Shaquille O’Neal, Rick Ross, Chris Brown; How These Black Celebrities Are Flourishing In The Franchise Game

For as long as we can remember, African Americans have risen to the top of the Hollywood rankings – sometimes in the face of prejudice – with performances in sports, music, and acting. In addition to their performances, these celebrities have also begun creating entrepreneurial fortunes.

Shaquille O’Neal is best known for his four NBA championships and his seamless pivot into Hollywood, but perhaps the achievement that Shaq will be most proud of is his success with his numerous franchises. At last count, Shaq owns 155 Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurants, 40 24-Hour Fitness Clubs, and 17 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, among a host of other businesses, making him the undisputed Hollywood king of franchises.

Multiplatinum Artist Chris Brown is mostly known for his music and has managed to keep his franchise ownership out of the spotlight. However, the artist is said to own 14 Burger King franchises. On the other hand, Grammy award-winning Rapper Rick Ross has been pretty vocal about his stake in WingStop, the fast-casual chicken wing chain. Rick Ross reportedly owns 25 franchises of the business. The list continues; athletes and artists are winning at the franchise game, from Magic Johnson to Hank Aaron and Venus Williams.

The big question is, Why franchises? Dennis Jenkins Jr, founder and CEO of the Executive Commercial Cleaning franchise, attempts to answer that question, “When you have a lot of liquid cash upfront, acquiring a franchise is the fastest way to own a thriving business without the hassles that come with starting from scratch, but it still takes a fair bit of caution and research to own one.”

Dennis Jenkins Jr, a prominent African-American entrepreneur, and Florida resident, recently began offering franchises for his company after reaching an annual revenue figure of over $7 million with his commercial cleaning business Executive Commercial Cleaning LLC. As an avid student of the franchise system, Jenkins advises that franchises are not to be rushed into just because you have some spare cash.

Inheriting A Settled System

Perhaps the most challenging part about starting and running a new business is developing a unique system that works for the business. Many successful businesses have had to experiment with several systems before they find the perfect one for them. The problem with experimenting is that it often results in short-term losses. However, franchises don’t have to struggle with finding a new system, and this is perfect for most celebrities because they barely have enough time to invest in the day-to-day development of a new business. Between his TV appearances, movie deals, and sports involvements, it’s difficult to imagine Shaq visiting all 200-plus franchises he owns, but that’s the beauty of working systems.

“No business would offer franchises if they have not already perfected a working system that consistently brings in healthy revenue. Likewise, no franchisee will buy a franchise if this system is not readily apparent. For instance, After we hit the $7 million annual revenue mark, we knew we had perfected our system and could start offering franchises. In just a few months of offering our franchise, we already have our first four franchise owners, Two in Florida, One in Miami, one in Fort Lauderdale, and another about to open in California. The attraction to our franchise is our proven system; we are perhaps one of the most heavily reliant on Robotics, and we have perfected it over the last four years. Our cleaning Robots take care of 50% of the work that we do, which seems attractive to our franchisees, especially in a time of labor shortage and high operational costs.”

Buying Into A Passion-Point

Rick Ross has been known to love his chicken wings, most Ross fans don’t just know this, but they also know what his favorite flavor is (lemon pepper). However, most people weren’t aware of his stake in Wing Stop until he started rapping about it in a load of songs. In an interview with Complex Media, Ross stated why he bought the franchise, “…Once I tasted it, I knew anybody who tasted it would like it.”

Elaborating on the importance of loving the franchise, Jenkins explains further, “When most people think of owning a franchise, they instantly think of how much money they can make, but many franchises aren’t even profitable. Before you buy into a franchise, you first have to look for their working system, and then you have to ask yourself, am I passionate about this business? Or do I see the value well enough to invest? Before starting ECC, I was primarily into real estate and owned some commercial buildings. I hired a facility management company that did a pretty shoddy job, then I asked around, and it turned out that most commercial building owners had the same complaint, that was my in, that was how the idea was born. The greatest celebrity entrepreneurs aren’t just throwing money around and hoping it works out; there is a forensic side to their investments.”

Buying Into Goodwill, Maintaining Goodwill

From Five Guys Burgers to Burger King, it is clear that these celebrities are buying franchises in businesses with tremendous goodwill. In our current cancel culture climate, celebrities cannot afford to be involved with any brand that doesn’t have significant public goodwill. However, on the flip side, they also have to keep themselves away from scandals that can, in turn, affect the brand.

Dennis Jenkins Jr considers goodwill one of the most precious commodities that any business can possess, “Goodwill is really hard to build; it takes years of consistent stellar delivery and exceptional customer relations to build any sustainable amount of goodwill,” Jenkins explains, “This is why when we offer our franchises, we are adamant about selling to people who can maintain that same goodwill, or it reflects badly on us. For instance, we are one of the only cleaning companies offering month-to-month contracts to our clients instead of the usual annual ones. We do this because we are very confident of being retained. It takes a tremendous amount of goodwill to take such steps.”

Most entrepreneurs are keenly aware of how difficult it is to build goodwill and how easy it is to lose it, and this is where franchising becomes dicey both for the franchisor and the franchisee. However, African-American celebrities do not seem to be having a problem in that department.

The significant growth of black-owned businesses in America is a testament to a shift in the culture, and it does appear to bring a glimmer of hope for the next generation of black Americans.