Chain Leader

Vaughan Lazar

Navigating the Franchising Journey
May 5, 2008

I wanted to apologize to everyone for my delay on my follow-up post. I just returned from a whirlwind trip across the country and back with my partner, Michael. In return, I promise to keep you reading for a while!

As many of you have surely experienced, franchising a new concept is whirlwind. There are no real guidelines, handbooks or set of rules to follow. There is no plan laid out for us on how we are "supposed" to navigate this journey. Each and every day poses a set of new challenges for a young franchising group, and I sincerely hope that this blog will serve as inspiration to other up-and-coming businesses and franchises, as well as a reminder to the "Big Dogs" about what it is like starting from the ground up.

I realize that as CEO of Pizza Fusion, I have a responsibility to my partners, my franchisees, my employees and my investors to lead this company to do great things, and "great things" means something different to everyone. All of us here at Pizza Fusion have a firm belief in our company's concept of the "3 P's"--People, Profit and Planet, which serves to guide every decision that we make. Because we are growing so exponentially across the country with five stores open and 11 currently under construction, we all wear many different hats around here. On a day-to-day basis, we take on all kinds of tasks from menu engineering to site selection to supplier negotiation to sustainability consulting.

Our franchisees are our most important asset; they are the representatives of our brand. They are the people we have chosen to carry out our concept. We have to make sure we are supporting our current stores, working on campaigns to assist in their success. We have to be in constant contact with our suppliers, making sure our franchisees are getting the attention they need to succeed. We are also interviewing for new trainers, sales executives, marketing people and even a director of operations, all while traveling across this beautiful country of ours speaking at various events and visiting new and potential franchisees.

It may seem like a daunting task, but where we’ve seen start-ups make mistakes is for the people at the top to not get out of their own way. I am fortunate enough to have two amazing partners, one of which has almost two decades of franchising experience, the other with a solid real-estate background. It was easy for us to divide and conquer.

So starts our mission for a start-up franchising organization to not only try and succeed, but we’re here to change the entire restaurant industry and do it with a passion that you will soon read more about. We have a strong environmental mission at hand, and we hope that this opportunity will help other companies see how easy it is to green up their operation. Baby steps.

Posted by Vaughan Lazar on May 5, 2008 | Comments (2)