The Inspiring Multi-Unit Journey of Nadeem Bajwa
Oct 07, 2025
I love interviewing successful franchisees for my Franchise Wisdom series, as part of my Franchisee Success Formulas Podcast. I especially like that everyone can relate to these men and women, because while they are now very successful at operating their franchise business and enjoying their lives, they all come from different backgrounds, experiences, and even countries!
I especially enjoyed chatting with my latest guest, Nadeem Bajwa, a 275 Papa Johns Multi-Unit Franchisee. Not only is he one of the most recognized multi-unit franchisees in the US, but we also share a similar background. We are both immigrants who came to the US for a college education. Additionally, we both entered the franchising industry through similar paths.
The conversation was full of great insights, business lessons, and a business ownership view that is worth sharing piece by piece. In this first part, we’ll uncover Nadeem’s journey from pizza driver to a Multi-Unit Franchisee. In the second part, we’ll dig into his business lessons to succeed, so be sure to read it as well!
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From Pizza Driver to Franchise Owner
Borned and raised in Pakistan, Nadeem first came to the US in 1991, when he was 21 years old, during the Gulf War in the Middle East, to study at Indiana Tech. Even though he came here to study at Indiana Tech, and had never worked before, he decided to look for a job. He earned his first dollar washing dishes at a dining restaurant. His big breakthrough, as he calls it, was when he got a driver’s job at a Domino’s Pizza (the same as me!).
Then Papa Johns came into town, and it was a big hype, so he went there to apply for a job serving pizzas. He loved the brand from day one, not only for the brand story and the quality of the product, but also because of the simplicity of its business model.
When he graduated from college with a triple major in Management, Marketing, and Accounting, he felt pressure from his family, almost as an obligation, to find a good corporate job where he could apply all the education he had. However, in his mind, Nadeem knew he always wanted to have his own business.
“I couldn’t see myself as a doctor or a banker like my siblings, and I thought having a business would be fun.”
He decided to keep working for the pizza brand to master running the business when he realized that no corporate job offers would pay him more than his current job. By then, he had moved up the ranks from pizza driver to Unit Manager, Area Manager, and Operating Partner.
Nadeem became a Papa Johns franchisee in 2002, founding the Bajco Group with two of his brothers. With his family's support, equity, and debt, he raised $150,000 to open his first restaurant. After receiving brand approval, he bought used equipment from closed restaurants to keep the investment low and start his operations. He also did most of the labor and managed his first store personally.
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Running a Franchise Unit vs. Managing a Franchise Business
In the many years working there, Nadeem really mastered the unit operations. As he moved up, he explained, he sort of “graduated” from that position, and with every step, he acquired more brand and business knowledge and skills. However, he saw another side of the business when he became a franchisee.
“It was very different, and this is where many people make mistakes, thinking they know everything. When I was managing for someone else, there were still certain things that I didn’t have to worry about, even though I was running the whole show operations, and there was support, marketing, and proven tools already built.”
“As a franchisee, you also have tools, support, and a solid business model, but you're an independent business owner. And there are some things that time, intelligence, or experience teaches you, and most of the time, small failures also teach us something.”
He’s right. As a franchisee, you receive the knowledge, tools, and resources to duplicate the brand systems, meaning the product, the product procedures, the training on how to produce it, the service processes, as well as the image, marketing, technology, and tools to deliver that product.
However, you have to take care of everything related to the business: sales, taxes, insurance, local marketing, accounting, and all those other things, especially with the joint employer rules and limitations that franchisors have.
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A Hard Lesson to Learn
“My first failure was not realizing that, even though Papa Johns gave me the business model, and I had tools and experience at managing the restaurant and the people, at the end of the day, I was an independent business owner, and I was responsible for creating the balance as an owner so that I could manage the business well”.
Nadeem’s first location was in East Liverpool, Ohio.
He was so afraid of failing and wanted to reach a specific sales goal that he did a lot of marketing and hired 30 employees to run the unit. But he overlooked the training aspect. He was so busy bringing people in that he didn’t pay enough attention to how he would serve the food that people came for.
“On the first day, in the middle of dinner rush, I had to shut down twice. When I turned around, on the screen, we had a couple of hundred pizzas that we had to make, and from those 30 people, I only had five left. People had just walked out on me!”
Nadeem learned the hard way that developing and training people is critical, no matter how good the brand is.
