The Man Behind Domino's Pizza in Sherman Oaks

Paul Mahoney started out as a driver for Domino's Pizza in 1986, and after eight years behind the wheel he achieved his dream of owning a franchise. He opened his own Domino's outlet at 4467 Van Nuys Blvd. in 1995.

Along the way, he fell in love.

“I met my wife, Lisa, at a regional meeting when we were both franchise consultants,” said Mahoney, who was living and working in Spokane, WA, at the time. “We fell in love and had to find a way to be together.”

So he and Lisa Shaevitz, a Southern California native, built the franchise in Sherman Oaks and raised a family. Over the years, Mahoney, 44, has seen his business costs rise due to higher gas prices, minimum-wage hikes and other increases—but his pizza prices are where they were when he opened the franchise.

“Over the course of the 15 years I've owned this store, I think we're selling the pizzas for exactly the same price we were 15 years ago,” Mahoney said. “It's like the burger wars, you know—we're in a pizza war right now. We're selling a large, two-topping, new and inspired pizza for $5.99.”

To keep costs down, Mahoney does as many repairs as he can on his own. This week he saved about $800 doing his own oven repairs instead of outsourcing the job. However, a year and a half ago it was necessary to open a second store in Thousand Oaks to make ends meet as Mahoney's profits dipped due to changes in the economy.

“We never wanted to grow past one store, but we had to go to two just to stay with it,” he said.

Fortunately, crime hasn't been much of a problem for Mahoney and his 27 team members in Sherman Oaks. They have had a few driver robberies and one in-store robbery over the 15 years, but no injuries occurred during any of those incidents.

"Crime hasn't really been an issue here. My drivers are very experienced and very safe,” he said. “ I've got a lot of people who have been with us a long time—some for the entire 15 years I've been here—and they know what they're doing.”

Mahoney, who has four children whom he often brings to the store when they're not in school, likes to think of his team members as a family. For Mahoney and his team, that sense of belonging extends to the community of Sherman Oaks.

“We're part of the community—my people live in the community here, and our success is based on making sure that we not only provide a great product, but that we turn around and help out,” he said.

Mahoney's Domino's franchise sponsors several local schools, donates “free pizza for a year” gift certificates for silent auctions and just this week provided 25 pizzas to the Sherman Oaks Parents Association at Sherman Oaks Elementary for their monthly parents' meeting.

“In order to get the parents there, the kids have to eat, so what they end up doing is having a pizza and movie night for the kids while the parents are in their meeting,” he said. “That way they can get better attendance.”

Mahoney said he doesn't mind getting requests for donations, because it's a good way to get his product out to the community.

“We get constant requests from the community for donations and we give away just tons of pizzas,” Mahoney said. “I don't mind that because, once you taste our pizza, you're mine.”