“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”
– Henry Ford

As a very young manager, I learned the importance of marketing. I was a 22-year-old manager working for one of the big pizza companies. Once per month, four managers from the Pittsburgh region would travel to meet up with 11 managers from the Ohio market.

Each meeting went about the same way: The boss stood up and made an example of the GMs who had experienced a sales increase the month prior. He would say stuff like, “Tom in Ashtabula is up 10 percent; everyone clap for Tom … ” Each meeting went like this, month after month – a different GM getting applause after a sales increase.

During one of these trips to Ohio, the other Pittsburgh GMs told me the supervisor was talking about firing me because my oven and walls were dirty. Keep in mind, I was 23 years old with two kids at home and was working 80-plus hours a week. This GM position was my first big shot, and I was giving it my all.

That’s when I learned the most valuable lesson of my whole career: Sales fix everything.

At the next meeting, the boss stood up and said, “Everyone clap for Nick, he’s up 10 percent.” During the next meeting, he said, “Nick’s up 20 percent, everyone clap for Nick.” And at the next meeting, he said, “Nick’s up 40 percent. Nick, tell everyone what you are doing!”

I was doing what I called “hot selling.” I had three drivers coming in each morning at 10 a.m., and I made 30 pizzas for each driver. They sold them for $6 per pizza, of which the store got $5, and the driver got $1. So, without the phones even ringing, we sold 90 pizzas – or $450 for the store per day, five days a week, or $2,250 per week. This did not include the afternoon hot selling.

We were bringing in about $3,000 extra per week by going to big-box stores and construction sites to sell pizzas around lunchtime.

I then went after concessions stand orders at swimming pools, baseball fields and football stadiums. Then, I targeted school lunch contracts. This all might be foreshadowing Caliente’s stadium deals, because the lessons I learned early on still apply today.

My supervisor eventually got fired, I became a superstar GM, and the rest is history! What I learned was that every store is different, and what works in one might not work in another. With that said, sales really do fix everything. When times get tough, we double down on our sales efforts.

I had always done our own marketing at Caliente, but when I had one of our long-term employees tell me she’d finished her degree in marketing, our in-house marketing department was born! I was finally able to get all my ideas out of my head and into action. In my next column, I will rattle off a huge list of marketing ideas!

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza

Read the August 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

In this issue, we announce Pizza Today’s 2025 Pizzeria of the Year. Find out how the owners turned a failing pizzeria purchase into a fast-growing pizza business. Learn how to make a sourdough starter. It’s Green Season! Green Chile, that is. Explore menu ideas that add New Mexican flavors to your pizza. Find out which strip mall locations work best for pizzerias – and how to maximize traffic. Discover why pizzerias are going with custom mobile apps to capture sales and return visits. Tap into addictive bar menu options to increase check averages. Go to the August Issue.

The post The Hot-selling Move | Building Blocks appeared first on Pizza Today.

“Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad.”
— Richard Branson

The first time I ever used a PR company, it was not to promote any of our amazing feats. It was by accident. We had a crisis, and I needed a PR company to manage the situation. Once they had that situation under control, they told me to permanently make that the motivation I needed to tell my story. The biggest thing to understand there is that everyone has a story to tell. 

I am one of those operators who always looks for the next big thing when it comes to advertising. At first, that’s how I looked at working with a PR team – mainly because it cost money. But once I understood that they wanted to tell my story and then highlight my triumphs and unique moments, it all came together. The advantages that came from having a PR team were huge and measurable. Business grew 20 percent the first full year that we used a PR company. I cannot strongly suggest using one enough.

Like anything in life, there are good PR firms and bad ones. Since I was very happy with mine, let me tell you what I found was great about them beyond the increase in my sales. I liked that we met every other Friday on a 30-minute phone call. It kept the communication clear and moving. Having a creative team you are working with and not just one person at a PR company is important. We had a team of three that we worked with consistently.

They helped brainstorm what we could do and how we could have win-win partnerships with many in the community. They had a lot of existing relationships that they leveraged and made introductions for us. Asking a PR firm what other clients with aligned goals they work with and then judging for yourself if there are any natural synergies would be a wise move. They held a yearly deep dive with my key team members – and from those meetings, we were able to build out real goals and strategies.

One of the strategies after my story was told and known was to tell the story of our team members and managers. We positioned them as leaders in the community and told that story to smaller news outlets that focus on hyper-local news. We had a story that landed front and center in the newspaper. The firm then expanded past print and did a great job landing us on TV.

