#buildingPLR but who will run the store?
In 2014, when my team and I were building our first of many Halal Guys, we made two agreements:
We would not take a distribution for at least a year; and
We would overpay (by industry standards) for the best operators we could.
I wrote about it briefly here, on LinkedIn.
For #1, I think we only took two distributions during the entire 10 years of running the company lol!
And for #2, we understood that a best-in-class operator would be the reason why we scaled.
It allowed us to work ON the business, versus IN the business; and be penny foolish and pound wise (and not the other way around, which destroys companies).
This one item we refused to make a mistake on, absorbed the thousands of other mistakes we made - and still allowed us to be profitable, among the top stores in our chain, and eventually sell our company.
And we aren’t the only ones who prioritized this. Recently on 𝕏, I asked a successful multiunit McDonald’s operator the below question, and below was his response:
If you leave this email update with nothing else, leave with this fact:
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE.
With that being said, we started our search for not one - but TWO qualified store managers.
Why?
We needed to face the reality that not all employees stay, despite our best vetting and best working environment. Things happen, compatibility is a real thing, etc.
Because we were building 5 stores in the next 3 years, we needed good people to increase our bandwidth. And
We needed to staff for the sales we wanted to make.
I asked a good friend of mine, Sam Fonseca of In-N-Out Burger, Raising Cane’s, and Dave’s Hot Chicken royalty (and you’d better be following him on Instagram, and Linkedin for the best advice on leadership, culture, and operational excellence!) - for any recommendations.
He gave me 2 of the best operators and human beings I could ask for.
Alben was a restaurant leader with Raising Cane’s for almost 10 years, and before that, he was with Sonic and McDonald’s.
I loved how kind he was; Sam raved about how he goes above and beyond for his team, customers, and pride of work; and because he comes from Raising Cane’s, he’s used to high volumes and has their playbook on marketing and community development (an important focus for us, and what Cane’s is world-class at).
We hit it off well; we made him an offer as an assistant store manager; and he accepted!
We were shocked that he accepted so quickly, being that Cane’s is a sexy brand to have in your resume, there was a stable and good career path.
But we’re grateful that Sam Fonseca co-signed us; and he was excited for a change of scenery, and the opportunity to build something from the ground up.
That, and I’m pretty cool. And humble lol!
Our second candidate was Melissa, who had been a store manager for Roll Em Up Taquitos in Brea and Sonic Drive-In in the Riverside County area.
In each of those restaurant chains, she earned top-grossing stores and won awards.
I also got to see her performance, first-hand. When I consulted for Roll Em Up for a few months, last year - every time I went to her store, it was clean, I was always welcomed with a bright smile, her staffers enjoyed the environment, I loved how she treated her customers, and I got to see her labor/COGS/sales/retention numbers.
Not only did Sam co-sign her, too - she had receipts to back it up.
Little did I know she would eventually join our team, almost a year later.
We made an offer to her for the store manager position at Irvine Spectrum…and she accepted, too!
I’m so excited. Our company is set up for massive success, for these decisions alone.
They’ve finished training at Pepper Lunch Artesia for 4 weeks with the corporate training team; and are now starting discussions with our vendors, signing agreements, and getting all of our equipment lined up for deliveries when we’re approved for construction and inspection.
Pictured from the left to right: Steve Garcia and Justin Rono from Pepper Lunch corporate; followed by Andrew Le my partner, Alben, and Melissa; and missing Pepper Lunch’s COO Mark Bailey!
By the second week, they were already speaking Japanese, handling rushes, and getting along so well.
Here’s a clip of them in action. They’ve sped up a lot, since.
Keep in mind that this kitchen set up is 6 years old; and my store has been optimized for flow, minimal movement, and 30-second rushes - like the new layouts in Asia.
And I counted: It’s about 9 seconds a plate. Whoa.
I’ll end this update by nagging one more time, this time with Steve Jobs’ help:
More updates to follow. Thanks for coming along.