Franchisee Spotlight: John Crossley of Pita Pit

John Crossley was born in Buchanan, Georgia, and didn't have to travel far to attend college at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. There, he studied business management and accounting. While a student, Crossley took a trip to Athens and that's where he got his first taste of Pita Pit.

Upon his return to campus, Crossley realized that there was nothing like Pita Pit in his college town -- food that was not just fresh and healthy, but open into the late-night hours for busy students. It was then Crossley told himself if there were no such options in the area by the time he graduated that he would be the one to change that.

It was fate that senior year when Crossley was in an entrepreneurship class and was assigned to learn how to become a franchise operator. Crossley and Pita Pit met again, and he turned this class project into a real-life one and began creating the plans to open the franchise on campus. Almost inevitably, these plans finally came to life when Crossley opened his Pita Pit on March 13.

I was born near Carrollton and grew up a little bit north of there in Buchanan. I studied business management and accounting in Carrollton at UWG. During my senior year, I left the country to work a bookkeeping job with a spring break travel company in Nassau, the Bahamas, from February to July of 2015.

I completed my school work there and chose not to attend graduation in April of 2015. I returned to Georgia and began working for Chick-fil-A in Atlanta to familiarize myself with the restaurant industry. Throughout all of this, the plans to open Pita Pit had been in motion for quite some time.

When I was a freshman, I went on a trip to Athens and ate at Pita Pit. When I returned to Carrollton, I realized there was nothing like it -- no fast, fresh option for healthy food that was available to us students during the late-night hours. During my sophomore year, I traveled to Pita Pit locations in Auburn, Nashville, Gainesville, and Columbia. I told myself, when I graduate, if there still wasn't a place for students to eat at late at night in the bar district, then I was going to open something like that here in Carrollton.

During my senior year, I was in an entrepreneurship class and was assigned a project to go through the mock process of franchising with a business. I looked up some of the top franchises on Enterprneur's website and there it was: Pita Pit. A lightbulb went off and I began working on the process of opening a Pita Pit in town. After my five-month job in Nassau ended, I came back and picked up where I left off.

I went to my friends and presented them with the idea and a couple of them pitched in to help with the funding. I got some loans from a commercial lender and then also got involved with a group called Impact 252 -- they invest in young, Christian entrepreneurs after an extensive vetting process. They have been a huge help along the way and have acted as business coaches for me as well, as I oversee the day-to-day operations.

I did a lot of independent research and also learned a lot from the class I was in. Other than that, I didn’t have much hands-on experience when I began the process with Pita Pit, but I was excited to get started.

As a former student of UWG, I understand the demographic and the dire need for something like this locally. Between late nights studying and enjoying other on-campus activities, it can be difficult to find the time to put together a healthy meal. Without restaurants serving these options in the area, it is easy to resort to eating unhealthily. Pita Pit will fill that void and I am confident that the students and, really, the entire community will quickly become fans.