Franchise Focus

Young entrepreneur turns 1 Donatos Pizza unit into 4

Spence Sheldon opened his first Donatos Pizza franchise in 2018. Today he has four under his belt and is ready to grow even more now that his systems and operations are in place.

Spence Sheldon owns four Donatos locations in Kentucky and Tennessee. Provided.

February 20, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Spence Sheldon is a franchisee on a mission: the 30-year-old entrepreneur started with one Donatos Pizza franchise and has grown his company into four units. A former basketball player, Sheldon said his time playing the sport has made him a good leader, which he uses in his restaurants.

Born and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Sheldon admits restaurants weren't on his radar initially, and certainly not pizza. It wasn't until he moved to Nashville to write and play music after graduating from college and began serving that he fell in love with making people happy.

"Just like most college graduates, I was very, very confused with what I wanted to do with my life," he said. "Restaurants weren't even on the spectrum … I knew that I enjoyed serving. I knew that I'd always been in a kind of entrepreneurial kind of family, so I knew that going into business for myself was the ultimate goal, but I just didn't know what that entailed."

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While serving at a restaurant, he began thinking about opening his own restaurant. Was it feasible? Where would he even start? Mentors told him it wouldn't be easy. There's a lot that goes into it, and without the background, it would be even more difficult.

While driving down Broadway in Nashville one day, he saw a line out the door of a Donatos franchise. He was on the phone with his father, who was trying to get his son to move home. He told his father to look into Donatos as a brand. Though not a pizza connoisseur at the time, he was intrigued by the crowds.

Sheldon's father told him that if he was going to be a restaurateur, he was going to need a "cheat sheet" — that is, to choose a franchise with the systems in place to back him up. Sheldon talked to a number of franchises, and none of them took him seriously. Donatos did, however, and a 24-year-old got his start in the restaurant industry by opening his first store in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He loved the product, and the brand treated him like an adult, two more boxes checked off his list for potential franchises.

Sheldon's father invested in his first store, which opened in April 2018. "I realized that no one wanted me to succeed as much as my father did," Sheldon said.

Putting systems in place

Sheldon said he was at first surprised by the fact that when the doors open, they never shut, meaning he was "on" as a leader at all times. "Obviously my sports background helped me lead a crew of folks that I wasn't familiar with," he said. He was initially frustrated with the turnover that comes with the job, though he said he has good teams now.

The restaurant was also open seven days a week, and Sheldon was there for it all, including 1 a.m. closing times. "Things can go remarkably well during that time, but they can also go wrong," he said.

Sheldon said he had to introduce Donatos Pizza as a brand to Bowling Green, as there weren't any in his area. "We loved that we could be a hometown feel but actually still getting the 'cheat sheet' (for operations) because Donatos wasn't so big that it was a household name just yet in my town," Sheldon explained, "so I could make it my own."

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Sheldon initially feared no one would walk through his doors, and if that happened, how would he combat that? Turns out he didn't need to. He worked the Bowling Green Donatos for three years and then opened a second store just four miles away.

Sheldon then proceeded to go buy that Donatos in Nashville with the line outside that piqued his interest, and bought a fourth location in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Why the Nashville store? It was company-owned, and he'd caught wind that it wasn't doing great and could be operated differently. "They did a phenomenal job, but I felt like the store could be better," Sheldon said. "They approached me."

Sheldon said he spends a lot of time in Nashville with his wife, and it seemed natural to take the store under his successful wing as the closest franchisee to that area. He's had it for a year now and has been able to turn operations around. "I'm just not going to fail watching. I'm going to fail trying," he added.

Going from one to two stores is sometimes the hardest, and Sheldon credits his success to his people. Sheldon found himself juggling his time and learning to delegate authority — not responsibility. He realized it takes an army in the restaurant industry. He didn't have the systems and processes in place to easily run two stores, although at four stores he says he does now. If things weren't running right, he just tried to fix it himself.

Crossing state lines from Kentucky to Tennessee also presented its own challenges growing from two to four stores last year.

"When you grow from one to any multi-unit, the systems and processes have to be intact," Sheldon said. "You have to be able to hold people accountable, not just have systems and processes in place to make sure things are being done the exact way they should be inside your kitchen and out front in your dining rooms. But then you have to have the accountability. … I also had the accountability because I had non-negotiables: the dining rooms are going to be immaculate. The culture — people are going to enjoy showing up for work. I had my non-negotiables when we went from one to two."

Now, Sheldon said he doesn't plan to stop growing anytime soon. He's currently on contract to open three more Donatos Pizza stores. His territory goes from Franklin, Tennessee to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and he's actively pursuing a fifth location. There's room to grow in Nashville, and Franklin and Hendersonville, Tennessee, are appealing.

"I'd like to make sure it's a good fit," Sheldon added. "I'd like another homerun."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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