Following one Beef-A-Roo owner’s journey from flight attendant to franchiseeFollowing one Beef-A-Roo owner’s journey from flight attendant to franchisee

Joanna Fantozzi

If founders, chefs and other creatives are the beating heart of the restaurant industry, then franchisees are the veins delivering their ideas to all corners of the globe. Franchising is critical to the success of the industry, allowing brands to quickly scale their big ideas using other people’s capital. And whether it’s a mom-and-pop restaurant owner with one or two franchised restaurants or a seasoned veteran whose influence in the industry is well-known, franchisees — with all their individual attributes, styles and personalities — make a huge impact on the success of a business.

In this week’s installment of Franchisee Spotlight, we spoke with Amanda Brown—a former flight attendant-turned-franchisee, who owns one Beef-A-Roo store in Michigan and will have a second one opening soon in the same area.

We spoke with Brown about her career changes, and how important community is to her as a franchisee.

Store count:

One store in Rose City, Mich. starting in January 2024, with a second location on the way

Starting over

I had the best job ever. I was a flight attendant for 12 years. I started a family a little bit late. I never wanted kids, but I had a daughter at 35 and that made me stop being a flight attendant, and I decided to be home a little bit more. When my daughter was born, I was lost. … I didn't really have a college background, so which road am I going to take now that I’m not into flying? [This town] in Northern Michigan has a tiny year-round population, and, jobs are pretty select…. There are school jobs and restaurant jobs and a very wide selection of those.

Related:An Applebee’s franchisee has declared bankruptcy

Getting into restaurants

I decided to go back to restaurants because that's where I started as a teenager. I'm so glad I did, because that’s when everything fell into place. When I went to McDonald’s, my mother and some other family members were like, ‘why?’ because there was a significant pay cut. I did the mom-and-pop restaurant thing when I was younger already, and I just like to be busy. I had the best experience at McDonald’s. I worked there for a year and a half, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. I learned a lot. If I hadn’t gone to McDonald’s, I would have felt lost. It was the start of me really winning in this business.

Starting at Beef-A-Roo

I was driving out of town for McDonald’s and Beef-A-Roo was local. I started training there at the Rose City location, which is really cool because it’s one of the [Beef-A-Roo restaurants] built out of storage containers. So, I walked inside, I thought that all of the equipment in such a tiny space was so cool. I started training there and quickly moved up the ladder from a regular crew member to assistant GM and then to general manager, and then they told me I was having such good reviews.… I quickly moved up to franchise owner of [that location].

Related:Whataburger franchisee partners with a new brand for the first time in his family business history

Being a community leader

We have a Charlton Heston Academy in our tiny town of 4,000. The superintendent came to us about their upcoming homecoming and said they’re trying to get the local businesses to chip in what they can for the pep rally. So during the pep rally, they played a song called ‘Shake it Up’ and we went through the bleachers and handed out shakes. We’re planning on contributing to the school whenever we can…. I was also able to put up a wall mural…We’re exit 222 in Michigan and so we’re ‘the Beef-A-Roo in 222.’ Trailing is also big here, so our mural has the cowboy delivering his beef sandwich to the trailers and side-by-sides.

Future goals

I would like to stick with Beef-A-Roo because they’re great and I think we’re a great team together. I was sitting down with one of the owners of Beef-A-Roo, and he was like, ‘do you want to do one restaurant a year for the next five years?’ and I was like, ‘Heck yeah!’ I’ll probably keep it as local as I can.

Contact Joanna at [email protected]