Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Little Caesars

The lesson here for me is not to limit myself. Pizza Hut is the number 1 pizza franchise in MD followed by Dominoes and Little Caesars bringing up the rear.

Pizza Hut: Delivers, can also pick up and also eat in their restaurant for a wider menu.

Dominoes: Delivers, can pick up but no capacity to sit in and eat.

Little Ceasars: Doesn't deliver, can't eat in, pick-up only.

The lesson is obvious; don't limit the ways you do business. We have "Little Ceasars" agents who only use one business model; they will only do business by phone or only do business in person. They are unwilling to mix two and leave a lot of business on the table.

We have "Dominoes" agents. They will do phones sales but also meet with clients, however they have no office location. Clients cannot come in, sit down and talk about a varity of insurance products and build a community presence.

Then we have the "Pizza Hut" agents. These are your State Farm, Nationwide and Allstate agents - also agency owners who have physical locations. They can sell online, meeting with clients but also have the ability to be known in their area and much more opportunity for cross-selling.

Basically, I've run Little Caesars where all clients had to come to me; ie - all phone sales. I'm running Dominoes now where they can come to be or I come to them - much more money running a Dominoes. Now it's off to the Pizza Hut concept.

It's no accident that Little Caesers in MD comes in dead last for pizza franchises. Anytime you limit the ways you do busienss you're always going to make far less.