As a female CEO, Toni Calderone deeply understands how difficult it can be to strike a balance between a career and family. She is a third-generation restaurant owner and grew up seeing how her hard-working parents couldn’t always spend a lot of time with her. By Kelsi Trinidad
As a female CEO, Toni Calderone deeply understands how difficult it can be to strike a balance between a career and family. She is a third-generation restaurant owner and grew up seeing how her hard-working parents couldn’t always spend a lot of time with her.
After working her way up in the restaurant industry and owning multiple restaurants, Calderone knew that her next restaurant concept, PastaNito, a fast-casual homemade pasta franchise, would have a franchise model that allows franchisees to be successful and have time to spend with their families.
“There’s no secret as to why there aren’t more of us doing it, but I really want to be evidence that it can be done,” said Calderone. “My hope is that I attract other like-minded women who want a sense of entrepreneurship, a sense of independence, something that’s tried and true and something they can be a community leader in. It’s really a unique opportunity for men and women alike, but I really can drive home the fact that if family is one of the pillars of your life, I’ve created something that allows you to do both.”
A large aspect of PastaNito’s franchise model is that it’s accessible to entrepreneurs who value time with their families. This is because the restaurant operations are built to easily be trainable and managed by employees.
“The fact that we’ve created literally the perfect way to just assemble the food, there’s really no chefing done or prepping done. There are very few ways to screw it up,” said Calderone. “You can be a brand-new person to the restaurant world, or you can be a seasoned franchisee that has multiple units and doesn’t have to be there.”
PastaNito is so much more than amazing food. The company prides itself on its locations becoming active parts of the community. When it comes to taking on new franchisees, Calderone is looking for those with a community- minded spirit.
“What I’m looking for is just people passionate about life in general and about people,” she explained. “You’re going to be a connector, so you’ve got to be a community person. Generating the sales you want has a lot to do with community outreach.”
Kelsi Trinidad