How do you ensure a balance between work and personal life, and what practices help you manage stress?

When I worked in Silicon Valley in the early 1980s reporting on the nascent personal computer industry, I heard a lot about how many hours a week people said they worked. (Okay, it was 99% men in their 20s and 30s.) As if spending more hours at work were a badge of honor. A few years later, long-distance interviewing a computer engineer in Germany, I was happily floored to hear him say, “Are Americans so inefficient that they have to work so many hours?” Yet, as you well know, for a multi-unit restaurant franchisee, balancing your work and personal lives is often more complicated than in most other professions. So, how many hours are you putting in at work?

Want more? In August, we posed the same question to more than a dozen multi-unit restaurant franchisees. Click here for their responses.

Franchisee Bytes: What is your biggest current or ongoing challenge?

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DAVID OSTROWE

Company: Founder & CEO, O&M Restaurant Group 

Brands: Captain D’s Seafood, Burger King, Taco Bueno, Taco Bell, Blaze Pizza, Personalized Management Associates, O&A Consulting, 180 Business Solutions, Career Lead

Years in franchising: 34 (24 on the franchisee side, 10 on the franchisor side)

Ostrowe is the Incoming Chair of Franchise Update’s 2025 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. In addition to his successful franchise operations and related businesses, he’s served as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Digital Transformation and Administration, and was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Oklahoma’s Lottery Commission.

Owning multiple units is undeniably demanding. For me, the lines between work and personal life are often blurred, especially when you're building an enterprise with everything on the line. However, I thrive in high-pressure situations and am action-oriented by nature, which helps me manage both work and personal responsibilities effectively.

While it can be challenging to completely disconnect, I find ways to integrate work and leisure. For example, during a recent family trip to Italy, I still checked emails and made calls daily. This approach allows me to stay on top of business operations while also enjoying quality time with my loved ones.

Managing stress is all about finding a balance that works for you. For me, it’s about staying active and engaged, whether it’s through crisis management or seizing opportunities as they arise. The life of an entrepreneur is a constant juggle of risk and stress, but with the right mindset and practices, it becomes a rewarding journey.

JOHN METZ

Company: CEO & Founder, RREMC Restaurants

Brands: 62 Denny’s, 5 Hurricane Grill & Wings, 2 Wahoo’s Fish Taco

Years in franchising: 22

John Metz is Past Chair of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference and former franchisor of Hurricane Grill & Wings, which he sold to FAT Brands in 2018.

1. I work out 3 days a week from 9 am to 10 am, no exceptions.
2. I turn my phone off from 10 pm to 7 am every night.
3. I work remotely when possible, but I work in the office at least one day a week.
4. I try to play golf at least one weekday afternoon every week.

That’s about it. Other than those things, I have no life-work balance.

HANNIBAL MYERS

Company: President & CEO, Global Restaurant Hospitality Group, LLC 

Brands: Church’s Chicken (41) in Southern CA and Western AZ

Years in franchising: 32 (27.5 on the franchisor side, 4.5 as a franchisee)

In 1992, Hannibal Myers made the move from an IBM account executive to franchising, joining Taco Bell as Senior Team Leader—New Concepts. From there, he served in leadership and executive positions at Wendy’s, Church’s Chicken, and Shoney’s before moving into non-food concepts UFC Gym (President), Everybody Fights (President of Development and Franchising), and CYL Sauna Studio (President). In 2019, he founded his present company, focused on his Church’s locations.

Finding a balance between your work and personal lives and managing stress is a challenge that face many working adults in fast-moving, high-energy occupations. This is doubly true for entrepreneurs in franchising. For me, an added factor is the fact that my work as a franchisee aligns with my passion for being of service to people, helping people to live their best lives professionally and personally when I can, and spreading optimism that the best is yet to come. This makes work more like play and can tend to result in my getting lost in the time spent in pursuit of making it as impactful as possible.

To work toward achieving some aspect of balance with my family life, I try to set defined time blocks for my work tasks, with limiters for the inevitable instances of tasks bleeding over their allocated time allotments. Given how dynamically our lives as entrepreneurs can change from day to day based on the needs of our businesses, I try to allow myself some grace when my best-laid plans in this regard get sidetracked.

The combination of 1) working to increasingly hold myself on task in giving my time to others or to projects, no matter how impactful or rewarding the effort, and 2) being flexible in that pursuit when warranted helps me to alleviate the potential stress I might otherwise begin to feel when so many different pursuits are vying for my time.

Finally, perspective is also all-important for me. Balance does not mean a consistent 50/50 allocation of time or effort. Many times, achieving the desired professional or personal outcome requires devoting 100% of my time and energy toward a particular professional or personal goal for a defined period of time. Once the objective is accomplished, the pendulum may swing fully toward an objective in another sphere of life. Being careful to spend the time and energy where it’s needed, when it’s needed, and with full engagement, for me, has worked to keep the path through life fun, rewarding, and stimulating.

Professionally and personally, it’s always about the journey… and the journey is always heading toward the next bend in the road.

