Failure Is Not an Option: Military Couple Applies Army values to Franchise Portfolio

Name: Carrie and Josh Ayers
Title: Owners/Operators
Company: Playa Bowls
No. of units: 6
Age: Carrie 48, Josh 43
Family: 3 children, Oliver, 15, Reagan, 13, and Dexter, 11
Years in franchising: 5
Years in current position: 5

Carrie and Josh Ayers are the Veteran Entrepreneurship MVPs (Most Valuable Performers) for outstanding performance, leadership, and innovation by military veterans.

With a combined 18 years of experience in the U.S. Army, Carrie and Josh Ayers are applying the mentality and core values they learned in the military to franchise ownership of six Playa Bowls in New Hampshire.

Josh spent six years in the military and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in Baghdad in 2003, and Carrie was an active-duty medical officer from 2003 to 2015. They met in the Army and have been married for 20 years. For three of the first five years of their relationship, they were separated by deployments.

After Josh left the Army, he worked as a police officer in Baltimore while Carrie completed her anesthesiology residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. They developed a fondness for Playa Bowls, a superfruit bowl concept serving bowls, smoothies, juices, and cold brew. They became hooked, and through a connection at Walter Reed, they met with the franchise’s founder, Robert Giuliani.

The pair were looking for a long-term career path as Josh transitioned to civilian life. His safety as a police officer was also a concern. Carrie had some experience in the restaurant industry, having worked in a 24-hour truck stop her family owned. Those factors, along with a passionate belief in Playa Bowls’ healthy and fresh selections, motivated them to open the franchise’s first location in New Hampshire in 2020.

“It is such a satisfying product. I could eat Playa Bowls three times a day,” Carrie says. “We thought if we would drive an hour for this, that others would too. When the vision for the product spoke so strongly to us, we wanted to bring it to others in the area.”

Carrie’s prediction has proven correct because the concept has been a hit. They added five more stores in southern New Hampshire that are all within a 30-minute radius. Just as important, sales at each store remained steady even as new locations were added nearby.

Josh leads with boots on the ground and manages construction, leases, and the openings of new restaurants. Carrie, who also works full-time as a physician, oversees from above as she handles human resources, supply, and marketing. The situation doesn’t leave much free time for the couple, but their experiences in the military prepared them for this moment.

“The Army officer program sets you up for doing this by instilling principles for success and leadership,” Carrie says. “It is not an option to fail in business, which is the same in war. When you are tired and beat down, you need to come up with a plan to succeed. If there is a problem, you have to figure it out. You learned how to do that each day in the military.”

MVP Questions

Why do you think you were recognized with this award? We were able to hit the ground running in opening our first store and quickly grew to six locations in a small area of New Hampshire within four years. It is just the two of us within the ownership group, and we had to grind to get that done. That is something you get out of veterans. The values instilled in us by our military service have been instrumental in our success. We know that veterans make up a large part of franchise ownership, and I’m truly honored that we stood out among such amazing multi-unit owners.

How have you raised the bar in your own company? We lead from the front and empower the team to take our product to the next level. We are always available to help, and we always appreciate and respect every employee, from the new hire to the territory manager.

What innovations have you created and used to build your company? We emphasize training and retraining our employees. We develop educational, TikTok-style videos to teach our staff. Many of our workers are young, and they can relate to this format. The videos are fun and easily digestible and help with their learning.

What core values do you think helped you win this award? We use the Army values, which were in our wedding vows as well: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, integrity, honor, and personal courage. They are fundamental to every successful relationship and business.

How important is community involvement to you and your company? We have a community giveback policy where we say yes to every request for help in fundraising. It can come in the form of supporting huge corporate events to providing gift cards for a youth hockey raffle. We donate to hospitals and sponsor youth teams in the area. We find a way to help each group that asks us for help.

What leadership qualities are important to you and your team? Carrie: I tend to be the problem-solver and educator on our team. I love to learn, but even more so, I have a strong disdain for being uninformed. If I see a problem, I refuse to complain about it. I will think about it, study it, research it to death, and find a resolution. I am fiercely motivated and have endless energy to succeed. In fact, the more someone doubts me or my ability, the more drive I have to make the impossible happen. Saboteurs are my fuel.

Personal (Carrie)

First job: As a waitress, cashier, dishwasher, and short-order cook at my family’s restaurant when I was 12.

Formative influences/events: My parents owned a truck stop in New Hampshire that operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I learned about the restaurant business by watching them early on in my life. It took our entire family to make the restaurant run. I pulled all-nighters as my mom often needed me to work the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift when someone called out. I came into Playa Bowls fully aware that a restaurant is a lifestyle. It’s like a family member who always requires nurturing and your full attention.

Key accomplishments: Serving in the U.S. Army for 15 years. I earned my medical degree and MBA concurrently, knowing that business is key to success in any field. I practiced more than 40 hours a week as an anesthesiologist while opening six restaurants and raising three children while keeping a healthy and happy marriage.

Biggest current challenge: Growing our support staff and learning to organize operations, sales, finance, and marketing with six stores.

Next big goal: We would like to continue to add more stores and provide a Playa Bowls within 20 miles to as many New Hampshire citizens as we can.

First turning point in your career: When we opened our first shop, the line was wrapped around the shopping complex for hours.

Best business decision: Trusting my intuition about our product. If I loved and wanted quality acai, others must too.

Hardest lesson learned: When you are in a partnership, you can’t force your vision, views, and ideas about every decision on someone who has their own perspective. It’s a balance even with a husband-wife relationship.

