Success Trails Podcast

Niki Moon has been in the salon business since she was 13! She currently is the owner of Niki Moon Salon in Naperville Illinois.  Her salon is fully owned and operated by a team of amazing women. Niki Moon Salon has been voted the number 1 salon in their area, and were selected in the top 100 businesses in all of North America by Yelp. Her salon has also been voted in the top 20 salons in North American by Salon Today Magazine

Sam Vlahos has had an entrepreneurial drive ever since growing up as a young kid. It just so happened that drive landed him in the restaurant business. Out of college, Sam partnered with a single pizza company, as he saw a great concept and helped expand it within a year to 3 locations. The company currently has over 7 locations and is beginning to franchise. Sam then changed gears after the third and started full service restaurants/bars including Fuller House and Pierce Tavern.Today, Sam has a staff of over 150 people and sales are reaching eight figures. Sam is excited for what’s to come as he looks for more expansion in the coming years.

Scott Brennecke founded a distribution business in 1987 that delivered popcorn to Chicago area hotels, sports bars, hospitals, corporate headquarters, bowling alleys and museums.  This was a business that Scott owned for 28 years.  In 2011 Scott developed a formula for a mens aftershave and grew that into a separate business.  Eventually it expanded into several related product lines including aftershave, shaving cream, shave balm, shaving soap, and a very popular line of lather bowls.  As this second business grew it became necessary to sell the distribution business to better focus on Captain’s Choice which is the business he currently owns and operates.

David Grossman is a Chicago native and lifelong entrepreneur of the restaurant industry. David has worked as an area developer for Subway restaurants as their director of real estate. David was responsible for the site selection and lease negotiations for over 100 Subway locations in Chicago, the vast majority of which are still in operation today. David also spent time as head of the restaurant leasing team for General Growth Properties.Since leaving GGP David has opened up 40 Freshii stores and currently owns 3 of the highest volume stores in the Chicago market. David also is a partner in DMK Burger Bar and has plans to franchise. Grossman philosophy: We all experience life a little bit differently and we bring different skills and abilities to the team as a product of our experiences. When we come to work with the mindset that we not only have something to offer, but a lot more to learn, the whole team gets a boost of energy that is hard to miss and really makes everyone's job so much more enjoyable and productive.