A J Titus of Signarama On 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business

An Interview With Jason Hartman

Transparent — Be clear and open to your team about your wants, desires, and goals. My dad is always communicating his vision, goals, and expectations with the family and entire organization.

As a part of our series about 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing A.J. Titus.

A.J. Titus is a third-generation business owner and executive and currently sits as President of Signarama, the world’s largest sign franchise and affiliate brand of United Franchise Group (UFG). In his role, A.J. leads the company’s worldwide franchise growth while also helping current franchise owners expand their businesses and maximize profitability. A.J. is also President of Starpoint Brands, UFG’s franchise division, where he serves as a strategic lead for the division’s brand executives.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My story starts before I was even a thought. I’m a third-generation business owner and executive, following in the footsteps of my grandfather, Roy Titus, who started his first franchise concept in the 1970s, and father, Ray Titus, who started Signarama and is the founder and CEO of United Franchise Group (UFG).

Franchising and entrepreneurship are in our family’s DNA, but they never forced it upon me. Instead, my father always told me to follow my passion and to be open to learning along the way. I guess it was inevitable that my passion did in fact end up being our family business.

My journey started at Signarama, which my father opened in 1986 and later transformed into the world’s largest sign franchise, where I worked as a store employee doing door-to-door sales. With a commitment to learning the ins and outs of the business and how to turn profit, I worked my way up and eventually landed in my current role as President of Signarama.

Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?

Our family business goes back three generations to when my grandfather founded Minute Man Press. With a shared appreciation for innovation and resourcefulness, my father followed in his entrepreneurial footsteps and after years of hard work, founded United Franchise Group (UFG), home to an affiliated family of franchise brands and consultants including Signarama, which my father started in 1986 and since transformed into the world’s largest sign franchise.

Family business is second nature to me. Growing up, our dinner conversations were always about life experiences, but mostly about business. Seven of us are now in the business; in addition to my dad and myself, my two bothers and three cousins also hold fulltime positions. Today, I serve as President of Signarama, where I leads the brand’s worldwide franchise growth while also helping current franchise owners expand their businesses and maximize profitability. I’m also President of Starpoint Brands, UFG’s franchise division, where I serve as a strategic lead for the division’s brand executives.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

When I first started working at the local Signarama, I didn’t have much experience in sales, of the sign industry for that matter, so my dad took it upon himself to teach me the ins and outs. He had a hands-on approach and would drive me to a shopping center to sell signs. The first time he dropped me off, I was absolutely clueless. While I might have felt like a deer in headlights at first, I learned a lot by baptism by fire and in retrospect, appreciate my dad putting me in situations like that where I had no choice but to think on my feet and be resourceful. I learned a lot from that first drop, and my dad continued coaching and training me thereafter.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first became president of Signarama, I was eager to make an impact. We’d been working on developing a new initiative that I wanted our system to adopt very quickly. Instead of taking all the necessary steps to ensure a seamless implementation, like getting buy-in from my internal team and making sure they were onboard and prepared, I sent out a letter telling them that this is what we’re doing. Here I was, a new leader, and my first move did nothing but ruffle feathers. Not smart. Things didn’t pan out as I hoped, but from this experience I learned the importance of two-way communication and giving my team a forum to share their input before deciding to implement something that would impact their jobs.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I think it’s our culture. We’re a fast-paced organization, always looking for our next opportunity, and take a positive and caring approach when it comes to our team. We champion each other’s successes without any undertones of jealousy or combat. We want to see our team grow and elevate their businesses. One of our franchise owners, for example, has an office that’s significantly bigger than our corporate office, and we celebrate that! Success within our system is a testament to all the great people around us who help our franchisees and employees succeed.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We’re investing a lot of time and resources into building and enhancing our digital infrastructure — from our website and data platform to our Point-of-Sale system and more. Our goal is to increase efficiency so we can in turn help our franchisees grow their businesses.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

First and foremost, my dad has been my guiding force. He gave me an opportunity and the support and resources to be successful. I also must acknowledge my predecessor, Jim Tatem, who laid the groundwork for me and taught me so much about the business. I credit both of my grandfathers as well. Our roots in franchising started with Roy, with JJ’s positive spirit fueling the early growth of our family business.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I’ve made a commitment to be a mentor to the next generation of leaders, investing time and resources into training students in the business program at my alma mater, Palm Beach Atlantic University. I also routinely support multiple causes like my local church as well as other business development programs and will continue to make giving back a priority as long as I’m in business.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main parts of our interview. How do you define a family business? How is a family business different from a regular business?

