The CEO of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks grew

“I was in a survival position all my life, from being a child to high school,” says Hayes. luck. “I was always fraud. I was a serial pioneer even when you were younger.”

“When I was (I was) at the age of twelve years of age, I was selling Philadelphia newspapers and beans pies … I would go to the outskirts of suburbs and shovel snow when there was no snow on the ground in Feli. I never liked to ask my father money.

Hayes are now out of teenage corridors, and his early professional life as a postal service factor. In 2014, Feli’s citizen finally followed his passion after his sick father wished to start his own work – so he opened the Big Dev, he was named after his late father, in a coincidence The fuel station in Denwood, Georgia. Ten years later, the series exploded throughout the United States with 12 sites, and four new holes in restaurants in just four months of this year. Two Big Dave’s Psmot in Atlanta brought about $ 1.1 million to 1.8 million sales last year; The series sells a group of cheese, ranging from a sandwich of $ 11.99 to $ 46.99, every 58 seconds, with more than 1500 iconic sandwiches that are sold every day.

With the determination of 100 % of Big Dave concession as black or Bipoc, Hayes returns money to societies deprived of services, and spread his soul in the field of entrepreneurship beyond the sidewalks of suburbs, as he once sold bean pies.

“Since I was able to be a pioneer and (in) the development of this work, I learned that my gift does not make money. My gift really gives people a chance,” says Hayes. “I am able to raise people through my dream. I have 400 employees at the present time, and everyone has an opportunity to be able to spread their wings inside the Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks.”

Leave the American postal service to follow his father’s desire

Although Hayes embodied the spirit of entrepreneurship from an early age, his first job after high school in Philadelphia was classic from nine to five. During his early twenties, the CEO was working in the postal service, and he achieved good money with health benefits. But everything changed when his father fell ill – he was fighting lung cancer, and he needed support during his last years. Hayes’s employer did not allow him to spend a vacation to be by his side, so Hayes had to stay away from his stable career.

“When I entered the postal service, I thought this would be the job job from which I might retire,” says Hayes.

“I went to my managers and said,” Hey, I have been working here for nearly four years, and I didn’t take day after day. I need to leave for my father so that I can be with him. I said, “Listen, I will get another job, I will not get another father.”

Spending that last moments with the father would reshape his personal life and his career forever. It was not only about changing life to see his father and his favorite friend escaping from the terrible disease, but his father’s final desire changed the course of his entire career. Hayes said that he promised his father that he would have something to show his hard work. Five years later, Big Dev Cheesstics – named on his father’s memory – will be born at an old shell gas station.

“My father gave me principles and ethics in me today … when it comes to Big Dave Cheeseaks, I always think about how my father does this. Because watching your father dies in front of your face is something that you will never forget,” says Hayes. “I did not say that I was forced to do so, but it was something I felt was required, and it was something I felt I wanted to respect my father.”

From the purchase of the deserted shell station to open 12 locations throughout the United States

In 2014, Hayes finally decided to fulfill his father’s desire and put his work plan into implementation by opening his detail. The perfect place to do this was found: at a 700 square feet -foot shell station in Atlanta, Georgia, near the place where some members of his family lived. Although the serial entrepreneur is now known as Cheesesteaks, he actually began to hold Italian gaze.

“It was called Dave’s Philly Water Ice. No one was supporting me – I thought when I opened this work, and I had lines below the mass. People were like, did you sell cups of water?” “I am telling my mother, this will not work. He has succeeded in Philly, but they do not call us.” My mother was like, “Listen, do the thing you really want to do, put the cheese there.”

Hayes soon evaluated the restaurant to present the famous Feli sandwich: a roll of bread stuffed with halal beef, onions, mushrooms, pepper and cheese. Despite the renewal of the list, the hungry customers are still overwhelming in his restaurant until two years later when the rapper, actress and TV host appeared in the store. Philly-native was in Town to shoot the comedy drama movie Shave: the following piecesHankering authentic cheese. Her support came in time.

Hayes says: “The ego, my pocket, my work, everything collapses because I do not make money. I do not have people who support the brand. Then life taught me,“ If I continue to chase, something will happen. ” The next thing you know, I got lines from the fuel station – it was more traffic than I could deal with. “

Success did not stop there. In 2018, Hayes was invited to represent Georgia in the Shatira competition in Alabama. With no previous experience in working in professional kitchens as a chef – learn how to make good food with his grandfather, cook meals on Sunday – he finished seventh and overcame 1500 trained professionals. At this stage, Hayes and his chain of restaurants had more attention; The brand opened two sites in Georgia in 2020, and three inside the Mercedes Benz Stadium. In 2022, the pioneering Big Dave site in the center of Atlanta has made more than $ 2.3 million of revenue alone.

Although thousands of Cheesesteaks are now raised from the grills and in the hands of customers daily, the success of the Big Dave, which is millions of dollars, was only a meteorite. It took years of hard hard work and the additional victory of the company to stand in place today – Hayes will not get it in any other way.

“Everything in my career has stages, as God has best said that I did not move very quickly and move very slow,” says Hayes. “I moved at a good pace.”