American Dream: Former Denny’s Waitress now owns 75 locations

Like many young people, Dawn Lafreeda started her working life at age 16. Her first job was as a hostess at a local Denny’s restaurant.

But this determined woman’s life quickly took a turn that would be instrumental in defining her success: “During college, she took on a second job at a software company, where she learned about accounting and managing personnel.” At 23, she was able to leverage her skills and burning desire to succeed to acquire a Denny’s store in Globe, Arizona. (It’s 87 miles east of Phoenix, in case you’d like to look it up).

18 months later, she was offered 4 more stores in Texas. Now, “Lafreeda has increased her empire to 75 Denny’s locations in six states, becoming the largest single-owner franchisee in the system.”

Read more…

Here’s another great franchise-building story, about NBA star Jamal Mashburn.

 

~ This story is posted by Norris Lozano, CEO of BusinessUS.

WSJ Video: Robert Irvine’s Advice for Aspiring Restauranteurs

Many of our small business borrowers are likely to own restaurants.

We think it’s a good idea to watch the video here: “Robert Irvine’s Advice for Aspiring Restauranteurs”.

In the video (and the show), the host of “Restaurant: Impossible” on the Food Network explains his method for turning failing restaurants into a success.

See the video here: http://on.wsj.com/RpgG3E

~Norris Lozano, CEO of BusinessUS, a California-based small business lender

Boomers in Business: the 411 on 50+

This brief article reinforces several we’ve read recently about a stealth “target small business owner” – the Boomer Entrepreneur.

“A study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation reported that the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the last few years is not Gen-Y upstarts, but Baby Boomers in the 55-64 year age group.

Here’s a link to the study

~Norris Lozano, CEO of BuisnessUS, a national small business lender missioned to provide Innovative Lending to American Small Business