Worth mentioning, in addition to the 1,700 locations, Five Guys has an additional 1,500 restaurants currently in development. So if you haven’t been to one yet, just wait.
In just 2 decades, Five Guys has become one of the fastest growing, successful restaurant chains in the United States making them a brand worth knowing and a model to look into.
The Five Guys Origin Story:
In 1986 the founder, Jerry Murrel, along with his 4 sons started a single burger restaurant. As the story goes: Parents Jerry and Janie Murrell offered an ultimatum to their four sons: “Start a business or go to college.”
The business route won and the Murrell family opened a carry-out burger joint in Arlington Virginia with the following business plan:
“Sell a really good, juicy burger on a fresh bun. Make perfect French fries. Don’t cut corners.”
When they say they don’t cut corners, they mean it. Fun fact: there are no freezers at any Five Guys locations, just coolers. Because freezers aren’t necessary when you only serve fresh food.
By concentrating on quality, they scaled the business model built on high ingredient costs, a limited menu, and absolutely zero paid advertising. They also refuse to deliver. Five guys doesn’t deviate from what they’re good at. Cooking badass cheeseburgers.
Five Guys Opened Franchise Locations in 2003
Early in 2003, the “Five Guys,” began offering franchise opportunities. In just under 18 months, Five Guys Enterprises sold options for more than 300 units. The overwhelming success of franchising a local restaurant made national news and word spread to new markets.
In an episode of Company Man (with 1.2M views), they break down the full history and the unique way the Murrell family grew the Five Guys unbelievable growth story.
WATCH:
Getting hungry yet?
Three Key Lessons Driving the Success of Five Guys:
#1 Simplicity of menu – F#$% chicken sandwiches!
“When we first started, people asked for coffee. We thought, Why not? This was our first lesson in humility. We served coffee, but the problem was that the young kids working for us don’t know anything about coffee. It was terrible! We tried a chicken sandwich once, but that did not work, either. We do have hot dogs on our menu, and that works. But other than that, all you are going to get from Five Guys is hamburgers and fries.” – Jerry Murrell
#2 Obsession with old school quality control
“The magic to our hamburgers is quality control. We toast our buns on a grill – a bun toaster is faster, cheaper, and toasts more evenly, but it doesn’t give you that caramelized taste. Our beef is 80 percent lean, never frozen, and our plants are so clean, you could eat off the floor. The burgers are made to order. That’s why we can’t do drive-thru’s – it takes too long. We had a sign: “If you’re in a hurry, there are a lot of really good hamburger places within a short distance from here.” People thought I was nuts. But the customers appreciated it.” – Jerry Murrell
#3 No paid advertising. Word of mouth is still a thing?
You read that correctly. Five Guys doesn’t do advertising. Jerry believes that the customer is the biggest salesperson:
“Treat that person right, he’ll walk out the door and sell for you. From the beginning, I wanted people to know that we put all our money into the food. That’s why the décor is so simple – red and white tiles. We don’t spend our money on décor. Or on guys in chicken suits. But we’ll go overboard on food.” – Jerry Murrell
How well, do you really know the market you serve? It sounds like one of those dumb, cryptic, things marketing people like to ask.
But according to Vusi Thembwayo, most companies don’t really know who they’re actually competing against. Or who we should be.
Who is Vusi Thembekwayo?
In short, Vusi is widely regarded as one of the most disruptive and influential forces in venture capital in Africa.
He was amongst the youngest directors of a publicly listed company in South Africa and now serves on several corporate boards.
Currently, he’s the CEO of a boutique investment & advisory firm in Africa. Leading by example, his firm forces medium, large and listed businesses into much needed, often painful, always lucrative new directions.
Having graced the covers on Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes and Inc500, his social media engagement often mirrors that of a Rockstar dressed in a $3K suite.
Professional accomplishments aside, he’s also more informally known as Aftrica’s biggest champion for spreading entrepreneurship on the continent.
He Hosts a Popular MasterClass on YouTube
Vusi has become famous to entrepreneurs around the world because he hosts an insanely valuable Masterclass. They tackle the hardest challenges facing entrepreneurs today. For free.
He broadcasts the videos to YouTube to allow anyone interested in honest feedback on how to grow a business.
