The queen of hearts. ([e-mail]).

Phil Meister would likely be the first to admit that she's not your typical entrepreneur.

Aside from getting into the world of business without knowing anything about it (more on that to come), for starters, there's the issue of her name. There are not many women named Phil, which Meister explains is a shortened version of her middle name, Phillips. So Meister has had significantly more than one confused caller come to realize that the feminine voice on the end of the line indeed is Phil Meister.

Upon realizing their misunderstanding, most people are polite and affable. But, Meister concedes, there are still chauvinists who become, shall we say, less-than-polite when they realize the only Phil they're going to talk to is of the opposite sex.

Then there's the Saturday Night Live character invented by actor Rob Schneider who had an annoying habit of creating nicknames for people, many of which had the suffix 'Meister' tagged on the end. Since then, her identification has become doubly challenging.

But as far as establishing herself among the province's franchisee elite, Meister has had no identity crisis. Meister's J and M Mexican Foods Ltd., the predecessor to her current Fiesta Foods corporation, represented the first Canadian Taco Time franchise and, in fact, she is just one year short of celebrating her 25th anniversary as a Taco Time franchisee.

Meister's story is as unique as is her name (the surname of which she can thank her current, and second, husband, Don Meister, whom she married in 1993). A Montanan, Meister married a professional hockey player from Saskatoon, Mick Shaw, who played in the Western U.S. The Shaws became aficionados of Mexican food. So much so, in fact, that they would throw widely reputable house parties complete with full-blown Mexican cuisine. The repeated suggestions that they should and could do a similar type of entertainment except on a commercial basis became so prevalent that they finally decided to act upon these suggestions.

Therefore, after her husband's retirement and subsequent move to his hometown of Saskatoon, and despite the fact that "we didn't know anything about business or cooking," Meister, then known as Phil Shaw, and her husband dove headfirst into the food service industry along with another couple of business partners.

"Franchising didn't have a good name back then," Meister concedes. "You had your big franchises, like the big burger places, but other than that it was a lot of speculation -- everybody was going to become rich by franchising their business."

Meister says that the franchising dilemma was even more accentuated in Canada, where the number of seemingly qualified options weren't as plentiful.

Even after conducting significant research, it was more a stroke of good fortune that resulted in a call from Jim Penny of Lethbridge, who had just secured the licensing rights for Taco Time in Canada. Aware of the Shaws' desire to pursue a franchise, Penny made a pitch that appealed to the young couple. Subsequent meetings resulted in an agreement and Phil and her partners became Taco Time franchise No. 1.

There were many learning steps along the way - on both sides of the equation - but today Fiesta Foods accounts for five Saskatoon locations among the total of 110 locations from Thunder Bay to Victoria.

Meister concedes that things have changed quite dramatically since those early days.

"There were no national accounts to start with," Meister says of the suppliers Taco Time now considers more as partners. "And we got a lot of help from FBDB (Federal Business Development Bank). And I don't think there's that same level of support today."

"I think we had a lot of influence on the policies that have become common throughout Taco Time today, because we were the only ones to work with" she adds with a laugh.

Personally, many things have changed for Meister over the years as well. Unfortunately, tragedy has played a role in these developments.

Meister is blessed with two sons, Steve Shaw, 25, and Adam Shaw, 18, but an infant daughter, Jennifer Shaw, was diagnosed with congenital heart defects, and lived to be only 13 months old before dying during heart surgery in 1987.

"When you lose a child it is absolutely the worst thing that can happen to you in your life' Meister says unequivocally. Making their situation even more bothersome was the blatant lack of equipment and even handling techniques they were subjected to.

"We were less than thrilled with the medical facilities," Meister says. "Jennifer needed a certain machine for her condition but so did another man in Saskatoon. There was only one of these machines available and he got there first."

Meister also recalls catching cat naps in a storage room in the University Hospital because that was the only place a parent could go, despite having to be there around the clock.

The cost of losing a child was so great in the Shaws' case, that it also contributed to their divorce in 1990. The cost may also have contributed to another tragedy in 1993 when Mick took his own life.

From the onset of this tragedy, however, after Jennifer's passing, Meister says instead of resolving to accept things the way they were, "we chose to try to do something to change that," Meister says.

On September 28, 1989, the first Little Hearts Day was celebrated in Saskatoon. One dollar from the sale of every soft taco went to a specific charity, The Jennifer Shaw Cardiac Equipment Fund, which annually generates anywhere from $15,000 to $23,000. So far, and thanks to the wonderful support of her customers and suppliers, many of whom donate their share of the soft taco, Taco Time has contributed in excess of $174,000 to the Jennifer Shaw Cardiac Equipment Fund.

This fund has made a world of difference to the Royal University Hospital's Pediatric Cardiac Unit. Today, families can make use of the Little Hearts Room, which is a far cry from the storage room Meister called home. Or they can take mobile monitors known as King of Hearts home with them to monitor their heart pattern and then upload the information to the hospital over the phone line.

"We didn't want to start the fund to make anything big of Jennifer", Meister says. "We just didn't like the fact that there was nothing for people in our situation and we didn't want more people to have to experience what we did the way we did."

This year's Little Hearts Day, the 14th annual, is scheduled for Saturday, September 28. Soft tacos go on sale for just $1.25, a dollar of which is donated directly to the Jennifer Shaw Cardiac Equipment Fund. Meister personally oversees the administration of Little Hearts Day as a volunteer, making every dollar raised available for donation.

"It's our mandate for no money to come out of the fund for anything else other than what its intent is--to raise money for pediatric cardiac equipment," she says.

Such a mandate is obviously good, but it also has a downfall as well in that it negates any thoughts of making Little Hearts Day a regional or even national event. "It would take somebody filling a full-time job just to get something like that to fly," Meister says.

Also making Little Hearts Day such a success is the tremendous support Meister receives from her staff. The project is bought into so wholeheartedly that former staff will come to donate their time on what is internally known as "Jenny's Day."

A successful businessperson by anyone's standards, Meister attributes the source of her success to her staff, four of whom have been with her ranging from 12 to 20 years. Each of them manages their own location and Meister says, "I consider those stores as theirs'."

Yet despite having nothing left to prove, Meister feels she has much left to accomplish. Therefore, she's showing no signs of slowing down.

Nor is she thinking about returning to her homeland of the U.S.A., as she made the "big step for me" of obtaining her Canadian citizenship last year.

"This is where my family is," she says. "This is home for me."

And where her heart is.

CONTACT

Phil Meister

Fiesta Foods Ltd./Taco Time

PO Box 25080

Saskatoon, SK S7K 8B7

[e-mail]