March 21, 2024 • 26 mins
Ready to embark on your journey to business success? Work with the Point Northeast team here.
Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca each week as she guides fellow business owners in taking the next step to level up their business. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
Send us a message to join the show for free business guidance: https://pointnortheast.com/contact-us/
Sara Frasca is the founder and owner of Trasca & Co Eatery in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, an experienced and engaging motivational speaker, and the CEO of global business coaching firm Point NorthEast.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant. I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness. Hello, everyone. Thank
you for joining me today. I amSarah fresca from Treska. And
yes, you can go ahead andchuckle I love it too. I'm in
front of my restaurant. today.
I'm out on the patio. It's abeautiful day here in Northeast
Florida. And our guest had anemergency. And so I'm going to
(01:02):
do the podcast solo today, thelive stream solo. But I'm really
excited because I've had thisteed up this idea to kind of
share a little bit of theconnection between the
consulting firm point northeast,which I started with a business
partner. And that's MichaelSmith. And part of the reason
that I feel our operating systemis so strong. And the reason is,
(01:26):
because I've used it, and I havekind of seen the success of what
it can do for a business. And Iwill tell you, I own a
restaurant. I mean, it's one ofthe most challenging industries
in I think the world, I thinkmost would agree. And for those
of you out there who own arestaurant operate a restaurant,
(01:46):
I think you know what I'mtalking about. My family has
been in the restaurant businessfor 50 years, we've been serving
panini sandwiches for 50 years.
So I do believe that we have areally unique product, it's
really delicious. But there aresome things that we've done here
at Treska that I think have beennoteworthy and a part of
(02:09):
building this operating systemthat I now use for our clients.
And so I wanted today to reallywalk you through my path, my
entrepreneurial path, inbuilding this business and how I
leveraged the point northeastjourney operating system. So I'm
just going to pull up the visualso that you can see the journey
(02:32):
process. So again, this is thepoint northeast system. This is
what we built in order to helpany number of industries, any
size business, it doesn't matterwhat you do, I believe that this
can help you in your business.
And so I'm going to walk youthrough all of the different
stages of how I applied this tomy restaurant. We are a single
(02:53):
location restaurant at thispoint, we're located in Ponte
Vedra Beach, Florida. And we arestarting to franchise and so the
beauty of this is that I cantake the restaurant and this
amazing product that my familyhas served again, for 50 years,
I can put together this pointnortheast system and build for
other franchisees a pretty triedand true model. It's a pretty
(03:18):
easy model at this point. And Ithink anybody can do it. So
we'll see. Alright, so as youlook at this graphic, I want to
make sure that you understandthe kind of the, the operating
system is a journey. So if youcan picture that you are
(03:38):
climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, orany other amazing feat, right
any other 14 footer in Coloradoor any other place in the world.
There are all sorts of terrains.
And where you start from helpsto determine the path to get to
the summit. And so if you lookat this graphic, you can see on
(04:00):
the very bottom, we've got thebase camp options. And making
the analogy to Mount Kilimanjarobecause Mount Kilimanjaro
actually has several differenttypes of base camps. Some of
them, you can start your climb,and maybe it's a faster track to
get you to the top faster, butit's a harder terrain. It's a
little bit you know, morechallenging, more risky. Some of
(04:23):
the options of base camp makesit so that the climb is less
treacherous, but it probablytakes longer, you might need a
Sherpa things like that. Sowhere your business is starting
from the base camp is reallycritical to understand. And so I
just want to walk you throughthis and then I'm going to talk
about the journey which is thetop portion. So each of these
(04:46):
different points in time are ourpieces to the journey in order
to reach the summit. So the basecamps, the first one is a
survival base camp. Now this iswhen you are Starting out,
right? This is when you're maybean owner operator. And that is
what I was when I first openedto the restaurant. It's pretty
(05:09):
crazy what I went through atthat time, I don't know that I
could do it. In this day, Idon't know if it's that I've
aged or that I've just gonethrough it. And so I don't know
that I could do it again. Butevery day I got up, I probably
was at the restaurant around6am, we operated a coffee shop
at that time. So I opened itevery single day, counting the
drawers, opening, getting theproduct going, serving all by
(05:32):
myself, prepping the food, doingall the things that needed to be
done for the day. I also had twolittle kids at that time. So
oftentimes, I would bring themto the restaurant with me, open
the restaurant, get them off toschool and their daycare, and
then come back, get through thelunch rush, go and pick them up,
bring them back to therestaurant catering order
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setting up for the dinner rush,whatever it was, bring them to
it at the time I had a nanny,bring them to their childcare or
to my parents who took them. Andthen I would come back for the
dinner rush, I would close upthe restaurant, I would count
the drawers, I would do thedeposit, I do everything that
needed to be done to close therestaurant down, lock up the
doors, I would leave here atapproximately, I would say 10 or
(06:16):
11 Every night and then rinseand repeat. And that was three
years. So part of me settingthis up. I know it's kind of
like this PTSD, right? Butthat's what business owners do.
That's what entrepreneurs do. Wego through this headache,
heartache, you know, I mean,it's the blood, sweat and tears
moment, right. And it's areally, really important moment.