The most common comments on his channel are: “I actually can’t believe this content is free.”
During on of his Mastermind events, Vusi shared that most entrepreneurs compete at an entry level way. Because we assume that our market, is the literal niche marketplace we’re currently selling to.
There is however, another way of looking at your business to scale better, and faster.
To understand what level this is, and how to get there, one needs to understand the value chain of their industry.
WATCH:
For a full explanation you can watch this lesson from Vusi himself in his MasterClass. Just skip to minute 5:06 to get to the good stuff.
Meet the 3 Different Types of Business Owners
The biggest lesson to learn from Vusi is how to move up the value chain to “own” more of the supply chain and not just compete inside of it.
Vusi explains there are 3 types of business owners, and most of us are trained to think like 1stand 2nd time business owners.
The First-Time Business Owner
The first-time business owner focuses all of their efforts on improving and perfecting the product. But what the first time business owner doesn’t know is that the product worth nothing if you can’t actually sell it in mass.
Second-Time Owner
The second-time business owner having already experience this focuses instead on marketing and distribution, dramatically increasing their chances of success and survival.
Create Wealth By Owning the Value Chain!
But what the second-time business owner still doesn’t know, is that even if they got really good at distribution, they still work the third-time business owner.
The Third-Time Owner
The third-time business owner doesn’t focus on product or distribution. They move even farther upstream and provide a majority of all of the core goods and services the first 2 business owners needs to be operational.
Overtime by owing part of in the supply chain the third-time business owner can afford to buy business owner 1 and 2 (and all of their competitors).
This will show you why the biggest brands in the world, don’t have to do ANY marketing.
This Might Actually Blow Your Mind!
Oxfam created a pretty shocking infographic on the consolidation of the food industry industry a few years go.
In it you can get a sense for how massive the scale of production is to be a controller of the inputs to the products that are sold at mass. If you can afford it, it’s far more lucrative to sell core goods to the market than compete as a brand inside of it.
These 10 Companies Alone Make All the Food We Buy
Holy Nestle That’s a Lot of Cash
Nestle, the quant little Swiss multinational food and drink conglomerate is now the largest food company in the world pulling in an annual revenue of around $91.4 billion.
How did they afford to buy all these brands? The built the largest dairy company in the world and bought them.
Meet the Brands that Generate $64.66 billion for PEPSICO
PEPSICO was founded in 1965 when Pepsi CEO Don Kendall, and Frito-Lay CEO Herom Lay, sketched the deal on the back of a napkin to agree to combine companies in order to take get take over the growing larger snack industry.
They unlocked a new brand new market long before Blue Ocean Strategy became a thing.
Unilever’s Little $51 Billion Empire
Unilever started in on September 2, 1929 wither the merger of the Dutch margarine producer (Margarine Unie) and a British soap maker (Lever Brothers). Rub the names together and you get Unilever.
Joining forces they were able to increasingly diversified and supply a bigger market.
Conclusion
Know all the players in your business. This means you should understand the whole process, or the entire value chain.
For long-term planning, how can you partner with acquire a new business to put you into a much larger marketplace?
Visit your venders and get to know their business. This is a sign of a seasoned entrepreneur – they build great networks.
Their logo can be spotted everywhere from the isles in chain-store supermarkets to roadside novelty shops. The Burt’s Bees brand swarmed the US and abroad and has grown into a legitimate household name brand with an obsessed customer base.
Their lip-balm business was cemented into business hall of fame when their founder sold it to Clorox for jaw-dropping $970 million. But long before their rockstar exit, the origin story of Burt’s Bees started in the middle of no where in Maine by 2 eccentric loners.
As it happens, the Burt’s Bees, story started with a bearded hippy living out of a modified turkey coup with no electricity or running water, and a hitchhiker who eventually became his business partner and lover.
Here’s their story…
Escaping Life in the “Big Apple”
Burt Shavitz was a photojournalist in New York City in the 1960s covering the key issues of the day. He was credited for example with capturing key figures during the civil rights movement with the likes of JFK and Malcolm X.
Shavitz had a promising and safe career working for established media publications like Time and Life Magazines. But Shavitz wasn’t long for the corporate world.
