August 29, 2024 • 40 mins
Have you ever wondered if a college degree is necessary to achieve entrepreneurial success? In this episode, we promise you'll learn the true value of motivation and seizing opportunities as we chat with my brother, Matthew Wagoner, a seasoned entrepreneur in the restaurant industry. Matthew reveals his incredible journey from working at McDonald's in his teenage years to owning multiple franchise locations, showing that determination can often outweigh formal education. This inspiring story is a must-listen for anyone looking to navigate their own business challenges and growth.
We dig into the nitty-gritty of managing both the daily grind and the back-end operations of a business. Matthew emphasizes the importance of documenting processes early to ensure smooth growth and quality maintenance, and shares the benefits of being open to feedback from employees and customers. From negotiating favorable lease terms to maintaining brand consistency, Matthew's insights provide essential guidance. We also discuss how letting go of pride can lead to necessary changes that improve business outcomes, and why it's crucial to have a real estate attorney on your team.
Finally, we highlight the significance of long-term planning and building a robust support system. I open up about my own journey of delegating tasks to achieve a better work-life balance, and the benefits of having a solid team, including a real estate attorney, accountant, and legal advisor. Matthew and I explore effective marketing strategies to stand out in a crowded market and the importance of understanding all financial aspects of your business. Join us as we encourage listeners to engage with us, reminding them they are not alone on their entrepreneurial journey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and I want to
welcome you back to anotherepisode of the Business Guide.
Today I have a special guest, afellow small business owner,
but really exciting, it is mybrother and I am so excited to
have him here.
Matthew Wagner, thank you forbeing with us.
Thank you for having me on.
It is super cool.
(00:21):
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned,we were on vacation and I was
so tempted to do like a firesidechat.
Where we were, we were doing alittle camping and I really held
off to get him into the studioand do this as a legit podcast.
So really excited to talk aboutyour business endeavors.
I'm going to quickly introducehim.
He's been in business for alittle over 10 years 10 years,
(00:42):
yeah, 10 years.
He is in the restaurantbusiness and has multiple
locations, so has definitelyseen his fair share of ups and
downs in business and I'm reallyexcited for him to be here to
go over the challenges.
So, as you guys know, firstthings first is we do some core
questions and then we dive intosome unspoken challenges.
(01:06):
With the unspoken challenges,my brother wanted to be a little
bit more surprised on thequestions, so I picked out a
couple questions that I thoughtwould fit him and his business
model.
So, without any further ado,let's jump into some background.
So you've been in business 10years.
You started your operation, youknow.
(01:27):
Can you share a little bitabout your background and what
led you to start your businessand specifically, how do I
phrase this?
Specifically, how you kind oftook advantage of an opportunity
that presented?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
itself.
Sure Well, I started working inthe restaurant field back when
I was 15 at McDonald's.
Then I worked there throughoutmy high school and then, after I
worked there a little bit afterhigh school, and then I moved
over to another restaurant acouple years after high school,
(02:09):
and when I started working atthe place two weeks into it, I
knew that I wanted to own one ofthese restaurants.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's a franchise.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And I knew that I wanted to own it.
So I worked there for threeyears and then I had an
opportunity to manage a locationand then an opportunity came
where I can actually buy thatrestaurant.
So I actually ended up buyingthat in 2015.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now I think I just want to pause for a second and
go into that.
At the time you decided to buya business, did you have the
money lying around to start abusiness?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I didn't have all the money lying around.
I own my business with abusiness partner and it is just
one of those situations where Ihad he's my friend and he wanted
to own, go into owning abusiness as well, and he's not.
He wasn't in the restaurantindustry like I was.
(03:05):
He was in another field and hewanted to grow his.
He wanted to be a businessowner as well.
So we ended up partnering upand yet, you know, I had someone
that believed in me with thatand gave me the opportunity to
actually go ahead and go fullforce and actually acquire the
place.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I think it's important for you know, business
owners or people that arelooking to get into business, I
think are sometimes discouragedby maybe I don't have the money
to get into the business, ormaybe I don't have the resource
or the know-how to get intobusiness.
I mean, shoot, when I startedmy business, very limited funds,
I had no experience in runninga business, but I still made it
(03:46):
happen and I think that to acertain extent I mean I'll throw
out a random statistic, butit's probably like 80 percent of
people get into business whilethey're figuring out how to run
a business.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, and they have no idea what they're doing.
You can walk into that fancyshowroom or retail spot or
whatever it is and you've got abusiness owner that's maybe
crammed away in the cornerthinking how do I get through
this time?
Or maybe has some questions,things like that.
So I think that the biggestthing that business owners do is
we have the will to figure outhow to get it done, would you
(04:20):
say.
That's I mean Someone's got tofigure it out.
Somebody's got to figure it out,that's usually going to be that
person for sure.
So, um, no, I think that'sreally important.
And, uh, going into yourbackground real quick Um, I
didn't go to college, you didn'tgo to college.
I think that it's importantthat you know college is
important for a lot of peopleand they've, they've, they've
(04:42):
gone into college, they'veworked, you know, they've gotten
their degree, they've put somehard work into it.
But I think that I've heardfrom small business owners that
is also maybe like somethingthat's preventing them from
starting a business is well, Idon't have any schooling
experience, and where I sit,maybe you sit we don't have
necessarily the schoolingexperience, but we were still
able to accomplish starting andforming legitimate businesses.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, I didn't go to college.
I kind of wrapped up mywhatever I was going to spend on
college is probably in whatI've lost in the first couple of
years.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Same with me my college degree.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You're going to make mistakes running businesses and
things are going to happen.
So I just kind of chalk it upto that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, my college degree is all the mistakes I've
made in business for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, I have more to make.
I have more schooling, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I mean, I think you know again you got business
owners out there or somebodythat's looking to be in business
, don't use you know.
If you've got a college degree,great, if you don't, that is
also just fine.
So swimming into our nextquestion, it's a motivation
question.
I mean in business, I yeah, Iknow that business owners have
(05:55):
to be cheerleaders.
We have to motivate our teamourselves, maybe our family,
when maybe times are tough.
Can you dive into maybe yourmotivation and maybe how it's
changed through the years?
But also you know, during toughtimes what keeps you motivated
now?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Well, I think motivation is going to be.
There's no one standard, youknow, one size fit all for
motivation.
Motivation is going to changefrom year to year, from month to
month.
Of whatever your goals that youneed to accomplish.
It first could be raisingrevenue and then that's going to
(06:31):
change over to creatingstability in your company.
So what keeps me motivated is Iknow that I want to have we
have several restaurants rightnow and I want to make sure that
we increase our store count,and I also want to make sure
that we're running the beststores that we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
So as far as motivation that's, where I'm at
right now and your motivationhas definitely changed
throughout the years.
It has.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It has.
I had my first store closed andthe lease ended up not working
out and we had to leave and Iended up having to decide if I'm
going to keep going in thedirection that I was going or if
I was going to fold up and getanother job or something like
(07:25):
that.
But I knew that I wanted to bein business for myself and keep
continuing on that path.
So that was the day that thestore reopened.
All that chasing what I wanted,it paid off that day.
(07:48):
And then motivation, all rightnow I got to get the store open,
I got to get it stable, got tokeep, you know, keeping up the
high standards of what we'redoing.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And yeah, yeah, I think that's.
I mean, you know, you wentthrough a challenge there where
you found an opportunity.
You threw yourself into it.
You found a business.
You're running the business andthings are looking on the up
and I mean, somebody justcompletely pulls the box.
You're standing on completelyoff and now you don't have that
(08:20):
and you're kind of figuring out.
You know, hey, what do I needto do?
And I think, as you know, asbusiness owners and we have so
many different challenges and Ihave challenges every single day
.
There's always something newpresenting itself and I think
that you know what you did toget through that tough time.
You know, really shows thatwe're always down to figure
(08:43):
stuff out, but roll up oursleeves and get to work when we
need to get to work.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You're always going to have bad.
There are, there will always bebad times in business.
For sure, For sure.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
All right, well, I mean thanks for that, okay, so
going in.
So, unspoken rule or unspokenchallenge, you don't know the
question.
I'm going to throw out aquestion and I want just kind of
your feedback on it.
I normally, normally, you wouldknow the question and this is
customized to you, but I've kindof customized this.