(06:37):
First of all, you're here. Soyou're setting the tone, you're
setting the culture, you'redoing everything, you've got
your hands on everything, you'redoing the hiring, firing
training, you're doing the kindof setting of all the processes,
and you're learning on the fly.
So they're constantly beingtweaked. But they're being
tweaked, according to what youknow is best for the business.
(06:57):
You're doing the service. Soyou're actually setting the tone
for the community to understandwhat this business will serve.
Like, at the very beginning, mymain role was to stand in the
front of the business andactually shake people's hands
and say welcome. I'm Sarahfresca, welcome to my
restaurant, we serve mygrandmother sandwich that we've
(07:19):
been serving for over 40 yearsat that point. And, and, you
know, I would explain to themwhat Appennino was, we also
serve pizza, and what kinds ofmeats Do you like, and what
kinds of food and I would helpthem select their menu items so
that it was perfect for them. Soanyway, all to say, I was in the
survival mode. So again, if youoperate an accounting firm, and
(07:39):
you're opening an accountingfirm, you're probably doing all
of the work servicing theclients, you're doing the
payroll, you're hiring, you'refiring, you're doing the
marketing, you're doing the HR,you're doing that, et cetera, et
cetera, et cetera, right, that'ssurvival mode. That is starting
from the survival base camp. Thenext one is the sustainable base
camp. This is where you havehired a couple of trusted people
(08:04):
to be alongside you working inthe business. Now, you can
finally really get some workdone right? Now you've got
someone that's helping to serve,or someone who is doing the
bookkeeping. You have peoplearound you now that you can
trust, you're no longer doing itby yourself. But you're still
(08:25):
working in the business, whenyou have started to be able to
work yourself out of working inthe business, and you can see
the forest for the trees. Nowyou're in the third base camp,
and this is the stabilized basecamp. This is when an owner can
step away from the business andtrust that it will run and
(08:46):
operate smoothly. This is when Iwas able to hire a general
manager, I was able to bring insomeone that could help me
operate the restaurant on adaily basis, which allowed me
the capacity to look beyond tonetwork and find ways to help
the business without actuallydoing the serving and the
(09:07):
payroll and all the things.
Then I was able to build aleadership team. And I was able
to stabilize the growth. And Iwas able to actually then become
in the next fourth base camp,which is the strategic growth
aspect. So that allowed me tolook around and see what do I
(09:28):
want to do from here? Do I wantto open another business? Do I
want to have more of these? Do Iwant to add different date parts
or different offerings or expandin some way? You know, it kind
of actually happened duringCOVID. Believe it or not, I
mean, it was pretty ironic. Theyou know, kind of, I would say
(09:48):
the world had changed. Therewere so many different dynamics
happening. But we were able tosee that it probably was better
for us to look at franchisingthan to actually open other
restaurants. So that's what wedid. We hired a company that
helped us to build theopportunity to franchise. We are
now registered in all 50 statesand we are ready to go. So
(10:10):
that's kind of exciting rightnow we've got a model that
allows us to be able to expandin the way that we want to do
it. The last base camp is whenyou have that succession plan.
This could be you've got a childthat you want to pass the
business on, or a key employeethat you want to give the
business to, or you're going tosell the business perhaps
(10:31):
outside, perhaps gettingacquired by a larger entity
that's going to take it further.
In the restaurant industry. Thishappens a lot right here
locally, we have Maple Streetbiscuit, really, really lovely
business. And the gentleman whostarted it is a good friend, he
actually sold to a multinationalcorporation that now has taken
that Maple Street biscuitbusiness, and broad it all over
(10:54):
the country. So there's lots ofopportunities, this could be an
m&a This could be, again, justclosing the doors and moving on
retirement, or any of thosetypes of kind of succession
plans. So now that you can kindof see the different pieces, I
believe that I'm in thestrategic growth for the task of
(11:15):
business. And so I think it'sreally important as business
leaders and owners to try tofind out where you're coming
from. Sometimes you need anoutside person to come in and
see where you're at and be ableto assess and be able to
communicate. All right, you'rein this base camp. Right,
Michael and I's book, which iscoming out soon, we'll also talk
(11:36):
about this, but this is a goodplace to kind of understand,
where are you starting yourclimb from? When I was starting
the restaurant again, you know,I think some of those key
employees really made a bigdifference. And so establishing
a culture established in kind ofmy norms for what I wanted in
the leaders of the business. Andit wasn't until I really
(12:00):
established that leadershipteam, and was running a good
cadence of meetings with KPIs tofind key performance indicators
to find. And they were measuredand they were tracked, and
people were held accountable forthem. It wasn't until that point
that I was really able to,again, kind of become a more
strategic leader for thebusiness, they now rely on me,
(12:23):
you know, I think, in veryspecific ways, but they don't
need me doing the service, I cantrust that if I have a friend
that orders a catering order, orbrings a party or brings her
family in to celebrate an eventthat they are going to be
treated in the way that I wantthem treated. And the food is
(12:43):
done well, we have a goodconsistency, I can now go on
vacation and not worry about therestaurant, it is in great hands
with my team. And so you can seethat, you know, from the
beginning of being in thatsurvival mode to building, you
know, a team that I could trustto get me through that
sustainable period, thenstabilizing it and be able to
(13:05):
being able to step away work onthe business, and then building
it from there. So again, Ibelieve that we're in the
strategic growth aspect here.
