This month, we are featuring TJ’s Pizza in Regina, Saskatchewan. TJ’s is a Canadian franchise concept with nine locations in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
We interviewed Melanie Guilford, owner and operator of two TJ’s pizza locations, to find out what makes TJ’s different, and how SpeedLine makes things easier. As a longtime SpeedLine user, Melanie Guilford has plenty to say about their POS, their pizza, and how she got into the business:
Tell us a little bit about you and your business. I sort of fell into the pizza business. About seven years ago, a friend from high school knew I was in a life transition, and asked if I would be interested in managing his pizza restaurant. I'd never really worked in the food industry before; my background was all administrative, but I thought "how hard could it be?" Boy, was I in for a lesson.
I've never worked as hard in my life as I have in the pizza business. There were super long hours on my feet, and staff and equipment issues that seemed to be non-stop! But once I got used to the hours and the stress, there were a lot of rewards, and I don't think I could ever go back to a desk job.
After about a year of managing, the opportunity came up to buy in at another location, and it has been an extremely positive experience. Now, seven years later I am the Managing Partner and along with three silent partners, own two locations in Regina.
What’s your favorite item on your menu? And what’s your most popular? My favourite pizza is our All Dressed, which is also our best seller. With generous helpings of salami, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, pineapple and mozzarella, our customers can’t get enough of this one. And neither can I!
Tell us what makes you unique and different from your competition: We focus on quality and value. A lot of our competitors are more concerned about price: cheap pizza, cheap ingredients. On the other side of the coin we also have the older establishments in our community that put out a good product that costs twice as much as ours. We seem to have the winning combination of fresh, quality ingredients at the right price.
What’s your favorite SpeedLine feature and why? How customizable the program is! I love how quickly we can update the menu and also all the reports I can look at to help manage the business better. I also love how we are able to enter our combos so that it prompts staff with the required items. It makes training staff easier.
I use various reports to help manage the restaurant more efficiently. I compare year to year on holidays and special events to help plan staff levels. I keep track of which zones our deliveries are going to, to help plan our advertising. And I track which coupons are being used the most and which ones are not effective.
