January 8, 2025 • 43 mins
Restaraunteur and Entrepreneur, Adrian DeLeon (owner of La Margarita and real estate ventures) discussess the essential elements of creating and running a successful business.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Success is not an accident. Change your choices, change your life.
(00:30):
Welcome to another in our Young Successful Entrepreneur series. Today
my guest is restauranteur and entrepreneur Adrian de Leon, owner
of the restaurant La Margarita.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hello, and welcome to the Journey, your radio show hosted
by Nevill d Angelou, author of a sound bite Life
and Flight of the Fused Monkeys, a PRG Emerging Technologies Forum,
keynote speaker and founder of Rio Sports. I am Joseph Ellison.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Enjoy I am Neville. Now, many people are enamored by
the idea of owning their own business, being their own boss,
changing the landscape, establishing a legacy. But beyond the dream,
(01:42):
beyond the motivation, what is the nitty gritty? How does
one get there? How do you succeed? That is one
of the questions we're exploring, and for this season's Young
success Full Entrepreneurs series, I've invited young businessmen and entrepreneurs
(02:06):
who are in the midst of accomplishing exactly that. Today
we have the pleasure of mister Adrian de Leon, who
has agreed to share his expertise with us. I'm sitting
at his stable and am immediately oppressed by the books
(02:27):
that are spread around him. A few of them are open,
and he has agreed to let me share the titles
of those with you. It's quite a revealing lot. Success
is not an accident. Change your choices, change your life.
(02:48):
The Purple Cow Free Prize inside good to great. Why
some companies make the leap and others don't? Culture of honor,
keep your love on. Well, let's get down to the nittigritty.
(03:18):
What brought you into the restaurant business.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, for me, it was really life circumstances. You know,
growing up in a Latin culture there typically the headship
always wants to typically, you know, find a better way,
better opportunity, and for me and my family, at least
(03:42):
for my father's family. You know, he had the dream
or the idea that he wanted to open up a restaurant,
and so he worked in that industry for many years,
and in nineteen ninety he had finally, you know, I
would say, put together enough money to start that opportunity.
And so originally it was my father, my brother and
(04:04):
I when we opened up La Margherita in nineteen ninety
in Irving, and I was approximately fourteen fourteen, fifteen years old.
You know, my brother was about two I think he's
two and a half to three years older than me,
and then my father, and so that was really the
initial start of what I would call the restaurant and
(04:25):
the journey of an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
What most most folks at fourteen or a teenager, especially
if it's a second or third tend to go away
from the business of their father. Why did you stay
with it?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, that's probably so. And again, much like life circumstances
that I was not really afforded that opportunity, not from
the standpoint of I wasn't given a choice. But when
we started that restaurant, you know, there is the want
to to help out, and that was that ran its
(05:02):
course for about six months. But shortly after that, my
dad became ill and so he I'm not sure what
the proper terminology is, right, but he developed cancer, and
so within cancer comes treatments, so right, and so you
know that carries a weight physically, and so me and
(05:23):
my brother had to really step up and help out more.
And so the battle of cancer, we know that it
generally is not quick, and it's long and arduous at times,
and so it was that for him as well. It
was not quick. It was met with some success, it
was also met with some failure. And so over the
(05:46):
course of the next five years, you know, he had cancer,
you know, would go into remission after you know, certain
bouts of treatment, only for it to come back again.
And in the end, in ninety five, after about a
five year battle off and on, he succumbed to it.
So so for me, at fourteen, fifteen whatever, you know,
(06:11):
it was necessity that for me to step in and
help out more than a normal fourteen or fifteene old
would probably want to write. So for me, you know,
at that time, high school it was pretty much you know,
I had two jobs. Right, high school is one job
and then you go to to your other job, which
was the family business. And for me, there was really
(06:32):
no extracurricular activities, right, no band. Right, he didn't go
to any high school football games. Right during the fall,
every high school kid is there at the football game.
That's where thought was at. Right, didn't go to one
high school football game, not one, you know, my entire
four years there. So you know, I think I barely
(06:52):
decided to go to prom, you know, you know, so
so yeah, that was just kind of it was for me.
I would call it a very much a survival period.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
So do you see did you see yourself as a
learner during that or were you just a worker? Did
you see yourself?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Well, you would not. You were not going to be
around my dad and not learn. Yeah, he was good.
If you were going to be there working, you made
he made sure that you were going to learn. So
so yeah, I would very much say it was very
much a learning process as well.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
La Margherita, Why why that name?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Tell us about the restaurant? Right? Well, most people think, oh,
the drink, drink, right, and again that that that is
very typical of just the American culture. Really, what it
is is is actually the name of a flower in Mexico.
And it is also a very typical flower that is
(07:53):
thrown out from in novels, you know, where you have
the you know, the damsel that is high up, you know,
and you have the man comes courting her, you know,
she meets with his approval, then she throws him the flower, right, right,
So that's ultimately what it is is actually the name
of a flower similar to a sunflower, is what you
(08:17):
would say, It would be similar to that so so
that's what that name means.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
But why did he chose He chose the name.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yes, he chose the name. Well I think it well,
it sounded good right in his mind. It sounded good.