Sometimes you go back and fortha little bit, sure, you might
lose a key employee and take astep back for a bit or realize
that you need to do some thingsdifferent, take a step back. So
you can read document theprocess. But ultimately, our
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philosophy is that everything isup into the right, right? It's
incremental changes up into theright, if you were looking at it
on a graph, a little bit ofimprovement over time, and
Kaizen is king. All right, letme walk you through the
operating system. So now we'rewalking through kind of the
mountains on this chart thatyou're looking at the very first
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and what we believe is one ofthe most important yet most
under appreciated and thereforeleast likely to be done steps is
the organizational assessment.
And at point ne This is where wewill come in and assess the
organization. We look at thecommunication styles, the
culture, the people, do we havethe right people in the right
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seats? And do they have theirroles defined? communicated? Are
they being managed to thoseroles? And are they being
actually analyzed? measured?
Right? And so this is reallyunderstanding a 360 view of the
business, looking at themarketing, looking at the way
they're serving their clients orcustomers looking at the tools
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that they have at theirdisposal? They have an HR leader
or are they even at leastknowing that HR is a very
important function? Are theydoing the type of marketing they
need to to bring in newbusiness? Are they supporting
their current business? So theseare all aspects that we really
appoint northeast dive in to geta good understanding. And this
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is what Michael and a coupleothers have done from the point
northeast team. So look at thetrends ask the team to see how
we're doing. So that's been kindof fun to be able to leverage
one team to help the other. Thenext thing is to resolve short
term issues. And I would say,sometimes, this is not always,
but sometimes we will find thatthere are issues that we can't
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go any further on this journeyuntil we actually fix them. This
might be, you know, a toxic keyemployee, this might be
something as dramatic orthreatening to the business as
theft or having yourcybersecurity not met. Not
having proper insurance, nothaving proper HR steps. I mean,
it really can be, you know,shoring up some of these key
(15:39):
risks to the business. And it'snot in every case, sometimes
it's a little bit, I would say,less, maybe dramatic or maybe
still important, like, you don'thave an organizational chart,
right. People don't know what,what the roles and
responsibilities are through theorganization. And that's very
(15:59):
easily communicated defined, andset in place, but they've never
done it. And so that's a keyissue. And we've got to attend
to that before we can move on tothis journey. The next thing is
building a leadership team. Andthis is really looking across
the T functions in anyorganization, looking at the
marketing, looking at the salesor business development, looking
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at how we're in taking newclients, or customers, looking
at how we're actually doing thework providing the service,
looking at the finance function,the HR function, technology,
innovation, the facilitiesmanagement, there are all sorts
of different functions that haveto be attended to, doesn't have
to be that we have oneindividual person responsible
(16:45):
for each of those functions. Butwe have to have someone that is
as I would call it, the tip ofthe spear. The tip of the spear
is the person who is saying, Iwill take care to make sure that
the HR function is met, or thefinance function is met. At the
very beginning of opening therestaurant, again, I wear all
those hats, I was the only oneraising my hand. But eventually,
(17:07):
over time, I was able to findleaders in the organization that
would take on thoseresponsibilities. One of my
favorite and you know who youare out there was when I had a
young woman who was in college,and she was working for us part
time, and she wanted to be ateacher, or she wished she has a
teacher now I think, and she wasthe perfect HR leader for us,
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she was the perfect person todig in and to be able to serve
and develop our team. Becauseultimately, that is who she is,
she is the people developmentperson. So she was perfect. And
she filled that role for a longtime for us even part time. So
again, it can be someone doingthis fractionally in a lot of
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our clients cases, we actuallybring in fractional leaders for
them, when they're not bigenough to be able to support a
full time person. But you've gotto have someone in charge of it,
you have to have someone lookingout for the facilities, right?
Who is making sure that you'reordering more toilet paper and
making sure the bathrooms areclean, and making sure that the
front walk is you know, swept.
These are just examples in therestaurant, but in your business
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to these things need to beattended to.
The next step is doing thestrategic planning. About four
years ago, we started bylearning some of these
operational principles andputting them in place in a
restaurant. So this is likecrazy if you know people in
(18:39):
restaurants, right? Imaginetaking the time every week to
pull my leadership team togetherin a restaurant, bringing them
together talking about differentissues and opportunities,
talking about what they felt wasgoing well what they wanted to
do in the future opportunitiesthat they saw for improvement in
the facilities in thefunctionality and the processes,
(19:01):
making sure that everything wasdefined, documented,
communicated, managed to andmeasured. It was a game changer.
I mean, truly, we met everysingle week, in a leadership
team meeting, we met everysingle quarter, talking about
what the next 90 days would looklike, and what projects each
person would take on. Then wewould come back at the next
(19:24):
quarter and analyze how did wedo? What were the next quarterly
goals going to look like? And onand on. And then we had big
annual planning sessions wherewe brought our out of town folks
like our CEO who lives up inupstate New York or Hudson
Valley area, he would, he wouldget me on that. But this would
be a time for us to all cometogether. And so we were not
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only managing the business andtalking about great things, when
we were building our culturetogether, supporting each other,
having fun, and these are all apart of building a business. So
again, believe it or not, I didthis in a rush Not every
business has the opportunity todo this. In part as part of the
strategic planning, we talked alot about the momentum building
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components, our culture, whatdid we want our core values to
be? What would our meetingcadence be? What tools would we
use? So we use a communicationtool called homebase, which is a
way for people to communicatewith the people that they're
working together on that shift.
