Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue I, 2016 | Page 40

M A N A G E M E N T, c o n t i n u e d
How I give my team room to innovate and experiment: We have
four districts for Denny’s. We let them run autonomously. We’re open to ideas and
we want to hear what our people have to say.

our marketing budget in social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp,
Open Table. It’s a lot to manage but we have a great program to manage it across
all media platforms.

How close are you to operations? Very. I visit stores, look at data, and
stay in touch with managers.

How do you hire and fire? We hire our restaurant managers and above
in our office. GMs do it at the store level. On the Denny’s side we have an HR
manager. On the Hurricane side we do recruiting and testing for corporate and
franchise stores. I always say a good manager versus a mediocre manager is probably worth 20 percent more in sales.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your
franchisor? Brand standards and purchasing.
What I need from vendors: Denny’s does a great job for us, no complaints.
For my Hurricane stores I need partners, not suppliers. We look at them as stakeholders in our brand. We work together. Best service, best products.
Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the
economy? How? For Denny’s we have reduced our own marketing spend
because Denny’s is doing a better job. Denny’s is doing a great job with social
media—they are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. They are just doing
a fantastic job with this. I have a real disdain for coupons so we try to stay away
from that. With Hurricane we have moved into digital and social media marketing.
How is social media affecting your business? We spend a third of

How do you train and retain? We use all the Denny’s e-learning materials, and it’s great. At Hurricane we have created the Hurricane Eye, which is also
an online learning tool. We use digital and online tools to handle all personnel
issues.
How do you deal with problem employees? We carefully deal with
them, and I mean carefully. We’ve had our share and you just have to follow
procedures, document and keep meticulous records, and be prepared to show up
and present the evidence.
Fastest way into my doghouse: Not be truthful and hide problems.

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: Hurricane $105 million in sales; corporate Hurricane stores
$20 million; Denny’s $60 million in sales.
2016 goals: Denny’s to $65 million in revenue. I’d like to achieve a free cash
flow (cash flow after rent, management fees, and capex, before debt service) of
$3 million. In Hurricane we will do $130 million in sales, $6 million in royalties,
and $2.4 million in EBITDAR, including the four corporate stores.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? It’s changed for
us. Now it’s system sales and AUV, same-store sales, and EBITDAR for Hurricane.
For Denny’s it’s making sure our people have what they need to succeed. We’ve
renovated 15 out of our 40 stores in the last couple of years to give them stateof-the-art tools.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years?
With Hurricane, in the n