Since most PR is a crapshoot, the best thing you can do to up your odds is tell compelling stories. We feed the homeless and do community outreaches often. To me, it felt natural that we do those things (and I assumed everyone did that). It is unique, as it turns out, and the news loves stories like those. In the end, we eventually graduated to doing our own PR in-house and added a marketing team. In next month’s column, I will tell the story of how we created our marketing team – with me as the first member of that team!

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza

Read the July 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

Who are this year’s Rising Stars in the Pizza Industry? We profile six up-and-comers who are making their mark on pizza. Discover why the Grandma style pizza is spreading across the country. See why your pizza could benefit from whole-grain flour. Brush up on inventory management best practices. Learn how to take your products to the retail market. Go to the July Issue.

The post Public Relations Fuels Sales | Building Blocks appeared first on Pizza Today.

“There could be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others.”
– President George H.W. Bush

Having a purpose and a clear vision about giving back to the community is inherent to the success of any charitable campaign. Many times, we are asked from all directions to donate and help organizations. Last month, I spelled out strategies about how we organize campaigns and make the most of those opportunities for all involved. This month, I want to detail one of our most aggressive and successful campaigns. It was a win-win for all involved, and it has birthed numerous other promotions in the same spirit afterward.

I am sure it has crossed your mind to have a famous person promote your company. Whether that person is an athlete, celebrity or – in this day and age – an “influencer.”  There can be many benefits to that strategy. We have had great success with retired athletes, specifically those who have a foundation. Being the championship city that it is, Pittsburgh has many respected former athletes who still have name recognition. We had been approached for years from current athletes’ agents or their marketing teams about working with them, but the price tag was exorbitant.

We had been approached by former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier’s foundation about working with Ryan and supporting his foundation, The Ryan Shazier Fund for Spinal Rehabilitation. Ryan and his team do great work with many people of all ages dealing with spinal cord injuries, including children. He gets them the support and resources they need and, many times, gives them the foundation to work toward walking again. We met with his team and pitched them this idea: We would hold an online contest where customers would submit their soon-to-be-award-winning pizza, and five finalists would get to come to the restaurant to have a bake off. Ryan would be a judge (along with members of our team). The winner’s pizza then would end up on the menu, and a portion of the proceeds then would go back to Ryan’s foundation.

Ryan’s team loved the idea.  Notice there was no dollar amount tied to him working with us – just a promise to donate a portion of the proceeds back. Once it was agreed that Ryan would come out and judge, we got to work promoting the online contest. Our customers got to go to one of our pizzeria locations to buy a pizza kit, make their pizzas at home and then post the pictures of their creation to our Facebook page. The turnout was great. After a few weeks of promoting it, we picked five finalists. We then invited them to the restaurant for the bake off.  Ryan was there to help judge. The winner was a chicken parm pizza. The creator was awarded a huge trophy and free pizza for a year!

For the next two months, we ran the pizza as our limited-time offer. It was a very popular pizza – and from the social media side, we had many shares and likes from the online contest. At the end of the contest, Ryan came to one of our locations for a big-check presentation. He was hoping for $2,500, and we surprised him with a check for $5,395! The local media picked up the story, and it got us a ton of press. This was a big win for all involved, including the people he was helping to walk again. We have used this formula of giving back to various foundations and creating a pizza to do it many times over. The free press from this is incredible.

In the next installment of Building Blocks, we will talk about “all things press releases.”

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza

Read the June 2025 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine

This month, we focus on restaurant technology. See what’s hot in tech trends this year. Explore kitchen automation that can save labor costs and improve quality. See how digital menu boards can help you stay on top of menu prices in a fluctuating economy. After a record-breaking Pizza Expo and International Pizza Challenge, we explore pizza trends from the world pizza competition. Find summer dessert inspiration. Discover how to take your side salads to entree status. Go to the June Issue.

The post Giving Back with a Purpose | Building Blocks appeared first on Pizza Today.

“You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.”
— Norm Kelly

The restaurant business is one with many highs. But, with the amount of dedication it takes to be successful, it can have many turns.  We often hear about burnout, along with a high percentage of substance abuse. Often, the time balance between home and work feels nearly impossible. The stress of labor problems, cash-flow issues and the world around us can make us feel like our world is crumbling down. The subject of self-care over the past decade is starting to not be such a dirty subject. But for many, admitting that you are struggling with anything mentioned above can seem like a moment of weakness for some reason.

Everyone is different, and everyone has different ways to manage the six-letter monster known as STRESS. Understanding you have to take care of yourself first is a powerful concept. Not everyone can run away to a vacation that is supposed to re-energize you and get your tank filled back up. Whether or not that works is a matter of thought anyway. What I want to give you are some sure-fire things that work for me. They are daily habits that help me.