They might have different roles.
So different supervisors mightcommunicate with each other. Or
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it might be an entire team,like, hey, everybody makes sure
you remember, we've got a majorgolf tournament coming to town
this week, just different thingslike that, that we need to
communicate, we also use asoftware system that is really
helpful. And this, I think, doesa good job of folding together
the high level strategy with themomentum needed on a daily basis
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to accomplish the tasks thatneed to be accomplished. And for
people to kind of put in issuesthat they need to manage that
they need to talk to the teamabout that they need help with.
And so all of these are waysthat we built momentum. And
these are, again, things thatyou can do to in your business,
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as we have developed on this, Ibelieve, at Trask and company
eatery, I believe we havereached probably the start of
our summit. Our next summit isthe expansion into other areas,
probably at the Jacksonvillemarket, but elsewhere in the
country. And so, you know, oursummit are it'll take a while
probably, you know, I envisionthere being hundreds of tracks
(21:36):
goes throughout the country, Ienvisioned that the Camino will
be a household name. So thoseare parts of my vision, and that
my family's legacy is secure andsafely held. And as part of that
we have above industry wages, wehave a team that truly cares, we
are caring for our community,and we are involved, which means
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we're giving back and we've gotgreat relationships with folks.
And I want it to be a placewhere people can have a career.
Again, I think this wasnoteworthy in the in the
restaurant industry or the foodindustry, because most people
kind of flit in and out well, Iwill tell you that we are
managing careers for our people,I believe that our kitchen folks
(22:18):
can become general manager oneday, just like our general
manager now who started out as adishwasher. So we are building a
career path for them. And therewill be upward expansion and
mobility opportunities, I thinkendless opportunities into the
future. So that's my Summit. Mysummit is all of those
components. And we're on ourwe're on our way we're on the
(22:40):
track. And I'm having a lot offun doing it. So all to say,
this is the point northeastjourney, which again, helps any
business in any area, any size,any owner or multiple owners to
get to where they want to go.
They have to understand wherethey're starting out from. And
that's the base camp. And eachof these elements on this
(23:01):
journey, need to be attended to,I believe you can do it. But of
course, sometimes it is hard tohave the discipline. So that's
why I brought in the pointnortheast team to help my track
a team to do all of these thingsso that we could reach the
summit. So, you know, I thinkthat was the main gist of what I
wanted to share with you today.
(23:24):
I hope that if you're out there,and you are struggling as a
business owner, that you findsomeone that you can ask
questions to, because it'slonely at the top. I you know,
it's kind of funny, I actuallywas reflecting a little bit as I
prepared for, you know, chattingwith you today. In the very
beginning of opening therestaurant, I would really I
(23:46):
mean, I was killing myself. Imean, just walled wall busy,
right, I just was up to myeyeballs couldn't see straight.
The only break I got every dayis that I would go over to the
Hilton Garden Inn, which iskitty corner to us right across
this past year, probably 2020yards from me. And I would go
(24:07):
into their lobby, and I wouldjust sit there for a few
minutes. And I wouldn't talk toanyone. And I would just
literally try to decompress andget myself ready for the next
shift. And I would think ofpeople who have done this in big
time businesses or other careerslike Roger Federer always comes
to mind for me, because one ofthe things that I believe makes
(24:29):
him so unique is that he candecompress properly, and he can
actually go back to the baselineand find that breath to play the
next point to his utmost. Andthat's what I would tell myself
in these moments. So thatsurvival mode is pretty
interesting to think about. Ifyou're in that right now. Try to
make sure you're taking care ofyourself. Try to make sure
(24:51):
you're finding friends ormentors or coaches that can help
you through the pitfalls thatevery business faces. The ones
that survive are the ones whoare, you know, finding solutions
to those pitfalls. And there areother people out there that can
help you through it. You'renever ever alone. So thank you
(25:12):
for joining me here today. I amso proud of the journey that my
team has been on. I could nothave done this without them. I
mean, I truly, I hope that theyunderstand how much they have
been a part of the past and havebeen a part of the success of
this business. It's not just meanymore. In fact, it's very
rarely me any longer. They areso important to me and to this
(25:33):
business, and I just again,publicly thank them. But you
need those people too. Soanywhere you are in the world,
if you need help reach out, I amhere for you. The point
northeast team is here for youand we will help you build your
business. So I hope you have awonderful day. Enjoy. I hope you
find joy in your day just like Ido and take good care of
(25:53):
yourself. Take good care of yourbusiness. Thank you everyone for
joining me. Thanks so much fortuning into this episode of
level up your business with me,Sara Frasca. If you have a
problem in your business that'skeeping you up at night. Please
join us in a future episode sowe can help get you unstuck.