It was reminiscent. He was probably a bit of a romantic,
is what I would say. And you know, I think
those were probably the predominant factors, and it was just
something that was catchy at the time. We felt like, hey,
(08:45):
that that would be a good name for a for
a Mexican restaurant. Because again we're going back, you know,
over over twenty years, and so you the Hispanic or
Mexican influence was not as heavy you have always had
that here. But we felt it was a name that
Anglos would be able to pronounce easily, versus taking some
(09:10):
very indigenous name with Aztec influence.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
You know, tell some of the food then the food.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Well, it has been an evolution. It originally started as
text mechs your very basic enchiladas, tacos infiheitas with a
little bit of what I would call modern Mexican. So
we would take interior plates, interior dishes and prepare them
(09:39):
in with a new twist, a modern vision, new plate
presentation and our food has evolved over time. We've been
open twenty eight years, twenty nine years now to where
we still sell quite a bit of what I would
call Texmexha. Right, your enchiladas, your tacos, in your fijiitas.
(10:00):
You will probably not survive in Texas without serving Texas.
I mean you just won't. But now our Menumix has
has gone a lot more to be creative what we
would call modern Mexican. And again we take interior dishes
or dishes that we find when we travel, and we
(10:21):
look at them through a new lens, whether it's a
modern presentation, modern flavors, modern coloring, modern plating. And so
that's kind of what we do now that probably drives
about fifty percent of our business.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Now, I'll be right back with mister de Leone. You
can find le Margharita the restaurant. That's two nine at
two two North Beltline Road, Irving, Texas. The telephone number
is ninety seven to two five zero zero one one
(10:58):
three seven. That is nine seven two five seven zero
one one three seven the Margherita. Here's a quote from
(11:21):
Tommy Newberry. The author of success is not an accident.
Change your chances change your life. He said, before you
can have, you must do, but before you can do,
you must first become. Before you can have, you must do,
(11:44):
but before you can do, you must first become. I'm
back with mister de leon Adrian. Most every business endeavor
go through certain transitions that require particular skill sets. Did
you have to deal with any particular major transitions?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So we basically operated the restaurant as a family me,
myself and brother and my father from ninety to about
ninety five, and again in ninety five. You know, we
talked about how he had developed cancer off and on,
and at the time it was intermission, and we made
(12:28):
two strategic decisions. Number One, we made the decision to
move the restaurant that we had just a few blocks.
We wanted to get a better visibility, a bigger location,
and so we started undertaking that process of moving it.
And so part of that process was basically signing a
lease at the new location and then beginning to do
(12:51):
the construction work to get it ready. Then we also
decided that well, we're also ready to expand, and so
we opened up a second unit out in Arlington. And
so while all this was going on, you know, we
get the news that oh, he has cancer again and
this time it was much more aggressive, and that he
(13:13):
had developed a brain tumor. So at nineteen twenty I
was starting you know, I had graduated, but college was
not really going to be in the vicinity for me.
You just weren't going to I just wasn't gonna have
the time. So at nineteen to twenty I started running
the unit that we currently had and the move that
(13:34):
we did, and then my brother went to go run
the other unit that we had launched in Arlington, and
so we operated that unit in Arlington. So we we
opened the second unit the first unit again, the unit
that we moved had opened in August of ninety five,
and that process was basically shutting down the one location
(13:57):
that we had really on a and then opening on Monday,
right right at you know, a couple of blocks down.
And so you have to remember, right this was also
very much pre internet, so it was pretty much starting
all over again. And luckily we had gotten the word
out a bit that we were moving, so we had
some customers that followed, and Irving was a small town,
so we did have people that followed us. But again
(14:20):
it was very much a process of starting over. So
in ninety August of ninety five we started running. I
started running the unit nerving, and then my brother went
to go run the unit that was in Arlington that
we had also opened in August of ninety five. And
that month, about the middle of that month was when
my dad ended up passing away, And so it was
(14:41):
really just me and my brother operating those two units,
and we had some family that came into help out,
and we ran or walked that journey for you know,
quite some time, and in about I want to say,
about a year and a half to two years later,
we ended up closing the unit in Arlington, and my
(15:04):
brother came back to work at the unit in Irving
and we both worked together for some time.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
What precipitates did you close in the one in Arlington.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Well, lots of things. Number One we had taken out, well,
we did not, but my father had taken out a
small SBA loan to renovate the place. So having some
debt on the business creates a different cost structure. So
it wasn't really generating enough revenue to cover its its
(15:33):
cost structure on a consistent basis. It would a couple
of months. The next month, it wouldn't right. So it
was pretty erratic and we did not feel that long
term in that location. Some decisions were made by the
city that changed the zoning that ultimately told us, you
know what, long term, this is not going to be
a good avenue to be on. And it actually turned
(15:56):
very quickly within the next within the months of the
city doing that rezoning. Within a couple of months, I mean,
businesses were leaving and relocating and so we probably could
have weathered the storm and for it to return, but
it just wasn't a road that we were willing to travel.