RANDY PIANIN

Company: CEO, Royal Restaurant Group

Brands: 61 Burger King, 4 Potbelly

Years in franchising: 8

Before founding Royal Restaurant Group in 2023, Randy Pianin was CFO (2016) and then CEO (2019) of JAE Restaurant Group, which owned 180 Wendy’s. His plans for 2025 are to remodel 25 Burger Kings and increase the number of his Potbelly locations. An operator with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, he says, “I would rather determine my fate than have it dictated to me.” (For a full profile, see Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine, Q4 2024.)

It’s a constant challenge. We have an organizational structure and processes to manage day-to-day issues, but sometimes you have to jump in. When you own a business, you can never completely turn it off. If larger problems come along, you must deal with them. When you are a leader of people, you can attempt to work just 40 hours, but you still have to address the demands of the business. I am fortunate to have a supportive family. When work demands eat into family time, they are very understanding.

MIKE JAMES

Company: Founder/Managing Partner, Guernsey Holdings

Brands: 122 Sonic, 20 Zaxby’s, 3 Take 5 Oil Change

Years in franchising: 5.5

After beginning his career in commercial real estate, Mike James embraced franchising, founding Guernsey Holdings in 2021. Today he is the fourth-largest Sonic operator with 122 locations. His latest venture, a 53-unit development deal with 7 Brew Drive-thru Coffee, moves him closer to his goal of operating more than 300 units in the next several years. (For a full profile, see Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine, Q4 2024.)

I remind myself that my job no longer requires me to sit in front of a computer for 12 hours a day. My role now is to make a handful of high-quality decisions each week. To protect my mental state, I prioritize working out, meditating, and spending quality time with my family. These are crucial for staying clearheaded. I prioritize family time over everything else.

FRANCHISEE BYTES

What is your biggest current or ongoing challenge?

Leading a rapidly growing multi-brand restaurant organization. The challenge lies in managing expansion through new brand additions, development projects, and remodels while strategically steering the business toward sustained growth by recruiting and developing amazing people.
—Keith Johnson, COO/Franchisee, Amazing Food Concepts, 20 Qdoba Mexican Eats, 15 Captain D’s, 1 Epic Wings

Maintaining profitability amid inflation, the rising costs of food and labor, and soaring interest rates.
—Stephanie Moseley, President, Pisa Pie Enterprises, 6 Marco’s Pizza

Commodity fluctuations and shifting consumer sentiment/spending habits. Over the past two years, the cost of goods from distributors has fluctuated more than the previous 10 years combined. That has resulted from the pandemic and the supply chain. It has made business a bit more difficult to operate. The supply chain is not as solid as it used to be, and commodities will shoot up out of nowhere.
—Mike James, Founder, Managing Partner, Guernsey Holdings, 122 Sonics, 20 Zaxby’s, 3 Take 5 Oil Changes, and a 53-unit development agreement with 7 Brew Drive-thru Coffee

Balancing profits with rapid growth. No one tells you when you start how expensive growth can be. It is hard to find the capital to grow if you can’t show profitability, yet it’s hard to be profitable if your goal is to grow.
—Milo Leakehe, Managing Partner, Imbue Capital, 3 Crumbl Cookies, 1 PayMore Stores, 1 Tropical Smoothie Cafe, 1 Rolling Suds, 1 Solve Pest Pros

Navigating the balance between growth and maintaining the schedule to prioritize team professional development.
—Phillip Scotton, COO, Primo Partners, 23 Ben & Jerry’s, 2 Starbucks

We did four acquisitions in one year, so it’s bringing the four separate companies together and integrating them into one company. Part of that challenge is merging four different cultures and how we want them to operate into one cohesive unit. Most of the stores we have acquired were underinvested restaurants, whether it was a result of resources, training, or operational leadership. We are now spending the time and money to turn those into successful units.
—Randy Pianin, CEO, Royal Restaurant Group, 61 Burger King, 4 Potbelly

To develop a team over a long period of time. It is exciting and I enjoy it. I often say that we are not in the pizza business, but rather the people business.
—Nadeem Saleem Bajwa, CEO, Bajco Group, 207 Papa Johns

Finding loyalty with employees. It can be difficult to find good employees in the restaurant industry. Many people view it as a stepping-stone job instead of a career. It can also have a negative stigma with long hours and rude customers. Our goal is to hire talented and loyal employees and build a strong culture.
—Bill Aseere, CEO, Space Cowboys Restaurant Group, 17 Donatos Pizza, 3 Guthrie’s Chicken, 2 Whit’s Frozen Custard

Handling stress. I often try to deal with it by taking a break and thinking about the best way to handle the situation. I may take a step back by going for a walk, reading about something else, hitting golf balls, or having lunch with my wife.
—Bill Mathis, Multi-Unit Franchisee, 3 Subway, 1 Caribou with 4 more in construction

Trying to do everything at once. When you care about results as much as I do, you want to have your hand in everything. I can be a bit of a perfectionist and try to get involved in everything.
—Alex Carney, Vice President/Franchisee, TR Hospitality Group, 11 Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, three 7 Brew Drive-thru Coffee