I have found being grateful for what I already have is a game changer.

Being grateful has to become a deliberate habit practiced before your feet hit the ground. As my eyes open in the morning, I start to go through what I am grateful for. Of course there are obvious ones like relationships with your family. Being exact about what aspects of the relationships you are grateful for is a good way to feel in the morning – because they are genuinely good feelings.

Being grateful for little things like the warmth of the blanket you are wrapped in is a good thing to be grateful for. Nothing is too small or too big. Starting your day being grateful before you get out of bed and have the chance to stub your toe is important. Being grateful and giving gratitude before you pick up your phone, for example, is a much better habit than becoming immediately reactionary to your phone.

I challenge you not to pick up your phone for the first 30 minutes you’re awake up for the next week. You will feel different – especially when paired with expressing gratitude for the people and things in your life.

I mentioned not everyone can just whisk away on vacation at a moment’s notice. What about taking mini “vacations” every day? (Whether it’s a guided meditation or a power nap – or maybe just treating yourself to your favorite espresso.) Do something intentional every day to treat yourself. If you cannot find anything to make you feel better or have a day where you do not feel worthy of a treat, then do something kind for someone else. With that thought in mind, next month we will talk more about giving back, being kind and more self-care.

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

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“You don’t get what you want, you get what you negotiate.”
— Harvey Mackey

Last time around we spoke about leases and how important they are to your success.  There are so many fixed costs associated with doing business. Most of the time people will tell you that you cannot do anything about any of your costs except the controllable ones, mainly food cost and labor cost. That may be true at a certain point and definitely true month to month. However, what about at the beginning of your contracts? That is when it gives you a chance to negotiate your fixed costs.

There are so many of your monthly bills that most operators treat as a cost of doing business, but in actuality you can have some say over them. Think about all of your monthly costs for services you will incur. To give you an example of what I am referring to, this list is not to be limited to: cable provider, pest services, dumpster services, internet services, laundry services, monthly POS contracts (and the list goes on and on). It is extremely important to take the time when all of this is being set up to go through every contract and negotiate your terms.

The ongoing monthly fees and rates associated with the contracts is the starting point for the negotiations.  There is always room to take some of that away and try and get the best price possible. If you are dealing with a company that won’t budge on price, bringing in a competitor to have them quote you is a strong lever you should not be afraid to pull. Even if you know you want to go with company A, having a quote from company B will start to give you some leverage on negotiations.  Once you have worked out your rates, then you can start to look at other factors in the contract.  Are there delivery fees, set up fees, or any other fee that looks like it is just their way of adding on to your costs? All of those can also be negotiated.

I also like to look at the length of the contract. Many companies love to just stick a 3- or 5-year term on something. About the only time in history it was a good thing to have a locked-in price was the last five years with the after-Covid market we are living in. Even with that said I always try to start at a smaller term, preferably two years. The easiest way I have been able to negotiate is simply at the end when everything else is negotiated. I strike a line through their time length and write my own and then ask them to initial it. Sounds brash but it works.

It may sound like a lot of work to negotiate every single thing you do, but my rule of thumb is if I am paying for something then it can be negotiated — and I treat it as such. When the cash flow of the month to month starts to crunch, knowing that you already have the best pricing and terms should give you some peace of mind. Speaking of peace … in the next issue we will dive into a topic that needs to be discussed more — the well being and self care of YOU!

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

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“Build your business on fixed costs.”
— Jeff Bezos

When you start to pull data about failing businesses, there are many reasons why they don’t make it. A lot of people will blame sales, or employees or even location. However, much of the time the failure is set up before they even make their first sale. The fixed costs in your business that you cannot change can make or break you.

A high rent is the first mistake that a lot of new business owners make. I know that most people fall victim to square footage and paying so much per square foot. I think it is more prudent to negotiate off what you think your sales may be. The industry standard is to have a rent between 6 and 10 percent. With that said, my rents are between 2 and 4 percent and have always been.

A lot of times the market dictates rent. However, always remember a landlord wants to have a tenant — and a good tenant. Every month that their building stays empty is a month that a rent check does not hit their account. Most times, as operators, we feel like everyone else holds all the cards. Yet, in fact, he who holds the cash makes the rules.

Having an attorney involved in the negotiations is also prudent. Leases vary in many different forms. I have learned the hard way what costs I am responsible for after the fact. On our second location, a week after we took over, our heat stopped working. I called the landlord, and he told me to read the lease. Eight thousand dollars and a new furnace later, I learned a very important lesson. On the next lease I had an attorney involved. I was able to ask and successfully have all the heating and air repairs included in the lease. I have also been able to stay clear of triple net leases by having my attorney involved.