So, first up, I'd like you toshare a time that this was a
(09:14):
challenge for you and how younavigated through it.
So this one is specifically onmanaging growth.
Now you've had the one location, you've dived into having
several locations.
So on managing growth, scalingyour business without losing the
quality or control and I knowthat's important for you because
you have multiple locations now.
(09:34):
So how do you scale thebusiness without losing control?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
How do I scale the business without losing control?
Well, what I've always had todo is put.
You got to put your pride awaysometimes and you have to reach
out to other people or whenyou're working with other people
.
I didn't just jump into thefranchise business as an
(09:58):
outsider.
I've worked in severaldifferent locations and worked
for several different people andyou pick, know, you pick what
you like and what you don't likeand you get to apply that into
into your, into your four walls,and um, I, I, I set it up as
having the systems down for anykind of scenario that's going to
(10:18):
happen.
And because you have theday-to-day operations of what's
going on in the restaurant, butthen you actually have the
back-end operations.
You know the payroll, makingsure that you're putting
together P&Ls, reviewing P&Ls,understanding everything.
So what we did was, you know,we made a copy and paste from
even where we ordered thesmallest things.
There's a procedure for it.
So when we went from store oneto store two, it was a copy and
(10:39):
paste.
The hardest part, that's easy.
The hardest part that's easy.
The hardest part is going to bethe crew or the people that you
work with.
You've got to find managers,you've got to train managers,
(11:13):
no-transcript.
Once you find out that rhythmthat works for you, then you can
start copy and pasting andmaybe copy and paste a little
bit faster too.
But it's also realizing.
I think business owners do notwant to hear that their business
is not good.
(11:33):
And you have to listen topeople on that.
You've got to listen to yourcrew, you've got to listen to
your customers, you've got tolisten to everyone.
And then you have to be able togo this isn't working, I need
to change what I'm doing andchange it.
So that's one big thing thatI'm someone that will implement
something, be full gun about it,and if it's not working, I will
be the first one to go well,this isn't working, and then I'm
(11:56):
going to move on and we'regoing to find something that
does work.
So that's my kind of take onmanaging the growth of it.
So that's my kind of take onmanaging the growth of it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And you know we're at several locations now and we
look forward to moving to more.
I want to go to a couple thingsthat you talked about there
which I think are important.
So number one you mentionedsometimes you have to put your
pride away.
Putting your pride away Italked about it in the last
(12:39):
episode that I filmed on thepodcast.
Sometimes you have to ask beingin business because your
business is just not going tothrive.
You may be in business you everbeen to a business that you're
dealing with a business ownerand he's super difficult and you
know customers just don't comein or he can't have employees
work for him because he's verydifficult.
You have to put your pride awayand this allows you to, you
(13:01):
know, grow your business.
You know, something else youmentioned in there which I think
is really important to touchbase on is it doesn't matter how
big you are.
Start documenting your systemswhen you're smaller, and I have
to agree with that a thousandpercent.
When I was first starting up,that was some business advice
(13:21):
that I got from a gentleman inbusiness.
He said, hey, document yourprocess.
And it was just me and I waslike this is dumb, why am I
going to document how I'm doingthis for myself, and little did
I know later as I wanted to growthe business and have employees
.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That makes it so much easier down the line, because
in the beginning, when you openup a business, you could be the
only employee yeah.
And then for the next trick isyou at one point you're doing
everything because you eithercan't afford to hire someone to
do bookkeeping or you can'tafford to hire someone to answer
the phones and all that.
But as you slowly you grow,then you already have these
(13:59):
procedures down yeah.
And then also working withpeople, because everyone's not
going to do it exactly the wayyou do it, but if you have your
standard of like, this is how wedo things, this is how I've.
You know how I've done it.
Here's what's worked for me inthe past and whatnot that's
going to.
That's going to.
That's going to set you uppretty fast, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
For sure.
So, um, if you're just startingout in business any of the
listeners if you're juststarting out in business, one
key takeaway is document yourprocess.
It's going to make it mucheasier for you to grow and
maintain quality without losingthat control.
So, moving on to the secondunspoken challenge, again, can
you share a time when this was achallenge for you and how you
navigated it?
(14:39):
I know in this particularquestion it's loaded.
I know in this particularquestion it's loaded For you.
You deal with I'm just going toget into it but it is
negotiating leases.
So challenges with securingfavorable terms on a business
premise.
But I mean it's also a loadedquestion.
You deal in the retail side,where you need customers to come
(15:07):
in and engage with your product.
For me, I don't need that andI've negotiated out warehouses
or offices.
So I think where we'redifferent because I'll call you
if I'm there's been a coupletimes I've explored a retail
space and I'm calling you foryour experience there and vice
versa, you're calling me for myexperience on warehouses and
offices.
So speak to me about,specifically, retail leases
(15:30):
challenges and I mean just howdo you secure those favorable
terms?
And I do want to touch in onhow you can also leverage that
to grow your business withbuilding out the operation Well,
the first and best advice Iwould have is get a real estate
attorney.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Don't do it yourself, don't have a cousin that does
real estate, or that they're areal estate agent, or something
like that.
You want to get a real estateattorney and you're going to
work with the real estate agentat first and then you're going
to pass it off once you startnegotiating the lease.
You don't want a one-page lease, two-page lease, something like
that, especially for the retailside, because you're going to
(16:04):
have everything that's beenthrown out there or that's going
to be into that, from who paysfor the trash cans to be dumped,
who pays for the sidewalk to becleaned and who pays for the
HVAC unit to be cleaned andmaintained.
That's all going to be in thelease.
So that's one area that I wouldhighly suggest of making sure
that you have a real estateattorney, because once again,
(16:27):
I'll put my price aside all thetime.
I don't know real estate, Idon't know, I'm not an attorney,
and there's a 50 page booklet,sometimes 80 page lease.
I don't know any of this, butI've worked with my real estate
agent or, sorry, a real estateattorney for over 10 years now,
and we've made mistakes too,where we ended up having to pay
(16:51):
for something that we shouldhave not have paid, but we
missed it in the lease or it wasmore favorable for us not to do
that.
So that is the strongest adviceI would have to say.
For once you go into real estate, especially your leasing places
at a retail site, primelocation, you want to have that.
The next thing that you want tomake sure that you have is TI,
(17:19):
if you can get it.
What is TI?
Which is that's a tenantimprovement allowance.
Which is that's a tenantimprovement allowance.
So meaning, if you're leasing1,000 square feet, they're going
to give you $10 back once yousign the lease and you've
completed your construction $10or $10 per square foot.
$10 per square foot sorry, $10per square foot.
So that's going to give you agood amount of money back when
(17:40):
you've completed the build-out.
Now it could be $10.
It could be $20.
It could be $10, it could be$20, it could be $30, it could
be $0.
Sometimes I've taken leaseswhere we took a very low TI, but
we wanted that location.
So there's always going to be abalance of it.
But just because you're goingto get a higher tenant
(18:00):
improvement back doesn't meanyour lease is going to be
cheaper, they will offset it, soyour rent might go up.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
So I know, when you know I've done offices or
warehouses we can negotiate somesort of free rent couple months
, things like that.
Maybe walk back from the squarefootage dollar, you know, maybe
a couple, couple cents orwhatever it is per square foot,
but we're not necessarilygetting the tenant improvement
money.
And I think what's important totalk about real quick I don't
(18:31):
want to get wrapped up in it isagain going back to a business
owner trying to figure out howto start that business and
really trying to just secureopportunity.
Maybe they see a goodopportunity in a retail spot and
knowing that there is moneythere to maybe even help build
out a business, and so maybe youdon't have that money on hand
(18:53):
to do some of the things youwant to do, but you can really
use and leverage yourself withthese tenant improvements, would
you agree?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
But also, I mean, if you'rejust starting out, you know
you're just opening a restaurantthat you want to open up and
it's, let's say, it's not afranchise, it's a mom and pop
kind of place You're probablybetter off taking a five-year
lease or a one-year lease, seeif it works out and have that
option.
You always have to have abackup plan.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
We talked about that on the podcast is having a
backup plan in business.
We talked about that on thepodcast is having a backup plan
in business.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You don't want to think about challenges that
you're going to run into.
