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July 8, 2022 15 mins

Gocha Hawkins is an influencer, owner & head chef of Gocha’s Breakfast Bar.

She comes onto the podcast to tell us about how she used her influencer success into a restaurant business.

Host IG:@itstanyatime

Guest IG: @gochahawkins

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, I'm your host, Tanya sam and welcome
back to Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to give
you the keys to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth
and abutmance. Our next guest is an influencer, owner and

(00:22):
head chef at Gchet's Breakfast Bar, which includes two current
blackfast bar locations located in Atlanta, and a longtime serial
entrepreneur Gohet. Welcome to the podcast. We are so happy
to have you here. Oh, thank you so much. I'm
truly excited to have opportunity to be here and talk
about Money Moves. Well. I love it, and I have

(00:42):
to say from the very beginning, I'm a fan of
the breakfast spot. I love breakfast um, and it is
one of the hottest places in Atlanta. So I want
you to give our listeners the opportunity to understand how
you got to own a business bar. I know I've
supported a lot of the businesses that you've created in Atlanta,
But what got you hear from today? Tell us about
a little Gotchet Hey, so um, I don't know if

(01:05):
people know, but I did here for twenty eight years.
I was in the beauty industry. I really loved it.
And you know, it was like really fun and really interesting,
but you know, it was time for a change. I
felt like it was twenty eight years and it was
time to do something different. The market has started changing.
And I actually had bought a house on the south Side,

(01:29):
which is where my first location is located. So it
wasn't a breakfast restaurant over there, and for a successful
for so many successful people to live off of Cascade
and weren't to be such an affluent area. It's nowhere
to dine. You know, you have to always go to
Buckhead for nice food, and so I thought it would

(01:50):
be great if we bought Buckhead to the Cascade. Yeah. So,
you know, I've always been a cook in my family.
Everyone you know, comes to my house and you know
I would cook. And you know, my friends they always say,
you just hoping a restaurant, And I didn't. I didn't
think I was that good. But you know, I knew
that I was good, but not that good. I didn't.

(02:14):
I don't cook at home by a recipe. I just cook.
So that was very challenging for me, just to say, hey,
I'm gonna open a restaurant, how's my food going to
be consistent if I don't use recipes. So that is
actually something that is super interesting to me because a
lot of people are just great cooks, right. I am

(02:35):
not what you would call a great cook. I can cook,
but I need a recipe. You know, I don't make
things up in my man my mind. I don't have
this taste. And I always think it's interesting when I
would watch like my aunties or my mom cook, but
you know, I'd be like, what's the recipe? They'd be like,
I don't have one. So I was like, well, how
am I supposed to learn? And so a lot of
folks in our community, they don't have a restaurant. They

(02:56):
just know how to do. How did you manage that? Like,
how did you manage to make these recipes go to
a commercial kitchen where it has to be the same
every day. Yes, so I don't know if you know,
but in my restaurant, I make all the sauces myself.
So being that I make all the sauces myself, I
had to go to Cisco, which is my food um distributor,

(03:19):
and they have all these chefs on deck, and so
what I did was all my recipes, I went inside,
I cooked them exactly how I cooked at home, and
so what I did was while I was cooking and
putting different things in the pots, they were measuring. And
so this is actually like a program that helps people
do this. Yes, now that is gold on the podcast

(03:41):
right now. So they were measuring as I was cooking,
and so that's how I developed my batch recipes, which
I thought was amazing because I really did not understand
how my food was going to be consistent. And I
know that is key to arrest. Oh, it's totally key,
because you know, you go back to a restaurant because

(04:03):
you're like, this was delicious, and I want to go
back tomorrow and I wanted to taste exactly the same.
So most of you go back and it's not Yeah,
you won't go back. So that's how you lose patrons.
So tell us again, it was it was Cisco. Yes, yes,
that is my food districtor Yes, they have a wonderful program. Wonderful.
That's incredible. That's like a real key to success right there. Okay,

(04:25):
so now you've got all your recipes down, and how
did you go about picking a location and how did
you learn all these things so that you know you
could be successful do you buy or least like what
was next? So again, you know, I moved over here
two thousand fourteen. There was not anywhere to eat, and
so I found a space. I had been looking for

