He Went From Delivering Pizza As a Side Hustle to Owning 270 Pizza Shops. Here's How He Did It: '[At First] It Was Chaos' Nadeem Bajwa immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 and struggled to pay his college bills. Here's how his success story unfolded.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Dan Bova
Key Takeaways
- Nadeem Bajwa started off as a delivery driver for his local Papa John's location when he was still in college.
- He is now a major Papa John’s franchisee, owning 270 restaurants in North America.
- Papa John’s has over 3,000 locations in the U.S.
In a little over three decades, Nadeem Bajwa went from being a college student struggling to pay the bills to the owner of a fast food empire, owning 270 Papa John's locations in North America.
The 58-year-old told CNBC that he immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 from Pakistan. He attended a college in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and worked side hustles to make ends meet. One of his side jobs was delivering pizza for a local Papa John's chain, making $4.25 an hour. His first summer in the U.S., he would wash dishes during breakfast time, deliver pizzas for Papa John's in the afternoon, and then work at Taco Bell at night.
"I just started delivering for Papa John's when they came in town, and from there, just started loving it, and tips were good, so that helped," Bajwa told CNBC.
Related: Want to Start a Business? This Franchise Will Give You Up to $100,000 to Do It.
When Bajwa graduated from college in 1996, he had already worked his way up the ranks at Papa John's, going from delivery driver to area manager. He submitted applications to corporate roles at other companies, but found that he couldn't get a job that would pay more than what he was making at Papa John's. He decided to stick with the pizza shop for that reason.
Bajwa's experience running a Papa John's store helped when he eventually decided to become a franchisee and open his own location. In 2002, he opened his own Papa John's restaurant in East Liverpool, Ohio, saving money on startup expenses by doing most of the labor himself.
The store took $150,000 to build out and was an instant success, with more customers showing up than expected. However, the crew was undertrained and overwhelmed, and half of them walked out that first day alone.
"[At first] it was chaos," Bajwa told CNBC. "I learned how important it is to be ready before [opening]."
That one restaurant led to another, then another. Bajwa's goal now is to open 500 Papa John's locations in the coming years.
Papa John's, which was founded in 1985, has over 3,000 locations in the U.S. It usually takes an initial investment of at least $272,915 to get a Papa John's restaurant off the ground.