But having a backup plan so youknow how to get out of
something, so ultimately yourbusiness can survive, is
important.
Yeah, I think everyone's reallycaught up in when you first
incorporate and then you thinkthat there's this business
credit and I'm sure for in somescenarios it works out that that
is a thing.
But for all of my leases and alot of other leases I know
there's a person that backs itPersonal guarantor, yep, and you
(19:56):
have to be on that.
So we have it in some of ourstores.
You know that after the firstfive years, if it doesn't work
out, we're able to leave and notbe in that big of a trouble.
But you know, luckily we don'thave to go down that road, but
there is that backup plan.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I think it's important to mention, since
you brought up the, you know,the business credit.
That was a common misconceptionfor myself when I started.
Now I think that there isdefinitely some business credit.
Dunson Bradstreet, I think,runs business credit.
I think they use that.
But ultimately when we needequipment or we need vehicles or
(20:36):
whatever it is, the business isdefinitely the one financing it
, depending if you have arelationship with that bank or
not, at that time they will wanta possible guarantor and
ultimately that is a person atthe end of the day.
And that's what you're sayingon leases as well.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, okay.
So, moving on to the thirdunspoken challenge, can you
share a time that this was achallenge for you and how you
navigated it?
So this is brand consistencymaintaining a brand voice and
identity across all channels.
Now I think it's important tomention you have four locations
right now and this could reallyspeak to somebody that's
(21:17):
listening, that is maybe on thatone location or has just
started that second location,and they're having a problem
keeping the same message thatthey created and poured their
blood, sweat and tears into thatfirst one.
They're having a problemkeeping that identity at that
second location or are nervousthat it's not going to transfer
over to that second location.
How do you do it?
How do you keep it allconsistent?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We don't.
No, we try.
We definitely strive to makesure that we do.
Like I said in the beginning, Ithink my biggest advantage is I
will be the first person to say, hey, something's not right.
So kind of like I was sayingwith the whole copy and paste.
Yeah, we can definitely copyand paste of opening up multiple
(22:01):
locations and make them alllook the same order, the same
everything, but at the end youhave people that are running the
stores and that's where yourconsistency is going to come
from.
So I've heard this in the pastand it still resonates with me
is you've got to train hard andmanage easy.
So we've got to make sure thateveryone is doing everything
(22:26):
very consistent and even whenpeople have been with us for a
year or two years and whatnot,if they're not doing exactly how
they should be doing it, whatwe do is very simple, but we're
very particular on the way thatwe do things, because we want
that same customer service atone location to the next
location, to the next location.
So I'm not going to sit hereand say, oh, yeah, everything is
(22:49):
always great and it's alwaysfine, but we definitely have our
standard of how we do thingsand 99 percent of the times
we're hitting it and when wehave a customer reach out which
I love it, when customers reachout and they're saying, hey,
this isn't right, something waswrong, I got the wrong order or
this happened, I'm reaching outto the customer, we're talking
(23:10):
and I'm looking back and I'mseeing what happened and how we
can fix it, just to make sure itdoesn't happen again.
So that would be my take onkeeping the brand image the same
throughout everywhere image thesame throughout everywhere.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I think it's important to go back on that
question and really point outagain and I mentioned it earlier
in the episode, excuse me is,you can walk into that shiny
building as a customer and thinkthat everything is figured out,
and I think what's important isfor business owners to
understand it's not alwaysfigured out and sometimes you
just have to throw yourself init to figure it out.
(23:50):
Would you agree?
I would, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, thank you for the Unspoken Challenge questions
.
The series of hard questionsare over.
I really hope you guys foundvalue on those questions.
Thank you for answering them,matthew.
Moving on to a couple morequestions, this is a personal
question.
So running a business can takea toll on you personally.
How do you manage a work-lifebalance?
(24:16):
What do you do to turn it offwhen you're at home?
Now I want to say smallbusiness world.
Sometimes you pull togetheryour husband, your wife, your
son, your daughter, cousins,aunts, uncles.
Sometimes they're coming intoyour business as a small
business owner and helping youout For me.
I know that my wife works withme For you.
(24:37):
I know your wife works for you.
So this I'd like to hear yourtake on how do you turn your
work off when you're at home andkeep that relationship strong?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We don't.
We've gotten better.
We've definitely gotten betterover the years, but especially
since me and my wife work in thesame field.
That's our life, that'severything that we're.
I mean, that's our jobs.
What are you talking about withyour significant other?
You're talking about what youdo and what you want to do.
But over the years wedefinitely have gotten a lot
(25:11):
better on at home, just being athome.
But when you own something,you're going to be responsible
for it.
It doesn't matter if you say,well, I'm not responsible for
today, you can't do that.
I mean, and if you are, youknow that's, you know that's
(25:33):
your decision.
But what's made it a lot easierfor me is for the first, you
know, eight, nine years, no,seven years I was the person
that had to handle everythingand as we've been expanding,
I've been, you know, setting upwith my managers, and I have a
(25:53):
district manager and anotherbusiness partner.
I have two business partners.
They're taking on moreresponsibility, so I'm not the
one that has to answer smallquestions at, you know, nine
o'clock at night.
That's now.
We've created more jobs forsomeone else for that particular
situation.
But I don't really ever, wenever, really turn it off the
(26:15):
work-life balance.
But I did say if I'm going togo on vacation, you guys got to
handle it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And you're on vacation right now.
So how's that going?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I'm just kidding, it's going.
Great, I'm still, of course,I'm still getting emails and
everything.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's going.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And you're going to learn.
You're going to learn.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Sometimes you're going to.
I've had a store get brokeninto in the middle of the night.
I didn't answer my phonebecause it was on silent and we
had to handle that thatsituation in its own way.
So I've learned from that andnow I keep.
That's not going to happenagain.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate that
that feedback on that question.
So, moving on to our nextquestion, this one is advice.
So, looking back, let's justsay you could rewind the clock
10 years and you could give youryounger self some advice that
you wish you would have receivedstarting out.
So you know, this is speakingto, obviously, entrepreneurs
(27:10):
that are looking to start theirjourney or have just started.
But, looking back at yourself,if you could tell yourself
something, a nice piece ofadvice, what would that be?
Hire a real estate attorneyRight from the start Right from
(27:41):
the start that I had to learnthe hard way.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Regardless, you're never going to have.
If you're crazy huge, maybe oneday you're going to have an
in-house lawyer, but most timesthose are the three basic things
that you do need, becausethings do happen.
You have to have a plan foreverything.
You have to assume the worst,for if you're going to need a
(28:04):
lawyer for an accountant, yougot to make sure that the
government's happy and and allthe, the, the, the numbers are
lining up correctly and whatnot.
And you know, for the on thereal estate side, you want to
make sure that you have someonethat's in your favor, looking
out for, uh, for, for you.
So that would be my, my threemain things that I would highly
recommend.
Um, highly recommend.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
So what's next?
What's next on your projectblock?
I mean, you've just you know, alittle little back piece is
that these four locations havepopped up pretty quickly.
You've you've went from reallykind of expanding your footprint
and that's where you've kind ofrolled up your sleeves.
What's in the cooker for you inthe future?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
We're just going to keep expanding at this point
right now we're going to keepgoing.
Technically, I've had five,because I actually have the
opportunity to sell one so wecan focus on the area that we're
in, because they're about 400miles apart and that made it a
little bit more difficult.
So, rather than dropping that,before, I wanted to make sure
(29:11):
that that store was always goingto be good, because if that
store ended up dipping in salesand it didn't do well or
something like that, it wouldactually decrease the value of
that huge asset.
So we sold it and then we'refocusing on the four of them now
and then we're going to beknocking out one by one, and
it's not about how fast we canget them open.
(29:32):
It's how well we can train thepeople that are working with us,
because we take a lot of peoplethat are just coming in the
doors and they're jumping inhere and kind of getting the
same thing that I had is where.
I want to keep working here.
I want to manage this place.
Two weeks into it, where I wasworking, I knew I wanted to own
a place.
So we have people like thatworking with us now and that's
(29:55):
what I want to do, what we aredoing.
So, one by one, just keep goingone by one.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I picked this up and I think it's important to talk
about it.
I didn't drop this.
We were going to talk aboutthis.
