We were honored to chat with franchisee Jackie Barton, who gave us some insight into her and her husband Michael’s experience as HoneyBaked Ham owner/operators.
HoneyBaked Ham: What initially brought you to the HoneyBaked Ham brand?
Jackie Barton: My husband and I grew up near Arbor Hills, Michigan, about thirty minutes outside Detroit. We grew up on HoneyBaked. But when we moved here, there was no HoneyBaked Ham in Jacksonville. There were HoneyBaked Hams around Jacksonville, but when we got here, we’d have to drive an hour or almost two hours to get a Honey Baked Ham. It was crazy.
My husband was in the Marine Corps for almost 28 years. He retired at the highest enlisted rank, which is Master Gunnery Sergeant, with honors. He had been deployed all over the world while our three children and I stayed here [in North Carolina] and just kind of evolved.
He was an engineer while he was in the Marines and everywhere there was a natural disaster, they’d send his unit to help rebuild – from tsunamis, hurricanes, things of that sort. So, he was always deployed. He deployed from his primary duty station and he’d be in these other places for anywhere from nine months to a year to a year and a half. Me and the kids stayed. We had to make it work.
As he made it to retirement, we decided, ‘Okay. We want to do something new.’ We wanted to do something where our family could work as a unit, together, for the first time. So, when the time came, we did our research and felt that HoneyBaked Ham would work here in this particular market.
HBH: And it worked out.
JB: It has been a whirlwind. We opened our first location just before Christmas 2012. In 2014, we opened up another. In 2015, we opened up a third location in Morehead City right on the Atlantic beach. Around the same time, we were able to open up a fourth store. We went from one store to four operating units within two years. That’s what I mean when I say it’s been a whirlwind.
It just shows you the value of the product. Honey Baked Ham is a quality product. We wanted people to know how special the product was. We tell people that eat other sandwich chain products – that’s fine, all of them are good at what they do. But if you taste our sandwich one time, trust and believe you will come back. Because of the taste and quality of our meat and the quality of the experience.
HBH: With so much happening in your lives as business owners, how do you and your husband share the work of managing your stores?
JB: We’re high school sweethearts. We’ve been married for over 32 years, we’ve been together 38 years. So, we’ve been together for a long time and know each other. We share a vision, we believe in what we’re doing and we know that, at the end of the day, we’re working toward making a solid foundation for our three children. That’s how it works out for us. We’re busy and we get worn out at the end of the day but there’s no pity party – I understand, and he understands. So, we do our date nights and we make time for each other. We’ve created a new normal.
HBH: What advice would you give to other franchisees joining the HoneyBaked Ham family?
JB: I’m going to leave you with this: our whole premise of how we operate is “do better tomorrow than we did today.” That’s how we start every day. I text all of my managers, “Do better today than you did yesterday because tomorrow is what’s going to determine your destiny. Anticipate being busy, anticipate being blessed, anticipate good things happening and doors opening.” And when you go in with that positive mindset, you can’t help but win.
