From a young university student studying marketing and business, through to working various nine to five jobs in marketing and sales, Natinder Sanghera tells his story on how he got into purchasing one of Australia’s largest Mexican restaurant franchises, Zambrero Lawnton. This is his story to building an outstanding brand.
Natinder (00:34):
I used to do the nine to five job. Back in university, I studied marketing and I studied a bit of business in that as well, management, and how to run and own a business, so that’s what sparked my interest when I was in my teenage years. But then you’d have to get a lot of capital, a lot of assets, so I started saving up, did the nine to five marketing job, worked a bit in sales over the years as well. And then in my mid-twenties, I was looking around and I’m like, “Let’s go for it.” And then I took the risk, put all that money in, and yeah. I decided to go with franchising because there’s less of a risk, I guess, because you’ve got the brand name there. And yeah, I haven’t looked back since.
Joel (01:09):
So you knew from a very early on stage that you were going to get straight into a franchise? Or did you want to start a business? Tell me about that journey.
Natinder (01:18):
A business. Any business. I wasn’t too sure which one at that young age. I stuck with food because it tends to be, I think, the safest option, even during recent times, it’s been good on the other end because people need to eat, so that’s why I’ve stuck with that. I actually had no experience in food or restaurant previously, so hospitality, it was completely marketing, as I said, and sales. And before that, just a couple of odd jobs like Woolworths back during the uni days.
Joel (01:46):
Okay. And you come to then a point in your life where you’re about to choose to do a business. You want to run a franchise. Did you look around a whole heap of different franchises? Or how did you stumble across Zambrero?
Natinder (01:58):
Yeah, I looked around a lot. So I would have looked around at least 50 to 100 franchises and individual businesses as well. I would look at something like those odd jobs that you do, the handyman jobs that you go to people’s houses or residential commercial, anywhere from that, all the way to retail stores, gyms. I looked into gyms and nutrition supplement stores, but then I decided to franchise because you got the brand name and you got that set system in place, you’ve got your support, you’ve got your operations guys, you got your marketing, which your franchise fees cover anyway. And then I narrowed it down to a few franchises. Some were too expensive. I was looking at Red Rooster, McDonald’s, they were asking for millions. And then I went with Zambrero because it’s an up and coming brand. It’s only been around since 2004, so it’s still quite young. And yeah, haven’t looked back since.
Joel (02:47):
Great. And on that journey, I’m sure you’ve come across some challenges in your time. Can you tell me any challenges that you have faced during this whole business journey?
Natinder (02:58):
The number one challenge I have faced is that business, well, particularly this business, it’s a seven day a week operation. So every single day, your mind is on the business, even if you don’t want it to be because the buck ends with you. You’re the one that’s accountable for everything. So if anything, if a staff member calls up, or any issues arise with customers, you’ve got to be there available to solve the issue, and yeah, make a decision, so that’s probably the biggest challenge. You can’t switch off. Sometimes when you’re out and about or on holidays, you still thinking, looking at the business, and how it’s performing.
Joel (03:30):
Are you working on trying to reduce that from taking over your life outside of work?
Natinder (03:35):
Yeah, definitely. So I’m in the process of actually training up a manager at the moment, and I’ve already trained up two supervisors, so hopefully they can look after the store. But even then, the final decision does need to be made with me because it’s like, I’ve put the investment into the business.
Joel (03:51):
So you’ve been faced with challenges before in business. No doubt there have been times though, on the flip side of having a challenge, that you’ve faced some highs. I would love to know a little bit more about maybe the highs that you’ve had. What’s the biggest high you’ve had in business so far?
Natinder (04:04):
Biggest high I’ve had, definitely the success of staff. So most people in the hospitality industry, especially fast food, and I guess this industry, they come to me looking for their first job straight out of school, or some even in school, so what we do is with them, me and the staff, or especially me, we train them up, we teach them basic skills, like how to talk to people, how to communicate to customers, how to communicate to other staff members, how to take direction, and training them from basically never knowing how to do all those things, to ending up being a great individual with good skills on their resume, and in the workforce after a year or so. Yeah, that’s pretty rewarding.