Work week: 50-60 hours a week working in the operating room, which includes 10 to 12-hour days, four to five days a week. We spend breaks, nights, and weekends working on restaurants.

Exercise/workout: That has taken a back seat right now.

Best advice you ever got: My father told me, “You can do anything if you want it badly enough.” He was a very successful man in the military and business and always said the world is your oyster.

What’s your passion in business? To provide quality food in a rad environment that leaves you feeling great. I love for people to feel good after eating a great meal.

How do you balance life and work? I plan, and I am intentional. I make a lot of lists and set reminders constantly. I surround myself with an amazing village. I make sure that I give myself fully to each child and my husband when we are together. I multitask with work like nobody’s business. I am known to post to Instagram for our six shops at 5 a.m. while feeding the dog and balancing my QuickBooks. I will continue to balance that work during lunch while I chat with my amazing co-workers.

Guilty pleasure: Collecting credit card points for travel.

Favorite book: Die with Zero by Bill Perkins.

Favorite movie: “Wedding Crashers.”

What do most people not know about you? I got hit by a truck when I was 5 years old.

Pet peeve: People who scrape their teeth on their fork when they eat.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor.

Last vacation: Doha, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in October 2024.

Person you’d most like to have lunch with: Tony Robbins.

Management

Business philosophy: Anything is possible with a vision and hard work.

Management method or style: Lead from the front, and never ask people to do something you wouldn’t be willing to do. Always be direct in criticism and appreciation.

Greatest challenge: Time. We have three children, operate six restaurants, and I work full-time as a physician. Having additional time would help so much, so it is important to make every minute count. Time is really your most valuable asset, and you need to structure your day.

How do others describe you? Extra. Some people are fine doing the bare minimum, and that’s fine. I fill up my days with a million things I want to do. People ask us how we are doing everything we do. We are not going to fail, and that is part of our value system.

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? I love what books provide for information on a subject, but mentoring is the finesse and art of application. The restaurant world has a lot of people who are good at a lot of different things. We’ve met a lot of different people in the business and have taken best practices that fit our business from each.

One thing you’re looking to do better: Improve profits and drill down costs.

How you give your team room to innovate and experiment: I allow them the freedom to practice and only come in for quick suggestions or feedback. I constantly support innovations and good ideas.

How close are you to operations? I tend to do the finance side of the business, so I work to provide operational feedback.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Innovation of our amazing product and marketing inspiration.

What you need from vendors: Consistent delivery, prices, and quality of service.

Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How? We have increased our marketing efforts recently. It’s important to get people into your restaurant as customers have become more discretionary in their spending.

How is social media affecting your business? It’s a giant part of our world. Phone eats first is a moto to live by. If you aren’t proud of a bowl to be featured on social media, you shouldn’t be serving it.

How are you using technology, like AI, to manage your business? We are just starting to play around with it for suggestions and ideas. We are hoping to use it more as we move to our new POS system. Moving to AI will be a giant step forward for technology.

How do you hire and fire? We mostly hire organically via word of mouth or social media. A store manager handles the hiring and any firings. Josh oversees hiring for store opening crews and managers.

How do you train and retain? We have recently brought on a training manager who moves between stores to help with new hires, allergy training, corporate training, and seasonal specials.

How do you deal with problem employees? We have a process for write-ups and retraining, and we provide verbal and written counseling for first and second infractions.

Fastest way into your doghouse: Treating a customer poorly.

Bottom Line

Annual revenue: $6,326,000.

2025 goals: Open our seventh shop in Hanover, New Hampshire. I also want to simplify banking, streamline finances, and improve the bottom line by effectively communicating expectations on labor/COGS to management and staff.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? We previously gauged it as an increase in sales, but now we are moving toward lean practice and increased sales.

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? In five years, we would like to be finished building stores and free of debt. In 10 years, we want to be organized and profitable and ready to sell if Josh wants to retire.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? No, we chose Playa Bowls specifically for our love of their acai and quality ingredients.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? People are definitely more discriminant with spending, so we need to make them see the value and feel valued and appreciated for coming in.

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? We are. Other than the last quarter, we have seen year-over-year growth at a great rate in each of our stores. We’ve continued to see that growth even with new stores in the markets.

How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? Costs are rising so quickly that we can hardly keep up. Labor has also been growing more than we can account for with increased sales. Our profit margin is close to gone with labor and cost of goods increases, so we’ve had to get more accurate in our scheduling and inventory.

How do you forecast for your business? We use last year’s data to plan along with local events throughout the year and the weather. There is a seasonal ebb and flow to our business. We know cold and rainy weather will negatively impact sales, and the better weather of spring and summer will bring additional customers. Graduations and other area events also increase sales.

What are the best sources for capital expansion? We’ve relied on local banking for business loans (SBA loans) on four of our six shops.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? We’ve tried to stay local as much as possible. We also try to contribute at least 25% to each build as we’ve moved to taking construction loans.

What are you doing to take care of your employees? We give gifts at the end of the year to all 186 employees. We also provide a $25 gift card to the employee of the month at each shop. We do holiday get-togethers in each shop. We arrange friendly competitions to improve sales between stores. Employees are the special sauce of our success.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? It has been tough, but we’ve tried to increase wages for our staff because they are truly worth it. Retraining and finding quality people is expensive, but it is our philosophy.

What laws and regulations are affecting your business, and how are you dealing with them? Luckily for us, not many affect us. We avoid hiring workers who are under 16 years old.

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? We name employees of the month at each shop. We also send frequent shout-outs on group communication and highlight employees who get great feedback on reviews.

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? Once our kids are all in or have completed college in about 10 years, we’d like to move on from owning our shops.