National Salad Franchise Restaurant Ready to Expand Reality-Based Learning Program to Teach Students Business Marketing in a Real-World Setting
When John Bornoty, CEO of The Big Salad, launched his salad franchise restaurant in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 2008, he saw his role as being an educator helping aspiring entrepreneurs to own a small business in the instructive environment of franchise ownership. Almost a decade later, his efforts aren’t just helping today’s small-business owners, but the next generation as well.
Teaming with Grosse Pointe North High School, The Big Salad recently completed its latest edition of “Seal the Deal,” a month-long, reality-based learning program empowering students to create their own menu item for The Big Salad, then market it to make it a success.
“Our ‘Seal the Deal’ program has been a tremendous success in terms of teaching high school students real-life business lessons, inspiring their creativity and giving back to the local community,” Bornoty said. “As we continue to expand The Big Salad franchise into new territories, we are excited to introduce “Seal the Deal” to those communities as well.”
How Students are Sealing the Deal
Each semester, Bornoty and Grosse Pointe North’s High School’s Business Education teacher, Michelle Davis, team up to execute “Seal the Deal” with high school juniors and seniors. Students break into groups to create, design, test and market a new menu product at The Big Salad’s Grosse Pointe location.
During the first two weeks of the program, the groups work with executives from The Big Salad to create and test their menu item and learn how to market their product. Then, each group’s menu item is sold at the restaurant for one day. The groups compete with one another to see which group can generate the most sales on their product’s sale day. The winning group receives the “Seal the Deal” trophy engraved with the name of the product and the group participants. Then the winning product goes on the menu for the following semester — with the students’ names included — and the school receives a check for $300.
Luke Drieborg of Grosse Pointe, Michigan participated in the inaugural Seal the Deal program at Grosse Pointe North High School during his junior year in 2014. His group created “The Big League,” an Italian-style, triple-meat sandwich that the team successfully marketed to victory. Now a rising sophomore at Michigan State, Luke says the Seal the Deal program really helped him grow socially by forcing him out of his comfort zone while selling to prospective customers.
“This was the first time I ever have tried selling directly to consumers and it was a terrific learning experience. Being comfortable selling a product, a service or myself is a skill I’ll need for whatever I choose to do. I’m really grateful to The Big Salad for the opportunity,” he said.
Big Wins for Everyone
Bornoty says the enthusiasm he sees from the students is reward enough, but the students’ efforts often generate as many as 100 additional customers each day that a group’s menu item is unveiled. The latest installment generated a 22% percent sales increase over the 11 days that student creations were featured.
“The community really rallied behind the students who worked so hard to generate sales of their menu items,” Bornoty said. “I’m always impressed with what the kids come up with. Some of their items will certainly stay on our menu longer than one semester if they continue to sell.”
For Davis, an educator for 23 years and an advocate for reality-based learning programs, “Seal the Deal” has contributed to an expansion of her business education classes as enthusiasm for the program spread throughout the school. She started with only two classes and now offers four, and attendance has doubled since the program’s launch in 2014.
“I’ve always been a proponent of reality-based learning because students can take what they learned in the curriculum and apply it in the real world,” Davis said. “It’s increased enrollment because students share with their friends — who then want to join. They get so excited to see something they learned in the classroom apply in the real world. I don’t think they get enough exposure to that today.”
As Franchise Expands, so will “Seal the Deal”
With six locations of The Big Salad currently in operation and three more opening within the next year, Bornoty is excited to introduce “Seal the Deal” to new areas to strengthen the bond between the local community and his salad franchise restaurant.
“Just like our franchise, ‘Seal the Deal’ has a proven success model that I want to see implemented at our restaurants throughout the country,” Bornoty said. “It’s a great way to introduce our product to new markets while continuing our mission of educating current and future generations of entrepreneurs on how to win as business owners.”
To learn more, visit www.thebigsalad.net.
About The Big Salad
Since opening its first location in 2008, The Big Salad has allowed people to make their meal their own. Through thoughtful planning, The Big Salad chefs are equipped to prepare more than 17 million possible iceberg, romaine or spinach salad combinations for customers right at the point of purchase with a choice of 40 toppings and 30 dressings. Additionally, The Big Salad offers a plethora of fresh sandwich and soup options, as well as putting any salad into a wrap. Currently, The Big Salad can be found in Ann Arbor (two locations), Grosse Pointe Woods, Novi, Troy, Charlotte, Commerce – all in Michigan, and now in Richmond, Spring and Katy Texas. The restaurant chain has plans to open 100 stores in strategically located metro areas across the country in the next 10 years. Learn more at http://www.thebigsalad.net.
