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.

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