(04:47):
a restaurant space, and um, I couldn't really find a location.
And just so happened, right in the public shopping center
there was a space that used to be a to
go spot. And at spot, I guess they wasn't really
you know, doing too well and they wanted to just
walk away from their lease. And so just so happened.
My roots are called and said I found a space

(05:09):
right off Cascade, and I thought it was just god
because I was like, wow, right there. You know, it
was something that I wanted in the community, you know,
be able to give bad give jobs, and I just
thought it would be a great, you know, a great move.
And so it came available, and no unfortunate I did.
I am not able to buy in that plaza because

(05:30):
my landlord owns the entire plaza. And you know, it's
okay because you know, I'm leasing, and you know, it's fine.
It doesn't it's not like a huge amount of you know,
but it's still you're investing in yourself and your dreams,
and like you know, sometimes properties come up and it
makes sense to buy them. Sometimes it's fine to like
have this as a lease, a long term lease, or

(05:51):
however it's structured. And especially I would not have wanted
to buy my first location because I did not know,
um how it would do. You know. That's why I
was very strategic about negotiating my lease where I was
able to get out into terms terms five terms, you know,
so that I wouldn't be stuck in a long term lease.

(06:13):
So um for you know, budding an aspiring restaurateurs. UM.
Tell us more about like, so you had this idea,
did you actually do a formal business plan or I mean,
you know, or was it just sort of like, Okay,
I'm just going step by step and it's so far working.
You know. I hear people talk about business plans all
the time. And at the time when I did open,

(06:37):
I was trying to get money from you know, Wells
Fargo and all these big baits, and so I did
devise a business plan, but I was not fortunate in
getting money from either one of the institutions. I had
to go the long route. And when I say the
long route, that means I did hard money lender loans,

(06:58):
you know, against my salon, and so it was it
was something that I would not do again, but I
definitely would advise others to do it because I opened
you know, I got like five different hard money loans,
but I paid them back in six months, So I
think that's like a great thing, because this is just

(07:19):
I mean, this is what some of the problems that
Greenwood is trying to tackle, being able to provide funding
for small businesses for its in particular black and female
entrepreneurs that are trying to build businesses because you go
knocking to these big banks well this that, and they're
just it's crickets. And we hear this story all the time. Yeah,
and it's crazy because I was banking with both banks.

(07:40):
But each time I went to them, and that wasn't
the only time that I tried to get along. Each
time was no, no, no. So you know, so just
you know, going to the bank getting loans. Alright, So
fast forward, you know, you said I paid those back
in six months, so you obviously launched, you had a

(08:00):
really successful launch, and you were like intent on, like
I'm paying back these loans quickly. Who like, where did
you get that sort of financial advice? Who was advising you?
Because you know, sometimes you start making a little money,
you can do all these other things and you sort
of stray away from the vision Like who wasn't who
was that voice in your head that was like pay
back those loans and then we go to the next level. Well,

(08:22):
you know, my dad has been a sticular for credit.
You know, he has always taught me to have good credit, um,
you know, to pay my bills on time, pay myself
no matter you know what I'm going to pay, always
pay myself first. And so I have been extremely big
on that, um and so I felt like that was

(08:44):
in my head when it was time for me to
pay this money back because I don't like owing people,
you know, and um, so I felt like if I
had the money, I could pay the money back soon.
I mean, the business like literally took off so fast,
and it took off faster than I had even expected to. Yeah.

(09:07):
So even when my you know, my financial advisor, my accountants,
when they look at my numbers, they are just amazed
because they just cannot believe that a restaurant is making
those type of numbers, you know. And I was amazed too,
So I have to be honest on that part. I mean,
I knew we were gonna be good and great, but

(09:28):
I had no idea it was gonna go to that level.
So talk about picking a second location. And then I
hear you have a food truck as well, right, so
open in Fayetville, Georgia. And like again, like I said,
I try to go to communities where there is a need.
I don't try to be in places where it's a
thousand other restaurants even though they're not the same like me,

(09:51):
I just still try to go where I meet it.
Um and so, yes, and so that has been doing
extremely well. And of course we opened the food tru
and we had to do a food truck because the
pandemic change the dynamics of our restaurant. And when I
say that, I say that because we didn't do two

(10:12):
goes before the pandemic, and because I am such a
visual person and I like for my food to be
enjoyed sitting in the restaurant, like a real sit down
dining experience. But when to go when the you know,
pandemic hit, we didn't have options, you know, two goes
to stay afloat, and so you know, that's what happened.

