'When you grow from one to any multi-unit, the systems and processes have to be intact,' Sheldon said. If things weren't running right, he just tried to fix it himself.Ĭrossing state lines from Kentucky to Tennessee also presented its own challenges growing from two to four stores last year. He didn't have the systems and processes in place to easily run two stores, although at four stores he says he does now. He realized it takes an army in the restaurant industry. Sheldon found himself juggling his time and learning to delegate authority - not responsibility. Going from one to two stores is sometimes the hardest, and Sheldon credits his success to his people. He's had it for a year now and has been able to turn operations around. Sheldon said he spends a lot of time in Nashville with his wife, and it seemed natural to take the store under his successful wing as the closest franchisee to that area. 'They did a phenomenal job, but I felt like the store could be better,' Sheldon said. Why the Nashville store? It was company-owned, and he'd caught wind that it wasn't doing great and could be operated differently. Sheldon then proceeded to go buy that Donatos in Nashville with the line outside that piqued his interest, and bought a fourth location in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He worked the Bowling Green Donatos for three years and then opened a second store just four miles away. Sheldon initially feared no one would walk through his doors, and if that happened, how would he combat that? Turns out he didn't need to. 'We loved that we could be a hometown feel but actually still getting the 'cheat sheet' (for operations) because Donatos wasn't so big that it was a household name just yet in my town,' Sheldon explained, 'so I could make it my own.' Sheldon said he had to introduce Donatos Pizza as a brand to Bowling Green, as there weren't any in his area. 'Things can go remarkably well during that time, but they can also go wrong,' he said. The restaurant was also open seven days a week, and Sheldon was there for it all, including 1 a.m. He was initially frustrated with the turnover that comes with the job, though he said he has good teams now. 'Obviously my sports background helped me lead a crew of folks that I wasn't familiar with,' he said.

Sheldon said he was at first surprised by the fact that when the doors open, they never shut, meaning he was 'on' as a leader at all times. 'I realized that no one wanted me to succeed as much as my father did,' Sheldon said. Sheldon's father invested in his first store, which opened in April 2018. He loved the product, and the brand treated him like an adult, two more boxes checked off his list for potential franchises. Donatos did, however, and a 24-year-old got his start in the restaurant industry by opening his first store in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Sheldon talked to a number of franchises, and none of them took him seriously. Sheldon's father told him that if he was going to be a restaurateur, he was going to need a 'cheat sheet' - that is, to choose a franchise with the systems in place to back him up. Though not a pizza connoisseur at the time, he was intrigued by the crowds. He told his father to look into Donatos as a brand. He was on the phone with his father, who was trying to get his son to move home. While driving down Broadway in Nashville one day, he saw a line out the door of a Donatos franchise. There's a lot that goes into it, and without the background, it would be even more difficult. Was it feasible? Where would he even start? Mentors told him it wouldn't be easy. While serving at a restaurant, he began thinking about opening his own restaurant. I knew that I'd always been in a kind of entrepreneurial kind of family, so I knew that going into business for myself was the ultimate goal, but I just didn't know what that entailed.'

'Restaurants weren't even on the spectrum … I knew that I enjoyed serving. 'Just like most college graduates, I was very, very confused with what I wanted to do with my life,' he said. It wasn't until he moved to Nashville to write and play music after graduating from college and began serving that he fell in love with making people happy. A former basketball player, Sheldon said his time playing the sport has made him a good leader, which he uses in his restaurants.īorn and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Sheldon admits restaurants weren't on his radar initially, and certainly not pizza. Spence Sheldon is a franchisee on a mission: the 30-year-old entrepreneur started with one Donatos Pizza franchise and has grown his company into four units.

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