DQ assistance needed in small business management - ashim_ag only

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Inside The People At Finagle Transcript

[Music]

Laura B. Trust:

Finagle a Bagel is a bagel manufacturer, bakery, and retail café.

Alan Litchman:

The company was founded in June of '82 selling cheesecakes. It was founded

at Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which is a tourist attraction in

Boston, and was founded by an individual named Larry Smith, his brother, and

some other family members.

Laura B. Trust:

We have 17 retailers in the city of Boston and in the surrounding suburbs and a

wholesale business that delivers bagels to area caterers, hospitals, universities.

We do a total of between $20 million and $25 million a year in revenue,

including both wholesale and retail.

We have about 450 employees. We have 17 retail locations, and our wholesale

business delivers to about 350 wholesale customers a year.

Estevan Rocha:

Estevan, so you started with $100.00. Okay? Your total should be $858.00. We

give or take a dollar in difference.

Paulo Pereira:

One of the most difficult things of running a multi-unit food establishment is

finding people to run the stores.

Laura B. Trust:

The city stores are all about speed of service and moving the line. You can have

1,000-2,000 customers a day. These people have to be moved very quickly and

effectively, as well as they need to be serviced properly.

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Alan Litchman:

Suburban stores is totally different. You really have to have an owner/operator

mentality. You have to be mature, and you have to be able to run the business

like it's your own business. What we always try to convey or sell to people who

might join our company is, “If you want to be a franchisee but don't have the

capital, if you want to own your own business, we’re gonna put you in business.

You don't have to give us any money to do that. And if you get over a certain

level of sales or profits, we’ll start splitting the bottom line with you in some sort of

bonus program.”

Nick Cochran:

My name is Nick Cochran, I’m a general manager, and I work in Wayland

location, which is in Wayland, Massachusetts. I’m 23, which is pretty young. I

started off when I was even younger, actually, 15-1/2 is started off working for

Bruker’s Bagels. And I started out there as a sandwich person, then moved up

to cashier, and kept learning, wanted to be a baker, wanted to be a manager.

And I ended up with a shift supervisor position. I think being younger as a

manager in Finagle Bagel truly helps ms because it gives me the stamina and

power to work long days. And the title is store manager slash partner of your

specific location.

And, you know, the only difficulty sometimes is trying to empower people who

are much older than me. We have a – we call it an “incentive compensation”

bonus plan, IC plan.

The base salary for a general manager generally starts off in a company with

$35,000.00. And as you go through time, you will get certain raises. And we

actually have a salary cap in the company, where no general manager can

make over $42,000.00 in a particular year for a base salary.

What will, however, change as your time accrues with the company is your

percentage in that incentive compensation plan.

Male 5:

Thank you very much. You’re gonna be Number 72 at the end. Okay?

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Tony Pereira:

I strive more for my managers to bonus than for me to bonus. It’s important that

they bonus because it shows individual goals and individual stores doing well.

Nick Cochran:

Let’s say your monthly salary was $4,000.00. You could get 30 percent of that,

which would be $1,200.00 in a bonus if you were to meet your expectations. As

time goes on with the company, your bonus could be at 80 percent of your

$4,000.00.

Tony Pereira:

I fight for my mangers to bonus because if they bonus, it just means that, you

know, they’re gonna look at that check, and they’re gonna say, “Damn, I did

well this month. And whatever I did this month, I have to repeat next month,

and I just have to go a little bit better and I’ll get a bigger check.”

And so, you know, I feed off of them. I mean I feed off their happiness. I feed

off of their job well done. And if I – when I do bonus, you know, it’s just – it’s a

win-win. You know what I mean?

It’s a win-win for everybody. It’s a win-win for Finagle. It’s a win-win for me. It’s

a win-win for my stores because, you know, in the end, we’re all trying to

accomplish something, which is to grow this company. And we all want to grow

as individuals as well.

Nick Cochran:

I think that it’s a good way in essence because you’re not paying the people

who sit around and do nothing, but rather you’re paying the people have (a)

been with the company for a while and (b) go out and work hard to getting

that – them extra customers and take time to make sure that the actual profits

are coming through in order – so they get a share of the business.

Laura B. Trust:

Nick Cochran is a manager who came to us as an assistant manager. He

picked up on the passion and the direction of the company very quickly. And

he is one of our most successful managers. And his ability to understand the

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level of customer service that’s required in community like Wayland, or any

suburban community, or affluent community, is phenomenal.

And he has done wonders for our business there. He is adored by the town. He

gets invited out to dinner by the customers.

Nick Cochran:

I’m from Portugal, a little country in the Northern Europe. I came to the United

States in '87.

[End of Audio]