Small business. Really small.

Dearest Tacoma consumers,

I used to think small business owners were motivated by the need for creative freedom in their professions, the desire for independence, or the frustrations with management working for other companies…

The older I get, the more I become certain that most small business entrepreneurs in Tacoma are under-educated, lazy, and too incompetent to hold post at any decent jobs working for someone else. I’ve established a translation key that might help you understand these people better. On the left, you’ll find the word people might think of when describing a small business entrepreneur near them. On the right, my translation, stating what’s often at work instead. Ready? Okay.

Creative ———-> Odd
Independent ———-> Not accountable to anyone for anything
Risk taker ———-> Lacking other sound options
Driven to succeed ———-> In need of a paycheck
Good Business Person ———-> Manages to stay self-employed
Different ———-> Kinda fucked up

Now that you’ve seen the wizard behind the curtain, let’s go for an example. Nick -N- Willy’s Pizza in the Proctor District was full of incompetency, top to bottom. How did they get a franchise up and running without any training on how to make pizzas, how to use the cash register, or how to deal with customers? It’s people like this that bring down the low success rate for small businesses in this region.

When done right, small business can be terrific. But there’s NO FREE LUNCH.

9 thoughts on “Small business. Really small.”

  1. Hey AP-

    I finally went to Nick N Willy’s tonight to try out one of their specialty pizzas (garlic chicken and bacon). I think you’re right-the biggest thing lacking right now is a sense of great customer service. When I called, the guy who answered wasn’t very upbeat and sounded like i was interrupting him. Then, i had to repeat myself each time i said something (it was obvious he just wasn’t really paying attn because he would repeat back to me something different then what I had said). I even had to spell my name three times to him and he still spelled it wrong so they had a hard time finding my pizza when i arrived. When i arrived to pick up my pizza, the lady ringing me up was very nice but seemed very overwhelmed. It took her about 5 minutes just to ring me up on the computer-how hard can a pizza system be?? I noticed there were about 5-6 young kids standing in the background on the pizza line all trying to figure out who was doing what pizza and which toppings went on each one. When the phone rang, the lady ringing me up took the call but asked the person to hold. In the meantime, anything i said to her about my name was being repeated by some guy (must be the mgr) as if she didn’t hear me when i said it. Then, he had some young girl come over to answer the call that was holding and told her EXACTLY what to say to the customer. Maybe they lack basic customer service training?? Or, maybe the mgr just doesn’t know what the heck he’s doing either.

    Anyway, I brought my pizza home and while it wasn’t ‘bad’ it sure wasn’t worth the 16.51 that i paid for it. Most of the toppings were concentrated in the middle so by the time i got the the second half of the slice, it was basically just cheese and a few onions. I think their garlic sauce/oil makes it too greasy also.

    I think I’ll follow your lead and give them a few months to get it together and try it again. But, if i have the same experience as i did today, i won’t be going back.

  2. So as a small business owner, I feel I must comment. People do tend to think of business owners as the pioneers of the modern time, striking off on their own to create a brighter future. This can be correct but lets not forget about those pioneers who struck off on their own because no one else would have them. Hopefully we can all see the difference between the two.

    It is true that many business owners and businesses are sketchy at best. In some respects owning a business is the easiest way out. For people that have a problem with authority or lack of ability to stick to a schedule, running their own business is a great way to skirt the system. These half assed attempts at fitting into society are often glaringly obvious after a short time in business however and these people are destined to live a mediocre life struggling between missed appointments and customer complaints.

    The other side of the coin is the business owner who enjoys the challenge of creating something and uses the business to enhance the community around them and build the lives of his employees. In the case of Nick and Willy’s obviously the jury is still out. I will say that giving them another chance is a good idea. I remember I was so disoriented on our fourth day of business that I didn’t even know how to answer the phone. There are a lot of obstacles that stand in the way of opening a legit business. So many that I think once the doors are open, many owners are still in shock that they made it through the maze.

    Basically my point is that business owners are just people. People who make mistakes and people who sometimes don’t want to get out of bed to go to work. With that in mind, they signed up for the toughest job of all. They are required to work long hours and have to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers. Lets just try to avoid setting them up for failure by putting them on a pedestal and holding them to unrealistic standards.

  3. My name is Chris Fox. I am the owner of Nick-N-Willys in Tacoma. We have been open since September 17th, and I want to express my sincere apologies to any of our guests that have not had a great experience or have had mistakes and or delays in there orders, or have experienced less than excellent pizza.

    I make no excuses and am honored to be in the Proctor district, and am working everyday to deliver quality and consistency, with a pleasant and friendly staff that meets your deadlines.

    Now a bit of history about me and my family. I am married with three daughters. I chose to go from being a registered nurse in the E.R. and ICU to opening this pizza store and eventually having my whole family work together. My wife would eventually love to have her own restaurant and is an excellent cook. I am not an absentee owner and have invested our lives around this store. I am at the store everyday and every hour that it is open. Just ask for Chris and I am more than happy to help you.

