Company Outline
BurgerFuel Bay of Plenty operates out of three locations. Each store is fully managed with a Store Manager as well as an Assistant Manager. We have an Area Manager, and a Training and Recruitment Manager that work unrostered between the three stores. As the Franchisee, my role now mainly involves weekly catch-ups with key staff, planning ahead, and overseeing that tasks and duties that have been set are being completed. We currently have a little over 60 staff between all three branches and our combined annual revenue is set to exceed $5 million this financial year.
Problem
We opened our first store in November 2005, grew quickly, and then opened our second branch in July 2007. The complexities of moving from a single to a dual store setup were very challenging. With one store I was the Store Manager working 45+ hours in-store each week, doing all the office work when I got home, payroll, and rostering. Now having to split my time between the two stores, whilst maintaining the same work load in the first store as well as taking on those same roles in the second store, soon had me feeling extremely overwhelmed.
Solution
When I first started working with Nick Harvey back in November 2011 the business was far from where it stands today. After getting an initial feel for the business (and myself), Nick quickly set about applying simple best practise principles, as well as drawing from his own business experience, to help simplify and streamline some of my tasks. The major change, which took a while for me to accept, was letting go of all the tasks that I had been holding onto for so long. Rosters, banking, ordering, managing shifts, manager meetings, store maintenance, invoice entry, staff recruitment and training, disciplinary processes are all things I felt I had to do myself that I now no longer do.
Outcome
The effect this has had on staff has been positive. They now have a sense of responsibility that has developed greater engagement and job satisfaction. This has resulted in my average staff churn being far lower when compared to other BurgerFuel franchisees and the industry standard.
Having experienced staff in place who are able to deal with the daily running of the store has freed my time up immensely. This has allowed me to focus on planning for the future of the business, as well as giving me more time to spend with my young family and other hobbies and interests.
Currently, we are working on opening a fourth store while also considering and planning for life after BurgerFuel.
Summary
Nick is a straight talker, which is incredibly challenging at times for someone of my personality type. The beauty of this is that he doesn’t allow me to neglect the difficult things that, at times, need to be sorted quickly and efficiently so that you can move forward. Nick has totally changed the way I think about running a business, and has helped me get to a position in life where I have the freedom and choices to do what I want. I feel proud of what we have achieved together and look forward to working with him in the future.
