The REAL First Toppers Store
The first Toppers Pizza store opened on August 9, 1991. My then wife Carol and I had lived like paupers for about 8 years saving nearly everything we’d made working...
Pizza IS a Growth Industry (for some)
This is the first article in a series exploring Toppers’ sustainable competitive advantage. Growth oriented business investors study various industries and their segments for emerging growth opportunities. Even casual business observers recognize...
The No-Fail Weight Loss Plan
From time to time someone asks me what the “key to my success” has been. I always assume they’re asking me about my success growing a thriving business, but the...
Leaders Don’t Sandbag
Toppers has an ass-kicking franchisee in Minnesota that recently called me out. He told me that one of his people read something I’d written in which I claimed that we...
Easy Jobs Suck!
In September, my 18 year old son Clay packed up his car with most of his worldly belongings and moved to Portland Oregon, 2000 miles from home. I love the...
Restaurant Proud!
I started in the restaurant business making $2.30 per hour in 1978 when I was 15 years old. Though I studied Engineering and eventually got a degree in Psychology, I...
