April 18, 2018
If you ever have the chance to meet Hardip ‘Singh’ Dosanjh, you’ll know right away that he was meant to work in the restaurant and food service industry. His passion for good food combined with his positive, outgoing personality is the perfect recipe for success.
Singh was born in Punjab, India and moved to the U.S. with his parents in 1978, then to Kansas City in 1979.
As a young teenager he worked at various restaurants and became the youngest General Manager of Furr’s Cafeteria in the company’s history at the age of 19. Working 70 hours per week for more than 10 years, he was determined to work his way up into higher leadership positions, but the demanding hours of the job were taking a toll.
While working at Furr’s, Myron Green (now TreatAmerica) approached Singh and asked him to help manage a variety of its corporate cafeterias across the Kansas City area.
“This opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Dosanjh. “Joining Myron Green was a key turning point in my life and my career, allowing me to make more money and have more time to help raise a family.”
Singh spent more than 16 years leading and managing numerous cafeterias for TreatAmerica, including HR Block, Yellow Freight, Commerce Bank and Powell Gardens. He had a unique entrepreneurial approach and was very successful building and growing the cafeterias he managed, quickly becoming one of the top performers across the company.
He originally began investing some of his extra earnings into real-estate, but sold out of those right before the downturn in 2008. Shortly after, a friend reached out to him and his wife, Inderjit, about the possibility of owning their own Goodcents restaurant.
“I had always dreamed about owning my own restaurant, but I didn’t want to start something from the ground up,” said Dosanjh. “Goodcents provided a unique turn key opportunity that I knew would be a steady, consistent investment for our family.”
Singh and his wife Inderjit purchased their first Goodcents restaurant at 87th and Antioch Rd. in Overland Park, Kan. in 2012 where they were able to more than double revenue within the first three years. And subsequently purchased a second Goodcents restaurant shortly after off I-435 and Roe Ave. in Overland Park, Kan., both of which they still own and operate today.
Goodcents became the Dosanjh’s family business. Inderjit left her career as a nurse at St. Joseph Medical Center to run the restaurants, while Singh was still working with Treat America. Their son and daughter also worked in the restaurants with their friends after school and every summer throughout high school and college.
“The thing I have loved most about running our Goodcents restaurants, is having something our family could do together and providing a platform for people to grow and learn both personally and professionally,” said Dosanjh. “I was fortunate to have some great people looking out for me along the way and now I enjoy paying that forward.”
Despite growing pressures across the fast casual industry, both of Singh’s restaurants revenues have continued to grow year over year. Singh attributes the majority of his success on having a great core team of employees and focusing on the basics of customer service. He always puts a huge focus on treating everyone equally and training his employees to know their customers.
“Our industry has lost its eye on true customer service,” he said. “All people really want is for people to make them feel wanted by remembering their name, who their kids are and they will be loyal to your business.”