📺 Stream EntrepreneurTV for Free 📺

How One Entrepreneur Went From Waiting Tables to Owning Over 80 Restaurants Dawn Lafreeda, Owner of Den-Tex Central, talks about her path to becoming the largest single-owner franchisee for Denny's.

By David Meltzer

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Dawn Lafreeda, Owner of Den-Tex Central and judge on Elevator Pitch, discusses her journey in the food service industry, from her beginnings waiting tables to owning over 80 full-service restaurants across the United States, and shares advice for those who want to own their first franchise.

Lafreeda and host David Meltzer discuss topics such as finding the right business partner, the benefits of becoming a franchisee, building an infrastructure that provides advancement opportunities for loyal employees and how technology is helping to streamline the restaurant business. The pair also converse about the ongoing controversy surrounding the tipping of restaurant servers.

Related: Randi Zuckerberg's Rule of 3 Can Help You Maintain Work-Life Balance

David Meltzer

Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing, Speaker, Author and Business Coach

David Meltzer, co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing and host of Entrepreneur's podcast, “The Playbook”, is a Top 100 Business Coach, global public speaker and three-time international best-selling author who has been honored by Variety as “Sports Humanitarian of the Year”.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Growing a Business

The Only Way to Win Over Customers Is to Become Their First Choice. Here's How to Do It.

The best businesses focus their customer experience programs on doing the things that delight customers and put them ahead of their competition. Here are three little secrets to achieving this goal.

Business News

AI Is Transforming Drug Matching for Cancer, Rare Diseases — Here's How

One AI pharmaceutical startup works backward, starting from drugs already on the market.

Business News

A First-of-Its-Kind Flamethrower Robot Dog That Blasts 30-Foot Flames Is Now Available to the Public

Thermonator builds on existing technology — with a fiery twist. What could go wrong?

Business Solutions

Expand Your Business' Reach with This AI E-Book Generator for $25

Powered by intuitive AI, this tech enables you to easily create e-books that could generate income online.

Employee Experience & Recruiting

How Empathy-Based Leadership Can Transform Your Teams and Businesses

Empathy-based leadership is increasingly recognized as a valuable approach in the business world, where traditional strategic plans often fall short.