Nick Sarillo – Nick’s Pizza & Pub

Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog

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Nick Sarillo, a former construction worker, owns two Nick’s Pizza & Pub’s in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.  Nick comes from a pizza background.  His father opened Village Pizza in Carpentersville, Illinois when Nick was in middle school.  With no previous business background, Nick was determined to build a positive and constructive culture which went against the advice other business owners offered.

The first Nick’s Pizza & Pub opened in 1995 in Crystal Lake, Illinois and the second in 2005 in the Elgin, Illinois.  Nick’s produces annual sales of over $7 million and has an amazingly low employee turnover rate of 25% in an industry with a 200% standard. Nick’s is actively involved in fundraisers and hosts events nearly every week.

MO:
Nick, although your father owned Village Pizza, you come from a construction background.  What made you decide to take the leap into starting and growing a business?  Did you walk away from a stable career?  What were some of the decisions you wrestled with in order to make it happen?

Nick:
There was a missing experience in my local restaurants and on some level taking the leap was not as big a leap into the unknown as you might think.  As a kid my dad owned a restaurant so I had some background working in restaurants through high school.  When I decided to take the leap there were a couple of things happening at one time.  I was beginning to become disenchanted with and starting to lose my passion that I once had for building homes because the business was changing so much.  It wasn’t the same as it was when I got started.  The quality wasn’t as important; in fact, it was falling off quite a bit.  The part I loved most was the new construction and it was beginning to be driven by the speed and turnaround and less about quality and designing a home for a person.  Along with that, I had a young family of my own, and even though the market was saturated with restaurants and pizza places, I saw a market for something different.  An experience was missing for my family, and I had a strong feeling that other families were missing the same thing.

Did I walk away from a stable career? Yes. I was jumping into an investment that I didn’t even have enough money to do in the first place, and walking away from a stable career.  It felt like a really big risk.  I was a union carpenter, which in those days had a lot of stability to it, and I had built up a construction business with my brother.  We were doing a lot of the work on our own and we were well established.  I had three kids and all of the union benefits including health insurance and a potential retirement package.

I believe the first question I asked myself was, “Is it a real opportunity or not?”  Another big concern was health insurance in case my kids every got sick, and of course making my mortgage payment.  What helped me decide was that my career was safe and secure.  I felt I could put on my tool belt at anytime and go back to building homes and make the money I was making.  It’s important to understand that I didn’t make my decision from fear or desperation.  In fact, I believe the healthiest time to make a change is when you are doing well in your career.

MO:
You seem to have a unique management philosophy such as explaining the “why” and not just managing by dictatorship.  Where did you develop these philosophies and why do you think they work so well?

Nick:
I developed that philosophy in a couple of different ways.  One way was working for other people.  I didn’t like working for someone who told me what to do.  The experience of working for some leaders who were great and some leaders who were crappy helped develop that philosophy.  In addition, even in other careers, I was in leadership roles and I experienced how to be effective myself through life experience, trial and error, and always being interested in what motivates other people.

I didn’t have a structure behind it until I met Rudy Miick (www.miick.com).  Through the work with Miick & Associates we were able to create a structure behind that leadership style we now bring that style to other leaders.

MO:
What’s the secret of your low turn over rate?  Do you have a rigorous screening and hiring practice or is it tied more to your business culture?

Nick:  We have both.  It’s important that it’s both, and also important to understand how integral they are to the success of each other.  I could go into great detail about our hiring and it would be a long essay.  What I really want to share is that our hiring practice is rigorous, disciplined and trained – and every single piece of it is in support of our purpose.  Our culture supports this hiring process by defining excellence through effective and consistent modeling, training, and in the moment performance feedback

MO:
Have you thought about speaking or writing about your business philosophies, to share with others?  Perhaps do some consulting?

Nick:
One of the most valuable outcomes of this journey has been the opportunity to share my experience with leaders who are interested in developing a purpose and values based culture.  I am writing a book, and it is rewarding to be able to share my story – the ways we have been successful, the mistakes I have learned from, and the vision of carrying this culture forward.  The benefits gained through our consulting relationship with Rudy Miick and as a result of his trusted guidance have been immeasurable and I prefer to leave the consulting to him! Importantly, one of the programs I am most excited about is Nick’s University.  Nick’s University is a training ground for today’s effective leaders. The system of courses we offer has been tailored and constructed with the forward-thinking leader in mind, and delivers all of the tools necessary to build a purpose and values based company just like ours.

MO:
How has business been during the economic down turn?  Have you employed any strategies to help or maintain business during these times?

Nick:
We’ve seen some ups and downs.  Our restaurants have been stable in comparison to other restaurants in our region.  Most important is how we are prepared to respond as a team to economic conditions that will throw us a curve ball from time to time.  The strategy we have found most effective in mobilizing our team toward a shared vision of success is open books management.  We share every aspect of our financials with our team, sharing the full P&L and having the team involved in our fiscal information so they are involved with the success and challenges.  We are being completely transparent at every level.  An expectation of our team is that they are familiar with the financial data that makes up the equation to provide the answer to that ever looming question:  Are we profitable?  By being completely transparent at every level, we support our team to own decisions that are in support of our purpose and our success.  I have experienced that an educated and informed team is a mobilized and empowered team.

MO:
Are there any plans for additional Nick’s Pizzas to open?  Any thoughts about franchising?  Why or Why not?

Nick:
I don’t believe our concept or business model would work well in a franchising environment and it is not in our vision.  However, opening more restaurants is in our vision as a privately owned corporation.