Customer Reviews

Hire the American Dream: How to Build Your Minimum Wage Workforce Into A High-Performance, Customer-Focused Team

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My sincere appreciation goes to Dave Melton for reminding me of so many of the basic principals which I first learned from and later passed on to the multitude of Dominoids that I was associated with in my 15 years with Domino's Pizza.

This book is an excellent resource to any business owner on what it takes to hire, motivate, educate, inspire, evaluate, recognize, reward, and ultimately build a successful team. Especially when the majority of that team comes from those willing to start at minimum wage.

As an extremely successful Domino's franchisee, Dave shares with you an inside look at a culture, a mindset, and a system of values that exists within many of the top owners of Domino's Pizza stores.

He takes credit for his incredible success, at the same time Dave shares how much he gained from other successful franchisees. He shows how sharing and learning best practices from others who are/were also the best operators of Domino's stores increased his success, but only because he also shares with and learns from his Managers and staff as well.

Throughout the book, you can tell that he truly loves the business he is in and is therefore a testament to the saying "Do what you love and the money will follow."

Definitely highly recommended for small business owners and managers dependent on hiring minimum wage employees. Also recommended for aspiring entrepreneurs before you hire your first employee. Contains a lot of great ideas to help you get it right the first time.

I loved this book!!!!

Dave does a great job on describing how to succeed in the business world. Inspiring your work force is a must today and he gives a very easy to understand outline on how he succeeded. He describes in his book how he motivated minimum wage newly arrived to this Country work force who for the most part did not even have a full understanding of our language. Not only were they excellent workers, he helped them move on to management positions as well.

This book should be mandatory reading for all Business Schools in this Country.

Recommended to me by a Dominos franchisee I took this book on the plane with me to pass time. I ended up wanting the flight to take a little longer so I wouldn't have to stop reading. Very inspirational but more important, useable. This is a must read for anyone in the Pizza or really any business that wants a high performing self driven team focused on doing the right thing for the customers.

This book clears out all those cynical cobwebs about "your people". As a owner of a wines shop we're always seeking to maximize efficiencies and profits in our businesses. This book goes to the heart of how to accomplish that.
It's easy to blame staff but who hired them and did or did not put enough effort into training and motivating them?
Dave and Angie Melton make it very clear in this terrific book that is now my handbook to personnel management. No fancy footwork here, no secret formula's. If an ethical, transparent, efficient, enthusiastic workplace is for you then buy this book and use it. Melton has also assembled many of his best ideas for online availability with purchase of the book.

Just finished reading "Hire the American Dream" Although I'm not a Domino's Pizza Franchisee, I do own my own business. "Hire the American Dream" is loaded with best practice principals that when implemented will have a positive impact on the three things important to all business owners: Your Customers/ Your Employees/ and Your Profits. A recommended read for all business owners, Domino's Franchisee or otherwise!

Over the years, I worked on PR events in NYC for Domino's Pizza and had the chance to see Dave Melton, owner of four Domino's franchises there, and his teams, in action. Every member was passionate, hard-working, problem-solving and enthusiastic. If you want teams like that, "Hire the American Dream" is the blueprint.

The type of organization Dave has built is extremely unusual in the quick service industry where 150% turnover is typical and managers are often replaced yearly. Dave does things differently. His average employee stays 8 years and managers average 6 years...and when they leave, it's to become store owners themselves.

Here you will find specific examples of how Dave delivers success by treating employees and customers right. Some book chapters include:
* Don't Hire Warm Bodies - Hire Warm People
* Teach Philosophy and Opportunity First
* Next, Teach Customer Service
* Create a Common Language of Incentives
* And much more

Although geared toward a minimum-wage workforce, the best practices described in "Hire the American Dream," related to finding, training, and motivating teams are relevant to anyone who manages people. In this book, Dave and Tim provide an inspiring look at how enthusiasm and encouragement, along with a clear vision, can lead to achieving the American Dream.

Dave's managers have been with him for 6+ years. My managers have been with me for 1.5 years. Based on RESULTS, I have something to learn from Dave. After reading Dave's book, I have definitely learned some things that will help me keep great managers. He also reinforced practices I already knew but have not been doing. Kind of like a kind kick in the butt from Dave.

Bottom line: the price of the book was nothing compared to the value of the practices I am putting in place as a RESULT of reading this book! Owning my own business is certainly "The American Dream"!

Thanks Dave!

Dave and Tim have taken the ideals that have been taught since the beginning of Domino's Pizza and put them into words that any business person can use to improve their operations. While this book was a quick read, there are now has many highlights that I need to go back to and create follow up and to-do items for our franchise.

I started as a delivery driver for Domino's Pizza 27 years ago and now help operate one of the five largest franchises in the US. I found Dave and Tim's book to be such a great refresher course on how we need to be treating our front line Team Members that I ordered copies for all of our upper management people to read. There are so many great ideas in this book that we need to put into play in order to improve our franchise. I am excited that we will be sharing them with all our General Managers and Assistant Managers soon.

In this time of economic challenges Dave Melton reminds about what is possible. That anyone who works hard can achieve their dreams of business ownership in NYC or anywhere in our great country.

Dave Melton shares specific specific lessons and tools that have helped him build a succesful business in NYC's competitive restaurant business. He has focused on hiring, training and recruiting great people and his simple and straightforward lessons will help any manager or business owner.

The most inspirational part of the book is how Dave has empowered his employees to improve their lives and realize their own dreams. Zakir Shafi, Emir Lopez, Shaik Shamin.....have all realized their dreams thru Domino's Pizza. Many people do not realize that Domino's has over 1,000 franchisees that all started as hourly wage team members and today they own their own business. Dave tells his story and it shows us what is possible and gives us hope about the opportunities and future of this country.

Dave Melton & Tim McIntyre strike gold and tell you how they did it. An excellent reference book on how one small business owner maximized employee relationships and increased productivity. A K.I.S.S. method of writing that is a clear example of what to look for when hiring, motivating and training any employee (or yourself).

Dave & Angie Melton use their experiences with Domino's to show us how the American Dream is shared by a community, not just by one person. They provide commitment, support, expertise and leadership. Often in the most intriguing ways and any small business owner should read this book!

I am reminded by reading Hire the American Dream--how fortunate we are to live in the USA.

RK-2009