I picked this up and I thinkit's important to talk about and
I didn't drop this.
We were going to talk aboutthis but we recently got back.
We were together doing acamping trip and I've talked
about this on the podcast before.
I talk about this in my business, but in my business plan.
I update my business plan oncea year.
I go through it.
I actively look at it, maybe ona monthly basis, but I really
(30:26):
like to sit down once a year anddive into it.
A big part of that businessplan and my goals are more
short-term goals.
Of course I do have long-termgoals, but I do focus on what is
this next year going to looklike?
What is this next three yearsgoing to look like?
I do a five-year and then a10-year, maybe a 20-year, but
more importantly, a lot of mystuff is wrapped up into the
short term.
So I'll say you know, here'severything I want to accomplish
(30:49):
this year, here's everything Iwant to accomplish in the next
three years.
That is really my focus.
It was interesting to me as youwere explaining some things just
while we were camping and you,your outlook was a little bit
more long-term on five years and10 years.
(31:10):
So the way you spoke about yourexpansion plans and certain
things that you want to do, itreally dragged it out to that
five and 10-year mark where Ifelt like I'm focused more
short-term.
I just kind of want to knowwhat your thoughts are.
I mean, obviously you've got tokind of forecast, I think for
me it's my shorter, maybe,attention span.
Right, I focus on this year,this year, this year.
(31:31):
But I think there is value onsaying, hey, it's going to take
five years to get here, to besuccessful in this location, and
it's okay, it's going to taketime.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, best advice I got was you know, restaurants
don't really kick off.
Some kick off right out thedoor.
Some take two years to build up.
So it's making sure that youhave your eye on what you want
to make sure is going to happenthere and making sure that
you're very consistent on theoperations and the service in
(32:04):
those stores in that short term.
The long-term plan that issomething that's really gotten
to me in the past maybe probablyfour years.
I used to be very all right,how fast can I get this open?
How fast can I get this open?
And because when you'rebuilding out a store or you're
building your business, or evenif you're concurrently working a
job, it's like you don't wantto jump the gun too fast.
(32:28):
So, yeah, I have my short-termgoals and I have my long-term
goals as well, but I mainly dofocus just on the short-term
right now, because you're notgoing to have a long-term goal
if the short ones aren't workingout.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
No, and I like that.
I think that that's it's supercool to think and it hit me as
we were just talking and I wasjust like, yeah, it's a
different way of looking at it.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I ask all my people that I'm interviewing because I
like to do all the interviewing,because I like to make sure I
know who's working with us and Iask everyone.
I'm not going to ask the hey,what do you see yourself doing
in five years.
I'm going to ask them hey, whatdo you want to do?
Where do you see?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
yourself in a year.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And we work with a lot of college students.
We work with a lot of peoplelike me that just didn't go to
college, and you know, I want tomake sure that the people that
are working with us aremotivated too.
You know, if it's, I want toget a car, I want to get a house
, I want to get.
You know, I want to finishcollege, I want to go into my
field where I'm studying.
So that's a big thing with me,of where do you?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
what are we doing in a year?
What would you say to and I'mjust thinking about this as
you're talking because obviouslywe're both in California, we
know it there's been some,there's been some changes with
like minimum wage and thingslike that in the industry and a
lot of restaurants dealing witha little bit more of harder
times right now.
How has that hit you and howhave you been able to adapt to
(33:56):
that changing market?
And specifically, I ask thisquestion because I talked about
this on another episode of beingable to pivot and change in an
ever-changing market to makeyour business succeed.
So we're seeing 99-cent storescloses, we're seeing restaurants
close.
How do you adapt to that changeand survive?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I don't like to do it , but we have to.
We have to.
We got to raise prices and youneed to make sure that the price
matches the service and thequality of what you're serving.
The market will speak foritself.
If you're not playing by thoserules.
I would say that is the bestanswer I could probably give on
(34:39):
that.
Okay, it's tricky, especiallyin the last year or two.
We're in this uncharteredterritory right now, so we're
all monitoring as best as we can, but at the end of the day,
we're there to make.
We're a business, we're thereto make money and you know if a
business is not profitable, it'sgoing to close.
(34:59):
That's why you go into businessand you got to make sure that
you're doing it responsibly.
And by that, offset topic ofthat is you are making sure that
you are looking at every numberin your business.
You should know how much you'respending on insurance.
You should know how much theelectric bill is.
You should know how every penny, you should be able to account
for it.
And if you don't, I wouldhighly recommend that you hit
(35:22):
your books, hit your P&Ls and ifyou don't know it all
completely, take the time andlearn it, because I mean, that
is the lifeblood of yourbusiness.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, know your ins and outs of business.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it is your numbers, so you got to know that
.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
All right, one more question before we wrap it up
for today, and this is importantas, like, you go out, you drive
down the street, you seethere's a ton of restaurants,
there's a ton of restaurants tochoose from, and you want to
stand out in a crowded market,right?
How do you leverage that andstand out in front of?
(36:01):
I mean, you're in a busy space,so how do you stand out in a
crowded market?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
How do you stand out in a crowded market?
Well then, you just have tomarket the way that other people
aren't marketing.
You need to go send people.
You know we're looking for.
Marketing.
Online's great, that's fine,but it costs nothing to get some
coupons printed out and gograssroots, go ground pound and
go pass out.
Hey, have you been to my place?
No, I haven't.
(36:27):
All right, come in, here's your, your, your yeah no that.
Get them in, get them in forfree at once, uh, and then show
them what you're all about, andthen you got a customer right
there.
I mean, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's interesting you say ground pound with you know
how much does it cost to throwout a flyer.
And this is something that,when you look back at even this
digital market age we're in, ishow successful that can be in
every business.
I mean it applies to yourbusiness, it applies to my
business Getting out, rollingyour sleeves up and making that
phone ring or getting customersin that door.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Because if you're just sitting there doing nothing
, you're saying well, it's slow,you have time, then Go out
there and do it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's like if you've got time to lean, you've got
time to clean.
If you've got time to lean, goout and market your butt off.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I'm not going to sit here and go, oh yeah,
everything's great.
But in the beginning I worked50, 60, 70 hours, just like
every starting business does.
I've done it and I don't haveto do that anymore.
There are still weeks I have todo that, you know, before a
grand opening coming up, or youknow, sometimes some weeks are
just chaotic and you have to doit, but consistently.
(37:37):
You know that's how I kind ofdo.
My work-life balance is I'm notalways just working, but if
it's light in your store, I liketo say slow, but if it's light
in your store, um, uh, go, go,go get the customers.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Now you got let's, let's, let's do a little
forecast.
You got a ton of employees,you've got four locations.
You're looking to grow.
You're on the up and up Um,let's just say, a slow next week
.
And you got to go take outflyers.
Go take out flyers.
Are you going out and takingout flyers?
I'll go take them out.
Look at that.
I want everybody listening toknow how important that is.
Nothing is below us owning abusiness.
You need to be resilient, butyou need to be down to do
(38:15):
whatever it takes to make thephone ring, and I think that
that is important.
I cleaned the toilet last weekand I literally clean my
bathrooms.
If they're not done, I cleanthem.
Yeah, and I clean.
I jump up and I clean the HVACsystems yeah.
Nothing is below being inbusiness and making sure your
business is successful.
So, no, I think that I think wehad some good answers to the
(38:36):
questions.
I appreciate you jumping.
Hopefully they weren't too hardfor you.
It's pretty easy, guys.
I just I'm really thankful thatMatthew could be here, so thank
you for taking the time out.
It's been kind of a tight time.
He's come back to his hometownand we have done nothing but eat
.
Yeah, I have all the restaurantsI want to go to.
(38:57):
We've gotten all theserestaurants and we're actually
on the way to a friend'sbarbecue right now to continue
eating.
So just being able to get inhere and jam this episode down,
it was something I was reallylooking forward to.
So I appreciate you being here.
Well, thank you for having meon.
I appreciate it.
All right, guys, I want to sayshout out to you for listening.
If you've found yourself at theend of this podcast, I really
(39:19):
appreciate you listening throughthe episode.
I thank you for the feedbackthat I'm getting seeing the text
messages come through.
I love the feedback that I'mgetting Seeing the text messages
come through.
I love the feedback that I'mhearing on the show.
