The Big Salad currently has three successful locations in Michigan (with a fourth opening this spring) and is poised for rapid expansion in Michigan and nationwide.

The Big Salad is based on a lot of fresh ideas. It was carefully designed from the very beginning to be a franchise. It’s a great choice for someone who’s ready to make a career change. No restaurant experience is required. No cooking is required. That’s just the beginning of what makes this franchise so intriguing.

Here’s what Bornoty had to say…

What makes The Big Salad Different?

“What we do is so unconventional in the traditional restaurant world. When we hire managers, we rarely bring in people with restaurant experience. We bring in people who care about people. We’re in the people business not the restaurant business. Nothing is as rewarding as seeing someone enjoy a meal. You want them to leave happy. Everything in The Big Salad environment is working to achieve that goal.

Having a tech background lets me understand processes. I had no background in the restaurant business when I started. Every process and procedure was written by me, so it’s easy to understand. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what customers want. Focus groups helped create the entire experience – from color to music to chairs to flatware, even pricing and menu layout. A key difference is the freshness and quality of our ingredients. Produce is an art form. I know more about produce today than anyone ever wants to know. I’ve lined up the best providers and use only top quality U.S. produce.”

Who is your ideal franchisee?

“I have turned people down. I always say I don’t sell franchises, I award them. I’m a passionate guy and I love what I do. If you just want to serve food, you won’t succeed. You just have to be a ‘people person’ – we take care of the rest. From the day someone signs with us, we help them select the site, help with the build-out and setup – we take care of everything. Everyone must use our systems so we can support them. We maintain remote access to everything, and everybody, so we can see a problem before it becomes a big problem. You just concentrate on your staff and your customers.”

Why a food franchise?

“People will always eat. People will eat before they pay their rent. People are willing to spend more on themselves – and when it comes to food, they’ll get what they want.”

Why this food franchise?

“If you’re looking for a food franchise, this one is easy; no ovens no grills – easy to run. Food comes prepped and ready to go, no worries about cooks not showing up, or grills and grease. We don’t even use a microwave. We have great hours – managers are on a 10am-6pm shift – so you can have a life. It’s also easier to hire staff in a healthy alternative environment. Plus, we offer a relatively inexpensive price point.

I opened my first location in Metro Detroit in 2008 – a month before the market crashed in October. The restaurant industry is not very high tech. Having a tech background allowed me to adapt very quickly and control costs. That’s what has allowed us to succeed and grow in a tough market and a down economy.

We’re always reinventing – and the franchisees benefit. Long term success boils down to the franchisor’s willingness to change, and willingness to listen to franchisees and to constantly change. We test in corporate stores. I’ve studied a lot of franchisors to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m a firm believer in corporate locations. How can you know what your franchisees are dealing with if you haven’t experienced it yourself? I think the secret to success is keeping a few corporate stores.”

Final thoughts?

“As corny as is sounds I believe what we do here changes lives. Our customers come to The Big Salad to eat healthy, and when people eat healthy they look better, feel better and are happier. We have a very clear path about where we want to go and what we want to achieve.”

To learn more about The Big Salad visit www.thebigsalad.net 

by Keith Schofield

Restaurant Consultant for Details In Retail
Director of Restaurant Operations
at The Townsend Hotel

Webster’s defines Value as:

1. the price or cost of something
2. usefulness or importance
3. a strongly held belief about what is important

No thing has any inherent value beyond that which an individual ascribes to it (i.e. value is relative). The primary objective in the hospitality industry is to discover what hidden value each guest desires and illuminate (deliver) it.

The primary objective in successfully managing (leading) people is to understand the value hierarchy held by each employee and motivating/teaching accordingly. I strongly suspect that in the given economic climate, understanding and exploiting (making productive use of) definition # 3 is more critical than ever in achieving these objectives.

From an employee perspective, financial growth and security (definition #1- price/cost/wage) have become fiction. Value in this sense is dictated strictly by what is necessary to survive. The same can be argued for #2. Maintaining a roof over ones’ head and feeding the children resonates; driving a nicer car is meaningless in light of that reality.

Our effectiveness as leaders, and our ability to nurture and grow both our employees and client base will be largely predicated upon our understanding of these personal motivations (definition #3).  As leaders, we will need to listen more closely, ask more pointed questions, and pay more attention to not only what is said, but what is left unsaid.

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by Keith Schofield
Director of Operations, The Townsend Hotel
Restaurant Consultant, Details In Retail

One unfortunate side effect of the world financial turmoil is the proliferation of economic pundits manipulating statistics to underscore the credibility of their prognostications. A veritable alphabet soup of acronyms (GDP, S&P, ADR, GNP, FTSA, etc.) indicate either we haven’t hit bottom yet, we’re well on the way to recovery, future growth will be robust, or chaos and volatility are the new economic realities.

Having spent my entire career in the Hospitality Industry makes my success dependent upon people’s perception of their economic future. Levels of disposable income are largely determined by feelings about job security and  income potential.

The measure I use to gauge public perception of the economy is the PPB, or price per bottle. The average price spent on a bottle of wine is a clear indicator of relative optimism. Over the last two months, this “pundit” has seen the PPB rise 25% over levels twelve months ago.

It should also be noted that drinking better wines further increases one’s feelings of optimism and well being.

Drink well and prosper.

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