Mother’s Day is a special day for Amanda Giles. This is an opportunity for her to thank her mother Deborah her holder for being her mentor in running her own McDonald’s restaurant just like her mother did. Together they share knowledge, ideas and experiences and help each other become the best they can be as they grow.
Amanda and Deborah, along with Deborah’s husband, own a total of six McDonald’s locations in the Raleigh and Durham areas. The mother-daughter duo learn from each other as they approach the business from different perspectives. Each of us has taken very different paths to reach this point in our lives.
Deborah Holder began her McDonald’s journey in New York after seeing McDonald’s owner-operator Lee Dunham on a TV show about entrepreneurs. This experience inspired Deborah, a flight attendant at the time, and her husband, a police officer, to continue this journey together.
“It took me two and a half years to get through McDonald’s Registered Applicant Program,” Holder said. “That means working 20 hours a week for free.”
This led them to own the first McDonald’s inside New York’s LaGuardia Airport. By the time he left New York for Raleigh in 2011, he had grown to include six of his stores in Brooklyn and Queens, which he eventually sold and relocated to North Carolina.
According to Deborah, the difference between New York and North Carolina is night and day. She detailed how the Empire State’s burdensome taxes and regulations make it difficult for small businesses to operate in New York.
“It’s very big and spacious,” Holder told the Carolina Journal of New York state’s regulatory environment. “They have a syrup tax. The health department comes and counts the flies and they fine you all the time. It was very difficult. For years we tried to get out of there and find opportunities elsewhere. I was looking for something and wanted to know what it was like.”
They realized that in just a moment in New York, the Tar Heel State represented a major change.
“The first thing one of our managers said when he came in with us was that there were trees,” Holder said of the new North Carolina venue. “The pace was completely different. In New York it’s frantic and walking is like running a marathon. Here everything is nice and relaxed and the slower pace is very pleasant. It’s where it’s supposed to be.”
Holder believes that one of the many reasons people move to North Carolina from all over the country is the slower pace and relaxing environment. It also doesn’t hurt that the business environment has become more friendly.
Holder’s daughter Giles is the owner and operator of a McDonald’s franchise in Wendell. After she graduated from college, Amanda Wake worked at a non-profit organization in Forest, but she soon began looking for another job and moving up through the ranks at McDonald’s was a natural path. Amanda started out as a flight attendant, worked her way up to department manager, general manager, and eventually joined McDonald’s program to become an owner-operator like her mother.
“I’ve seen progress in this area. It’s grown so much,” Giles said of the Wendell area. “First of all, this place was Dirt until two years ago. We’ve seen more community development, but especially with this restaurant, it’s been embraced by a community that we wouldn’t have expected in Queens or Brooklyn.” I feel that.”
As a business owner, Giles feels at home in the Wendell community.
“Just by getting to know people, partnering with local schools, hosting teacher nights with them, and being a part of the community, we are getting more out of doing business.” I can feel it. Be more involved,” she said.
Holder said working with her daughter to overcome the challenges of running a small business will be more fulfilling. Of course, her daughter also relies on her mother’s steering experience when she encounters bumps in the road.
“It’s reassuring to have someone who can call me and ask, ‘How can I get on this platform?’ How do I log in? ” Holder admitted with a laugh. “It’s great to get a different perspective, a younger perspective. We each have our own unique skill set and we work with that.”
“It’s a different story when you have someone to call and you can call McDonald’s and your mom,” says daughter Giles. “We work together very well and we get to get feedback from each other, which is a lot of fun. It’s fun to work.”
So what does the future hold for this duo? He said he would like to grow once the opening is realized.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to grow again,” Giles said. “If there are other communities that need a place to have coffee for breakfast and continue to do what we do to continue to give back to the community.”
