Leslie Burris is like a hummingbird in search of nectar at Blaze Pizza in San Clemente. The franchise owner is multitasking: greeting customers, making pizzas and overseeing employees. A few minutes later, she’s outside on the patio training a handful of new recruits.
It’s just business as usual for Burris, who opened the build-your-own pizza franchise in May. She was hand-picked by Steve Craig, president and chief executive of Newport Coast-based Craig Realty Group and developer of the Outlets at San Clemente, along with about 13 other outlets nationwide.
Craig knew Burris from an entrepreneurship program he established at the Craig School of Business at Missouri Western State University.
“I noticed in Leslie a knack for business and hunger for opportunity as she rose to the top in my entrepreneurship program,” Craig said. “She is a proven business professional who also cares immensely about getting involved in the community and giving back.”
Franchise Climb
Craig, who’d given a graduation speech at Missouri Western, became involved in its business education program when he asked department leaders why they didn’t have a full-fledged business school. They said they’d been working on it for years but needed more money. He donated $5.5 million to fund the school.
Burris participated in the school’s one-semester entrepreneurship program, which provides hands-on experience working at a franchise.
She won the Entrepreneur Program Competition at Missouri Western in June 2011 and got the option to run a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory franchise anywhere she chose. The Durango, Colo.-based company is a partner of the entrepreneur program.
Burris chose Williamsburg, Iowa, and oversaw a 35% increase in sales in her first year.
She won the 2011 Rookie of the Year award in May 2012 at Rocky Mountain’s national convention, following that up with the 2013 Customer Service award.
She eventually sold the franchise for an $80,000 profit.
“Obviously, she had what it took to run a business and take care of customers,” Craig said.
Craig, duly impressed, approached her to take over the “showcase” training center for franchise operators back at Missouri Western, where students in the entrepreneurship program get real-life experience. Burris managed the center for three years, training students in skills such as inventory control and operations and traveling around the country helping other Missouri Western students open their first Rocky Mountain franchises.
She meanwhile found time to get an MBA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Burris was ready for her next challenge when Craig offered her the opportunity to open a Blaze Pizza at his new development in San Clemente. The only catch was that the space Blaze currently occupies originally was supposed to go to a different pizza operator that already had a franchisee to run it. Craig said he engaged in some horse trading to swap out that pizza operator for Blaze with Burris at the helm.
Personal Professional
Burris was approved as a Blaze franchisee in May 2015 and trained at its corporate headquarters in Pasadena, spending 60 hours a week over three weeks to learn the company’s protocols. Her husband, James, is co-owner of the franchise.
The partnership melds Leslie Burris’ expertise in finance and accounting with her husband’s marketing skills. She oversees about 50 employees, a contrast to her prior franchises, where she managed about a dozen. All of her previous experiences, like the perfect toppings on a pizza melting together on the crust, coalesced to prepare her for running the Blaze franchise.
“I’m now able to bring it all together, leading a team,” she said, adding that hospitality is a big part of the recipe. “It’s about caring about people, whether they’re your team members or guests—making it a place they want to come back to.”
Repeat customer Darie Achstein-Conway, who recently ate at Blaze, praised Burris.
“She’s great,” she said, adding that Leslie had given the place a nice, local feel with her friendly manner.
One of the challenges Burris has encountered in running Blaze is the hiring of young employees who typically are working their first job. That entails teaching them things like being on time, clocking in, and how to give proper notice, she said.
Her weekly sales have so far exceeded what she did monthly in the training showcase center, Craig said, who added that she’s been so successful that Blaze now is interested in becoming a partner of the entrepreneur program at Missouri Western, he said.
Gratitude
Burris credits Craig for a big part of her upward career trajectory.
“There’s no way I’d be where I am today without Steve’s support,” she said, adding that when she first got involved with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at age 22, she couldn’t get a loan because she had no financial track record and had student loans to pay off.
“What Steve does for us as young entrepreneurs, he gives us an opportunity and supports us and helps us make decisions,” she said.
Her progress and selling the Iowa store at a profit facilitated the purchase of the Blaze Pizza franchise, she said.
The Burrises paid $700,000 for the Blaze franchise and buildout, she said.
“Chart your own course”—Blaze’s slogan—could very well be the slogan for Craig’s graduate program, as Robert Schimming also can attest to.
They Give Back
Schimming is another graduate of the entrepreneur program, and Craig also arranged for him to open a joint Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory/U-Swirl yogurt franchise at the Outlets at San Clemente.
Schimming suggested the combo, which is the first in the country. U-Swirl’s headquarters are in Las Vegas. He paid close to $500,000 on the franchise and the buildout after operating a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Lake Elsinore, which was shut down at the end of April last year to allow him to fully focus on the OC store.
Schimming opened the franchise at the Outlets at San Clemente last Black Friday, just two weeks after the center opened.
“It was very hectic,” he said.
He’s already beaten his best months in Lake Elsinore, Craig said.
Schimming owns the store with his wife, Danelle, who handles marketing. Both the Burrises and the Schimmings are supported by the other alumni of Craig’s program, they said.
“Everyone in the program helps each other, nationwide,” Craig said. “Additionally, each winning student (of the entrepreneur competition), for their part, gives back 1% of their total annual sales to the university to help offset the cost of the program” for as long as they own the franchise.