(26:15):
Just clicking the link in theshow notes and send us a
message. Please remember, stayinnovative friends
You're listening to level up your business, the
podcast where we talk tohardworking business owners and
leaders and help them solve realissues in real time. I'm your
host, Sarah Frasca restaurantowner, keynote speaker and
business coach. I've spent mycareer not only in corporate
(00:20):
America, but also as anentrepreneur, carrying on my
family's legacy through myrestaurant. Now a business coach
and consultant. I'm helpingother businesses to use creative
problem solving and innovativethinking to drive lasting
change. Stay tuned to hear someinspiring guidance that will
(00:40):
help you to level up yourbusiness. Hello, everyone. Thank
you for joining me today. I amSarah fresca from Treska. And
yes, you can go ahead andchuckle I love it too. I'm in
front of my restaurant. today.
I'm out on the patio. It's abeautiful day here in Northeast
Florida. And our guest had anemergency. And so I'm going to
(01:02):
do the podcast solo today, thelive stream solo. But I'm really
excited because I've had thisteed up this idea to kind of
share a little bit of theconnection between the
consulting firm point northeast,which I started with a business
partner. And that's MichaelSmith. And part of the reason
that I feel our operating systemis so strong. And the reason is,
(01:26):
because I've used it, and I havekind of seen the success of what
it can do for a business. And Iwill tell you, I own a
restaurant. I mean, it's one ofthe most challenging industries
in I think the world, I thinkmost would agree. And for those
of you out there who own arestaurant operate a restaurant,
(01:46):
I think you know what I'mtalking about. My family has
been in the restaurant businessfor 50 years, we've been serving
panini sandwiches for 50 years.
So I do believe that we have areally unique product, it's
really delicious. But there aresome things that we've done here
at Treska that I think have beennoteworthy and a part of
(02:09):
building this operating systemthat I now use for our clients.
And so I wanted today to reallywalk you through my path, my
entrepreneurial path, inbuilding this business and how I
leveraged the point northeastjourney operating system. So I'm
just going to pull up the visualso that you can see the journey
(02:32):
process. So again, this is thepoint northeast system. This is
what we built in order to helpany number of industries, any
size business, it doesn't matterwhat you do, I believe that this
can help you in your business.
And so I'm going to walk youthrough all of the different
stages of how I applied this tomy restaurant. We are a single
(02:53):
location restaurant at thispoint, we're located in Ponte
Vedra Beach, Florida. And we arestarting to franchise and so the
beauty of this is that I cantake the restaurant and this
amazing product that my familyhas served again, for 50 years,
I can put together this pointnortheast system and build for
other franchisees a pretty triedand true model. It's a pretty
(03:18):
easy model at this point. And Ithink anybody can do it. So
we'll see. Alright, so as youlook at this graphic, I want to
make sure that you understandthe kind of the, the operating
system is a journey. So if youcan picture that you are
(03:38):
climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, orany other amazing feat, right
any other 14 footer in Coloradoor any other place in the world.
There are all sorts of terrains.
And where you start from helpsto determine the path to get to
the summit. And so if you lookat this graphic, you can see on
(04:00):
the very bottom, we've got thebase camp options. And making
the analogy to Mount Kilimanjarobecause Mount Kilimanjaro
actually has several differenttypes of base camps. Some of
them, you can start your climb,and maybe it's a faster track to
get you to the top faster, butit's a harder terrain. It's a
little bit you know, morechallenging, more risky. Some of
(04:23):
the options of base camp makesit so that the climb is less
treacherous, but it probablytakes longer, you might need a
Sherpa things like that. Sowhere your business is starting
from the base camp is reallycritical to understand. And so I
just want to walk you throughthis and then I'm going to talk
about the journey which is thetop portion. So each of these
(04:46):
different points in time are ourpieces to the journey in order
to reach the summit. So the basecamps, the first one is a
survival base camp. Now this iswhen you are Starting out,
right? This is when you're maybean owner operator. And that is
what I was when I first openedto the restaurant. It's pretty
(05:09):
crazy what I went through atthat time, I don't know that I
could do it. In this day, Idon't know if it's that I've
aged or that I've just gonethrough it. And so I don't know
that I could do it again. Butevery day I got up, I probably
was at the restaurant around6am, we operated a coffee shop
at that time. So I opened itevery single day, counting the
drawers, opening, getting theproduct going, serving all by
(05:32):
myself, prepping the food, doingall the things that needed to be
done for the day. I also had twolittle kids at that time. So
oftentimes, I would bring themto the restaurant with me, open
the restaurant, get them off toschool and their daycare, and
then come back, get through thelunch rush, go and pick them up,
bring them back to therestaurant catering order
(05:54):
setting up for the dinner rush,whatever it was, bring them to
it at the time I had a nanny,bring them to their childcare or
to my parents who took them. Andthen I would come back for the
dinner rush, I would close upthe restaurant, I would count
the drawers, I would do thedeposit, I do everything that
needed to be done to close therestaurant down, lock up the
doors, I would leave here atapproximately, I would say 10 or
(06:16):
11 Every night and then rinseand repeat. And that was three
years. So part of me settingthis up. I know it's kind of
like this PTSD, right? Butthat's what business owners do.
That's what entrepreneurs do. Wego through this headache,
heartache, you know, I mean,it's the blood, sweat and tears
moment, right. And it's areally, really important moment.
(06:37):
First of all, you're here. Soyou're setting the tone, you're
setting the culture, you'redoing everything, you've got
your hands on everything, you'redoing the hiring, firing
training, you're doing the kindof setting of all the processes,
and you're learning on the fly.