Joel (04:42):
So you get to see their journey from, I guess, from a newbie, to someone who’s established and has confidence in some new skills that they’ve acquired through coming through this whole time.
Natinder (04:51):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I’m actually in talks with one of the staff members here, Toby. He’s been with me for over a year, and he’s looking at purchasing his owns Zambrero later on. He’s a bit young, he’s only 19, but later on, once he gets his assets in order, then yeah, he’s looking into it.
Joel (05:03):
That’s inspiring. He gets to follow in your footsteps, but then at the same time, can see what he can then achieve maybe as he grows, and builds, and gets more resource.
Natinder (05:13):
And adds his own touch into it. Yeah, exactly.
Joel (05:15):
Cool. So tell me, we’re in a fast food business. It’s Australia’s largest Mexican restaurant franchise. So tell me about the type of customers that you get in this business. What do they look like? What are they all about? Is there a certain demographic that you get?
Natinder (05:30):
The target market or the demographic in this business, in this franchise would definitely be more females, catered for more females, ranging from anywhere from 15 to about 40 – 45 years old, and usually mid to high disposable income, so a bit higher than the other franchises like McDonald’s and KFC. And definitely health conscious. That’s the other one. We get a few vegans through here as well because we offer quite a few vegan items on the menu as well.
Joel (05:56):
Is that quite popular?
Natinder (05:57):
Yeah, quite popular. You’ve got vegan sour cream, vegan cheese. People are looking to try something different, and there’s not many… There’s a limited market out there for it.
Joel (06:05):
So speaking of customer feedback, have you ever had a customer that has just given you a nightmare day? Have you had a horrible client before?
Natinder (06:13):
A customer that’s given me a horrible day, yeah. I would say when, say for example, they’re asking for extras, it can be tough sometimes because you’re making the food in front of them, so the pressure can be on. If they’re not satisfied with the quality of the product, or how it looks, or how much product is on there, and yeah, that can be difficult to handle sometimes. But you just got to make them understand that the portions are set by head office, and then yeah, go from there. But usually they’re quite satisfied, just a few people that may try it on.
Joel (06:44):
What about on the flip side of that? Do you have customers that have made your day? Have you ever done some sort of big sale? Or what’s the biggest customer satisfaction you’ve had?
Natinder (06:54):
Yeah, the biggest sales would definitely be catering to local businesses. For their staff lunches in the local area, that would go hundreds of dollars. But satisfaction wise, it would actually be taking the customer from, “Oh, have you ever been to Zambrero before?”, and they’re like, “No,” and then they’ve been to Guzman, but they haven’t been to Zambrero, and explaining the differences where there’s customisation in our menu. Also, our meats are slow cook for 18 hours. And also, the other thing is our sauce is made fresh daily in-store, twice daily, and with guacamole, in the morning, and in the afternoon as well. So explaining that and also explaining how the Zambrero difference works with the sauces, you can select them, whereas compared to our competitors, you can’t. That’s quite rewarding when they’re like, “Oh, I’ve never had this before. Is it good?”, and then at the end, they’re satisfied, they ate their meal, and as they’re walking out of the restaurant with a big smile on their face.
Joel (07:43):
Ahh that’s the go. And when it comes to marketing this business, I could imagine being a franchisee of a large national franchise company, do you have much flexibility, in terms of the marketing that you can do? How does it work from a marketing point of view?
Natinder (07:59):
So out of your franchise fees, you pay a little bit of marketing, and that marketing investment is covered through the whole national brand usually. And then you’ve got your local area marketing, which you actually do yourself. So as a franchisee, as the owner, you do that marketing yourself. So say for example, I do letterbox drops when I get a chance, I also do Facebook marketing, online marketing, and they provide us with tools such as providing all the artwork. So all the graphic design, you just get it printed off at Officeworks or any local supplier, and then you stick it on corflute signs on the road. We can stick it to local businesses. You can post it on there lunchroom, say for example.
