Interview with a Dragon
Jim Treliving, a co- star on CBC TV’s Dragons’ Den, quit the RCMP to open his own Boston Pizza franchise. The rest — as the saying goes — is history. He ended up buying the entire chain.
Jim Treliving always knew he wanted to leave the small town where he grew up. He would lie awake at night listening to trains whistle as they sped through, thinking about where all the travellers might end up. He thought he wanted to leave his home in Virden, Man. to become a Mountie; he had no clue that he would actually grow up to be a Dragon.
Treliving, a co- star on CBC TV’s Dragons’ Den, did start his working life as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. While he was stationed in Edmonton he made the decision to go out for dinner one night and ended up at Boston Pizza — an Italian restaurant owned by a Greek family.
He enjoyed his first taste of pizza, and the owners liked him so much they recruited him to do security on Friday nights in return for a free meal. Within a few years, Treliving quit the RCMP to open his own Boston Pizza franchise in Penticton. The rest — as the saying goes — is history.
He ended up buying the entire chain and growing it into the global restaurant franchise it is today. It wasn’t always easy though — Treliving started out with no money of his own and had to borrow to start up the franchise. He went to his dad, who he says was not impressed that his son was planning to quit his safe job and its pension, and open an Italian restaurant.
Although he wasn’t too keen on his son’s scheme, Treliving’s father still made his dream possible. He deposited the money in the bank and had the banker pretend it was a loan.
It’s a recurring theme in Treliving’s new book, Decisions: Making the Right Ones, Righting the Wrong Ones. Ask for the help you need and you will probably get it.
There were plenty of other times Treliving thought the business was done, but just enough money would appear somehow. And when he needed really big money — millions to expand the franchise — he was again pleasantly surprised to find people willing to back his plans. They likely don’t regret it — Boston Pizza boasts more than $ 1 billion in annual sales, and Treliving also co- owns Mr. Lube and has interests in real estate and sports franchising.
He says in his book that people should make decisions about work with their heart, about money with their head and about people with their gut. “Think with your head, love with your heart and make your gut do your decision making,” Treliving said.
Although he’s made plenty, he says he’s never looked at success through the lens of money.
“I learned from my dad, Ted Treliving, that success is measured by taking in the big picture: you look at the health and happiness of your family and friends and what you’re contributing to your community,” he writes in Decisions. “Success is about finding yourself and your business in a much better place from where you started out, and everyone, from employee to entrepreneur, measures that in very different ways.”
Treliving prefers to work in partnerships — he started his first franchise restaurant with another RCMP officer, Don Spence. The pair did everything from scrubbing the floors to cooking the pizzas. “I think that’s a big thing and it’s a passion you have to have. A lot of people go into business wanting to make money, but I think there’s a point where you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. The money will come,” Treliving said.
Later, he asked an accountant, George Melville, to join his business and they are still working together today. “I believe in partnerships, they work for me,” Treliving said. “I’m the guy who wants to go all the way to the moon, George is the one who says, let’s go half way and see how it goes.
“He questions what I want to do, but doesn’t say you can’t do it.”
An interesting part of Treliving’s book is his description of Expo 86 and the effect it had on growing Boston Pizza. Through the first rainy months of the fair, Treliving and all the other food retailers were extremely anxious, but by the end of the summer, they were serving one person every 20 seconds, and had achieved sales of $ 9 million.
Treliving has no plans to retire, and says he loves going to work every day.
“There isn’t a day that I get up that I don’t like to go to work. I can’t even imagine people who get up and hate the fact that they have to get up,” Treliving said, suggesting they should try something new that they really like to do instead of staying in a job they hate. “Everyone of us gets an opportunity,” he said. “
He adds he really gets a kick out of kids who recognize him on the street and who are inspired by Dragons’ Den. “I was at the airport last night, and I as I walked out a little 10- year- old girl walked up and told me she loved Dragons Den and that she loved me,” Treliving said. “That’s really when it hits home.”
The royalties from Decisions will be donated to charity. Treliving and Melville formed the Boston Pizza Charitable Foundation in 1990, which supports the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Kids Help Phone and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.