You know, it's really my goal toput something together for
other business owners tounderstand and know.
You're not alone in business.
So many business owners gothrough the exact same things
(39:41):
and my job with this podcast isjust to break that down.
If you've got a question, sendus a text message, throw us a
comment in the comment section,do a thumbs up on the video.
All of that is going to helpthese videos continue to go and
this podcast continue to go.
So um shouts out to you.
Thank you so much.
Um, I'm closing up.
I'm going to sign off.
(40:01):
You want to say anything?
No, thank you for having me onGet a good real estate attorney.
Get a good real estate attorney.
That's my voice.
Get a good CPA.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's mine, All right guys.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of
the Business Guide.
No-transcript.
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and I want to
welcome you back to anotherepisode of the Business Guide.
Today I have a special guest, afellow small business owner,
but really exciting, it is mybrother and I am so excited to
have him here.
Matthew Wagner, thank you forbeing with us.
Thank you for having me on.
It is super cool.
(00:21):
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned,we were on vacation and I was
so tempted to do like a firesidechat.
Where we were, we were doing alittle camping and I really held
off to get him into the studioand do this as a legit podcast.
So really excited to talk aboutyour business endeavors.
I'm going to quickly introducehim.
He's been in business for alittle over 10 years 10 years,
(00:42):
yeah, 10 years.
He is in the restaurantbusiness and has multiple
locations, so has definitelyseen his fair share of ups and
downs in business and I'm reallyexcited for him to be here to
go over the challenges.
So, as you guys know, firstthings first is we do some core
questions and then we dive intosome unspoken challenges.
(01:06):
With the unspoken challenges,my brother wanted to be a little
bit more surprised on thequestions, so I picked out a
couple questions that I thoughtwould fit him and his business
model.
So, without any further ado,let's jump into some background.
So you've been in business 10years.
You started your operation, youknow.
(01:27):
Can you share a little bitabout your background and what
led you to start your businessand specifically, how do I
phrase this?
Specifically, how you kind oftook advantage of an opportunity
that presented?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
itself.
Sure Well, I started working inthe restaurant field back when
I was 15 at McDonald's.
Then I worked there throughoutmy high school and then, after I
worked there a little bit afterhigh school, and then I moved
over to another restaurant acouple years after high school,
(02:09):
and when I started working atthe place two weeks into it, I
knew that I wanted to own one ofthese restaurants.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's a franchise.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And I knew that I wanted to own it.
So I worked there for threeyears and then I had an
opportunity to manage a locationand then an opportunity came
where I can actually buy thatrestaurant.
So I actually ended up buyingthat in 2015.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now I think I just want to pause for a second and
go into that.
At the time you decided to buya business, did you have the
money lying around to start abusiness?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I didn't have all the money lying around.
I own my business with abusiness partner and it is just
one of those situations where Ihad he's my friend and he wanted
to own, go into owning abusiness as well, and he's not.
He wasn't in the restaurantindustry like I was.
(03:05):
He was in another field and hewanted to grow his.
He wanted to be a businessowner as well.
So we ended up partnering upand yet, you know, I had someone
that believed in me with thatand gave me the opportunity to
actually go ahead and go fullforce and actually acquire the
place.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I think it's important for you know, business
owners or people that arelooking to get into business, I
think are sometimes discouragedby maybe I don't have the money
to get into the business, ormaybe I don't have the resource
or the know-how to get intobusiness.
I mean, shoot, when I startedmy business, very limited funds,
I had no experience in runninga business, but I still made it
(03:46):
happen and I think that to acertain extent I mean I'll throw
out a random statistic, butit's probably like 80 percent of
people get into business whilethey're figuring out how to run
a business.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, and they have no idea what they're doing.
You can walk into that fancyshowroom or retail spot or
whatever it is and you've got abusiness owner that's maybe
crammed away in the cornerthinking how do I get through
this time?
Or maybe has some questions,things like that.
So I think that the biggestthing that business owners do is
we have the will to figure outhow to get it done, would you
(04:20):
say.
That's I mean Someone's got tofigure it out.
Somebody's got to figure it out,that's usually going to be that
person for sure.
So, um, no, I think that'sreally important.
And, uh, going into yourbackground real quick Um, I
didn't go to college, you didn'tgo to college.
I think that it's importantthat you know college is
important for a lot of peopleand they've, they've, they've
(04:42):
gone into college, they'veworked, you know, they've gotten
their degree, they've put somehard work into it.
But I think that I've heardfrom small business owners that
is also maybe like somethingthat's preventing them from
starting a business is well, Idon't have any schooling
experience, and where I sit,maybe you sit we don't have
necessarily the schoolingexperience, but we were still
able to accomplish starting andforming legitimate businesses.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, I didn't go to college.
I kind of wrapped up mywhatever I was going to spend on
college is probably in whatI've lost in the first couple of
years.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Same with me my college degree.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You're going to make mistakes running businesses and
things are going to happen.
So I just kind of chalk it upto that.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, my college degree is all the mistakes I've
made in business for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, I have more to make.
I have more schooling, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I mean, I think you know again you got business
owners out there or somebodythat's looking to be in business
, don't use you know.
If you've got a college degree,great, if you don't, that is
also just fine.
So swimming into our nextquestion, it's a motivation
question.
I mean in business, I yeah, Iknow that business owners have
(05:55):
to be cheerleaders.
We have to motivate our teamourselves, maybe our family,
when maybe times are tough.
Can you dive into maybe yourmotivation and maybe how it's
changed through the years?
But also you know, during toughtimes what keeps you motivated
now?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Well, I think motivation is going to be.
There's no one standard, youknow, one size fit all for
motivation.
Motivation is going to changefrom year to year, from month to
month.
Of whatever your goals that youneed to accomplish.
It first could be raisingrevenue and then that's going to
(06:31):
change over to creatingstability in your company.
So what keeps me motivated is Iknow that I want to have we
have several restaurants rightnow and I want to make sure that
we increase our store count,and I also want to make sure
that we're running the beststores that we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
So as far as motivation that's, where I'm at
right now and your motivationhas definitely changed
throughout the years.
It has.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It has.
I had my first store closed andthe lease ended up not working
out and we had to leave and Iended up having to decide if I'm
going to keep going in thedirection that I was going or if
I was going to fold up and getanother job or something like
(07:25):
that.
But I knew that I wanted to bein business for myself and keep
continuing on that path.
So that was the day that thestore reopened.
All that chasing what I wanted,it paid off that day.
(07:48):
And then motivation, all rightnow I got to get the store open,
I got to get it stable, got tokeep, you know, keeping up the
high standards of what we'redoing.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And yeah, yeah, I think that's.
I mean, you know, you wentthrough a challenge there where
you found an opportunity.
You threw yourself into it.
You found a business.
You're running the business andthings are looking on the up
and I mean, somebody justcompletely pulls the box.
You're standing on completelyoff and now you don't have that
(08:20):
and you're kind of figuring out.
You know, hey, what do I needto do?
And I think, as you know, asbusiness owners and we have so
many different challenges and Ihave challenges every single day
.
There's always something newpresenting itself and I think
that you know what you did toget through that tough time.
You know, really shows thatwe're always down to figure
(08:43):
stuff out, but roll up oursleeves and get to work when we
need to get to work.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You're always going to have bad.
There are, there will always bebad times in business.
For sure, For sure.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
All right, well, I mean thanks for that, okay, so
going in.
So, unspoken rule or unspokenchallenge, you don't know the
question.
I'm going to throw out aquestion and I want just kind of
your feedback on it.
I normally, normally, you wouldknow the question and this is
customized to you, but I've kindof customized this.
So, first up, I'd like you toshare a time that this was a
(09:14):
challenge for you and how younavigated through it.
So this one is specifically onmanaging growth.
Now you've had the one location, you've dived into having
several locations.
So on managing growth, scalingyour business without losing the
quality or control and I knowthat's important for you because
you have multiple locations now.
(09:34):
So how do you scale thebusiness without losing control?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
How do I scale the business without losing control?
Well, what I've always had todo is put.
You got to put your pride awaysometimes and you have to reach
out to other people or whenyou're working with other people
.
I didn't just jump into thefranchise business as an
(09:58):
outsider.
