The Family Burger Shop That Ignored All the Rules - and Beat McDonald’s

Follow your vision (it was given to you for a reason!)

When the 5 Murrell guys decided to open a burger joint, people thought they were crazy.

“You can’t compete with McDonald’s!” they were told, time and again.

But here’s the thing, the Murrells never set out to beat McDonald’s.

In fact, when Jerry Murrell opened the first Five Guys in 1986, he told his four sons (the original “five guys”) one thing:

“Let’s focus on making the best burger possible. Not the most.”

Don’t Play on Their Turf

That meant ignoring almost everything the big chains did:

• No drive-thrus

• No frozen meat

• No microwaves

• No kids' meals

• No dessert

• No 100-item menu

All they did was offer was fresh beef, hand-cut fries cooked in peanut oil, and brown bags soaked in real grease.

It looked almost … foolish. But it wasn’t.

It was genius.

Make Them Play of Yours

In a sea of cost-cutting, Five Guys doubled down on quality.

While McDonald’s chased efficiency and Burger King chased gimmicks, Five Guys chased flavor. And customers could tell. Lines formed and word spread.

And instead of franchising early, they held off for 15 years.

By the time they finally started franchising, they had perfected every system. The result? One of the fastest-growing restaurant empires in the world, with over 1,700 locations and billions in revenue.

Just Say No

Five Guys is not great despite doing less.

It is great because they do less.

The say no to all of the things that don’t fit their name, brand, vision, quality.

And that is the lesson here. Most entrepreneurs obsess over what to add. New features, new products, new offers. But often, the better move is subtraction.

Five Guys beat the giants by doing fewer things, obsessively well.

The Takeaway

We small businesses can’t beat the big boys playing their game. BUT, they can’t beat us playing ours. What do we do that they can’t? We can personalize and be more personal, we can pivot on a dime, we can listen to our customers easier. We can follow our vision.

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Steal This Strategy!

📖 Book – Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson
The classic guide to low-cost, high-impact marketing. Still as relevant today as when it was written.

📖 Book - Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
Great inside look at how hospitality and quality drive long-term success — from the founder of Shake Shack.

🎥 Video - How Five Guys Started Five Guys
Their startup story

About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!