Franchise Guide: Success Stories - Franchising.com

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Success Stories

Tulsa resident Bill Ramsey had worked hard in the international manufacturing business all his life, and was a bit disappointed when he learned that none of his five children were interested in following him into that industry. He didn't have a lot of family growing up, so he was determined to keep his close.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 7,646 Reads 17 Shares
Like many successful and charismatic people, Elena Donahue punctuates her speaking with exclamation points. "Dream big! Focus small!" she encourages the staff at OceDon Restaurant Management in Castle Rock, Colo., and to fellow volunteers at the Mile High Chapter of the American Red Cross.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 7,619 Reads 2 Shares
Not surprisingly, winning in professional sports has a lot in common with winning in the franchise business. If there's to be any chance of victory, individuals must work together, follow a strategic plan, and remain devoted to a collective cause. Seen in this light, it makes perfect sense that a number of former professional athletes--most of whom have competed in sports since they were tots--turn to franchising when their time on the field runs out. They understand hard work and dedication, and they know how to follow a system where each individual has a role that benefits the greater good of the team.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 12,320 Reads 1 Shares
Gina Puente learned about hard work, tenacity, and the power of cash at the knees of her father, "working" in his office equipment business from the age of eight... when she wasn't busy with commercials and pageants.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,748 Reads 1 Shares
Spread across the following pages of our annual Dominators issue are the rough-hewn tales of seven multi-unit franchisees who have worked smart and played hardball to create large, successful franchise organizations. These operators are not afraid to take risks if the payoff means a bigger slice of the market pie. We interviewed these seven savvy operators and asked them to share their strategies, philosophies, and personal approaches to running their organizations.
  • Kerry Pipes and Eddy Goldberg
  • 7,538 Reads 1 Shares
Two people have figured prominently in Jerry Heath's career. The first is his father, who helped bankroll him when he started out in franchising. The second is Steve Jackson, the president of Hungry Howie's Pizza, who began mentoring Heath at an impressionable age (12).
  • John Carroll
  • 8,690 Reads 2 Shares
When Columbus, Ohio, native Jeff Rigsby was a 16-year-old frying chicken for KFC, he couldn't have foreseen that one day he'd own 21 Bojangles' restaurants.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 11,258 Reads 1 Shares
When 19-year-old Atour Eyvazian fled from his native Iran in the early 1980s to escape persecution for being a Christian, he embarked on an odyssey that led through Turkey all the way to Los Angeles.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,661 Reads 23 Shares
Dave Melton has learned more than a few lessons during his 28 years as a multi-unit franchisee. The Domino's Pizza operator has ruled the New York DMA, and in 2009, his units took over the number one slot for sales in any Domino's market. All this while his stores generated annual revenue of $6 million.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,095 Reads 28 Shares
Bashir Shams spent 28 years with one of franchising's giants. He built a successful company and a prosperous career with his multi-unit Burger King operation in Mississippi. So why would he walk away from that to team up with a relative newcomer to franchising? That's just what we asked him about his latest plans to ultimately open two dozen locations of ZIPS Dry Cleaners on the East Coast.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,583 Reads 107 Shares
Restaurant work was just supposed to help Aziz Hashim pay his way as he pursued his life's dream of becoming an electrical engineer. But by the time he landed the "big job" at Rockwell, he discovered that he had been living the dream all along.
  • John Carroll
  • 6,764 Reads 162 Shares
Jersey Mike's Subs
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New Jersey native and veteran franchisee Frank Bonanno says he learned early in life that he wanted to do something "easier" than mixing cement and carrying bricks and blocks like his contractor father
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 11,485 Reads
In Dave Melton's Hire the American Dream, the Domino's Pizza multi-unit franchisee outlines much of his own personal journey and roadmap to discovering how to hire the best and most productive employees, and create a culture that leads to success for everyone in the company. It's a task that all franchisees encounter and Melton's tried and true methods have applications for many situations.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,033 Reads 90 Shares
Edvin Rajauskas and Val Kirielius have come a long way to open their first Buffalo Wings & Rings franchise location - all the way from Lithuania to be exact. The two Lithuania natives formed a partnership that has them destined for the American dream. Just last month, the two opened their first Buffalo Wings & Rings restaurant in Springdale, Ohio. They are excited about their new franchise and say growth is on their minds.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 4,211 Reads 75 Shares
Ken Leese, a New Jersey-born accountant who played on the tennis team at Old Dominion University, sees his career as a multi-unit franchisee and area developer in terms of sports analogies.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 6,796 Reads 1 Shares
Readers of Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine have resoundingly told us how they look forward to our annual rankings lists. So once again, working with research ally FRANdata, we've gathered the data, crunched the numbers, and formulated our annual "MU50" lists.
  • Kerry Pipes and Eddy Goldberg
  • 21,156 Reads 1 Shares
When Cheryl Robinson went to work as a bookkeeper at a Southern California Supercuts salon in 1980, she knew nothing about franchising. Worse than that, she had "the world's worst hair. My idea of a good 'do' was a bikini scarf and hair tape on my bangs," she jokes. "I had curly, unruly hair and was using terrible products. I quickly learned that Prell--since it could hold up a pearl--was drying the holy hell out of my hair."
