Alan Finkelstein, McDonald’s, and Mize

Hi, I’m Alan Finkelstein, my wife and I own I have six McDonald’s restaurants in the Seattle area. I’ve been with McDonald’s this coming March for 49 years. I started as a 16-year-old crew person, so this has been my first job. We have been working with Mize CPAs since 2004.

So, over the years we had lots of discussions and different business issues that have come up. But I would say the most significant thing that Mize has helped me with was two years ago we were given the opportunity to purchase six additional restaurants from another Owner/Operator. I worked with Bryan Phillips and he helped me look at the economics and decide whether it was a good business decision. Bryan and I concluded after looking at all the P&Ls, purchase price and all that. We decided that purchasing those additional restaurants wasn’t the right thing for us to do. You have to be careful as an Operator that you don’t let your ego get in the way. Bryan helped us understand what the good, the bad, and the ugly can be. And looking back on it now two years later I think it was the best decision we could have made.