Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2014 | Page 24

MULTI-BR A N D 50
matter if you’re selling food, appliances,
or widgets. It’s all the same: You take
care of your customers, pay your bills,
and hope to make a little money at the
end of the day.”
He says his three brands are extremely
different from one another. “One is a
buffet restaurant based on volume, the
other is a restaurant with an a la carte
menu with a totally different volume,
budgets, and core marketing, and our
third brand is a retail franchise. The
differences don’t matter.”
El-Hawary, who earned a degree in
business management at the University
of Central Florida and bought his first
piece of residential real estate when he
was 21, says he’s always liked business—
especially acquisitions—and real estate.
“I had an entrepreneurial family, but
as long as I can remember, I’ve always

“I wish I had
gotten involved in
networking and
attending business
conferences earlier in
my career.”
been interested in business. When you
like something, you focus more energy
on it and become successful,” he says.
When people ask him how he juggles
the three brands, he says, “It comes down
to Business 101. Ask yourself: What’s the
game plan? Then you have to get people

to understand your concept and to believe in it. And you’re held accountable
for it. The beautiful thing about franchising is that we have all these franchisors and franchisees out there that can
help us benchmark how we’re doing
against them.”
El-Hawary, owner and CEO of Zeal
Group in Orlando, says that his businesses are doing well financially, but
he’s reorganizing the company to ensure
that procedures throughout his brands
are consistent.
His best advice for would-be franchisees? Network and attend conferences
with other franchisees, and embrace social media and technology in growing
their business. “You have to get used to
cha nge, which is constant. Whatever
you’re doing is going to change, and
you have to go with it.”

PERSONAL
First job: I worked in my family’s restaurant growing up.

Exercise/workout: Not as often as I would like (football injuries).

Formative influences/events: Playing competitive football and owning
my first real estate property at the age of 21—a duplex I lived in and then
leased. Opening my first business with Firehouse Subs at 23, as their youngest
franchisee at the time.

Favorite tech toys: Smartphone.

Key accomplishments: I don’t spend much time thinking about this. There
are so many younger than I who have accomplished more. But I’m extremely
blessed, and I work hard. I guess my biggest accomplishment was when I
opened my Golden Corral on Dec. 12, 2013. I had no idea I’d one day build a
$3.5 million project from the ground up.
Biggest mistake: All my mistakes were lessons, just higher-priced than
others.
Smartest mistake: Getting involved with Firehouse Subs when they had
only 30 stores. These guys are humble and smart. They really took a chance
on me.
Decision I wish I could do over: I wish I had gotten involved in networking and attending business conferences earlier in my career. Now I go to Las
Vegas every year for the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference. It’s inspirational
to gain exposure to so many different people with different backgrounds and
stories about how they overcame obstacles.
Work week: 65 hours, but always reachable as needed.
How do you spend a typical day? Reviewing the status of current businesses, communicating with the leadership team, and visiting the stores.
Favorite fun activities: Spending time with family and friends. Watching
football with friends, going to the Super Bowl, shooting at the gun range. Believe
it or not, I enjoy talking about business and that whole network atmosphere.

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MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE II, 2014

What are you reading? Business and industry magazines and publications.
Do you have a favorite quote? “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”
Best advice you ever got: Set long-term goals and outline the steps
necessary to achieving them, then work hard as heck every day to get there. If
done properly, there is no limit to what you can accomplish.
What gets you out of bed in the morning? To progress every day and
just the fear of failure itself.
What’s your passion in business? I enjoy evaluating risk/exposure,
mapping out a plan, executing, and dealing with the consequences or the
rewards.
How do you balance life and work? Not very well right now since
we’re in the process of reorganizing the business (not a financial reorganization, just making sure all our procedures are consistent throughout the different
brands).
Last vacation: December 2012 to Egypt to see family. I still have plenty of
aunts, uncles, and cousins there.
Person I’d most like to have lunch with: Warren Buffett. I don’t consider myself a restaurateur—I’m a businessman. So I admire the fact that he
has consistently invested in an array of different companies and made money
in all of them, and that he has been able to own companies and operate them
through different people. He’s a master of that. The biggest thing, and an ability I would love to possess, is that he sees value in things others don’t.