Mass media in the 60s began rise of TV journalism. Shavitz felt the times were becoming less relevant in the big city for a photojournalist. So he began contemplating how he would dedicate the next chapter of his life.
Then one day, after snapping a photo of an elderly neighbor looking out her apartment window, he realized he no longer, if ever, belonged to the hustle and grind of New York City.
“I knew that that would be me, 90 years old and unable to go outside, if I didn’t get the hell out.”
So he did, Shavitz got the hell out of NY. He traded the life he knew in the concrete jungle for small parcel of land in the backwoods of Maine where his only possessions left included a golden retriever named Rufus, and a beehive intended to make into a hobby.
Meanwhile in San Francisco
On the other side of the country, living a parallel life, Roxanne Quimby, 15 years younger, was a struggling artist living in San Francisco. Who like many other young people at the time, was escaping the urban sprawl of city life seeking freedom in the remote wilderness. Pregnant with twins, she found herself moving to Maine to start a new life with her boyfriend.
While settling into her new home, Quimby’s boyfriend left her. Expecting children and in need of work and money she set out to fend her own. Literally hitchhiking her way into the nearest town in pursuit of any employment.
As fate would have it. The two future business partners met that very day on the side of the north-woods rural highway as Burt pulled over to pick up a complete stranger thumbing a ride into town. What are the odds?
It was the summer of ’84, and Maine artist Roxanne Quimby was thumbing a ride home (back when you could still do that sort of thing). Eventually a bright yellow Datsun pickup truck pulled over, and Roxanne instantly recognized Burt Shavitz, a local fella whose beard was almost as well-known as his roadside honey stand. Burt and Roxanne hit it off.
The 2 Became Business Partners (of a kind)
The two eventually became partners in both life and in business. While Burt was content selling his honey to his local patrons on the side of the road. Quimby was looking to supplement both of their income.
Burt had a lot of unused wax on his property, viewing it as simple organic waste from his bee hives, but none-the less, never disposed of it in case he had future use of it. What Burt saw as waste, Roxanne saw it as future product lines.
She started out converting the excess wax into homemade candles and began selling them at local craft fairs, bringing home a total of $200 at their first show The duo generated just $20,000 their first year in business together.
The honey was a steady seller but Quimby could only move the candles in the fall and winter holiday season. People just didn’t seem to want them in the hot summer months. Forcing Roxanne back to the drawing boards, looking for something else to craft with the unused wax.
Then, she stumbled across an article in a Farmer’s Almanac that contained an all-natural wax lip-balm recipe from the 1800s…
On her wood stove, she heated a cauldron and poured the liquid wax to cool in small polishing tins. She instantly loved the old time look and feel of her new creation.
Building the Brand
Quimby outsourced an artist to create a sketch of Burt for the product packaging, and the brand took on its now-famous character. She labeled them Burt’s Bees.
Now beyond honey and candles, Quimby was able to introduce a line of shoe polish and the eventual coup d’é·tat, an all-natural honey infused lip-balm.
This was the beginning of the Burt’s Bees brand, (which today is the second largest selling natural care brand of cosmetics in the country, second only to Chapstick and Blistex).
In 1994 they grew their revenue to $3 million business, Quimby decided they had outgrown their small marketing in Maine and needed to find a more favorable business climate.
Maine was high on taxes for one, but now they were selling their products all over the country. She required a supply-chain infrastructure to properly supply their increasing demand. Quimby found what she needed and moved the entire operations to North Carolina.
But the Partnership Came to an End
Burt accompanied Roxanne but he only lasted two months into the move when things changed their relationship forever.
During that transition, Shavitz was forced out after having an affair and ultimately accused of “sexual harassment” with an employee. This is another story all-together which he explained in the popular Netflix documentary, Burt’s Buzz.
According to reports, Shavitz had an affair with a younger woman and was forced out of the company with a payout of $130,000 in 1999 to go back to his life in Maine.
WATCH: You can watch the full documentary here:
Burt’s resignation ultimately led Quimby to buy BUrt out of the company by acquiring his shares.
With Burt gone, Quimby moved massive products skyrocketing from $23 million in 2000 to $164 million in 2007. The industry saw massive golden opportunities in the market for green products.