So they're constantly beingtweaked. But they're being
tweaked, according to what youknow is best for the business.
(06:57):
You're doing the service. Soyou're actually setting the tone
for the community to understandwhat this business will serve.
Like, at the very beginning, mymain role was to stand in the
front of the business andactually shake people's hands
and say welcome. I'm Sarahfresca, welcome to my
restaurant, we serve mygrandmother sandwich that we've
(07:19):
been serving for over 40 yearsat that point. And, and, you
know, I would explain to themwhat Appennino was, we also
serve pizza, and what kinds ofmeats Do you like, and what
kinds of food and I would helpthem select their menu items so
that it was perfect for them. Soanyway, all to say, I was in the
survival mode. So again, if youoperate an accounting firm, and
(07:39):
you're opening an accountingfirm, you're probably doing all
of the work servicing theclients, you're doing the
payroll, you're hiring, you'refiring, you're doing the
marketing, you're doing the HR,you're doing that, et cetera, et
cetera, et cetera, right, that'ssurvival mode. That is starting
from the survival base camp. Thenext one is the sustainable base
camp. This is where you havehired a couple of trusted people
(08:04):
to be alongside you working inthe business. Now, you can
finally really get some workdone right? Now you've got
someone that's helping to serve,or someone who is doing the
bookkeeping. You have peoplearound you now that you can
trust, you're no longer doing itby yourself. But you're still
(08:25):
working in the business, whenyou have started to be able to
work yourself out of working inthe business, and you can see
the forest for the trees. Nowyou're in the third base camp,
and this is the stabilized basecamp. This is when an owner can
step away from the business andtrust that it will run and
(08:46):
operate smoothly. This is when Iwas able to hire a general
manager, I was able to bring insomeone that could help me
operate the restaurant on adaily basis, which allowed me
the capacity to look beyond tonetwork and find ways to help
the business without actuallydoing the serving and the
(09:07):
payroll and all the things.
Then I was able to build aleadership team. And I was able
to stabilize the growth. And Iwas able to actually then become
in the next fourth base camp,which is the strategic growth
aspect. So that allowed me tolook around and see what do I
(09:28):
want to do from here? Do I wantto open another business? Do I
want to have more of these? Do Iwant to add different date parts
or different offerings or expandin some way? You know, it kind
of actually happened duringCOVID. Believe it or not, I
mean, it was pretty ironic. Theyou know, kind of, I would say
(09:48):
the world had changed. Therewere so many different dynamics
happening. But we were able tosee that it probably was better
for us to look at franchisingthan to actually open other
restaurants. So that's what wedid. We hired a company that
helped us to build theopportunity to franchise. We are
now registered in all 50 statesand we are ready to go. So
(10:10):
that's kind of exciting rightnow we've got a model that
allows us to be able to expandin the way that we want to do
it. The last base camp is whenyou have that succession plan.
This could be you've got a childthat you want to pass the
business on, or a key employeethat you want to give the
business to, or you're going tosell the business perhaps
(10:31):
outside, perhaps gettingacquired by a larger entity
that's going to take it further.
In the restaurant industry. Thishappens a lot right here
locally, we have Maple Streetbiscuit, really, really lovely
business. And the gentleman whostarted it is a good friend, he
actually sold to a multinationalcorporation that now has taken
that Maple Street biscuitbusiness, and broad it all over
(10:54):
the country. So there's lots ofopportunities, this could be an
m&a This could be, again, justclosing the doors and moving on
retirement, or any of thosetypes of kind of succession
plans. So now that you can kindof see the different pieces, I
believe that I'm in thestrategic growth for the task of
(11:15):
business. And so I think it'sreally important as business
leaders and owners to try tofind out where you're coming
from. Sometimes you need anoutside person to come in and
see where you're at and be ableto assess and be able to
communicate. All right, you'rein this base camp. Right,
Michael and I's book, which iscoming out soon, we'll also talk
(11:36):
about this, but this is a goodplace to kind of understand,
where are you starting yourclimb from? When I was starting
the restaurant again, you know,I think some of those key
employees really made a bigdifference. And so establishing
a culture established in kind ofmy norms for what I wanted in
the leaders of the business. Andit wasn't until I really
(12:00):
established that leadershipteam, and was running a good
cadence of meetings with KPIs tofind key performance indicators
to find. And they were measuredand they were tracked, and
people were held accountable forthem. It wasn't until that point
that I was really able to,again, kind of become a more
strategic leader for thebusiness, they now rely on me,
(12:23):
you know, I think, in veryspecific ways, but they don't
need me doing the service, I cantrust that if I have a friend
that orders a catering order, orbrings a party or brings her
family in to celebrate an eventthat they are going to be
treated in the way that I wantthem treated. And the food is
(12:43):
done well, we have a goodconsistency, I can now go on
vacation and not worry about therestaurant, it is in great hands
with my team. And so you can seethat, you know, from the
beginning of being in thatsurvival mode to building, you
know, a team that I could trustto get me through that
sustainable period, thenstabilizing it and be able to
(13:05):
being able to step away work onthe business, and then building
it from there. So again, Ibelieve that we're in the
strategic growth aspect here.