I've worked in severaldifferent locations and worked
for several different people andyou pick, know, you pick what
you like and what you don't likeand you get to apply that into
into your, into your four walls,and um, I, I, I set it up as
having the systems down for anykind of scenario that's going to
(10:18):
happen.
And because you have theday-to-day operations of what's
going on in the restaurant, butthen you actually have the
back-end operations.
You know the payroll, makingsure that you're putting
together P&Ls, reviewing P&Ls,understanding everything.
So what we did was, you know,we made a copy and paste from
even where we ordered thesmallest things.
There's a procedure for it.
So when we went from store oneto store two, it was a copy and
(10:39):
paste.
The hardest part, that's easy.
The hardest part that's easy.
The hardest part is going to bethe crew or the people that you
work with.
You've got to find managers,you've got to train managers,
(11:13):
no-transcript.
Once you find out that rhythmthat works for you, then you can
start copy and pasting andmaybe copy and paste a little
bit faster too.
But it's also realizing.
I think business owners do notwant to hear that their business
is not good.
(11:33):
And you have to listen topeople on that.
You've got to listen to yourcrew, you've got to listen to
your customers, you've got tolisten to everyone.
And then you have to be able togo this isn't working, I need
to change what I'm doing andchange it.
So that's one big thing thatI'm someone that will implement
something, be full gun about it,and if it's not working, I will
be the first one to go well,this isn't working, and then I'm
(11:56):
going to move on and we'regoing to find something that
does work.
So that's my kind of take onmanaging the growth of it.
So that's my kind of take onmanaging the growth of it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And you know we're at several locations now and we
look forward to moving to more.
I want to go to a couple thingsthat you talked about there
which I think are important.
So number one you mentionedsometimes you have to put your
pride away.
Putting your pride away Italked about it in the last
(12:39):
episode that I filmed on thepodcast.
Sometimes you have to ask beingin business because your
business is just not going tothrive.
You may be in business you everbeen to a business that you're
dealing with a business ownerand he's super difficult and you
know customers just don't comein or he can't have employees
work for him because he's verydifficult.
You have to put your pride awayand this allows you to, you
(13:01):
know, grow your business.
You know, something else youmentioned in there which I think
is really important to touchbase on is it doesn't matter how
big you are.
Start documenting your systemswhen you're smaller, and I have
to agree with that a thousandpercent.
When I was first starting up,that was some business advice
(13:21):
that I got from a gentleman inbusiness.
He said, hey, document yourprocess.
And it was just me and I waslike this is dumb, why am I
going to document how I'm doingthis for myself, and little did
I know later as I wanted to growthe business and have employees
.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That makes it so much easier down the line, because
in the beginning, when you openup a business, you could be the
only employee yeah.
And then for the next trick isyou at one point you're doing
everything because you eithercan't afford to hire someone to
do bookkeeping or you can'tafford to hire someone to answer
the phones and all that.
But as you slowly you grow,then you already have these
(13:59):
procedures down yeah.
And then also working withpeople, because everyone's not
going to do it exactly the wayyou do it, but if you have your
standard of like, this is how wedo things, this is how I've.
You know how I've done it.
Here's what's worked for me inthe past and whatnot that's
going to.
That's going to.
That's going to set you uppretty fast, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
For sure.
So, um, if you're just startingout in business any of the
listeners if you're juststarting out in business, one
key takeaway is document yourprocess.
It's going to make it mucheasier for you to grow and
maintain quality without losingthat control.
So, moving on to the secondunspoken challenge, again, can
you share a time when this was achallenge for you and how you
navigated it?
(14:39):
I know in this particularquestion it's loaded.
I know in this particularquestion it's loaded For you.
You deal with I'm just going toget into it but it is
negotiating leases.
So challenges with securingfavorable terms on a business
premise.
But I mean it's also a loadedquestion.
You deal in the retail side,where you need customers to come
(15:07):
in and engage with your product.
For me, I don't need that andI've negotiated out warehouses
or offices.
So I think where we'redifferent because I'll call you
if I'm there's been a coupletimes I've explored a retail
space and I'm calling you foryour experience there and vice
versa, you're calling me for myexperience on warehouses and
offices.
So speak to me about,specifically, retail leases
(15:30):
challenges and I mean just howdo you secure those favorable
terms?
And I do want to touch in onhow you can also leverage that
to grow your business withbuilding out the operation Well,
the first and best advice Iwould have is get a real estate
attorney.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Don't do it yourself, don't have a cousin that does
real estate, or that they're areal estate agent, or something
like that.
You want to get a real estateattorney and you're going to
work with the real estate agentat first and then you're going
to pass it off once you startnegotiating the lease.
You don't want a one-page lease, two-page lease, something like
that, especially for the retailside, because you're going to
(16:04):
have everything that's beenthrown out there or that's going
to be into that, from who paysfor the trash cans to be dumped,
who pays for the sidewalk to becleaned and who pays for the
HVAC unit to be cleaned andmaintained.
That's all going to be in thelease.
So that's one area that I wouldhighly suggest of making sure
that you have a real estateattorney, because once again,
(16:27):
I'll put my price aside all thetime.
I don't know real estate, Idon't know, I'm not an attorney,
and there's a 50 page booklet,sometimes 80 page lease.
I don't know any of this, butI've worked with my real estate
agent or, sorry, a real estateattorney for over 10 years now,
and we've made mistakes too,where we ended up having to pay
(16:51):
for something that we shouldhave not have paid, but we
missed it in the lease or it wasmore favorable for us not to do
that.
So that is the strongest adviceI would have to say.
For once you go into real estate, especially your leasing places
at a retail site, primelocation, you want to have that.
The next thing that you want tomake sure that you have is TI,
(17:19):
if you can get it.
What is TI?
Which is that's a tenantimprovement allowance.
Which is that's a tenantimprovement allowance.
So meaning, if you're leasing1,000 square feet, they're going
to give you $10 back once yousign the lease and you've
completed your construction $10or $10 per square foot.
$10 per square foot sorry, $10per square foot.
So that's going to give you agood amount of money back when
(17:40):
you've completed the build-out.
Now it could be $10.
It could be $20.
It could be $10, it could be$20, it could be $30, it could
be $0.
Sometimes I've taken leaseswhere we took a very low TI, but
we wanted that location.
So there's always going to be abalance of it.
But just because you're goingto get a higher tenant
(18:00):
improvement back doesn't meanyour lease is going to be
cheaper, they will offset it, soyour rent might go up.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
So I know, when you know I've done offices or
warehouses we can negotiate somesort of free rent couple months
, things like that.
Maybe walk back from the squarefootage dollar, you know, maybe
a couple, couple cents orwhatever it is per square foot,
but we're not necessarilygetting the tenant improvement
money.
And I think what's important totalk about real quick I don't
(18:31):
want to get wrapped up in it isagain going back to a business
owner trying to figure out howto start that business and
really trying to just secureopportunity.
Maybe they see a goodopportunity in a retail spot and
knowing that there is moneythere to maybe even help build
out a business, and so maybe youdon't have that money on hand
(18:53):
to do some of the things youwant to do, but you can really
use and leverage yourself withthese tenant improvements, would
you agree?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
But also, I mean, if you'rejust starting out, you know
you're just opening a restaurantthat you want to open up and
it's, let's say, it's not afranchise, it's a mom and pop
kind of place You're probablybetter off taking a five-year
lease or a one-year lease, seeif it works out and have that
option.
You always have to have abackup plan.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
We talked about that on the podcast is having a
backup plan in business.
We talked about that on thepodcast is having a backup plan
in business.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You don't want to think about challenges that
you're going to run into.
But having a backup plan so youknow how to get out of
something, so ultimately yourbusiness can survive, is
important.
Yeah, I think everyone's reallycaught up in when you first
incorporate and then you thinkthat there's this business
credit and I'm sure for in somescenarios it works out that that
is a thing.
But for all of my leases and alot of other leases I know
there's a person that backs itPersonal guarantor, yep, and you
(19:56):
have to be on that.
So we have it in some of ourstores.
You know that after the firstfive years, if it doesn't work
out, we're able to leave and notbe in that big of a trouble.
But you know, luckily we don'thave to go down that road, but
there is that backup plan.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, no, I think it's important to mention, since
you brought up the, you know,the business credit.