Selling the Business
Through a series of subsequent business deals that occurred as a sole proprietor, Quimby was able to sell a majority of her interests in the all-natural brand to a private equity company for $170 million while still negotiating a remaining 20% minority stake in the company.
Which Quimby later on subsequently sold her remaining interests to Clorox for an additional $290 million.
For a brand forged on the side of a highway, Quimby expertly maneuvered Burt’s Bees through one hell of a business transformation.
Roxanne went from hitchhiker to the mastermind behind the household brand name we know today with a total earnings payout of $404 million.
What Happend to Burt?
If Burt hadn’t gone through the scandal in the late 90s, giving up his stake in the brand for $130,000, his shares would have been worth about $59 million.
Although he passed at the age of 80, Shavitz wasn’t one to linger in the past.
In an interview with the New Yorker, Shavitz said;
“I’ve got everything I need: a nice piece of land with hawks and owls and incredible sunsets, and the good will of my neighbors.
What I have in this situation is no regret. The bottom line is she’s got her world and I’ve got mine, and we let it go at that.”
Which sounds exactly like what a guy who sells honey on the side of a remote road in Maine might say.
What Does One Buy With $400 Million?
While it’s none of my business, it does make one curious. What did Quimby do with all that money? She went to Hawaii, then to Antarctica and all the places she felt like. She shopped for a home in Palm Beach…She bought six.
But it turns out she invested most of her newfound wealth in forrest land to protect it. She then purchased 100,000 acres of land in Maine turning 87,500 acres into a protected national forrest land she gave back to the US government along with $20 million in cash to keep the park funded.
As of 2016, she is a resident of Portland, Maine, where she remains prominent philanthropist and leads a number of charitable organizations in the area.
“Fire warms, but it also burns. Like fire, the more you control a negotiation, the less likely you are to get burned.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)
“To Win More Negotiations Faster Know How To Use Fire”
People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.
Fire! What just went through your mind? If you had been in particular environments, hearing that word would have captured your attention immediately. And that is what happens in negotiations when something occurs that grabs your attention. It can spellbind you. And therein lies the power of capturing a negotiator’s attention. Thus, fire, a metaphor in this case for grabbing a negotiator’s attention, becomes a powerful tool you can use to win more negotiations faster. Here is how to do that.
Click here to discover how you can increase your negotiation efforts!
“Disasters shield opportunities. Thus, without disasters, some opportunities would never reveal themselves.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (click to Tweet)Click here to get the book!
“To Win You Must Know How To Avoid Disaster In Negotiations”
People don’t realize they’re always negotiating.
Just when he thought he would close the deal, a disaster occurred. He had had a foreboding feeling that instead of happiness being abounded, tragedy was about to befall him. In reflecting upon what had happened in the negotiations, he wondered what he might have done to avoid disaster, the creeping, sickening feeling he sensed had closed in on him.
Has that ever happened to you? Right when you thought you had a winning negotiation in the bag, disaster snatched victory from you and replaced it with defeat. Well, in the future, you can avoid disaster by casting its dastardly deeds away from your negotiations. And here is how to do that.
Why are some women in business more successful than others? Is it their skills, education, genetics, good looks, hard work, luck, or one of a thousand other reasons? Nope, while these can be contributing factors, beliefs about yourself and what is possible are the fundamental determinants of your success. Your beliefs are your continuous thought processes that dictate your attitudes, actions, and ultimately your outcomes.
If you believe that you can create a successful global business or career, have a happy, fulfilling family life and ideal health you will marshal the resources and opportunities to fulfill those beliefs.
In contrast, if you believe that it is impossible or unrealistic that you could ever write a bestselling book, run a 26.2-mile marathon, make a successful career change or do anything audacious and important to you, you will probably not achieve these grand desires.
However, positive achievements will only happen if you commit and act on those empowering beliefs; even without seeing immediate results. Acting with courage and confidence, you will move beyond the upper limits of what you think is possible and probable into the zone of the unknown and uncomfortable.
Are Your Beliefs Really Serving You?
Some of your beliefs have served you well; however, if there is an area of your life that is not working as you desire, examine what you REALLY believe about it. You may have conscious or unconscious beliefs such as “I’m not good with money”, “If I pursue my interests, I’m being selfish”, “I’m not smart enough, disciplined, connected, or you, the reader can fill in the blanks” that are sabotaging your success.
