It’s no secret, this week’s episode is all about Jimmy John’s. I have often wondered, who is Jimmy John? Today we are going to dive deep into James John Liautaud and the sandwich empire he built. Warning! You may want some freaky fast delivery after listening to this show.



The Early Years: Who Is Jimmy John



James John Liautaud was born January 12, 1964 in Arlington Heights, Illinois to Gina and James Liautaud. His mother was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to America when she was 12. His dad was an entrepreneur who seemed to fail more than he succeeded. They filed for bankruptcy twice as Jimmy was growing up. Money was tight.



Jimmy wasn’t the best student and graduated 2nd to last in his class. By this point his father had a business in the plastics industry that was taking off and he made a deal with his son. He was willing to put up $25,000 in seed money for Jimmy to open a business. The only condition was if the business venture failed within a year, he’d have to join the army. Jimmy decided to take the money and started exploring how he was going to start his business. 



Military or Business: The Ultimate Ultimatum



This is where the story gets interesting. Jimmy didn’t want to fail. With the threat of military service, and a desire to become a better student in business than he was in high school, he dove in head first and started doing his homework. He originally wanted to do a hotdog stand. However, his research over the summer showed him that $25,000 would not be enough money to open a hotdog stand and be profitable. The equipment was too expensive. 



He found that he could buy premium meat from local grocery stores, bake bread at home and have a profitable business. It took him just a few days to perfect his bread recipe. Once he had the bread down, he could focus on the combinations that would make up his menu. He had family and friends taste his creations and settled on four original sandwiches to put on the menu. They were the Pepe, The Big John, The S&M, and The Vito Geneveso. 



First Store Opens



The very first Jimmy John’s opened on January 13, 1983, in Charleston, Illinois. It was a garage where the rent was only $200. Jimmy bought used equipment and opened with the bare essentials, a small fridge, a chest freezer, an oven and a meat slicer. 



The location was bad and the business was slow to take off. Jimmy would take sandwich samples door to door to get people interested in what he had to offer. He also started delivering sandwiches to nearby dorms at Eastern Illinois University. 



Early Business Lessons



When learning about who is Jimmy John, it became apparent that he doesn’t like to learn the same hard lesson twice. He knew next to nothing about business. So he set out to learn basic finance principles on the fly. He said, “I watched what makes the bank balance go up and what makes it go down. Well, when I wrote the payroll checks, the bank balance went down.” He began to make some smart strategic changes with his staff. He’d stagger his employee arrival times by 15 minutes each shift. That allowed him to save a few bucks in labor each day. That really added up in the long term. In his first 12 months in business Jimmy pulled in $154,000 in sales and netted $40,000. He was profitable.



Jimmy split his profits with his dad. The following year sales were slightly better. This time he used the profits to buy out his dad’s share of the business with interest. He was now the sole owner of his budding sandwich empire. 



Franchising and Explosive Growth