Jim and Melissa Hightower: Domino's Dynamic Duo

COEUR d'ALENE - Jim and Melissa Hightower are husband and wife, best friends and business partners. And believe it or not, they're still smiling, laughing and having fun.

Wonder how they do it?

It goes beyond their love for each other.

"I think it's because we both love Domino's and we love our children. Those are the two main things in our lives," Jim said. "There's nothing but continuity, really."

The Hightowers are franchise owners of four Domino's Pizza services in the area, one each in Coeur d'Alene, Rathdrum, Hayden and Post Falls. They employ about 80. Jim, whose career in the restaurant business began at the age of 7, has been with Domino's since 1994. Melissa has been with them 20 years. Naturally, they met through their Domino's contacts at a Domino's conference in 1999, and have been married eight years.

"I knew it the first time I saw her. I was immediately interested in her," Jim said. "She wasn't that interested in me. It took her about five years."

Melissa laughs at that comment.

"He didn't mention that I always asked him for training materials," she said. "He never got why. I had my own training materials. He finally caught on."

They're relaxed as they talk of the challenges and rewards of their work, of working 60 and 70 hours a week, of averaging 23 minutes to deliver a pizza after it's ordered. They mention with pride that last week, 86 percent of orders were delivered in less than 30 minutes.

Both have helped open, operate and supervise hundreds of Domino's. Jim at one point was director of operations over all the Domino's stores in Tucson and southern Arizona.

"I actually keep a scorecard. Twenty-two times in my career I've gone into and taken a group of stores or built stores and I'm 20-2. Twenty wins and two losses," Jim said, grinning.

Melissa recalled opening the Rathdrum and Hayden stores in 2002 just a few months apart, and this was after already owning the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls stores.

"It was a fun time," she said. "I walked around with my contractor's belt on."

To save money, she delivered fliers door to door, then opened the Coeur d'Alene store, worked the day shift, went home and spent hours on finances.

"She built the success, literally, with no money," Jim said. "She built a fabulous four-store business."

The Coeur d'Alene couple have eight children and six grandchildren, and they've introduced them to the pizza business. Jim's son Rhett owns three Domino's stores in Billings, Mont., while Melissa's son Jake Clair manages the Coeur d'Alene store.

They're known for donating pizzas to community causes, and love talking about - and eating - pizza and their new boneless chicken. Domino's Pizza, both readily admit, consumes their lives at times.

"That's what we do," Jim said.

Still, they find time for fun, like golf, and played at Prairie Falls, in the rain, last week.

"We tied," Jim said, adding that Melissa is very good.

His wife, sitting next to him, just smiles.

"I let him win every other time, just because it's important for his ego," she said.

You work closely together. What are your responsibilities?

Jim: We break it up. I'm kind of responsible for operations and marketing. She's responsible for the banking, the book work and paying the bills, all the paperwork stuff. I help her with what she does and she helps me. If we're busy and I need someone to make pizzas I call her up and she comes on over. So we work side by side, literally, 18 hours a day.

Is it easy to leave work at work and not take it home?

Melissa: No.

Jim: We work out of our home. Even when we're at home, 8 or 9 o'clock at night, I'll be sitting there and she'll be on the laptop, she'll be checking Domino's stuff, checking Facebook pages. We literally do it all day. That's what we do.

Melissa: Technology with Domino's has grown so immensely since I started. We used to do everything on paper slips and it was handwritten. Now, not only do we take orders by the computer systems, but we are linked to the stores. So wherever I am, on my phone or my laptop, I have a full array of what's going on in the stores. How many people are there, what their out-the-door times are, what their deliveries times are, how many drivers are on the road, all at the touch of a button.

Jim: I'll come home and she'll say, 'I knew you were coming home because I saw you weren't on the clock anymore.'

Melissa: We can literally, without being in the store, see everything going on, although, it's most important to be in your store so you get to know your crews. We also know if they're exceeding our goals or if they're taking longer than 15 minutes to get out the door.

Jim: That's how we're so fast. Everything is geared to get the pizzas in the oven and get them out the door.

How has the pizza business changed over the years?

Jim: We used to just deliver pizzas, that was it. Now, we have several different kinds of pizza, pasta, oven-baked sandwiches, bread sticks, pasta, boneless chicken, wings, dessert. It's much more difficult now than it was 20 years ago.

So why have you stayed in this so long?

Melissa: I love working with the kids. The majority of our employees are younger. There's a chance to influence kids and let them know where they can go, and how much value they have as a person. I've always loved to do that. And Domino's is a perfect venue for my life goals, to help the kids achieve their goals.

Jim: We have half a dozen people we've mentored into becoming business owners. It's fun, that's why, a totally unpredictable business. You're doing the same thing, but you never know how it's going to go, when it's going to get busy. Food is never boring. It's always different, it's a challenge.

Melissa: I just ran into a former employee yesterday and she said she loved coming to work because even when she was in a down time in her life and would get confused on deliveries and such, she'd come in and I'd say, 'Excellent.' She said, 'I'll ways remember that. It started me on my road back.'

Jim: The other thing is, you get to see the fruits of your labor in seven minutes. You make the pizza and seven minutes later it comes out of the oven. It looks fabulous and it's going out the door in 12 minutes and you know it'll be at its place in 20 minutes. Just a great feeling of feedback.

Is it lucrative?

Jim: It can be lucrative. It's not as lucrative as it used to be because of the price of labor and the price of food and the price of insurance, the price of banking, credit card costs, all have just gone way up. It's more difficult to be successful at it.

How do you deal with debit card fees?

Jim: It's just a price of doing business. We used to see a lot of hot checks. Now we don't get very many checks. Everybody pays with debit cards. It's an expense that really wasn't there 10 years ago. Bank charges were very small 10 years ago.

Melissa: We absorb it.

What are some of the biggest challenges?

Melissa: The administrative side of it is not as much fun as the operations part, but it has to be done and you have to stay on top of things. There are labor laws you have to be sure to keep up with.

Jim: I think it's not so much how you handle success, it's when you're having a lot of problems and failure that determines how good of a person, how good of a business person you are.

What about the rewards?

Melissa: We couldn't do this without our teams, and our teams become our family. We have eight children between us, but I actually have 80. They become part of our family. They are what keeps our business going. They are what makes us good. Our job is to train them and give them the tools. That is so rewarding.

Jim: I enjoy the competition. It's so fun to come into a market, then out-compete your competitors to win.

We've enjoyed building stores. She built this store, we built four in Wichita. Now that we're back here, we have this business stabilized again, we're looking around. I don't imagine we'll go too long before we're building stores again.

Where are expansion opportunities?

Jim: There's a lot of places. Kellogg, Wallace, that whole area is a growing area. There are opportunities in places you won't even think because Domino's has kind of transformed itself. We used to have just one way to do this. Now we have stores in convenience stores, small places, we can do dine-in, so it doesn't have to be the traditional delivery stores. We're always looking around. We'll see what happens.

Would you encourage family, friends, others to get into the pizza biz?

Melissa: If you like to work, if you're not faint of heart.

Jim: It's more difficult than it used to be. It's one of those businesses where perseverance and persistence are important. Just long hours. It would be nice if you could just work smart, but in our business you have to work hard and smart. When times are tough, you can't get down. You have to figure out a way around it and you'll have success on down the road.

How do you work so well together?

Melissa: If we disagree, it's usual something about the stores. We'll take a pause. We'll take a time-out. I think that's important, that you take a time-out and think before you speak.

Jim: We know we're unusual. She's my best friend, my wife and my partner. We're together 16 hours a day and hardly ever quarrel. When we do, it's usually about Domino's.