Break Through Your Upper Limits!
Your “Upper Limits Success Strategy ™” goes beyond “positive thinking” to a new dimension of generating consistent and positive results. As it’s often said, “Success leaves clues.” Model the patterns of what works and what doesn’t work – if you are willing to look carefully. Everyone has their own scotomas or ‘blind spots’; areas where we cannot see all of the opportunities, options, and choices due to rigid, preconceived ways of thinking and viewing the world. Ask yourself, “If there wasn’t an upper limit to my success and happiness, what would I be thinking and doing?” Then think those thoughts and take those actions. Repeat. Get a coach or mentor to help you construct a constellation of empowering beliefs with new habits and an upward spiral of positive momentum will begin to form.
Mastery and Courage Strengthen Your Resolve.
Practice and reinforce your new beliefs and strengthened courage that you can handle anything that comes your way. Learn from your past failures (yes, everyone has them). Do not let them hinder or define you. You now have knowledge about what has not worked for you. New levels of success can change the dynamics in your career, relationships, and your old, preconceived notions of what you can achieve. Yes, there will be unintended consequences and often there is a downside when you get what you want. There may be a loss of privacy if you would like to pursue a political career or extensive travel to build a global business. It is common to avoid being on the world stage for fear of being criticized or risk failing in a public way.
Put yourself on the upward path to success. Be bold and confidently develop strategies and plans to overcome the roadblocks and limits in the way. The world needs for you to succeed, pay it forward and model the way for greatness!
Kathleen Caldwell is the CEO of Caldwell Consulting Group, a business strategist, success hypnotherapist, and founder of the C-Suite Network Women’s Leadership Council ™. Kathleen can be reached at 773.562.1061, https://c-suitenetwork.com/councils/womens-leadership-council/
As a #negotiator, #leverage can enhance your #negotiation efforts. But it can become a tool turned against you if you misuse it. Discover how you can use leverage to improve your negotiation outcomes. https://bit.ly/310PAHc
“Every ‘body’ speaks. But not everybody knows what someone’s body is saying – do you?” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)
“Powerful Body Language Secrets That You Need To Know”
He was overly impressed with her and her accomplishments. His embrace was meant to display just that – his swell of pride for her. But during the embrace, he felt her attempt to break free as a hostage might do at the first glimpse of freedom. He wondered what he’d done wrong. Later he commented to her about the embrace – and the perception he had of her breaking free. She smiled and said, at least you were aware of it – most people aren’t. I don’t like being hugged.
How attuned are you to the #body #language #secrets that people emit every day? If you are aware of such signals, what do you observe the most and why?
The following are a few body language insights that will allow you to understand people better and become a better communicator.
Head Cocking:
The gesture becomes displayed when someone shifts their head to the right or left after its been in a straight or opposite position. It’s interesting to note when it occurs because it denotes someone going into an inward evaluation. Thus, the gesture may originate from something you said or thoughts the person is contemplating.
Eyebrows:
One eyebrow cocked – This sign usually indicates inquisitiveness as to the possible believability of what’s said or outright skepticism.
Lowered eyebrows – Guarded, deception, annoyance, are the signs that this gesture indicates.
Raised eyebrows – Taking in more of the environment – can also denote surprise or interest (note the degree that the eyes widen – that’ll give you more information as to the thought of the person displaying the gesture.)
Palm Hand Gestures:
Hand up, palm facing out –The hand up and palm facing outward signals nonverbally to the other person to halt what they’re saying or doing. As the receiver of that action, you can gauge the degree of the intent by the distance the action extends from the other person’s body. As an example, if they commit the action and their hand is close to their body, the signal is not as strong as if they had a full-body extension of their hand – that would be a stronger gesture because they’re indicating a greater distance between themselves and what you’re saying or doing.
Palm up and open – Accepting, mentally open to receiving information – can also be internal mental contemplation. It can also be a sign of consternation – this occurs if hunched shoulders accompany the gesture.
Feet:
As a body language signal, feet convey more information than most people are aware of. Thus, you should always be mindful of what someone’s feet are signaling.
Feet aligned – When your feet are in alignment with the person with whom you’re engaged (i.e. both sets of feet are pointing at each other), both of you are succinctly engaged with one another – you’re in mental alignment.
