From Crew Kids to Franchisees
Our fourth featured guest of Season 2 of the Small Business Edge Podcast is actually two guests – Steve and Lynn Biddle, partners in marriage and business. Steve and Lynn Biddle started out as “crew kids” at McDonald’s, working for minimum wage at ages 16 and 17 — learning how the business operated from the bottom up, and ended up owning several successful McDonald’s franchises together.
More Than a Job
Steve and Lynn bought several McDonald’s franchises, and give listeners advice on buying and turning around underperforming franchises, how to motivate employees in a way that makes them want to stay with you year after year, and how they worked side by side as spouses and business partners.
Advice for Franchisees
Some of the key takeaways franchisees and small business owners alike can take away from this episode are:
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If you have a business partner, dividing and conquering is best. Employees get confused if you both have the same responsibilities, and keeping things separate and crystal-clear makes managing a lot easier.
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When managing young people, Steve and Lynn would reward their student-employees for good grades, and encouraged extracurriculars. This got their parents on board and made sure their employees were high-performing as well.
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One of the most important lessons Steve learned was that you have to learn how to have fun at work and make sure that the people who work for you have fun, too.