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 10,444 Reads 372 Shares
In 1998, a young Canadian attorney named Fiorenzo Bresolin traveled to Florida to work on a large real estate transaction. It wasn't long before he fell in love with the state--and its booming real estate business. The outgoing corporate lawyer went on to develop, along with partners, a 500-acre corporate park in South Florida owned by the late Mel Simon of the Simon Property Group; today he's knocking on doors to place his restaurants in some of those malls.
  • John Carroll
  • 8,981 Reads 569 Shares
Anil Yadav likes to think big. The multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee in Northern California owns 155 Jack in the Boxes and 26 Denny's restaurants in California and Texas. In fact, he's Jack in the Box's largest franchisee and he owns one of the largest privately held franchise companies in the country - which just happens to employ more than 4,000 people. Apparently, all that's not enough.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 3,915 Reads 1,023 Shares
In his book, <i>Hire the American Dream</i>, Domino's Pizza multi-unit franchisee Dave Melton outlines much of his own personal journey and roadmap to discovering how to hire the best and most productive employees, and create a culture that leads to success for everyone in the company. It's a task that all franchisees encounter and Melton's tried and true methods can be applied to almost any situation.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 3,235 Reads 12 Shares
Over the past few issues of the Multi-Unit Franchising Report we have highlighted a handful of franchisees and their efforts to keep better tabs on the income and expenses of their units. Such unit economics strategies have become central to many franchisee operations. As the old adage states, you can't manage what you don't measure.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 3,068 Reads 62 Shares
Marco's Pizza®
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Marco's Pizza®
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Before signing on as a multi-unit franchisee, Rob Parsons already had an insider's view of franchising, having spent time at Denny's and Popeyes working with franchisees on the real estate side. At Popeyes, Parsons worked with Jim Lyons, an industry veteran who is now chief development officer for Del Taco and Captain D's. Lyons played a key role in mentoring the young Parsons. During a five-year stretch at Popeyes, Parsons played a key role in pushing the brand's New York market from 58 to 101 locations.
  • John Carroll
  • 4,053 Reads 3 Shares
Rob Parsons knew all about franchising. He had worked on the inside at Popeyes and Denny's assisting franchisees with real estate. He had learned the ropes.
  • John Carroll
  • 5,431 Reads 194 Shares
Dave Melton oversees a half dozen Domino's Pizza locations in the Big Apple. The New York City market is one of the toughest in the country and yet Melton has flourished since beginning his life as a franchisee 20 years ago. But he hasn't just built a successful business in Manhattan, last year he made the New York DMA the most successful market in the Domino's organization. Now that's power.
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 6,063 Reads
"If there's one thing the recent economy has taught, it's that it's more important than ever to pay attention to costs during tough times," says Neal Faulkner, a Boston-area Dunkin' Donuts franchisee with 17 locations open and two more on the way. "I say if you're still operating today the same way you were three years ago, you're either out of business or on your way there."
  • Multi-Unit Franchisee
  • 9,839 Reads
Mike Pietrzyk's 37 years in the food business began auspiciously in 1972, when, as a newly promoted manager of a Burger Chef in Virginia, he was put in a store scheduled to close in 7 months. "The restaurant wasn't doing well, and they'd decided to close it," he recalls. "They just asked me to keep it together for a few more months." Pietrzyk worked seven days a week and did his own marketing, passing out local coupons and getting acquainted with the community.
  • Debbie Selinsky
  • 5,981 Reads 81 Shares
If the standing-room-only educational sessions weren't enough to inspire the multi-unit franchisees, the spirited address from NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka certainly was. It was all part of the 2010 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference held this past March in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay.
  • Kerry Pipes
  • 2,933 Reads 6 Shares
Some years after David Griffin set out in the late '70s to build an auto detailing business, he found himself with a large, scattered operation that had many of the same attributes as a franchise. He ended up opening five separate locations in Utah, including one big central complex, along with an independent chemical business and distribution center that provided the materials he needed to clean vehicles for local residents, car dealers, and a large wholesale auto auction operation
  • John Carroll
  • 3,630 Reads 24 Shares
The 9th Annual Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, sponsored by Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine achieved its greatest success ever. Despite a down economy, conference attendance was up 30 percent over last year, featured more than 100 sponsors, and a sold-out exhibit hall. The conference was held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, March 24-26, where Mike Ditka, former Super Bowl-winning coach, was the keynote speaker.
  • PRESS RELEASE
  • 2,630 Reads 1 Shares
In the late 1970s, David Griffin set out to build an auto detailing business. Some years later, he found himself at the helm of a large, scattered operation. He'd opened five separate locations in Utah, including a large central complex, along with an independent chemical business and distribution center that provided the materials he needed to clean vehicles for local retail consumers, car dealers, and the large, national Manheim auto auction company.
  • John Carroll
  • 8,101 Reads
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