34 CHALDEAN NEWS
34 CHALDEAN NEWS AUGUST 2008
looming Despite Michigan’s hard times, Johnny Karmo is building a new supermarket. What makes some survive this dry spell? businesses BY JOYCE WISWELL Times are tough these days not only in Michigan; the rest of the country seems to have a bad case of our economic doldrums. But despite soaring gas prices, massive job losses, unprecedented foreclosures and plunging stock prices, some Chaldean-owned businesses continue to thrive. How can this be? We asked some of the community’s successful business people to share their advice. TAKE THE LONG VIEW “Try to have a long outlook. One problem is that people try to milk the business they have and are living off it day by day instead of putting on a longterm outlook – they don’t have a vision for one, three, five, 10 years from now. They need to study the market and see where things are going. The biggest mistake people make is not planning and adjusting to the times. “It’s not about finding the people, it’s how you train them. If it’s not the right process, you’re setting them up for failure. In my business it’s manager, manager, manager – not location, location, location. We’re also really strict and tight on our product line to be sure it’s consistent and top notch, and our marketing is good.” – Casey Askar, chairman and CEO of Mr. Pita and Papa Romanos. The franchise restaurants are seeing healthy growth in Texas (120 stores), Colorado (100) and North Carolina (30) – as well as here in Michigan, with new stores in Sterling Heights, Bloomfield Hills and Detroit’s Compuware Building. Some are co-brands, in which both cuisines are offered under one roof. STAY HANDS-ON “We constantly update and remodel – we believe in keeping our properties up. If you let your property run down it doesn’t make a good impression and people won’t come back. We’re local and we all live in Oakland County, so we oversee our DRY SPELL Continued on page 36 AUGUST 2008 CHALDEAN NEWS 35
