Building Your Empire: How to Scale Your New Concept for Multiple Units

Houston-based restaurant operator Johnny Carrabba recalls the time the general manager of a brand-new burger restaurant mentioned how the owners wanted to turn it into a big chain. They had the money for it but, says Carrabba, "You need to make sure the first one is good!"

Growing a restaurant is challenging -- Carrabba says it's the hardest thing he's ever done, in fact -- but plenty of operators do grow to multiple units, expanding on their successful concept or trying something new. Operators who've been able to scale up attribute their success to a few key factors: Systems, talent and timing. Here's how they make multiple units work and when they knew it was time to grow.

If having one unit is good, then having two, three, four or ten is better. If this describes your ambitions as a startup restaurateur, you are not alone. In this article, successful multi-unit operators share both how they grew their businesses and words of caution.

Recognizing Opportunities

NaanStop was a dream born around the family table, notes Samir Idnani, who cofounded the Atlanta Indian fast-casual restaurant with his brother Neal. Idnani noticed that locals would polish off their mom's home-cooked Indian food, but wouldn't patronize Nashville's Indian restaurants, which tended to have vibrant atmospheres and extensive menus. Their mother's recipes were clearly a hit across cultural barriers, so Samir and Neal wondered how to make Indian food more approachable to a Western audience.

In 2011, Neal was laid off from a hedge fund job while Samir was pursuing his MBA in Los Angeles. The circumstances weren't ideal, but the brothers recognized their window of opportunity. Neal joined Jimmy John's management training program to learn restaurant systems and operation, while Samir made developing NaanStop his unofficial MBA project.

One year later, Samir convinced his brother to move to LA so the two could max out their credit cards opening a food truck. The risk allowed them to get proof of concept by testing market demographics, neighborhood and menu items. After a year of successful operation, they wanted to move to brick and mortar but, says Idnani, "we wanted to open in a place where we could put down roots." That meant returning to Atlanta, where he'd attended college and, coincidentally, a place his day job (in AT&T's leadership development program) wanted to send him.

Economic development agency Invest Atlanta provided key resources and funding for NaanStop's initial location, which opened in downtown Atlanta in 2012. Idnani says, "There were a lot of things we needed to learn about running a brick and mortar... We knew what equipment we needed, but not how to lay it out, takeout vs. delivery vs. in-shop."