Foot pointing away – As someone points a foot away from you, they’re shifting their weight because:
Something else has attracted their attention.
They’ve received enough information from you for the time.
Soon, they’re going to exit the conversation and do so in the direction their foot is pointed in.
Take note of when such gestures occur. Doing so will allow you the insight to shift and control the conversation.
Conclusion:
At the beginning of this article, I posed the question of how attuned are you to the body language secrets that people emit every day. As you see, there are many signals that you might observe. And, if you’re aware when such signals occur, you’ll have greater insight into the mindset of the people you interact with. That will allow you to better understand them and communicate more effectively. Plus, it’ll give you an insider’s roadmap into their thought process and where it’s headed. That too will allow you to help them upon their journey or exit because you choose not to accompany them. Either way, you’ll have greater control of the environments you’re in … and everything will be right with the world.
“Shoulder shrugs expose secret information. Notice them to detect their secrets.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert
Have you heard the cliché, “what you don’t know can’t hurt you”? If you have, do you subscribe to it? If you do, you shouldn’t. Because, a lack of knowledge can expose you to scary secrets in a negotiation – secrets that can bite you at the most unsuspecting points in the negotiation. But, there’s one way you can protect yourself. How – by accurately interpreting the meaning of shoulder shrugs when you negotiate.
Shoulder shrugs convey secret information. They expose hidden thoughts of the person that’s attempting to hide those thoughts.
Observe the following shoulder shrug examples. You’ll obtain hidden information that those shrugs attempt to conceal.
When a person displays a shoulder shrug, it can represent a multitude of hidden meanings. It can be a sign of reluctance (i.e. what more do you expect of me) – a sign of protection (i.e. I’m not going to stick my neck out) – it can also be a sign of exasperation (i.e. I’m getting tired of this). Regardless of the hidden meaning, it gives additional insight into the thoughts of that person.
Single Shrug: A single shrug can denote a lack of full commitment in response to a question or statement made.
Leaning Preference
When displaying a single shoulder shrug, a person will tend to favor their dominant side. This is important to note – because it adds additional meaning to the shrug. As an example, if someone that’s right-handed shrugs their left shoulder, he may be displaying less of a commitment to the response that caused the gesture. As with everything related to reading body language, you must establish someone’s body language foundation before you can accurately assess the validity of their actions.
Double Shrug: A double shrug (both shoulders elevated) can connote more commitment to a reply or statement.
As an example, if one elevated both shoulders while stating, “I didn’t do it”, she’d be displaying more commitment to the statement then if she displayed a single shrug – note: to discern the probability of the truth you should still probe deeper. The act of the shrug is that person’s commitment to her pronouncement at that moment – it can change with further probing.
Leaning Preference
When someone performs a double shrug, that person’s hands provide additional insights. As an example, if an offer is made consisting of two items and the recipient says, “I don’t care”, while shrugging with one hand higher than the other, he’s nonverbally expressing a preference for one of the items – the preference lies in the order the items were offered or their proximity to the hand that’s higher.
Additional Shrug Meanings:
Hands: The movement of someone’s hands lends insights into their thoughts. To gather additional awareness per the meaning of a shrug, take note of …
hands close to the body – indicates they’re guarded
hands palms-up – signals they have less to conceal
hands palms-down – they’re less accepting
hands palms-up-and-out – says, keep away from me
Head Tuck: To observe how threatened someone might feel when they shrug, note the degree they protect their head when …
head extends forward – says, I’ll challenge you
head to one side – denotes preference
head straight up – states, I’m willing to expose more of myself
head tucked – says, I’m making myself less of a target
Of course, the additional shrug meanings can conceal someone’s real intent. That’s because good negotiators can affect this maneuver to add perceived emotional credibility to their effect.
Shrug Time:
Always note the length of time a shrug lasts and the number of times they occur. The length and number of times will indicate a person’s ever-changing degree of angst or determination to get you to back off. In all cases, they’ll be signaling information that you can use to enhance the negotiation.
Action Item:
Start noticing when, under what circumstances, and how frequently people shrug their shoulders. Doing that will increase your attentiveness and skills about this behavior. That will allow you to become a better negotiator … and everything will be right with the world.