He called some old friends from past jobs who were willing to help him overcome this bump. Within a week, he was able to handle the business operations with ease. But he not only got things back in order, he also made things right with the community because he felt bad he couldn’t provide the top service he had promised.
“I ran a full page ad in a newspaper, apologizing and thanking the community, and I asked them to come and have a dessert on me. I gave away a lot of product to people who were not happy, but gave me a second chance… That first location is still one of our best locations, and the community has been with us since 2002. We have even won many awards within the town for best food. We are loved, and we love the community back.”
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The Multi-Unit Journey
Nadeem considers himself aggressive in his professional life, always pushing himself to do better and be the best at whatever he’s doing, whether washing dishes, delivering pizzas, or managing a store. So, the week after he had opened his first location, he decided he wanted to open the next store.
“I went through chaos, but recovered from that, and people were willing to forgive me for that mistake. It was tough, but not that bad. I'm just competitive by nature, and I learned that you can win anything and go as far as possible if you have humility and passion. Those two things are in my DNA”.
Nadeem’s original goal was to have 10 to 12 units so that the business would benefit him and his family. That year, he opened his second location, and not long after that, a third one. Soon, he had five units. However, things were not going well. He was overseeing all of them, running around if there were issues, and it wasn’t sustainable anymore. So, he had to slow down.
“If you have five or six units, and three or four are doing well but one is not, you get so consumed with that bad unit that you unintentionally overlook the good stuff happening. And then you end up having more problems.”
Going from store to store was not what he wanted to do. Even though he enjoyed it, he didn’t want this as a full-time job; his dream was to grow. So, he decided to promote someone from his team to a District Manager role so he could take a more strategic leadership position in the business.
In 2006 and 2007, the group acquired 20 units. In 2008, he bought 27 stores from Nadeem's ex-boss. The group had about 40 to 45 units when the economic meltdown happened. Luckily, the company was able to weather that, mainly because Nadeem and his two brothers, who were former bankers and skilled in financial management, were “prepared for the rainy days”.
Fast forward to today, Nadeem currently operates 275 Papa Johns units across 10 states in the US. Even though he has considered investing in other franchise brands, he has not yet found another one he loves so much. “This is home. It's comfortable, and that's why I continue to grow with it”.
The Business Impact
Even though they have had rough cycles, as every QSR has, Nadeem’s vision, passion, and love for the brand and his people have kept the brand growing steadily. Not only that. His company evolved and now includes QSR, commercial real estate, and business management services.
“The franchisor has trusted me enough to let me try and test things, like a call center. After the COVID years, the labor shortage was terrible, so I started testing a call center just for my locations, to keep the costs under control, fulfill the labor shortage, and manage that crisis. It worked so well that it turned into a business of its own! Now we serve about half the Papa Johns locations, and I have call centers in multiple countries.”
Something similar happened with his accounting services. They first developed an internal system to cover admin areas for their six units, and now, they do finance and accounting for other multi-brand franchisees. Nadeem has also built his own AI and apps to bring efficiency and streamline the back of the house with the operations.
“We always have opportunities in business to get better. I go out and look for problems or issues we need to solve, and then challenge the team. This is how they are wired, because we have been working together for so long”.
Today, the franchise stores have over 3,500 team members. All businesses combined, the group employs approximately 5,000 team members.
Nadeem with his two brothers, Abdul Malik and Faisal Bajwa
Plans for the Future
Nadeem wants to continue to grow his franchise business, which has become one of Papa Johns largest domestic franchisees in the US. In 2024, he signed a deal to open 50 new restaurants by 2028.
While he doesn’t know what the future holds for him, his goal is to continue to surround himself with great people, inspire new generations, and work on bringing efficiency to the table.
“Three decades ago, I never dreamed of this growth and where I am. I just did my best at whatever I was doing, and this growth and success just followed. So far, that has gotten me here, and I'm sure that's going to take me even further.”
I truly believe it wasn’t just luck, but a mix of many factors, like his commitment to excellence and doing the right thing for others. He also learned from his mistakes and accepted the responsibilities that came with them.
He was also creative enough to identify opportunities, not just in acquiring units but also in developing services he lacked and transforming them into solutions other franchisees could benefit from.
One last piece of advice Nadeem gave is not to get carried away by success.
“Arrogance and ego should not have a place. Humility is extremely important, and it can be a challenge to stay humble when you're flying high. You don’t want to have your guard down when you’re doing so well. When things go well, that is the time to really watch things even closer because you don't want to lose focus on the main thing.”
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