Las Vegas 7-Eleven Franchisee Looks to Inspire Others

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Las Vegas 7-Eleven Franchisee Looks to Inspire Others

With his 7-Eleven franchise up and running, 30-year-old entrepreneur Johnathan Lacy is eyeing future growth while encouraging others to go for their dreams.

Howard Riell • Contributing Editor

Entrepreneur Johnathan Lacy went about becoming a 7-Eleven franchisee the old-fashioned way: hard work, followed by more hard work — no outside investors. Thirty-year-old Lacy, who studied fi nance at Cal Poly Pomona, a university in Pomona, Calif., chose the convenience store industry because he liked the business model.

“I have a little bit of experience in the restaurant and bar business, and this just seemed like a bit nicer of an opportunity, so I went ahead and took it,” he said.

Lacy opened his 7-Eleven store on Tropicana Ave. in Las

Vegas on April 29, 2021.

Johnathan Lacy opened his Las Vegas 7-Eleven store in April and has a goal of owning four units by the time he turns 40.

He has been hailed by a number of news websites, including the Las Vegas Sun, as being the fi rst Black owner of a 7-Eleven franchise in Las Vegas as well as Nevada. However, a spokesperson for the 7-Eleven Franchise Owners Association of Southern Nevada told CStore Decisions they do not believe that Lacy is the fi rst, but they do believe he is the only Black owner of a 7-Eleven franchise in the region at the present time, which is a distinction nonetheless.

With his c-store now up and running, Lacy is setting his sights on growth, with a goal of owning four 7-Eleven units by the time he turns 40. He plans to open his second location in 2022. And he’s looking to inspire others along the journey.

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED

While the path from inspiration to grand opening had hurdles along the way, Lacy never lost sight of his goal. The fi rst roadblock came when he learned that fi nancing would be an issue, after several lenders turned him down for a loan.

“They always tell you that if you are able to use fi nancing, use it to your advantage,” he explained. “However, it was a little bit more diffi cult because

SBA (the Small Business Administration) wouldn’t fi nance the convenience store I was looking at. It was diffi cult to fi nd traditional fi nancing for purchases such as mine.” Despite that, Lacy was committed to making his dream a reality. He began saving the capital necessary to fund the venture on his own. “It took about fi ve years of savings from my previous positions, plus money earned through investments (stocks), which I invested in while in college,” Lacy said.

Eventually he was able to secure loans to help carry him across the fi nish line. “I used the services from Revenue Capital Financing to help navigate through and fi nd loans that were available to my special needs,” he said.