Sometimes you go back and fortha little bit, sure, you might
lose a key employee and take astep back for a bit or realize
that you need to do some thingsdifferent, take a step back. So
you can read document theprocess. But ultimately, our
(13:29):
philosophy is that everything isup into the right, right? It's
incremental changes up into theright, if you were looking at it
on a graph, a little bit ofimprovement over time, and
Kaizen is king. All right, letme walk you through the
operating system. So now we'rewalking through kind of the
mountains on this chart thatyou're looking at the very first
(13:49):
and what we believe is one ofthe most important yet most
under appreciated and thereforeleast likely to be done steps is
the organizational assessment.
And at point ne This is where wewill come in and assess the
organization. We look at thecommunication styles, the
culture, the people, do we havethe right people in the right
(14:11):
seats? And do they have theirroles defined? communicated? Are
they being managed to thoseroles? And are they being
actually analyzed? measured?
Right? And so this is reallyunderstanding a 360 view of the
business, looking at themarketing, looking at the way
they're serving their clients orcustomers looking at the tools
(14:32):
that they have at theirdisposal? They have an HR leader
or are they even at leastknowing that HR is a very
important function? Are theydoing the type of marketing they
need to to bring in newbusiness? Are they supporting
their current business? So theseare all aspects that we really
appoint northeast dive in to geta good understanding. And this
(14:55):
is what Michael and a coupleothers have done from the point
northeast team. So look at thetrends ask the team to see how
we're doing. So that's been kindof fun to be able to leverage
one team to help the other. Thenext thing is to resolve short
term issues. And I would say,sometimes, this is not always,
but sometimes we will find thatthere are issues that we can't
(15:16):
go any further on this journeyuntil we actually fix them. This
might be, you know, a toxic keyemployee, this might be
something as dramatic orthreatening to the business as
theft or having yourcybersecurity not met. Not
having proper insurance, nothaving proper HR steps. I mean,
it really can be, you know,shoring up some of these key
(15:39):
risks to the business. And it'snot in every case, sometimes
it's a little bit, I would say,less, maybe dramatic or maybe
still important, like, you don'thave an organizational chart,
right. People don't know what,what the roles and
responsibilities are through theorganization. And that's very
(15:59):
easily communicated defined, andset in place, but they've never
done it. And so that's a keyissue. And we've got to attend
to that before we can move on tothis journey. The next thing is
building a leadership team. Andthis is really looking across
the T functions in anyorganization, looking at the
marketing, looking at the salesor business development, looking
(16:22):
at how we're in taking newclients, or customers, looking
at how we're actually doing thework providing the service,
looking at the finance function,the HR function, technology,
innovation, the facilitiesmanagement, there are all sorts
of different functions that haveto be attended to, doesn't have
to be that we have oneindividual person responsible
(16:45):
for each of those functions. Butwe have to have someone that is
as I would call it, the tip ofthe spear. The tip of the spear
is the person who is saying, Iwill take care to make sure that
the HR function is met, or thefinance function is met. At the
very beginning of opening therestaurant, again, I wear all
those hats, I was the only oneraising my hand. But eventually,
(17:07):
over time, I was able to findleaders in the organization that
would take on thoseresponsibilities. One of my
favorite and you know who youare out there was when I had a
young woman who was in college,and she was working for us part
time, and she wanted to be ateacher, or she wished she has a
teacher now I think, and she wasthe perfect HR leader for us,
(17:32):
she was the perfect person todig in and to be able to serve
and develop our team. Becauseultimately, that is who she is,
she is the people developmentperson. So she was perfect. And
she filled that role for a longtime for us even part time. So
again, it can be someone doingthis fractionally in a lot of
(17:54):
our clients cases, we actuallybring in fractional leaders for
them, when they're not bigenough to be able to support a
full time person. But you've gotto have someone in charge of it,
you have to have someone lookingout for the facilities, right?
Who is making sure that you'reordering more toilet paper and
making sure the bathrooms areclean, and making sure that the
front walk is you know, swept.
These are just examples in therestaurant, but in your business
(18:17):
to these things need to beattended to.
The next step is doing thestrategic planning. About four
years ago, we started bylearning some of these
operational principles andputting them in place in a
restaurant. So this is likecrazy if you know people in
(18:39):
restaurants, right? Imaginetaking the time every week to
pull my leadership team togetherin a restaurant, bringing them
together talking about differentissues and opportunities,
talking about what they felt wasgoing well what they wanted to
do in the future opportunitiesthat they saw for improvement in
the facilities in thefunctionality and the processes,
(19:01):
making sure that everything wasdefined, documented,
communicated, managed to andmeasured. It was a game changer.
I mean, truly, we met everysingle week, in a leadership
team meeting, we met everysingle quarter, talking about
what the next 90 days would looklike, and what projects each
person would take on. Then wewould come back at the next
(19:24):
quarter and analyze how did wedo? What were the next quarterly
goals going to look like? And onand on. And then we had big
annual planning sessions wherewe brought our out of town folks
like our CEO who lives up inupstate New York or Hudson
Valley area, he would, he wouldget me on that. But this would
be a time for us to all cometogether. And so we were not
(19:46):
only managing the business andtalking about great things, when
we were building our culturetogether, supporting each other,
having fun, and these are all apart of building a business. So
again, believe it or not, I didthis in a rush Not every
business has the opportunity todo this. In part as part of the
strategic planning, we talked alot about the momentum building
(20:09):
components, our culture, whatdid we want our core values to
be? What would our meetingcadence be? What tools would we
use? So we use a communicationtool called homebase, which is a
way for people to communicatewith the people that they're
working together on that shift.
