McAlister's Deli
Anyone who thinks Gen Xers lack ambition hasn't met
franchisee George McLaughlin. In a little more than five years,
McLaughlin has gone from serving sandwiches at a McAlister's
Deli location while attending the University of Mississippi to
heading a company that operates six McAlister's franchises
throughout South Carolina.
"My major challenge was to find people to believe in me at
the age of 23," McLaughlin recalls. Even though he had worked
at the deli for more than a year and had trained McAlister's
franchisees before moving from Mississippi to South Carolina to
become one himself, McLaughlin had a hard time proving he was a
good bet.
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"Every time I'd walk into a developer's office, the
first thing they'd ask me was how old I was and if I was crazy
to go into a state 600 miles away and say, 'I want to build a
McAlister's Deli, and I'm going to sell a lot of sandwiches
in order to pay the rent,'" says McLaughlin.
"It's very hard for a lot of people to believe that at
first."
"My major
challenge was to find people to believe in me at the age of
23."
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Believe it or not, it happened. A company familiar with the
franchise and McLaughlin's track record as a general manager
was interested. McLaughlin's first location opened in Columbia,
South Carolina, in 1997. With the help of the vice presidents,
managers and employees at MAC Restaurant Corp., the business
McLaughlin founded to operate his franchises, he has opened five
other stores in Columbia, Greenville and Rock Hill, and has one
more location opening soon.
McLaughlin plans to expand his company beyond McAlister's by
taking on another franchise concept in the near future, and he
hopes to eventually develop a brand-new concept of his own.
Bolstered by the $6 million MAC made in 2000 and the $10 million
it's projecting for 2001, the chances anyone will be
questioning McLaughlin's pitches again are slim to none.
Originally published in the August 2001 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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