I recently had the pleasure to spend some time with Robin Sorensen, Co-Founder of Firehouse subs and learn more about the journey that has ultimately led to great success. But, it wasn’t with out some hiccups.

Firehouse Subs is a fast-casual restaurant brand founded in Jacksonville, Fla. by former firefighting brothers, Chris and Robin Sorensen, and their story to success is nothing short of the American Dream.

From multiple failed efforts to create a business of their own (a Christmas tree farm, for example) Chris and Robin found their golden ticket in 1994 when they decided to open the very first Firehouse Subs. Although denied financing, they borrowed Robin’s mother-in-law’s credit card and did not take a consistent paycheck for many years to ensure the restaurant was successful.

23 years later, Firehouse Subs now has over 1,100 restaurants in 44 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico and has helped over 400 small business owners have their own piece of the dream. In addition to the restaurants, they also created Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation with the mission of providing funding and life-saving equipment to first-responders and public safety organizations. Since its creation in 2005, the Foundation has given more than $31 million to hometown heroes in 46 states, Puerto Rico and Canada.

What is your elevator speech on your professional career: who are you, what have you done and how does that translate into value for your customers?

I never talk about me or who I am. Our focus is food and our foundation.

From a food perspective, we give bigger portions and quality meats.

Our foundation buys life-saving equipment for fire departments. The foundation came about from a disaster in 2005: Hurricane Katrina. It made us think about what we could do to help. The city of Jacksonville asked if we would provide food for the firefighters heading to Katrina. We sent an 18-wheeler of food and thousands of bottles of water.

Upon arrival, one of the police officers said, “There are many other survivors who need help, can we escort you to help them? 4 days later, we had a life changing experience to help thousands of people in Katrina which spurred the creation of the foundation.

Disaster doesn’t happen every day, but we are providing lifesaving equipment to fire and police departments all the time. Or, a school called and asked for AEDs (automated external defibrillator) in all 26 schools. We have since donated thousands of AEDs across the country.

To date, we’ve donated $31 million to 3,200 different entities across the country. Lots of police and fire, but also hospitals, colleges, and schools. 70% of the funds come from customers by “rounding up to the nearest dollar” or selling special items.

So in regards to the food side of our business, it’s absolutely critical we continue focusing on quality as the impact is much bigger than simply selling sandwiches.

Q. What was the lowest point in your life personally and professionally and how did it help you get where you are today?

I’ve never thought to myself that our business is failing. There have been speed bumps, but that’s just life.

It’s normal everyday stuff like hiring the wrong person or putting a store in the wrong location. But, I look at these as temporary setbacks, not failures.

1994 to the early 2000s was the hardest and best time of my professional life. It was the grind and battle of building the business: If you want to be successful, work your ass off, be disciplined, invest in your business, stay lean, live in a shack and earn your badge of honor.

In 1994 I paid myself $12,000 and we had a newborn baby living in an apartment. Chris was still a fireman and he didn’t take any money from the business. By the end of 1997, I had a new house, lots of bills and told my wife we were broke. I had just made three times more than I ever made as a fireman, yet we had no money. If I made money, I would spend it.

I signed up for Dave Ramsey course and learned how to get our finances back in order.

My wonderful wife and mother are the most influential people in my life. They were always positive and supportive. We never had a moment where we were pressured to spend.

Living outside your means creates the position of making decisions for the wrong reasons.

Q. What is the biggest mistake you see people make with a new business?

They are in too big of a hurry. They have too much of a sense of urgency to grow their business.

Once our first store was open we immediately wanted to franchise, and it was a major mistake. We weren’t prepared.

We couldn’t believe someone was willing to pay us to open a branded store. We thought it was candid camera; we couldn’t believe people were interested. I was never a big fan of franchising because I’m a control freak and couldn’t trust people to do the job as well as I could. The only way I could hold people accountable was to do my job and hold people accountable to their obligations.

There were a lot of unknowns to growing that we just had to figure out. Thankfully, we recognized the timing wasn’t right and stepped back.

Q. You talk a lot about the basics of running a business. What do you mean by that?

You have to stay disciplined on your plan daily. We built the business on the basis of frugality. The only reason we survived was being frugal. You have to put the business and the plan first, not your personal life and desires. For many years we were not paid. We just executed the plan.

By 2001 we became debt free and are still debt free today. In 2004 we took our first distribution, which happened to be our 10^th anniversary. We were extremely disciplined at the time and owned 37 stores.

We also hired some consultants to develop a realistic growth plan. It was a very pleasant experience to step back and think about the process in a different way. Good news is we went into the planning with a long list of things we knew not to do. Turns out we were very good at executing plans.

We easily spent $200,000 – $300,000 on consultants, which we had to borrow. One of which was very memorable and we’re still friends to this day.

On day one the consultant was extremely harsh. He had looked at six months of work and said what we had done was terrible. It was an eye opener.

He said: “Did you fly me down to be a friend or to help you build a business?”

Hiring consultants made the difference.

To be able to sit with someone who has run 2,500-3,000 restaurants to justify our gut feelings, or the opposite, was huge for us. We were constantly seeking answers. We loved speaking to those that had already “made it”, like the founders of Outback and Subway.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, just focus on learning and get the experience before you step out and try to take over the world.

Q. Let’s show everyone you’re a normal human being. What’s your personality, hobbies, favorite places to visit, pet peeve? Tell us about YOU.

Family and work is my thing. I don’t have hobbies. I am chairman now and am eight to nine years separated as the CEO.

Chris and I choose what we’re involved in. I keep my finger in the business seven days per week because I’m a control person. I enjoy this. It’s my life and it’s what I’m passionate about.

The most comfort is family time. I’ve been married 26 years. We love to travel. I love host and entertain. We have a ranch in Montana and entertain a lot.

I get to do a lot of cool stuff, and I enjoy doing things for others. We took a group of ladies from accounting to the Bahamas and rolled out the red carpet. We take groups from work to do things they likely will never experience.

I love helping people with new experiences.