Giving Changes Everything

by David Kajganich, Million Dollar Mentor

We were in trouble. We had been operating three other successful sports bars for over 10 years, however, this one, in its fourth year was failing… badly. It was in the process of posting a $250,000 loss for the year when I met with one of my partners.

We had just been served notice that we were going to be shut down for failure to pay our property taxes. Yes, things were bad. When he asked, “Can you turn it around,” my immediate response was “I don’t know.” That was an odd response from me because facing challenges as entrepreneurs and leaders is what we do.

However, I was shaken. I had just returned from observing our operation and we were…bad. I mean, we were operating so poorly that we ran out of burger buns during the dinner rush...on a Saturday night! At that point, he said we have no choice. We owed over $2 million on the building and the business and we had no way of recovering if we closed. Fifteen minutes before the deadline and subsequent padlocking of the doors, we paid the necessary portion of the property tax to remain open.

We had no money and no time to waste. We had to turn it around fast. One obvious thing was that we needed to fix the operations and improve our product quality, service and hospitality. That was obvious. Everyone and anyone could see that. Truthfully, that was the easy part. We always focused on those aspects. However, we let this one slip and now we were paying the price.

But, there was another factor in play. One that wasn’t so obvious.

We had lost the trust of the community.

When I say the community didn’t trust us, most people would assume I mean that the customers couldn’t trust the quality or experience they would receive. Again, that was apparent by the comments we received! But it went deeper than that.

You see, this business was in a small, tightly knit community. The type of community where word travels fast. A community that places a high value on family, kids and schools. A lot of communities are similar. It took one sentence for me to realize what went wrong.

I asked a customer, why don’t the parents come in here after the high school football game? His response shook me.

“You don’t want us here.”

I couldn’t believe it. How did they get that impression? Evidently, one of our “managers” and a bartender thought that they were too much of a hassle to deal with and told them so!

Now, I knew what I had to do. From that point forward, everything, and I mean everything, we did was geared towards being a pillar in the community. We made it a mission that the community would be proud to have our sports bar in their city. Even while we were barely able to pay our bills, we invested in the community.

We supported the school’s sports, drama clubs, bands, etc. We hosted community fundraisers, supported youth sports and local charities. We became so focused on helping and giving, that it didn’t even matter that we could barely afford to do it.

It really is true that you must give to receive.

“We had lost the trust of the community.

From that point forward, everything changed. Our sales increased 40 percent the first year and were double within three years. And the business was fun!

We became so impassioned with helping that we became known more for that than what our business was! The reciprocation from the community was amazing. They supported us because they could trust that we were there to support them.

Everything we did, focused first on “how can we help?” From helping disadvantaged families to special needs children to those stricken with cancer - we wanted to make a difference.

What started as a way to get back on solid financial footing turned into a focus on helping without regard for “what’s in it for us?” It just so happened that, we received more than we gave - both in sales and in the love we received from the community.

When giving comes from the heart, it will always make a difference.

David Kajganich is one of Pillars of Franchising’s Million Dollar Mentors. He began his career in franchising in 1992 when he became the first franchisee for Buffalo Wild Wings. Within the first year, he reached more than one million dollars in revenue, and for nearly three decades, he successfully ran multiple units until he sold the business in 2020. David was also involved as an area director for a quick service sub sandwich concept as well as for a fitness franchise. Through his experiences, he honed his skills in the areas of leadership, performance coaching, influence and persuasion to help franchise owners get the most out of their managers and employees. He is currently a performance coach through his business, Eagle Status Performance, LLC. You can reach David at david@davidkajganich.com.