Joel (08:34):
Have you ever had a marketing technique that you’ve adopted that has really taken off? What’s the best form of marketing you think you’ve ever done that got the best return on investment?
Natinder (08:45):
I’ve set the Facebook one where you advertise what we sell, so we serve burritos, bowls and nachos, and target it to the local area, like I said, within a five mile radius, males and females, 18 to 40.
Joel (08:56):
Yeah. What about signage? Have you found that you got… There’s a new fit out, so what’s one of the biggest things you think that have actually drawn people in? Is it from the front of the place? Looks pretty amazing.
Natinder (09:07):
The front of the place looks amazing, especially at night. It’s one of the most stunning Zambrero’s in Queensland, head office has said to me. Yeah, that, and we’ve also got an LED trailer sign out there that works quite well. A lot of customers are like, “Oh, yeah, we were driving down,” and they’re like, “Oh, the Zambrero. The green Zambrero stands out. You’ve moved from the shopping center, have you?” and I’m like, “Yeah.” So yeah, that’s really good marketing. And we’re working on some street signs shortly as well, and some online stuff with some marketing companies.
Joel (09:32):
You mentioned that you have come from a shopping center, is that right? What’s the story there? Have you had another business before in a shopping center? What’s the go?
Natinder (09:41):
Yeah. So this one, I actually had this franchise, or another franchise let’s say, in a different location, which was inside a shopping center. It’s called Strathpine Shopping Centre. And I ran that and operated that for around three years, and that was actually inside a food court, so there was some limitations around that.
Joel (09:58):
Oh, tell me about the limitations. Was there some challenges or something? Why did you move from a shopping center to a standalone fit out?
Natinder (10:06):
Yeah, so that’s the thing with shopping centers, you get your set hours. Mostly they close at five or five 30 in the afternoon, so you’re night trade is pretty much non-existent. I did remain open for Uber Eats, but it was a bit tough just doing Uber Eats at night because people would assume you’re closed. The other thing is they close public holidays, so that limits your trade, once again, your sales. And you’re pretty much reliant on how the shopping center performs because their traffic will go to your traffic. So if the stores inside there are good, the parking and everything, then you’ll get more customers.
Joel (10:39):
If there’s a person then who’s watching this, and they’re interested in starting their own business, and building their own outstanding brand, what would be some advice that you might give them when they’re starting out in that journey?
Natinder (10:50):
Yeah, so I would recommend location is very important, as we’ve discovered through this interview. So research your local market, what location you’re going into, yeah, I highly recommend.
Joel (11:00):
Great. So location definitely is a place then to think about when you’re going through your own journey on building a brand. I’m going to now talk to you, I’m going to dive a little bit deeper into your journey. And I’m going to go into a section, what I call Opening the Vault. Are you ready?
Natinder (11:17):
Yeah, definitely. Go. Hit me with it.
Joel (11:24):
Who was the first person that inspired you to get into business?
Natinder (11:28):
I believe most businessmen, businessmen and women, have mentors in their life. And the one that sparked the interest, like I said, from a young age, from teenage years, I had an interest in it, but someone that motivated me and really inspired me was this guy that ran a Burger Urge down in Kelvin Grove. He ran it from around 2013, 2014 to 2018, and he ran it really successfully. Just the way he would interact with the customers… I used to live in Kelvin Grove, and I used to be a customer of his, and we got talking, and his name’s Chris, and now he owns a business here in Carseldine, Aussie Hunger. That’s gone really well as well. It’s open 24 hours a day. But yeah, so he inspired me because I used to go and chat with him, “How is it like running a business?”, getting insights from him, and just his energy, his charisma, I just got drew to it. And I would just keep chatting to him, calling him, and seeing, and I was like, “Yep, I want to go for this,” so he pretty much guided me into what to do.