(10:35):
And now that the pandemic is winding down, you know,
our kitchen is only so big. So with that being said,
we had to expand our kitchen, and we couldn't go
to the left or to the right because neither one
of those businesses were moving. So I thought it would
be a great idea to get a food truck, real

(10:55):
food truck. You know, we could do all lots of
goals on it, and if we if festivals or anyone
wants to run out for catering, you know, we would
be able to, you know, make those type of decisions
as well. So it's another stream of income. So it's
working out really really well. Yeah, Okay, tell us the
process of like getting a food check, because a lot
of people are like, oh, you know, they might not have,

(11:18):
you know, the resources to open a restaurant. But is
opening a food truck an easier lower barrier of entry
into the restaurant industry or maybe it's not. I'm not sure. No,
I honestly thought that it would be less expensive than
my restaurant. Um, but actually I pay the exact same

(11:41):
price that I did for the brick and mortar. And
I say that because you got to think about it.
It's literally a mobile kitchen. So it's every single thing
that we have in the kitchen just compacted, you know
what I'm saying. So we have grills, so oven, double oven,
you know, to fires, you know, so it's you know,

(12:04):
two refrigerators, like another cooler, like everything in the restaurant.
So you know, And of course I had to buy
a brand new truck because I didn't want to buy
anything used. I've never been a used type of person
because I don't believe in other people's liabilities and taking
on their problems. And so I did buy a brand

(12:26):
new truck and then I had it custom, So you know,
that was it was a lot of expense, but you know,
it's nothing that someone can't do because there are used
options out there for people, you know, who don't want
to go that route. Those are available. I just didn't
choose to go that round. Wow, that's so exciting. I'm
so it's a really great way to frame it and

(12:48):
structure it. Like we needed overflow space, we needed more cooking,
we needed another kitchen we couldn't go after, right, So
I really love that. So tell us what's next for you?
What's coming up next for Grotchete? You have more strana,
you want to open more food trucks. Is there a
whole new business area that you're trying to venture into? Yeah?
And so absolutely. Right now, we are under construction for

(13:11):
a top us spot. And I'm gonna say small bite,
small plates, because every time I say top us, people
are saying top us. What you're gonna do with top us? Topless?
You know what I think? Talking about a topless the concept? Oh,
that's funny. So again, this will be on the south

(13:33):
side as well. It will be at Campbellton and Camp Creek,
And like I said, we are under construction. My landlord
just bought that entire space over there, so it's a
new publics and all this you know, good stuff over there.
So I'm really excited about that because again we have
nowhere to go on this side of town. So we'll
have live music, we'll have DJs, will have comedy nights,

(13:56):
so it's gonna be really, really nice. And then we
also have a space downtown that we're working on. It's
another breakfast concept, and then you know that's gonna be
it for me. I don't want to do anything else.
I'm thinking, you know, in five years, I'm really gonna
be done. We are franchising at this point, so um
yeah that that that's what's up for me. So the

(14:16):
next five years I'm gonna go hard working all the
businesses as I'm doing now, and then after that I'm
gonna be done. You know. Well, we'll check back in
with you, because I feel like every serial entrepreneur says
that and then they're like, one more thing, one more thing.
But can you thank you so much for giving us
your time and insight today? Can you share with our

(14:37):
audience where they can find you on social media so
that they can come and enjoy your delicious food. Absolutely,
you can find us at goets breakfast bar dot com
and all social media at gotchets Breakfast Bar. Thank you
so much. All right, money movers, that's all the time
we have for today, But make sure to follow gte
on all her social media handles and make sure you

(14:58):
stop in for some incredible and delicious breakfast. And if
we have helped you make your money move, please make
sure to let us know by sending us alike, sharing
the knowledge on your social media, and or leave us
a review on Apple podcast. Make sure to tune in
Monday through Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves podcast
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to financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank you so

(15:20):
much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want
more or a recap of this episode, please go to
the Bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money
Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an i heeart radio
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(15:42):
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