A triple net lease is a type of commercial lease where the tenant pays the base rent plus the cost of property taxes, insurance and maintenance. The downfall here is when a property gets re-assessed and you — the tenant — are now responsible for the increase in taxes. I try to avoid a triple net lease at all costs. That is the worse-case scenario, but a surprise invoice for your landlord’s insurance increase is not a bill I like paying either. All of this is avoidable if you have read and re-read a potential lease and understand everything in it.

Lastly, when your lease begins it does not necessarily mean that is when your payments need to begin. Negotiating that your payments start when you are actually open is a possibility that many operators do not consider. You will never know unless you ask. I like to ask that question after the monthly rent rate has been established.

There are many other contracts aside from the lease that need negotiated before you sell your first pizza. We will talk about those in the next installment of Building Blocks.

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

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“You’re either growing or you’re dying.” 
— Anonymous

Everyone always asks me if I envisioned as many locations as we have now. In fact, the answer is a yes and a no! I always wanted to go as far as possible in the pizza industry and I never do anything small. With that being said, it is not like I had an exact plan. A lot of the expansion I have done has been necessary expansion — meaning that I needed more locations to help pay for the current locations I had.

When I opened the second store everyone talked about the second store being the kiss of death. It was not — it added to the cash flow and made everything easier. However, I knew if I wanted to open more locations I would need to build out my infrastructure — meaning I would need to build out my team. I brought on a full-time administrative assistant, and I brought on a full-time person on the operations side who could help with my growth and overall broad lining of our systems. With that being said, the money had to come from somewhere.

I could have probably had two stores forever and reached all of my personal financial goals and felt successful. I had three main goals when I opened our pizzeria. Goal number one was to put my kids through college, because at that time I had no money saved. Goal number two was I wanted a little bigger house than what we had. Finally, goal number three was to have a car in this century because I was the king of $500 cars. I quickly realized all of those goals would be accomplished, but that is not how I would measure my success. I would measure my success when the people who work for me can reach their personal financial goals through working at Caliente Pizza & Draft House.

The third store was crucial in the cash flow plan because it helped fund the ongoing efforts to bring in great talent to expand. At this point I was still paying General Managers an hourly rate. Now I could start to pay them a more than competitive salary. I brought on a full-time marketing director knowing her salary would come from the fourth store. I created a new position in all locations: a front of the house manager. These were all progressions because of cash flow and knowing I would need these positions for future growth.

Fast forward from the fourth store to our current 13 (going on 14) locations and we now have 12 regional positions, and we keep adding to our team and we keep adding assets to our company. Every stream of revenue that comes in, a portion of it goes back into the company to fund future growth. This is the model that has worked for me. In next month’s column we will talk about adding the assets you need to move your growth forward.

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

The post Building Blocks: Back to Basics, Part II — Growth and Expansion appeared first on Pizza Today.

“You can practice shooting eight hours a day. But if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” 
— Michael Jordan

In the last couple articles, I talked about how sports translate into the restaurant world and, more specifically, the pizza industry and your pizzeria. That’s why this Michael Jordan quote rings true. The one thing that might not ring true is we never have practice … For us, it is always game time. The way we do something is the way we do everything. Consistency breeds success, and getting the fundamentals down inside your pizzeria is most important.

Nick Bogacz, founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh

I have talked a lot about training your staff correctly from the moment they join your team. One other key point to mention is that they are always watching you. Everything you do becomes the standard. You can have as many signs as you want on the walls and talk until you are blue in the face, but your actions have the most consequences. You need to be the one who sets the standard and the one who holds others accountable. I have seen many good operators in my time, ones who have very successful pizzerias. What separates the good ones from the great ones? The little, mundane everyday tasks.

As many of you know I started in the pizza industry as a driver, and I am very proud of that. The beginning of my career I drove for the big chain pizzerias. When I finally got my first delivery job for an independent operator it was a lot different (to say the least). Mainly at that time the technology of the big guys was the biggest advantage the independents didn’t have. Still this particular independent was very busy. I quickly found the reason for their success: There was a manager working named Paul, and Paul was all of 20 years old. As I was working the oven, every pizza needed a parchment paper under the pizza.  Every time I cut a pizza I forgot the paper. I had never done that before. Paul was furious and reminded me every single time. He even threatened that he would send me home if I did it again. I also observed that a customer would never call back about the toppings being wrong or about a salad missing the dressing. Paul made sure that every single detail was followed to the letter.

