Michael Harris sees great potential for Albany business growth

ALBANY — Albany business owner Michael Harris bristles when he hears negative talk about the community he’s made home. As the owner of a successful McDonald’s franchise, he’s quick to point out that the local business community offers a lot of support to entrepreneurs willing to put in the effort to achieve success in the Good Life City.

Harris grew up in Miami and went to school at Grennel College in the Midwest before working in the Atlanta metropolitan area, for nearly two decades. He says he’s got enough work and life experience to form his opinion about what Albany has going for it.

Harris had gotten to know the market and the McDonald’s franchise model during his 24 years with McDonald’s corporate, many of which were spent as a franchisee consultant.

“My connection to Albany began when I moved to Atlanta from Miami,” said Harris. “I had transferred and had the opportunity to work on the franchisee side of the business as a corporate person, basically as a business consultant to all the franchisees. In the year 2000, I decided that perhaps it was a good time to venture out on my own and try to own and operate. I went to the powers that be and got the blessing. With that there came the opportunity here. The previous owners were looking to relocate. It just hit right.”

Harris said he made the decision to buy the franchise rights in the Albany area from the Powers family, which owned and operated eight locations in Southwest Georgia, including four in the city of Albany.

While making the decision to strike out on his own as a franchisee was relatively easy for him, Harris said he spent a considerable amount of time researching where he wanted to go.

“At the time Albany wasn’t the only area I was looking at, not the only area where folks were retiring and moving on and wanting to sell their franchises,” Harris said. “Jacksonville actually was very close and one of the areas I was considering. From the standpoint of where you grew up and what you’re used to, it probably was better, or one would think it would be because I’m from Miami. It’s on the ocean, it’s a natural. … I was looking for something a little bit different. It was just about the business and what was going to happen with it, it was more of, what do I want to do?”

What Harris ultimately decided he wanted to do was relocate to a place where he saw the greatest potential for success and not necessarily what felt like a natural fit from a personal standpoint.

The things Harris found attractive about Albany then are the same things that he feels sustain his business today.

“From a business standpoint, looking at the two opportunities, I actually saw Albany as a better growth opportunity,” said Harris. “I felt that certain things, and the talents that I brought to the table, would help me grow the McDonald’s business here. And it has. It did pan out the way I thought it would.”

One of those key elements is what Harris sees as a community in which he can build important business relationships in a multitude of ways. Harris feels he has been able to forge solid relationships with other businesses that service his, such as contractors, plumbers, electricians and other trade businesses.

“From the beginning, it’s been easy for me to connect with other business people who provide goods and services to us,” said Harris. “McDonald’s is unique in that I don’t buy food stuffs and those kinds of things from different purveyors here, but there are folks who service us — plumbers and electricians and so on. It was very easy for me to find people who could do the work and do it very well, who were great folks. I can call a lot of folks on a moment’s notice and go, ‘I’ve got a real emergency here, what can you do for me?’ And those folks will come out and get it taken care of.”

Harris said he’s also been able to build relations with peers in the business community who have always been willing to share ideas and discuss important trends. Citing his dealings with financial institutions and the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, of which he is a member, Harris said Albany’s business community is very collaborative.

“Albany has a supportive business community in general,” Harris said. “One of the things with the chamber is that you can sit and you’re able to gain a little bit of knowledge on how people are doing things and coping with things and how to manage in business and most importantly how they’re able to develop people. That connection has been outstanding. I think that’s one of the great things that happens here, as opposed to some of the larger cities where you just can’t make those kinds of connections.”

Now, with nearly 14 years of doing business under his belt in Albany, Harris has decided it is time to expand his operation. If things go according to current plans Harris will open a fifth McDonald’s restaurant in Albany by mid-February at Gillionville Road and Westover Boulevard in west Albany.

While Harris has renovated his four other locations — relocating one — over the years, this marks the first new store in Albany during his tenure here, which he thinks says a lot about growth in the community and the potential for continued growth in the coming years.

“I know from our perspective, we’ve been looking at that area for probably three to four years,” said Harris. “It just came together where enough was happening and enough people had good feelings about having enough further growth in the area. This is a good place to be.”

“There are some pockets (in Albany) where there isn’t a whole lot there. There are people there, but there’s not a lot of business growth there. Gillionville and Westover happens to be one of those areas that is slowly developing. A lot of people are going there. Gillionville and Westover itself and everything that’s happening down there; there’s plenty of property and it’s zoned properly to nurture businesses. There’s also folks who are on the cutting edge of that; Homerun Foods came in, Flash Foods has been there, Waffle House came in, Walmart has put one of their newer concepts in, so it’s the right timing.”

Another thing Harris feels has helped the area grow has been the expansion of Darton State College. That along, with the growth of Albany Tech and Albany State University (ASU), is something that Harris also points to when predicting positive growth for the community as a whole in the coming years.

“(Darton) and our college system in general has helped a lot the growth in that area,” said Harris. “Darton and its programs, and building dorms, is expanding by leaps and bounds. Albany Tech has done absolutely the same thing, which I think says a lot about what people think about Albany and speaks very well to the fact that we’re upping our game as far as education and educating our workers. So, businesses should be flocking here because we’re educating our work force.”

That work force is something that is important to Harris and something he feels is critical to his success. Harris said that for many employees working at McDonald’s, it is their first job, so he views his role in that as being very much like one of a teacher.

Harris said his company takes great pride in teaching basic work skills that will help employees not only with their career at McDonald’s, but with any career path they choose to take. Concepts such as punctuality, responsibility, meeting expectations, quality of work, working as part of a team and producing defined results with feedback are critical building blocks of any career, he said.

Harris is so passionate about education that he recently began teaching business courses at ASU, where he tries to build on those basic concepts and also teach about building a successful business through proper planning and execution.

“One of the things that I do with this class is teach business policy focusing on business strategy,” said Harris, “how businesses form strategy and become successful or not.”

More often than not, Harris draws on his own experiences as both a franchisee consultant with McDonald’s and as an owner-operator. The concepts that he presents are the ones that he believes have made him successful.

He also stresses that being attached to a successful brand like McDonald’s, which does a lot to support their franchisees, does not mean instant success. For Harris, there are no shortcuts around planning and hard work.

“McDonald’s is a tried and true formula, it really is, but there are McDonald’s that are not successful; there are franchisees that are not successful,” Harris said. “Some of that’s based on the economic situation, but, you know, it just gets down to execution and business acumen. Everybody does think that there really is gold at the bottom of the golden arches.

“In a certain sense, yes, there is. It’s a very successful company and has been for 50 years. But it’s like every other business. You don’t just put the building up and it becomes ‘Field of Dreams’; you build it, they’ll come. Well, they’ll come one time, maybe twice. But it’s also about what you do and how you do it. There are a lot of franchisees here, and those folks are individual entrepreneurs. They put their money into it and their time and their heart and their soul to run that business cause it won’t run itself. You’re under the auspices of a huge company and you’re using their formula and it’s very helpful and everything else, but it doesn’t guarantee you success. So, you have to do what it is that small business people do.”