BDG's Been Busy!!!

It’s been 4 months and we’ve been too quiet! We’re sorry! But the good news (at least for us) is that we’ve been incredibly busy. Our primary focus at BDG is to support franchisees and franchisors in any brand, meet or exceed their plans to grow domestically and that’s exactly what’s kept us so occupied.

On the Pizza Hut front we’re looking to open up to 20 sites in the northeast before the end of the year which is just the beginning of a multi-year growth commitment for our client. Thanks to our fabulous brokers, we have 8 sites secured and have another 12 under negotiation. In addition, we are very excited to announce the start of construction on May 17 for our first ever free standing delivery carry out build in Avenel, NJ.

Dave’s Hot Chicken is a brand we started working with in 2020 and they are on a tear across the United States with units opening up EVERYWHERE! We are partnering with their new franchisee, the Freeland Group, to drive their growth across Indianapolis and Columbus. Working in conjunction with another cadre of fantastic brokers, we now have 3 LOI’s signed, and 6 additional sites under consideration.

Last but not least, we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the Bojangles brand, a southern food concept who is also growing across the US. As we initiate our work for Bojangles with new franchisee Chaac Foods to meet their goal of 40 new locations, we’re focusing our efforts on Orlando, Atlanta, and Chattanooga!

https://www.qsrweb.com/news/bojangles-deal-to-add-40-stores-to-southeastern-us-chain/

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/daves-hot-chicken-signs-28-store-deal

If you have sites you think would work for these brands, please email us: mollyw@beyonddevgroup.com

This is me, the good, bad, and ugly.

Let me take a step back and introduce myself to those who don’t know me. My name is Clare Nishikawa, the owner and CEO of Beyond Development Group (or BDG as we’ve affectionately started calling ourselves). As I started my career in real estate development with Pizza Hut, I recognized I really was quite unusual. Outside of the obvious difference in gender, my background was more unique. Most development experts I crossed paths with had built their career growing solely within the real estate world. While initially I found it incredibly intimidating to not know their language and techniques, I quickly realized I brought other strengths and I’d have the opportunity to learn the more technical aspects of the role over time. Having spent 14 years with Nielsen (the market research guru), in both global and local roles, my client management and analytical skills have set me apart in the development world.

As a Nielsen client management lead with organizations such as Kraft and BAT, my role was to understand their goals and challenges as quickly as possible. By understanding the data and services we had available, I was able to provide insights to drive my clients’ actions, whether that be new product launches, distribution expansions, pricing changes or media focuses. My role was to ensure the investments clients made with Nielsen truly provided a return on investment. A key element to achieving this was to guide the analytics of the data being purchased. Through this I gained an incredible appreciation for the power of data-based decisions. As a development lead, my passion has been to ensure I fully understand my franchisees’ goals, opportunities and limitations, provide data to guide, support or challenge their plans and to focus on their return on investment.

I’m not talking to the relationship aspects enough though. I have an insatiable curiosity and I love people. Some may say I have a tendency towards interrogation, but I truly just want to know more and more and more. I enjoy nothing greater than getting to know someone new on a one-on-one basis. This is where you’ll find me in my element. When I come across someone else that loves data or development or both as much as I do, I could spend many hours talking to them (much to their chagrin). If I can then help create something - a strategy, a plan, or a new restaurant - I’m a pig in mud.

Although I’m always happy to connect personally, now you know me a little better, over the next few weeks I’m going to share the observations I’ve made and my learnings specific to franchisee and franchisor relationships as a way to hopefully help those of you involved in franchise growth. I guess you could call this my Jerry McGuire moment, a white-paper I wrote last summer which I built my business upon.

Up & Running... We did that.

I’m not sure many would have recommended 2020 as the year to start your own business. After months and months of preparation my foot was already hovering over the edge as we came into March. No matter how prepared you are, the fear is real. With the impact of COVID the obvious question came up, do I take a step back or forge ahead? As tempting as slowing down may have been, in many ways it would have been harder not to make the leap. Sitting here today, I can honestly say the leap has been truly exhilarating and Beyond Development Group is absolutely up and running.