National Black Business Month: Two Sisters Own 21 McDonald's Restaurants in LA
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00:00Hi, my name is Nicole Harper-Rollins and I'm a McDonald's franchise owner.
00:04Hi, I'm Carrie Harper-Howie and I'm a McDonald's franchisee.
00:08And we're here with Ebony.
00:12The story actually starts with my aunt.
00:15My mom's sister and her husband were McDonald's franchisees in the 80s
00:20and that's what kind of lured my parents into wanting to get involved.
00:24So my mom and dad both quit their jobs and joined on to become McDonald's franchisees.
00:33We, I think, have such an incredible sense of community and culture and togetherness
00:38that we bring into any space, but we ultimately want to be able to fund that
00:43ourselves so that we can be really the determiners of our destiny.
00:48And you can't do that without financing.
00:51And so much of that comes from entrepreneurship.
00:54And some of the challenges that we face as entrepreneurs
00:58are from a lot of the systemic obstacles that we have had to face over time.
01:03My mom is, just is, and always has been a very, very determined person.
01:09So you could never tell her no.
01:11If she wanted something, she was going to go after it.
01:14And so when faced with a lot of odds as far as getting financing
01:20and just going out on her own, she, as she would say in her words,
01:24she sucked it up and just got it done.
01:26We created a foundation in her name.
01:29So we had our first inaugural fundraiser for the Patricia G. Williams Family Foundation.
01:35Actually on her birthday this year, her 80th birthday,
01:38she celebrated 40 years of McDonald's in our family.
01:42And we also raised money for our foundation.
01:47And the focus of our foundation is a celebration of Black excellence.
01:51My mom was so passionate about making sure that not only was she an example,
01:56and as you said, that we benefit ourselves,
01:58but that we really and truly serve and we are able to give back
02:02on a regular and consistent basis to the communities where we find ourselves.
02:07I would say to Black business owners,
02:08something that I actually just really heard Nicole say the other day,
02:14your revenue is not the end of the story.
02:17What you really need to make sure that you understand when you're going into business
02:21is what are the costs of doing my business?
02:25And will my revenue cover all of the costs
02:30and then leave something for me to do a variety of things?
02:35Pay myself?
02:36Will I be able to save?
02:38Will I be able to reinvest, build capital?
02:41The other thing that I would say in this lesson I learned from our mother
02:45is be relentless because there is a very good chance
02:49that people 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 will say no.
02:53But it might be that person 6, 7, 8, or 9 will say yes.
02:58And so you really want to make sure that you just keep banging on doors
03:03and you learn from each of those closed doors, you learn from it.
03:06There are going to be ups and downs in business.
03:09So you want to make sure that you have some money,
03:12some funding there for those rainy days,
03:14or that you have a plan for what you're going to do
03:17because there will be those ups and downs.
03:19The biggest lesson that I learned is just focusing on our people.
03:26We really can't do this business without having great people in place.
03:31So there are skills that you can teach on how to do something.
03:38I can teach someone how to make fries.
03:41I can teach someone how to make burgers.
03:44But I can't teach someone how to be a contributing,
03:50loyal partner in the business that we do.
03:54So really taking the time to get to know people,
03:57to invest in people, to show our people that we care about them as people.
04:03So on the business side,
04:05what's next is we're always open to any great opportunity that may come to us.
04:13We're continuing to build our team, build our people.
04:18You know, as Keri said,
04:20we're working on the Patricia G. Williams Family Foundation.
04:23I did recently publish a book.
04:25It's called The Family Secret.
04:27And it's really all about our mom's story,
04:30our story now as business partners
04:32and trying to share with others tips and insights
04:35on how they may be able to either replicate our success,
04:38either in a family business or otherwise.
04:40And, you know, just trying to continue to inspire others with our story
04:47and hope that others can take all the benefits
04:50from that story that we have been able to share in.