Joel (12:23):
And do you have a particular motto or a mantra that you live by?
Natinder (12:28):
Tough times don’t last but tough people do.
Joel (12:31):
I like it. And is that something you live by on a day to day basis?
Natinder (12:35):
Definitely. Especially in this industry, times can get tough in business. You never know what’s going to happen today. There could be no one walking through that door for a couple of hours, or there could be 100 people lining up. You just never know, so you got to be prepared for it.
Joel (12:46):
Yeah. Let’s talk about the growth of your business. If someone was to come along and just magically throw $10,000 at you, how would you use that money to grow this business?
Natinder (12:58):
I believe marketing, marketing, marketing is what gets them through the door, and then good product, good service will make them come back, and have a good experience, and retain the customer. So staffing and product, I believe we have a great product, staff training and service is what we continually need to work on. That’s very important in this industry. But with the $10,000, I would spend it on getting them to the door. So if I can get some assistance from someone, whether it be the Zambrero head office or maybe a local business, such as yourself, that would be where I invest the $10,000 into.
Joel (13:32):
And let’s just say you had the opportunity to do this all over again. What would be one thing that you would may change? Would you change anything?
Natinder (13:41):
One thing that I may change… I wouldn’t change anything because I believe it’s all a process. I believe it’s all a journey. So yes, I made a few, I wouldn’t say bad decisions, but I didn’t invest in the right location, but yeah, it’s all a learning process. I still learned a lot over there, and then I’m bringing it over to here, and I’m ready to go from day one.
Joel (14:04):
Great. Well, I think what you’ve just talked to me about is quite inspiring in a sense that it gives people an understanding of what it’s like to be a business owner in a franchise because a lot of people, I would assume, would think that there’s a lot of strings pull from a head office. And I want to go now into a section that’s called the Make it Happen, which is where I talk about the insights that I’ve pulled from this interview.
Joel (14:37):
One actionable item that you could take from this potentially is to do your research, in terms of location and where you’re going to start. It’s super important to understand..
Natinder (14:48):
Yes, absolutely.
Joel (14:50):
… where you set business up. I’m guessing a lot of people when they go through that process might think the cheapest is the only option for them, but you worked your ass off in the early days to build up that revenue, to then buying a location that you thought would work best for you. And the other piece of actionable advice would be to continually invest in your marketing, and your staff, and also your mindset because you say it consumes you a lot, is to make sure that you empower others to take over particular areas that may be quite difficult for you on a day-to-day basis, and try to constantly improve, and invest in the areas that’s going to make not only you happier, but also the business, and the head office, and everybody happy in general.
Natinder (15:34):
That’s exactly right. Yeah. It’s all… You’re involved in the team. You’ve got head office, which is supporting you, you’ve got to support them as well. You’ve got to look after the brand. It’s someone else’s brand. You also got to look after the staff. They look after you, and the customers, and the business when you’re not here, as you said.
Joel (15:47):
Well, I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to dive deep into your business. I think this place is brilliant.
Natinder (15:53):
Thank you.
Joel (15:53):
It’s a new fit out. It looks stunning. It’s very different actually to most type of, we’ll call it, takeaway franchises that you would expect. It’s an open plan, really nice, inviting place. And definitely from the street view, it has a very appealing look. The people and the staff in here are very friendly, which I think is a credit to you, so well done.
Natinder (16:14):
Thank you.
Joel (16:14):
And I would love for you to tell people who have never been here before, where would they find you and how do they get in touch?
Natinder (16:20):
Yeah, so we are located on Shop Three, street number 665 to 685 Gympie Road, here in Lawnton, which is on the North side of Brisbane, about 30 to 35 minutes North of the Brisbane CBD. You can’t miss it.
Joel (16:33):
Thanks for watching this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Please like, subscribe, and share, and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more of these videos to come.
