Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2015 | Page 26

MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: If you have passion, everything else will fall into
place.
Management method or style: Closely working with them from the perspective of coaching and teamwork, but otherwise I’ve learned that micromanaging is overwhelming. At the end of the day, you have to trust the people you
hire. However, a key motto of mine is still, “Trust, but verify.”
Greatest challenge: Knowing priorities and always tackling the most important first. Getting the team to focus on the most important things first.
How do others describe you? Crazy, enthusiastic, optimistic, easygoing,
motivating.
One thing I’m looking to do better: To be in the best physical shape in
my life in 2015.
How I give my team room to innovate and experiment: You have
to give enough room for them to try. If they fail, but learn, they grow and become even more competent. Watch for the decisions that have financial implications, but don’t over-manage the small pieces, as that erodes their confidence
and your teamwork.
How close are you to operations? Very close. We take one or two teambuilding trips/events per year, have weekly (and daily if needed!) calls. My
team knows that I’m available 24/7 if they need me.
What are the most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Fairness, objectivity, vision.
What I need from vendors: Responsiveness and transparency.
How have you changed your marketing strategy in response to
the economy? How? I hired a marketing specialist with extensive knowledge in our category.
How is social media affecting your business? Not really. Each of our
locations has a Yelp page that occasionally gets a comment. But as we are a national bran d, most of the social media affects the brand at the national level. We
actually dismantled our “Allied Lube” Facebook and Twitter pages, as we got so
little traffic to the sites because people go to the national pages instead.
How do you hire and fire? Hire slow, fire quickly. For our hiring and teamwork, I use a detailed personality/behavior test called the Birkman Method. This
test shows usual and stress/need behavior in people and has been a key tool in
both hiring and effective teamwork. I have been using this for the last 10 years.
How do you train and retain? A big chunk of management is focused on
training. We don’t have a trainer at our stores—each member of management
is a trainer. In regards to retention, recognition is key. I believe in sharing a piece
of the profitability with performing employees, from senior team members and
down through the store levels.
How do you deal with problem employees? I believe that we have
built an incredible system—it works like a well-oiled machine at this point.
If we have a problem employee, then they probably aren’t fitting within the
system and need to be removed. While it may sound cold, we focus so much on
our culture of hard work, respect for others, and effectiveness that if you are a
“problem” then it is because you do not embody those traits.
Fastest way into my doghouse: Distorting the truth/facts.

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BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: More than $60 million.
2015 goals: GROW!! At least 5 to 10 new stores and sales growth of 7
percent.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? Sales, profit,
productivity/efficiency, EBITDA.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years?
Continue to be in business and have grown the business smartly. I’d love to
have 1,000 stores if it made sense and we could do it smartly.
How is the economy affecting you, your employees, your customers? 95 percent of our stores are located in Texas, which has recovered
well. The population of our primary cities has grown (new customers), housing
is affordable, and cost of living is reasonable. Our business is thriving right now.
If anything, we are struggling to hire, because the job market is so strong.
Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Absolutely (see above).
How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? Even though Texas is doing well economically, customers are still highly
price-sensitive and couponing continues to be a major influencer of how they
spend their dollars—especially considering that oil changes are a relatively
low-engagement purchasing decision and not considered an “indulgence” that
they want to spend money on.
How do you forecast for your business? Jiffy Lube is the leader in
the preventive maintenance service business, and we feel the good direction
that the brand is headed will help us continue to grow. At the franchisee level,
we evaluate a number of key performance metrics across our network on an
hourly basis to make sure we can pivot when needed to win the day. Labor
control is key to keeping costs under control to help us hit our daily comp
growth goals. Marketing and ops work together closely to ensure that their efforts support the business goal.
What are the best sources for capital expansion? Depends. When
I grew from one to 40 stores, I used SBA loans, owner financing, and banks
that specialized in established franchise businesses.
Have you used private equity, local banks, national banks,
other institutions? Why/why not? I have not dealt with private equity
so far. I have dealt with banks that deal with franchises.
What are you doing to take care of your employees? We provide
and constantly monitor and adjust to provide an environment where wellperforming employees, stores, and districts are rewarded. We do it by keeping
detailed statistics on all areas of operations and financials and giving feedback
on a regular basis (daily to yearly). We have one analyst who keeps track of
all the vital statistics, trends, and rankings and communicates to the entire
company on a daily basis. We strive to keep morale high by rewarding positive
stats and behavior. We hire and promote people who are positive and understand that productivity is directly related to high morale. Our pay and bonus
structure is closely aligned with the company’s financial goals.
How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? See
above.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? I know that it’s
smart to have an exit strategy when you start a business. Right now we are in
a growth mode and that’s our focus.

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE I, 2015

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