An innate sense of fiscal responsibility, hands-on approach and determination to be financially independent made Jenny Sadler, our October Success Stories Breakfast guest, one of Australia’s most successful McDonald’s franchisees.
Jenny began her McDonald’s career as a 15-year-old crew member, deferring a planned accounting degree to enter the management side of the business, first as a store manager and supervisor, before crossing over into corporate where she ultimately served as a director of operations. then assistant vice-president.
In 2007 she became a franchisee, acquiring her first two restaurants in Victoria, and she has steadily built her portfolio to the point where today she employs more than 1,500 staff across 12 McDonald’s, with a plan to expand to 14 in the coming months.
Jenny, who grew up the oldest of five siblings in a single-parent family in the Western suburbs of Sydney, said she was always driven to achieve. “I never wanted to be poor – I’ve always wanted to be financially successful and not rely on anyone,” she said. “When I first became a franchisee, I said: ‘I want to own 10 restaurants,’ I like to plan the dream.”
With that determination came a healthy sense of fiscal responsibility that endures to the present day. “My husband always teases me saying I still have the first dollar I earned,” said Jenny. “People ask: ‘how have you got to be this successful’ and it’s because when other people with one McDonald’s store are up the front of the plane flying business, I had five stores and was still flying economy, thinking about where I was going to buy my next restaurant or my next house?”
From the inception of her franchisee journey, Jenny adopted a hands-on approach, determined to understand every facet of her business venture. “It was actually pretty frightening because I hadn’t physically worked in a restaurant for over 10 years,” she said. “I didn’t start with a supervisor, I relearned how to do everything from the kitchen, to making a coffee. Knowing that this was going to be my next opportunity I put all my energy into what it’s going to take to grow. That was running great restaurants, being fiscally responsible, hiring the right people to do the admin side because that’s where success was going to come from.”
New York Times’ best-seller ‘Grit,’ authored by pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth, provides a constant source of inspiration for Jenny as she continues her entrepreneurial journey. “It refers to grit as doing something hard every single day and I feel that reflects a little of my personality, and reminds me of something I need to do more of sometimes.
“I talk to my three daughters about being gritty and working hard as well. Being successful isn’t an accident. Being successful at school isn’t an accident. The most successful people in the world, whether they’re an athlete or a pianist or a business person, have practiced and practiced and practiced. Working hard at what you do is really important. And that’s not just once a week or once a month, it’s what you do every single day.”
Jenny said she draws on Grit regularly for motivation and credits its ethos with giving her the resilience to cope with the tough times she’s inevitably encountered throughout the evolution of her business. “It’s not always easy because sometimes you’re tired and bad things happen, kids get sick, incidents happen in the business, but it’s important to try to put a positive mindset to what I do day-in, day-out,” she says.
Never did Jenny draw on that resilience as deeply as during the Pandemic. “As with many business owners during COVID, we just had to be nimble, change things up, redeploy resources, while still maintaining a level of fiscal responsibility and keeping staff employed in their jobs.” Despite her best efforts, Jenny’s “business went backwards” at the height of the Pandemic. Nevertheless, she said she feels lucky in comparison to many business owners.
Like all businesses in the present-day labour shortage, staff retention sits top of the priority list and Jenny invests heavily in her people, and is constantly on the lookout for ways to keep them engaged with the business.
“I’m very proud that in many cases we are giving people their first opportunity to work, to clock in, clock out, get a bank account, have the responsibility of enjoying their life outside of their parents’ control for the first time,” she said. “Most of the people who work for me will not have the career trajectory I’ve had. There are ex-employees I still keep in touch with that have been restaurant managers for me who have gone on to be lawyers and doctors and teachers and embarked on many other careers. McDonald’s been very important stepping-stone to learning skills they’ve taken onto to their next jobs.”
Jenny takes a personal interest in her staff, and looks for ways to create opportunities for training and development outside the parameters defined by McDonald’s as an organisation. This includes enabling more than half her management team to pursue full time university degrees in parallel with working full time within the business. “I know back when I was 18, I had the capacity to do full-time university as well as full-time work and I wasn’t given that opportunity in the McDonald’s I worked out so I made it a step-change in my business based on my personal experience,” she said.
As well as supporting her people to achieve their potential Jenny, who is about to open a restaurant in her hometown of Williamstown, is committed to supporting the communities within which her restaurants operate, sponsoring local sporting clubs and is passionate about championing the positives that comes with McDonald’s franchising model. “Yes, it’s a big global company, but the simple fact of the matter is that local people run the businesses.
“It makes me incredibly proud that I will employ our friends’ children and contribute to the local economy. What McDonald’s offers in training for young people is second to none and McDonald’s also commits to local supply chain. Ninety-five percent of all products and everything that we utilise through our restaurants is made or sourced in Australia from Australian farmers, Australian suppliers, and that’s something I’m really proud about because it creates jobs within Australia.”
Over the course of 15 years in business, it’s inevitable that any business owner will have less than fond memories of some chapters of their journey, but as with every facet of her approach, Jenny remains relentlessly positive and motivated. “I have lots of regrets, but every one of them has been a lesson, so they’re not a regret in retrospect,” said Jenny. “I’ve made lots of mistakes both personally and professionally, but one thing I like to think is that I’ve learned from my mistakes. So, I move on and I don’t dwell on the negatives of the past.”
North-West Melbourne’s premiere business networking events, Matthews Steer’s Success Stories Breakfasts feature the cream of local business owners sharing the secrets to their business success. If you would like to attend future Matthews Steer business networking events, please email our events team.