That was a common misconceptionfor myself when I started.
Now I think that there isdefinitely some business credit.
Dunson Bradstreet, I think,runs business credit.
I think they use that.
But ultimately when we needequipment or we need vehicles or
(20:36):
whatever it is, the business isdefinitely the one financing it
, depending if you have arelationship with that bank or
not, at that time they will wanta possible guarantor and
ultimately that is a person atthe end of the day.
And that's what you're sayingon leases as well.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, okay.
So, moving on to the thirdunspoken challenge, can you
share a time that this was achallenge for you and how you
navigated it?
So this is brand consistencymaintaining a brand voice and
identity across all channels.
Now I think it's important tomention you have four locations
right now and this could reallyspeak to somebody that's
(21:17):
listening, that is maybe on thatone location or has just
started that second location,and they're having a problem
keeping the same message thatthey created and poured their
blood, sweat and tears into thatfirst one.
They're having a problemkeeping that identity at that
second location or are nervousthat it's not going to transfer
over to that second location.
How do you do it?
How do you keep it allconsistent?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We don't.
No, we try.
We definitely strive to makesure that we do.
Like I said in the beginning, Ithink my biggest advantage is I
will be the first person to say, hey, something's not right.
So kind of like I was sayingwith the whole copy and paste.
Yeah, we can definitely copyand paste of opening up multiple
(22:01):
locations and make them alllook the same order, the same
everything, but at the end youhave people that are running the
stores and that's where yourconsistency is going to come
from.
So I've heard this in the pastand it still resonates with me
is you've got to train hard andmanage easy.
So we've got to make sure thateveryone is doing everything
(22:26):
very consistent and even whenpeople have been with us for a
year or two years and whatnot,if they're not doing exactly how
they should be doing it, whatwe do is very simple, but we're
very particular on the way thatwe do things, because we want
that same customer service atone location to the next
location, to the next location.
So I'm not going to sit hereand say, oh, yeah, everything is
(22:49):
always great and it's alwaysfine, but we definitely have our
standard of how we do thingsand 99 percent of the times
we're hitting it and when wehave a customer reach out which
I love it, when customers reachout and they're saying, hey,
this isn't right, something waswrong, I got the wrong order or
this happened, I'm reaching outto the customer, we're talking
(23:10):
and I'm looking back and I'mseeing what happened and how we
can fix it, just to make sure itdoesn't happen again.
So that would be my take onkeeping the brand image the same
throughout everywhere image thesame throughout everywhere.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I think it's important to go back on that
question and really point outagain and I mentioned it earlier
in the episode, excuse me is,you can walk into that shiny
building as a customer and thinkthat everything is figured out,
and I think what's important isfor business owners to
understand it's not alwaysfigured out and sometimes you
just have to throw yourself init to figure it out.
(23:50):
Would you agree?
I would, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, thank you for the Unspoken Challenge questions
.
The series of hard questionsare over.
I really hope you guys foundvalue on those questions.
Thank you for answering them,matthew.
Moving on to a couple morequestions, this is a personal
question.
So running a business can takea toll on you personally.
How do you manage a work-lifebalance?
(24:16):
What do you do to turn it offwhen you're at home?
Now I want to say smallbusiness world.
Sometimes you pull togetheryour husband, your wife, your
son, your daughter, cousins,aunts, uncles.
Sometimes they're coming intoyour business as a small
business owner and helping youout For me.
I know that my wife works withme For you.
(24:37):
I know your wife works for you.
So this I'd like to hear yourtake on how do you turn your
work off when you're at home andkeep that relationship strong?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We don't.
We've gotten better.
We've definitely gotten betterover the years, but especially
since me and my wife work in thesame field.
That's our life, that'severything that we're.
I mean, that's our jobs.
What are you talking about withyour significant other?
You're talking about what youdo and what you want to do.
But over the years wedefinitely have gotten a lot
(25:11):
better on at home, just being athome.
But when you own something,you're going to be responsible
for it.
It doesn't matter if you say,well, I'm not responsible for
today, you can't do that.
I mean, and if you are, youknow that's, you know that's
(25:33):
your decision.
But what's made it a lot easierfor me is for the first, you
know, eight, nine years, no,seven years I was the person
that had to handle everythingand as we've been expanding,
I've been, you know, setting upwith my managers, and I have a
(25:53):
district manager and anotherbusiness partner.
I have two business partners.
They're taking on moreresponsibility, so I'm not the
one that has to answer smallquestions at, you know, nine
o'clock at night.
That's now.
We've created more jobs forsomeone else for that particular
situation.
But I don't really ever, wenever, really turn it off the
(26:15):
work-life balance.
But I did say if I'm going togo on vacation, you guys got to
handle it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
And you're on vacation right now.
So how's that going?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I'm just kidding, it's going.
Great, I'm still, of course,I'm still getting emails and
everything.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's going.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And you're going to learn.
You're going to learn.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Sometimes you're going to.
I've had a store get brokeninto in the middle of the night.
I didn't answer my phonebecause it was on silent and we
had to handle that thatsituation in its own way.
So I've learned from that andnow I keep.
That's not going to happenagain.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate that
that feedback on that question.
So, moving on to our nextquestion, this one is advice.
So, looking back, let's justsay you could rewind the clock
10 years and you could give youryounger self some advice that
you wish you would have receivedstarting out.
So you know, this is speakingto, obviously, entrepreneurs
(27:10):
that are looking to start theirjourney or have just started.
But, looking back at yourself,if you could tell yourself
something, a nice piece ofadvice, what would that be?
Hire a real estate attorneyRight from the start Right from
(27:41):
the start that I had to learnthe hard way.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Regardless, you're never going to have.
If you're crazy huge, maybe oneday you're going to have an
in-house lawyer, but most timesthose are the three basic things
that you do need, becausethings do happen.
You have to have a plan foreverything.
You have to assume the worst,for if you're going to need a
(28:04):
lawyer for an accountant, yougot to make sure that the
government's happy and and allthe, the, the, the numbers are
lining up correctly and whatnot.
And you know, for the on thereal estate side, you want to
make sure that you have someonethat's in your favor, looking
out for, uh, for, for you.
So that would be my, my threemain things that I would highly
recommend.
Um, highly recommend.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
So what's next?
What's next on your projectblock?
I mean, you've just you know, alittle little back piece is
that these four locations havepopped up pretty quickly.
You've you've went from reallykind of expanding your footprint
and that's where you've kind ofrolled up your sleeves.
What's in the cooker for you inthe future?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
We're just going to keep expanding at this point
right now we're going to keepgoing.
Technically, I've had five,because I actually have the
opportunity to sell one so wecan focus on the area that we're
in, because they're about 400miles apart and that made it a
little bit more difficult.
So, rather than dropping that,before, I wanted to make sure
(29:11):
that that store was always goingto be good, because if that
store ended up dipping in salesand it didn't do well or
something like that, it wouldactually decrease the value of
that huge asset.
So we sold it and then we'refocusing on the four of them now
and then we're going to beknocking out one by one, and
it's not about how fast we canget them open.
(29:32):
It's how well we can train thepeople that are working with us,
because we take a lot of peoplethat are just coming in the
doors and they're jumping inhere and kind of getting the
same thing that I had is where.
I want to keep working here.
I want to manage this place.
Two weeks into it, where I wasworking, I knew I wanted to own
a place.
So we have people like thatworking with us now and that's
(29:55):
what I want to do, what we aredoing.
So, one by one, just keep goingone by one.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
I picked this up and I think it's important to talk
about it.
I didn't drop this.
We were going to talk aboutthis.
I picked this up and I thinkit's important to talk about and
I didn't drop this.
We were going to talk aboutthis but we recently got back.
We were together doing acamping trip and I've talked
about this on the podcast before.
I talk about this in my business, but in my business plan.
I update my business plan oncea year.
I go through it.
I actively look at it, maybe ona monthly basis, but I really
(30:26):
like to sit down once a year anddive into it.
A big part of that businessplan and my goals are more
short-term goals.
Of course I do have long-termgoals, but I do focus on what is
this next year going to looklike?
What is this next three yearsgoing to look like?
I do a five-year and then a10-year, maybe a 20-year, but
more importantly, a lot of mystuff is wrapped up into the
short term.
