Interview With Teresa Rivera

Learn More from the Director of Franchise Operations for Village Inn, Teresa Rivera

Village Inn is not just your typical breakfast franchise, it’s a legacy franchise with a storied history and loyal following. When it comes to operating a Village Inn franchise, you would be pressed to find someone with more hands-on Village Inn experience than Teresa Rivera, Director of Operations for Village Inn franchise. After four decades of rising the ranks, Teresa shares why Village Inn is an opportunity worth joining.

How long have you been with Village Inn?

In total, over 42 years! I started as a server, then grew to assistant manager, General Manager, Operations Director, Regional Vice President, and then landed as Director of Franchise Operations, which is my favorite role, because I love to support our franchise partners.

Why is now a great time to get into the restaurant industry?

There’s so many exciting things happening in restaurants in general, but especially at Village Inn. We have refreshed the brand, with new locations being built all over the nation. We provide great support for our franchise partners and all of our departments, including marketing, as well as our IT team’s state of the art computer systems, and assistance with integration. I have an excellent support team that’s available 24/7. For our franchise partners, we love to take care of them. It’s just so easy to be successful at Village Inn, as we make it easy and fun for you.

What makes Village Inn unique?

Our people make it special. The fact that we’ve been around for so long, and our guests depend upon us, they have known that we will provide that great service and that great food. It feels like home, it feels like family when people join us. If I were investing in something, I would definitely consider a Village Inn franchise. They’re not hard to run, they’re easy to execute. We’ve got great training programs and excellent training and development teams that put together kind of the best in class training experience for onboarding.

What makes a great Village Inn franchise owner?

I think the restaurant industry is super exciting, ever changing. Definitely people based. So if you enjoy working with people, then you’re in the right spot. We love our industry, never a dull moment. It’s very rewarding. Leaders in our industry have great opportunities to mentor youth and to see them grow and become business owners and very successful in their careers. So I think if you love that type of thing, you will love working with us.

What is the training and support like for a Village Inn franchise owner?

We will always be available. We will be present through all the training experience from the beginning of training, all the way through the seven days we do a mock service. We do have friends and family we help you with a grand opening of a restaurant. We then follow up as you open your restaurant to make sure that your service by us and an entire franchise team that will help you in the kitchen help you in the front. Make sure that your guests are getting the very best village and experience that you expect them to have.

What does the future of Village Inn look like?

While we continue to grow, we want to prosper with new franchise owners as well as current franchise owners. We’d love to get in more states with more franchise partners. We have a great support team to make sure current franchisees keep growing. Our goal is to provide that type of support, so that anyone interested in being a franchise partner will find that it’s a great experience. With our new generation Village Inn refresh, it looks amazing. I think it’s going to attract many new franchise folks.

What are you most proud of in your experience with Village Inn?

I’m very proud of all the folks that work for us. I’m proud that I’ve been able to have a career with Village Inn for over 42 years. I love it. I know that the people I’m surrounded by love it as well. We enjoy our jobs, we support each other, we love each other, we’re family. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. So I’m just proud of the fact that myself and others have been able to flourish and support our families and enjoy our lives and what it’s all about. We love our work, but we’ve been able to enjoy life, enjoy our family time, and have been able to do that with Village Inn for many others too.

Learn More about Franchising with Village Inn

Ready to learn more about the classic brunch franchise opportunity with Village Inn? Visit our research pages here to learn more about the Village Inn story, what current franchise owners have to say, and the next steps to franchising. If you’re interested in starting a conversation with our franchise team about investing in the next Village Inn franchise, fill out our form here. We’ll be in touch to share more information with you and answer any questions you may have.