    Any mistakes that happen to our customers are my top priority. I make every effort to rectify wrongdoings that I am made aware of and am always sincere and empathetic, and I understand how frustrating poor service is. I will always do whatever it takes to compensate for time lost or satisfaction not met. Our customers are the most important and rewarding part of starting this business, and I try to meet each one personally and thank them for coming by.

    I along with my father have spent three weeks in Colorado training at the main Nick-N-Willys store to be proficient at running this store. However I put too much emphasis on overcoming construction delays and not enough on training the new crew who is making the pizza. Training is taking place everyday, and our staff is responding with fewer mistakes. I know what must be done and everyday I am developing more streamlined processes in the kitchen with the main focus for quality customer service.
    Thank you to all that have returned and have loved our pizza, and I am sorry to all those who have not.

    We do have a very extensive preparation every morning of fresh produce, meats, salads, and hand made dough. This along with our various options for thin crust or thick crust, cal zones, four different sauces, the option to take and bake or have us bake it, or dine-in, or carry out, or half-n-half pizzas, or substitutions,deletions, or additions, or apple crisp and cinn-a-bites to take home or for us to cook in our oven, and also the fact that we have a woodstone oven that is manually operated with a full time cook that ensures nothing burns, and having room for two on our 8 foot food preparation line where all orders run through is why I ask everyone to please be patient and I thank you for your understanding. We will work out the kinks naturally by training everyday.

    Thank you for you time. Any questions please don’t hesitate to call me at the store at 253-444-3060.

  4. Chris,

    I have been out of town, but I’m looking forward to my next visit. Hopefully things are running smooth and everyone is happily stuffing themselves with lots of your pizza daily. To anyone reading this, it should be re-emphasized that the pizza is very good. I will be back again as soon as I’m in town.

    AP

  5. Being from Germany I can tell you this bratwurst is excellent, it is as good as any bratwurst you can find in Germany, in this area you would be hard pressed to find anything that comes close in taste to the Murray Morgan that the Red Hot offers. Their sauerkraut is very nice as well. The only thing I would change is get rid of the hot dog bun, serve the bratwurst
    on a hard roll type bun like the german broetchen.

  6. Place is a train wreck! As I was paying for my food the girl behind the counter couldn’t contain herself from rolling her eye’s and telling me how incompetent the ownership was as the wife of the owner was walking away after telling her ( the employee ) to do something. On a separate trip into the store the owner’s father kept me for an additional 20 minutes giving me the “expert” opinion on what people want in a restaurant. Watch out for him because he doesn’t care how obvious you want out of there! My kid literally was crying in my arms!

    All the time in the world is going to get you out of this one Mr. Fox! Unless you figure out a way to:

    1. get a consistent product
    2. find a way to provide a positive store experience
    3. keep your loved one’s at home
    4. stop coming up with page long excuses

    You’re going to be back on bed pan duty real soon!

  7. I find Tacomarama a fun place to be, you do not have to work for the “real” newspaper to have an opinion, do you? I heard about Nick’s pizza through this site and decided to try them, after telling the person taking my order twice what kind of pizza I would like I was confident in my order, imgaine my surprise when I opened the box and there was not the pizza I ordered.
    $ 16 for a pizza is by no means to much however if you pay $ 16 for a pizza you don’t like it is a diffrent ball game.

    To the guys at Tacomarama keep up the great work I for one love your site =)

    Thanks for the Red Hot tip.

  8. 1. Don’t let me down neither, Chris.. I’ve been a loud proponent for pizza by the slice in this neighborhood! You MUST succeed.

    2. I can’t believe I forgot to comment on the TV. Maybe if I was a paid journalist in a large media machine I would have noticed that.

    3. Is this a place where people would want to hang out and drink beers?

    4. This nonprofessional opinion is coming from my living room, not my parents’ garage. I agree with Birgit; real opinions do exist outside the collective minds of The News Tribune and the Weekly Volcano. Bryon, feel free to keep your opinion, even if you are not a paid reporter.

  9. The people are nice and the food is great! I’ve gone as far as letting everyone in my office know where one of the best Pizza places is in Tacoma. They got some bugs to figure out… big deal! Have you ever ordered a Pizza from one of the big chains? I’d feel much better if I knew that the management took the time to go over exactly what needed to be both said and asked when i call in to place my order! As far as the consistency of the product…… give it time! They’ll figure out the oven and topping placement quickly. I know that one option is to take it home and bake yourself so I suggest if you don’t like how they cook it go do it in your own kitchen – FYI the pizza stone you can buy at the store is awesome to cook on! Totally worth the price I paid for it. As for the folks that don’t agree that their pizza was worth the $16 they paid for it I suggest you continue to order the 3 medium for $15 deal at Dominoes and quit giving Chris and his crew such a hard time!
    Dear Chris – 1. Don’t let me down
    2. Nice TV
    3. Hurry up with the beer sales
    4. the Internet can be a nasty place so don’t let these guys get to you! If these guys had any form of a professional opinion they’d work for the real paper and not some Internet site in their parents garage! 5.Everyone’s family is crazy – It’s scary to think about what people would say about my wife!

    Good Luck,

    Bryon

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