OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Picture this.
You’re an aspiring owner of a Chick-fil-A restaurant. You have the passion, the drive, everything it takes to saddle up, punt that burger, and “Eat Mor Chikin.”
There’s just one small problem; you’ve never worked a day in your life at a Chick-fil-A.
You’ve never fried their chicken, cooked their bacon, toasted their bread. Heck, you have no clue what goes into the crispiness of those delicious, salty golden waffle fries. To you, it’s all foreign.
To further complicate things, you graduated college with a master’s in special education and teaching. While impressive, it’s not necessarily the degree you’d choose to launch an entrepreneurial career.
Without the education or experience, you’re left without a clue about how to run a quick-serve restaurant. You don’t know what to look for when hiring an employee. You don’t understand supply and demand costs.
Bottom line, you know nothing and under these circ*mstances, becoming an owner seems flat-out ridiculous.
For Jeromy Williams, it’s how he began owning his first Chick-fil-A restaurant.
It all started when Williams was still a teacher in special education. Congress had just passed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 which, according to Williams, drastically changed the way he taught his students.
“I loved the challenge. I loved that every student was so different in learning style, and I loved having to take one lesson and teach it ten different ways,” said Williams. “I loved what I did, but all of that changed; the manner that we taught, how we taught, what we were required to teach.”
It was at this point that Williams felt he was being “pulled in a different direction.”
As Williams was in the midst of questioning his path, he recalled a conversation with a buddy of his on the beaches of St. Simons, Georgia, just a couple of hours away from Williams’ alma mater, Georgia Southern University.
While enjoying some time soaking in the sunshine, his buddy bluntly asked, “Ever thought about owning a Chick-fil-A?”
“What?” Williams responded.
Turns out, his buddy was a former law enforcement officer who had fallen out of his own career path and ended up as an owner/operator of, you guessed it, a Chick-fil-A.
His buddy further convinced him by explaining, “Everything you do in teaching and coaching is what you will do in that restaurant business.”
It was then that Williams set out on a three-year journey, going through interview after interview with no luck.
Then in August of 2005, after three years of applying, he was selected to own and operate a Chick-Fil-A in Jacksonville.
Williams then turned to training, an opportunity to get his hands dirty and learn all there was to know about running the franchise.
His training lasted five weeks.
“I got my behind kicked,” recalls Williams. “I took over with 22 employees, and the longest tenured employee was two weeks. Not only that, but my entire kitchen staff only spoke Albanian!”
But Williams was not deterred by the challenge. He took it in his stride, teaching every employee, and himself, how to work.
He established a culture in the kitchen and built a crew of hard-working individuals. He used a metaphor describing “squirrels” as the special workers who help keep business afloat.
“If I had a tree climbing business and I could hire either a horse or a squirrel, it would make more sense to hire the squirrel,” said Williams. “When you decide what your culture is in your organization, when you decide what the non-negotiables are for you, then you are on a pilgrimage to go find your squirrels.”
Now, with nearly 20 years as an owner/operator in his rearview, Williams is now the proud owner of two separate Chick-fil-A restaurants in Ocala.
And he’s not looking to stop there.
“I would build 10 Chick-Fil-A’s in Belleview, and five more in Ocala, as long as I could be the owner of them,” Williams told dozens of business leaders on Tuesday morning at the Belleview Chamber & Economic Partnership monthly breakfast held at the Belleview High School Black Box Theatre.
So, what exactly is the secret ingredient in his continued success as a Chick-fil-A owner? Why does every Chick-fil-A have drive-thru lines that wrap around the building and spill out on the road? What about the high amount of returning customers? Is it the juiciness of the chicken nuggets? The three pickles on top of the chicken sandwich? The incredible taste of a Chick-fil-A lemonade?
Contrary to popular belief, Williams says it’s all about the person, not the food.
“We sell some amazing chicken, but we are in the people business,” said Williams. “We know the vast majority of people who come to Chick-fil-A visit because of how they feel when they leave. That’s what we strive for.”
The Belleview CEP organizes a breakfast series on the 4th Tuesday of each month called Belleview On the Rise featuring guest speakers and networking opportunities. To learn more, click here.