They might have different roles.
So different supervisors mightcommunicate with each other. Or
(20:30):
it might be an entire team,like, hey, everybody makes sure
you remember, we've got a majorgolf tournament coming to town
this week, just different thingslike that, that we need to
communicate, we also use asoftware system that is really
helpful. And this, I think, doesa good job of folding together
the high level strategy with themomentum needed on a daily basis
(20:51):
to accomplish the tasks thatneed to be accomplished. And for
people to kind of put in issuesthat they need to manage that
they need to talk to the teamabout that they need help with.
And so all of these are waysthat we built momentum. And
these are, again, things thatyou can do to in your business,
(21:12):
as we have developed on this, Ibelieve, at Trask and company
eatery, I believe we havereached probably the start of
our summit. Our next summit isthe expansion into other areas,
probably at the Jacksonvillemarket, but elsewhere in the
country. And so, you know, oursummit are it'll take a while
probably, you know, I envisionthere being hundreds of tracks
(21:36):
goes throughout the country, Ienvisioned that the Camino will
be a household name. So thoseare parts of my vision, and that
my family's legacy is secure andsafely held. And as part of that
we have above industry wages, wehave a team that truly cares, we
are caring for our community,and we are involved, which means
(21:57):
we're giving back and we've gotgreat relationships with folks.
And I want it to be a placewhere people can have a career.
Again, I think this wasnoteworthy in the in the
restaurant industry or the foodindustry, because most people
kind of flit in and out well, Iwill tell you that we are
managing careers for our people,I believe that our kitchen folks
(22:18):
can become general manager oneday, just like our general
manager now who started out as adishwasher. So we are building a
career path for them. And therewill be upward expansion and
mobility opportunities, I thinkendless opportunities into the
future. So that's my Summit. Mysummit is all of those
components. And we're on ourwe're on our way we're on the
(22:40):
track. And I'm having a lot offun doing it. So all to say,
this is the point northeastjourney, which again, helps any
business in any area, any size,any owner or multiple owners to
get to where they want to go.
They have to understand wherethey're starting out from. And
that's the base camp. And eachof these elements on this
(23:01):
journey, need to be attended to,I believe you can do it. But of
course, sometimes it is hard tohave the discipline. So that's
why I brought in the pointnortheast team to help my track
a team to do all of these thingsso that we could reach the
summit. So, you know, I thinkthat was the main gist of what I
wanted to share with you today.
(23:24):
I hope that if you're out there,and you are struggling as a
business owner, that you findsomeone that you can ask
questions to, because it'slonely at the top. I you know,
it's kind of funny, I actuallywas reflecting a little bit as I
prepared for, you know, chattingwith you today. In the very
beginning of opening therestaurant, I would really I
(23:46):
mean, I was killing myself. Imean, just walled wall busy,
right, I just was up to myeyeballs couldn't see straight.
The only break I got every dayis that I would go over to the
Hilton Garden Inn, which iskitty corner to us right across
this past year, probably 2020yards from me. And I would go
(24:07):
into their lobby, and I wouldjust sit there for a few
minutes. And I wouldn't talk toanyone. And I would just
literally try to decompress andget myself ready for the next
shift. And I would think ofpeople who have done this in big
time businesses or other careerslike Roger Federer always comes
to mind for me, because one ofthe things that I believe makes
(24:29):
him so unique is that he candecompress properly, and he can
actually go back to the baselineand find that breath to play the
next point to his utmost. Andthat's what I would tell myself
in these moments. So thatsurvival mode is pretty
interesting to think about. Ifyou're in that right now. Try to
make sure you're taking care ofyourself. Try to make sure
(24:51):
you're finding friends ormentors or coaches that can help
you through the pitfalls thatevery business faces. The ones
that survive are the ones whoare, you know, finding solutions
to those pitfalls. And there areother people out there that can
help you through it. You'renever ever alone. So thank you
(25:12):
for joining me here today. I amso proud of the journey that my
team has been on. I could nothave done this without them. I
mean, I truly, I hope that theyunderstand how much they have
been a part of the past and havebeen a part of the success of
this business. It's not just meanymore. In fact, it's very
rarely me any longer. They areso important to me and to this
(25:33):
business, and I just again,publicly thank them. But you
need those people too. Soanywhere you are in the world,
if you need help reach out, I amhere for you. The point
northeast team is here for youand we will help you build your
business. So I hope you have awonderful day. Enjoy. I hope you
find joy in your day just like Ido and take good care of
(25:53):
yourself. Take good care of yourbusiness. Thank you everyone for
joining me. Thanks so much fortuning into this episode of
level up your business with me,Sara Frasca. If you have a
problem in your business that'skeeping you up at night. Please
join us in a future episode sowe can help get you unstuck.
(26:15):
Just clicking the link in theshow notes and send us a
message. Please remember, stayinnovative friends
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