How These Jamba Juice Operators Run Two Stores Remotely—While Staying Compliant With 7shifts

 

Running a restaurant is no easy feat. But running not one—but two—in the state of California? That’s a whole other game. From high minimum wage laws to strict compliance rules, it’s a constant balancing act to keep everything in check.

But for Jamba Juice operators, Leslie Broadland and Michele Bryant, that’s where 7shifts comes in—especially when they’re not there to oversee everything in person. 

Meet Leslie Broadland & Michele Bryant

Leslie Broadland came from a family in the restaurant business. She says, “I was raised in fast food. So, my husband and I graduated from college, and instead of doing our degrees, we both became entrepreneurs and franchisees.”

After franchising 17 Burger King locations with her husband, they were ready for a change. That’s when the couple came across Jamba Juice, opened their first store, and decided to pivot: “It was so much easier than Burger King and so much more fun.” Today, they own two locations in California. 

 

 

Michele Bryant worked at Jamba as her first job at just 16 years old. After dabbling in a few other roles, she found her place as Director of Operations at Leslie’s locations: “It’s a fun place to work […] We were very involved with my kids’ schools—I loved that. I was at their schools, selling smoothies, and we were doing all of their events. I could be with my kids even while I was working.”

We sat down with Leslie and Michele to talk about how 7shifts has supported their business over time—and how the platform helps them manage multiple locations remotely while staying compliant.

 

 

“Neither of us has to be there in person because of 7shifts”

Leslie explains that her daughter is in the military, so she often moves around and runs her stores remotely. She previously lived in Hawaii for five years and currently spends quite a bit of time in Florida. 

7shifts is a core part of that as she’s able to check in on the stores, wherever she’s located. For example, “I can remotely, right now, tell if they have taken their temperatures because we have it programmed in 7shifts.”

 

“I can see and help follow up on things. I get a percentage of what they’ve gotten done for the day. I can add certain tasks to them.” She adds, “Neither of us has to be there in person full-time anymore because of 7shifts.”

The platform also helps other managers when they’re outside of the store, too: “We have a GM who’s on vacation right now, and she’s managing her store off the clock, remotely. She’s watching labor. She’s watching what’s being done. She’s watching shifts be switched. And so, I think they love that they have [7shifts].” 

Keeping staff accountable, even away from the store

Leslie and Michele also love that 7shifts keeps the team accountable, even when they’re away from the stores. They note two features that make this possible:

☑️ Late time clock tracking: Michele says, “I love the time clock view because you can see who exactly is clocked in and when they clocked in, so I know if they got there late. Even if I don’t have the computer with me to see a flagged shift, I can see that right away.” Leslie adds that she’ll immediately get a notification, no matter where she is in the States. Then, she can text the employee running late to make sure they’re coming. And in the event they forgot and won’t be able to make it, it gives her a head start to find a cover. 

☑️ Read receipts on announcements: Leslie says, “When we make an announcement, it’s a legal document, I tell the managers. Corporate likes us to do a walk-on—where there’s a clipboard where they read things, and they sign it—but I don’t see that physically, if I’m not there. But I can tell who’s read my announcements.” An example of this would be for a new hand-washing policy.

“I can’t say it enough. You don’t think of running your business remotely, but you’re able to be on top of it remotely […] Here I am, on a park bench on my phone, and I can see all my 7shifts—and I can manage everything on it.”

 

 

How 7shifts simplifies compliance for the Jamba stores

With such complicated labor laws for the restaurant industry in California, 7shifts also helps Leslie and Michele keep everything in check. Here are some of their favorite compliance features on the platform: 

✅ Scheduling with set breaks  

Leslie explains, “In this business, especially in California, labor—every minute—it counts. Every minute is money. And if we’re not productive every minute, we can’t profit. Our profit margins have gone down just greatly since minimum wage has gone up to $20 an hour.”

With 7shifts, however, the stores can stay compliant with break laws while managing labor costs: “We can schedule, for 30 minutes, an extra person. And then, we schedule somebody else to take their 30-minute, unpaid break at that time. So, it doesn’t affect the performance of the store, and it doesn’t affect our profitability.”

“Being able to assign what time you’re taking your unpaid break has helped us in bottom line.” Leslie recounts that before this, managers didn’t always monitor when breaks were taken, leading to wasted time or understaffing. 

She adds, “We love my weekly report that we get, which tells me how much overtime we’ve had because in this business, you can’t afford overtime. So we rate the stores on overtime on their shift feedback.”

 

 

✅ Transparent tip distribution 

At the Jamba stores, Leslie also uses the 7shifts tip pooling feature to cover processing fees efficiently: “I like, as an owner, how I can program a percentage. Credit card tips—we have to pay 3.7% for a merchant fee. So, I can take 3.7% of that tip to pay that expense, which has been really nice because tips aren’t all cash anymore. It used to be all cash management, but now we distribute the credit card tips, minus the cost to the company.”

She also appreciates the transparency it provides: “I love that it’s all documented. Right now, California is taxing tips […] Before, I was always afraid that our employees weren’t getting their cash tips.”

“Whoever was managing it—they used to put it in little envelopes. I didn’t know if they were stealing it. So, this way, everybody feels confident that the money goes to the bank. It’s documented, and it gets put into the payroll system, so they get exactly what was taken in. The owners can’t take from it. The managers can’t take from it.”

✅ Expiration warnings for documents

Michele also loves that 7shifts provides warnings before staff documentation expires, such as food handler cards and work permits: “I love that it’s on the schedule, and it gives us a little error […] It doesn’t even wait until it’s expired. It tells us it’s expiring soon. We can act before it even gets there—so that’s amazing.”

Leslie adds, “I program mine to tell me 30 days ahead of time, and I know that they’re getting a notification because I’m seeing it.” She then sends an email reminder to the staff member, and won’t schedule them until all expired documentation has been updated—making sure the store stays compliant and protected from any legal issues. 

✅ Scheduling warnings for minors

Leslie also explains that minors have legal limits on how many hours they can work each week. With 7shifts, she can set those limits in advance—such as 20 hours per week—for each employee.

She appreciates that 7shifts flags when a schedule exceeds those limits, even across multiple locations, since there are some shared staff: “It’s the same company, so legally, you can’t work again. And 7shifts just lets you know that—it treats it as one company still.”

 

 

The final word

To end off, Leslie sums up her thoughts: “I feel very confident in recommending, if you’re a small business owner, this program is good for you.” She adds, “A lot of people try to say, ‘I can’t afford it. I only have one store,’” and to that, she responds: “Absolutely not. It’s the other way […] You’re going to learn something new that’ll take something off your plate every day.”