to have success in your first couple of ventures," he says.

The winning streak continued as the group added more Denny's and Ground Round locations in the region...

Former U.S. Marine Sergeant Steve Brevitz always dreamed of having his own business. Thanks in part to the Little Caesars Veterans Program he recently opened the doors to his first Little Caesars restaurant in Manassas, Virginia. He hopes it won't be his last.

Brevitz, who grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan, served as an Artillery Scout Observer. He eventually earned the ranking of Sergeant before later re-enlisting and being deployed to Iraq twice.

Following his return home, Brevitz spent some time in the real estate industry before looking into franchising. "I researched several franchise opportunities and I kept coming back to Little Caesars because of the Little Caesars Veterans Program and the experience they have in franchising," he says...

Zane Tankel doesn't think of himself as a bleeding heart. He's been repeatedly recognized for his ability to build a hefty bottom line. But he also isn't afraid to show how much he cares about the thousands of people who work in his 35 Applebee's locations scattered around the Big Apple and its suburbs.
Over the past 15 years, Tankel's franchisee group, Apple-Metro, has created one of the most generous bonus systems in franchising. GMs and kitchen managers in his organization are given a car after they've put in 18 months. They also get a cell phone and free service. There are bonuses for top players, even free movie tickets for the hourly employees who get special recognition for guest services. More than 100 managers and wives or significant others qualify for the company's regular cruises to Bermuda...

By his own description, Greg Thomas is ADHD. Sitting down to read a book, watching professional sporting events, or lounging on a beach doesn't really interest him. For Thomas, life should be lived in accordance with a very simple motto: Life's short. Grow fast.

And he has. Over the past decade, Thomas has gathered up 13 Great Clips and 2 Smoothie Kings in his multi-unit franchise operation. He attributes much of his success to an ability to get into a distressed location and make it profitable.

"The decade after college, I was in corporate America, vice president of a large women's apparel manufacturing company," he says. "Life was pretty good. And every winter, a group of 10 of us guys would go to Lake Tahoe to gamble and ski...

Kevin Hatton is honest enough to admit that when he became an EMT at age 18, he came to the job with no noble or lofty motives. "My reason for becoming an EMT was that I would be able to drive fast and run lights and sirens," says the 39-year-old husband and father. "But I fell in love with it and worked for the Georgetown County, EMS before they even had 911 service."

The son of a Methodist minister and a family of restaurant owners, Hatton, who spent 12 years as an EMT, also spent time washing dishes, waiting tables, and learning about the restaurant business. "Once the restaurant business gets into your blood, it's there--you never really get out of it," he says.

Flash forward to 2011 and the Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine MVP Award winner owns five Firehouse Subs restaurants in the Charleston, S...