So I'll say you know, here'severything I want to accomplish
(30:49):
this year, here's everything Iwant to accomplish in the next
three years.
That is really my focus.
It was interesting to me as youwere explaining some things just
while we were camping and you,your outlook was a little bit
more long-term on five years and10 years.
(31:10):
So the way you spoke about yourexpansion plans and certain
things that you want to do, itreally dragged it out to that
five and 10-year mark where Ifelt like I'm focused more
short-term.
I just kind of want to knowwhat your thoughts are.
I mean, obviously you've got tokind of forecast, I think for
me it's my shorter, maybe,attention span.
Right, I focus on this year,this year, this year.
(31:31):
But I think there is value onsaying, hey, it's going to take
five years to get here, to besuccessful in this location, and
it's okay, it's going to taketime.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, best advice I got was you know, restaurants
don't really kick off.
Some kick off right out thedoor.
Some take two years to build up.
So it's making sure that youhave your eye on what you want
to make sure is going to happenthere and making sure that
you're very consistent on theoperations and the service in
(32:04):
those stores in that short term.
The long-term plan that issomething that's really gotten
to me in the past maybe probablyfour years.
I used to be very all right,how fast can I get this open?
How fast can I get this open?
And because when you'rebuilding out a store or you're
building your business, or evenif you're concurrently working a
job, it's like you don't wantto jump the gun too fast.
(32:28):
So, yeah, I have my short-termgoals and I have my long-term
goals as well, but I mainly dofocus just on the short-term
right now, because you're notgoing to have a long-term goal
if the short ones aren't workingout.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
No, and I like that.
I think that that's it's supercool to think and it hit me as
we were just talking and I wasjust like, yeah, it's a
different way of looking at it.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I ask all my people that I'm interviewing because I
like to do all the interviewing,because I like to make sure I
know who's working with us and Iask everyone.
I'm not going to ask the hey,what do you see yourself doing
in five years.
I'm going to ask them hey, whatdo you want to do?
Where do you see?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
yourself in a year.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And we work with a lot of college students.
We work with a lot of peoplelike me that just didn't go to
college, and you know, I want tomake sure that the people that
are working with us aremotivated too.
You know, if it's, I want toget a car, I want to get a house
, I want to get.
You know, I want to finishcollege, I want to go into my
field where I'm studying.
So that's a big thing with me,of where do you?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
what are we doing in a year?
What would you say to and I'mjust thinking about this as
you're talking because obviouslywe're both in California, we
know it there's been some,there's been some changes with
like minimum wage and thingslike that in the industry and a
lot of restaurants dealing witha little bit more of harder
times right now.
How has that hit you and howhave you been able to adapt to
(33:56):
that changing market?
And specifically, I ask thisquestion because I talked about
this on another episode of beingable to pivot and change in an
ever-changing market to makeyour business succeed.
So we're seeing 99-cent storescloses, we're seeing restaurants
close.
How do you adapt to that changeand survive?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I don't like to do it , but we have to.
We have to.
We got to raise prices and youneed to make sure that the price
matches the service and thequality of what you're serving.
The market will speak foritself.
If you're not playing by thoserules.
I would say that is the bestanswer I could probably give on
(34:39):
that.
Okay, it's tricky, especiallyin the last year or two.
We're in this uncharteredterritory right now, so we're
all monitoring as best as we can, but at the end of the day,
we're there to make.
We're a business, we're thereto make money and you know if a
business is not profitable, it'sgoing to close.
(34:59):
That's why you go into businessand you got to make sure that
you're doing it responsibly.
And by that, offset topic ofthat is you are making sure that
you are looking at every numberin your business.
You should know how much you'respending on insurance.
You should know how much theelectric bill is.
You should know how every penny, you should be able to account
for it.
And if you don't, I wouldhighly recommend that you hit
(35:22):
your books, hit your P&Ls and ifyou don't know it all
completely, take the time andlearn it, because I mean, that
is the lifeblood of yourbusiness.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, know your ins and outs of business.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it is your numbers, so you got to know that
.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
All right, one more question before we wrap it up
for today, and this is importantas, like, you go out, you drive
down the street, you seethere's a ton of restaurants,
there's a ton of restaurants tochoose from, and you want to
stand out in a crowded market,right?
How do you leverage that andstand out in front of?
(36:01):
I mean, you're in a busy space,so how do you stand out in a
crowded market?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
How do you stand out in a crowded market?
Well then, you just have tomarket the way that other people
aren't marketing.
You need to go send people.
You know we're looking for.
Marketing.
Online's great, that's fine,but it costs nothing to get some
coupons printed out and gograssroots, go ground pound and
go pass out.
Hey, have you been to my place?
No, I haven't.
(36:27):
All right, come in, here's your, your, your yeah no that.
Get them in, get them in forfree at once, uh, and then show
them what you're all about, andthen you got a customer right
there.
I mean, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
It's interesting you say ground pound with you know
how much does it cost to throwout a flyer.
And this is something that,when you look back at even this
digital market age we're in, ishow successful that can be in
every business.
I mean it applies to yourbusiness, it applies to my
business Getting out, rollingyour sleeves up and making that
phone ring or getting customersin that door.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Because if you're just sitting there doing nothing
, you're saying well, it's slow,you have time, then Go out
there and do it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's like if you've got time to lean, you've got
time to clean.
If you've got time to lean, goout and market your butt off.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I'm not going to sit here and go, oh yeah,
everything's great.
But in the beginning I worked50, 60, 70 hours, just like
every starting business does.
I've done it and I don't haveto do that anymore.
There are still weeks I have todo that, you know, before a
grand opening coming up, or youknow, sometimes some weeks are
just chaotic and you have to doit, but consistently.
(37:37):
You know that's how I kind ofdo.
My work-life balance is I'm notalways just working, but if
it's light in your store, I liketo say slow, but if it's light
in your store, um, uh, go, go,go get the customers.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Now you got let's, let's, let's do a little
forecast.
You got a ton of employees,you've got four locations.
You're looking to grow.
You're on the up and up Um,let's just say, a slow next week
.
And you got to go take outflyers.
Go take out flyers.
Are you going out and takingout flyers?
I'll go take them out.
Look at that.
I want everybody listening toknow how important that is.
Nothing is below us owning abusiness.
You need to be resilient, butyou need to be down to do
(38:15):
whatever it takes to make thephone ring, and I think that
that is important.
I cleaned the toilet last weekand I literally clean my
bathrooms.
If they're not done, I cleanthem.
Yeah, and I clean.
I jump up and I clean the HVACsystems yeah.
Nothing is below being inbusiness and making sure your
business is successful.
So, no, I think that I think wehad some good answers to the
(38:36):
questions.
I appreciate you jumping.
Hopefully they weren't too hardfor you.
It's pretty easy, guys.
I just I'm really thankful thatMatthew could be here, so thank
you for taking the time out.
It's been kind of a tight time.
He's come back to his hometownand we have done nothing but eat
.
Yeah, I have all the restaurantsI want to go to.
(38:57):
We've gotten all theserestaurants and we're actually
on the way to a friend'sbarbecue right now to continue
eating.
So just being able to get inhere and jam this episode down,
it was something I was reallylooking forward to.
So I appreciate you being here.
Well, thank you for having meon.
I appreciate it.
All right, guys, I want to sayshout out to you for listening.
If you've found yourself at theend of this podcast, I really
(39:19):
appreciate you listening throughthe episode.
I thank you for the feedbackthat I'm getting seeing the text
messages come through.
I love the feedback that I'mgetting Seeing the text messages
come through.
I love the feedback that I'mhearing on the show.
You know, it's really my goal toput something together for
other business owners tounderstand and know.
You're not alone in business.
So many business owners gothrough the exact same things
(39:41):
and my job with this podcast isjust to break that down.
If you've got a question, sendus a text message, throw us a
comment in the comment section,do a thumbs up on the video.
All of that is going to helpthese videos continue to go and
this podcast continue to go.
So um shouts out to you.
Thank you so much.
Um, I'm closing up.
I'm going to sign off.
(40:01):
You want to say anything?
No, thank you for having me onGet a good real estate attorney.
Get a good real estate attorney.
That's my voice.
Get a good CPA.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
That's mine, All right guys.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of
the Business Guide.
No-transcript.
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Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.