I ended up loving to work for Paul because my tips were great because the food was always right. Fast forward 20 years and Paul is a great friend, and he has had his own pizzeria going on 14 years and he has become very successful. His operations are great, and they have stood the test of time. In fact, he recently expanded into a full-service model, and he is doing amazing. Speaking of expansion, that’s what we will delve into in the next installment of Building Blocks.

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

The post Building Blocks: Back to Basics appeared first on Pizza Today.

“I’m a big believer in the idea that you don’t rise to the
occasion — you sink to the level of your training.” 
– Mike Tomlin, Head Coach, Pittsburgh Steelers.

The characteristics between the sports world and owning and operating a pizzeria are vast. It is really what I fell in love with many years ago. I was a skinny beanpole as a kid, and that meant that I became the coach of many of my brother’s youth sports teams. I gained many leadership qualities at a young age unknowingly. The first Friday I worked in a pizzeria I simply fell in love with the team aspect of what was happening.

It all started when the order was placed and then the ticket got handed off to the dough stretcher, who then gave it to the person making the pizza. And just when you think that’s it, the pizza goes in the oven and an oven tender does his part. The result of seeing how happy the customer was to receive the pizza was a magical moment for me. I remember early on in my pizza delivery days showing up at a customer’s door. The guy was having a party, and everyone cheered for the pizza guy (me)!

The reason I tell those stories here is to bring to light the idea that what we do is special and takes a great team and training. I believe that many of us need inspiration from other walks of life to bring that aura into our kitchens. I quoted Mike Tomlin to start this article, and recently I was lucky enough to be in a private setting with him. The room was full of business owners. I thought the questions they were going to ask would be football related. But, to my delight, they were aimed at team building. One of the questions was how to handle a big personality that also produces at a high level. He answered that everyone needs to be treated as an individual, and that every person needs to be attended to with a different approach. How you talk with one person and what methods work with one person may not work with another.

One of the other questions was centered on a moment of difficulty or a very decisive decision and how you bring the team back together afterwards. That answer was also telling. He spoke about confronting it head-on and letting everyone know that things are not personal, but that it’s a business and business decisions need to be made. The most important part, though, is not letting things build up but also getting ahead of the issues and dealing with them as they come up.

When we realize that it may seem like we are in the pizza business, but we are in the people business, most of our issues will start to have solutions. The more that we can build our team around great people and then teach them our ways, the quicker we will win the day-to-day grind. In the next installment, we will get into what fundamentals and back-to-basics are important to us as pizzeria operators.

Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh.  Instagram: @caliente_pizza

The post Building Blocks: Drawing Inspiration from the Sports World appeared first on Pizza Today.

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” – Five Man Electrical Band

It is hard enough for things to be done the way you want them done when you are in the restaurant, but it’s even harder to get things done to your satisfaction when you are not in the pizzeria. In addition to getting things done the way you want, the same can be said for culture. There may be a culture in your pizzeria when you are there and a completely different culture when you are not there. One of the ways I like to streamline both of these things is through branded signage on the walls at our pizzerias.

Nick Bogacz, founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh

This may sound like a simple idea, but what you are really doing is spelling out to your team what the expectations are, and what is accepted and what is not. Picking up from last month’s Building Blocks, the first thing Caliente puts on our walls at all our pizzerias is how to make the food. In the beginning, this was a huge undertaking, but a very fulfilling one. We made charts and graphs of how the food was supposed to be constructed and documented the process step-by-step through pictures. Then, we measured spots on the walls and the makelines to hang all the signage. We made it so that every single menu item was hanging on the walls. We also have used the method of putting the same pictures into a book and creating a build guide for each section of our menu.

Once we broke down how to make everything on our menu, we did the same with the recipes and prep items. This involves hanging signs on all the processes of prepping your items. Once those two big facets of your operations are finished, you can start to focus on other procedures. For example, we have a sign that illustrates the acceptable and unacceptable uniform standards.

Now remember, these may all sound like simple ideas, but the purpose behind them is to set the standards for when you are there. And, more importantly, for when you are not there. I know that another hot topic in any pizzeria is the cleaning of the facility. Having the correct signage showing what is the standard and how to clean is paramount.

Lastly, as mentioned, culture building is very important. Having a positive and upbeat work culture is a key to success. Picture your favorite sports team (and, in particular, their locker room). Think of the signage they have hanging that is motivational and speaks to the team atmosphere and how to win.  There are many similarities between the sports world and your pizzeria. That is how I fell in love with the pizza business in the first place. I was always a sports fan, and I played sports growing up.  How you win in sports and how you win in your pizzeria are on the same wavelength, and that’s what we will discuss in next month’s Building Blocks.

The post Building Blocks: Here’s Your Sign appeared first on Pizza Today.