For me, in a true a family business, the family not only owns it, but operates it as a collective unit. It’s unique in the sense that you’re invested on a deeper level and doing it with people you deeply love. As your operation grows, your business becomes your family. We have employees that have been with us for decades and our relationships go beyond the job — we’re each other’s extended families.

In your opinion or experience, what are the unique advantages that family-owned businesses have?

The advantage of our business is that we are not just doing this for profit. Of course, we all want to make money, but we are just as focused on developing the next generation and seeing our kids in the business as well.

What are the unique drawbacks or blind spots that family-owned businesses have?

You can’t make it personal, and that is easier said than done. It’s a difficult position to be in, when you have a business debate at the office then have to sit at the dinner table together. You need to try and separate it and take personal qualms out of the equation to ensure your motives, decisions and actions are what’s best for the business.

What are some of the common mistakes you have seen family businesses make? What would you recommend avoiding those errors?

Things can go south when business becomes too personal. To stay levelheaded, you must set boundaries and common goals that everyone works together to achieve. It isn’t always about being right, it’s about doing right.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders of family businesses to help their employees to thrive?

Be open and honest with them. Treat your family and employees the same, and maybe go a bit harder on the family. Don’t give your employees a reason to doubt your fairness or think you’re giving your family members a silver spoon.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean with a story or example?

A leader, to me, is someone who you are willing to trust and follow wholeheartedly. My dad is the best example. He’s the first to arrive at the office, the last to leave at the end of the day and is always 100% present for his team and employees. He cares deeply about the person across from him and makes sure they feel it.

Here is our main question. What are the “5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Transparent — Be clear and open to your team about your wants, desires, and goals. My dad is always communicating his vision, goals, and expectations with the family and entire organization.
2. Thick Skin — Use honest feedback and constructive criticism as a learning tool, not a personal attack. Take accountability for your mistakes and grow from them.
3. Know Your Role — You’re position within the company is based on where you excel and what you bring, not when you were born. Own the role you have and do the best possible job you can.
4. Work Ethic — Be the hardest working employee and always put in the time. You need to earn your place and not expect it to be handed to you.
5. Aligned — Everyone needs to be on the same page and working toward common goals and objectives.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would love to inspire a pro-business movement where people can channel their passionate into a lucrative business. We are extremely blessed in America to have the opportunity to do that, but that is not the case everywhere. I want everyone, on a global scale, to feel comfortable and empowered to take a leap of faith toward owning their own business, if that’s what they desire. Not just for the profit, but for the learning and growing as humans that come with it.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can learn about Signarama at www.signarama.com. I also encourage you to visit my website at www.ajtitus.com and follow me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/alexjamestitus.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

About The Interviewer: Jason Hartman is the Founder and CEO of Empowered Investor. Jason has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. Empowered Investor helps people achieve The American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide. Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs. Through Jason’s podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind.

Starting with very little, Jason, while still in college at the age of 19, embarked on a career in real estate. While brokering properties for clients, he was investing in his own portfolio along the way. Through creativity, persistence and hard work, he earned a number of prestigious industry awards and became a young multi-millionaire. Jason purchased a California real estate brokerage firm that was later acquired by Coldwell Banker. He combined his dedication and business talents to become a successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author, and media personality. Over the years he developed his Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ where his innovative firm educates and assists investors in acquiring prudent investments nationwide for their portfolio. Jason’s sought after educational events, speaking engagements, and his popular “Creating Wealth Podcast” inspire and empower hundreds of thousands of people in 189 countries worldwide.

While running his successful real estate and media businesses, Jason also believes that giving back to the community plays an important role in building strong personal relationships. He established The Jason Hartman Foundation in 2005 to provide financial literacy education to young adults providing the all-important real world skills not taught in school which are the key to the financial stability and success of future generations. We’re in a global monetary crisis caused by decades of misguided policies and the cycle of financial dependence has to be broken, literacy and self-reliance are a good start. Visit JasonHartman.com for free materials and resources.