And then again, it was just it was a lot
(16:17):
to deal with. Really, You've got a new business that
you've launched. You know, you've got dead on it. You've
got the patriarch of the family dies. You've got this
other unit as well that is starting all over again.
So imagine trying to open two businesses at the same time,
geographically different markets, you know, on a shoe string. A
lot of stress, a lot of stress.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
So yeah, now you guys concentrated on the irving. How
did you make it successful.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
One plate at a time?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah, I mean I think that's if you look.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Now we have, like we've been in business twenty eight
to twenty nine years, and we have customers that their
kids have now had kids, right, and so we've got
a customer base that we've really built over time. Right,
there's no beendo. It was a very slow incubation process.
So the reality is we showed up every day and
(17:19):
we were there shaking hands, putting out a good product.
And you know, through the years, we have always gotten
out into the community, attended chambers in any kind of events.
We would make the effort to show up and you know,
to greet people and make sure people let people know
(17:40):
that we were there. But that's ultimately how it became successful. Right.
Nothing was overnight, you know, I think it it took
about five to six years from ninety five until before
we hit like a million in revenue, and now we're
just under We average about two million a year.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Now, at what point did you see yourself as a
business matter? You know, you're growing through the business as.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Well, right, So in so that kind of opens up
another story. So in about two thousand and five, the
business was doing pretty well and I wanted to open
up another restaurant. I wanted to grow, whereas my brother,
you know, wasn't really on board with that, or at
(18:25):
least you know, it was going to be difficult for us,
for us to do that together. And so at that
point I made a decision. I was like, you know what,
I don't think that together that we're probably best suited
to work together to build a new business. It's one
thing to do it out of survival, but when you're
trying to do that after no longer surviving and now
(18:48):
you're in a growth phase, then that's a different story.
And so ultimately we just weren't able to work together,
and I saw that it wasn't going to happen. So
at that point I decided to go do something different.
And so I actually had I always enjoyed finance and investments,
and I got an opportunity. I had a friend that
worked at Merrill Lynch and so I joined them for
(19:08):
about five and a half years and so worked on
the retail side and on the institutional side. So that
was an opportunity that I took. And in two thousand
and eleven a window opened for me to come back
to La Margarita. So if we remember from two thousand
(19:29):
and five till twentyd and ten, we had probably two
of the worst what I would call recessions that we've seen, right,
we had we had the real estate crisis, and then
we had the financial crisis. Well during that time, my
brother took a risk and he went out and opened
up a restaurant. Well, you know, without getting into too
(19:54):
much specifics, essentially it didn't pan out. It performed very well,
right once someone and whatnot. But you know, it's just
very difficult to open in the middle of re session,
particularly when it's the greatest one that we've seen quite sometime, right,
And so we opened in you know, you have leases
signed and contracts are executed. So I think they opened
(20:15):
in two thousand and nine. By the end of twenty ten,
I mean by the beginning of twenty ten, it was
over and so you know, it had quite a bit.
So the existing restaurant, the original La Margharita, you know,
shouldered a lot of the debt that was used to
start this second location, and it was it proved to
(20:36):
be crippling. And in twenty I guess it was twenty eleven, ten,
twenty eleven, it was just hobbling along. You know. The
idea had been floated that they were going to close
it or just turn it over to the banks, and
at that point I kind of saw an opportunity. I said,
you know what, I initially I wanted to go back
(20:57):
and say, you know what, let me go back and
help out see how I can. And so I went
back and decided, well, let's see what we can do.
And during that process, you know, I think my brother
decided ultimately he didn't really want to continue down this path, right,
He'd always kind of he'd already had a bad taste
in his mouth from when my father passed away and
(21:18):
we had to close that one unit and then ultimately
to have it happen again. He decided, you know what,
he didn't want anything to do with it. And so
I kind of made the decision that, look, if you're
gonna leave, then I'm gonna take over and you know,
and I'll you know, pay off what needs to be
paid off. And they agreed. So at that point, you know,
I was probably you know, either blindly optimistic or very
(21:41):
foolish because I didn't know how bad the situation was
until I really got there, and I thought, oh my gosh,
you know, we were probably bleeding, you know, four thousand
dollars a month in cash, which is a lot for
a small restaurant. And over the course of probably the
next six to eight months, you know, I just pinched
pennies and robbed Peter to pay Paul, and for about
six to eight months, six eight months, we started just
(22:03):
breaking even. And at that point I was like, okay,
now we needed to start growing revenue because sales were
starting to decline. So made some small changes again, just
started showing up day by day, shaking hands, greeting people,
getting back out in the community. We launched a catering
arm that really ended up propelling us into profitability again.
(22:26):
And over the course of the next five to six years,
close to doubled sales, increased our profit margins, and we're
really able to retire a lot of that debt. So
that was and again, right, had you told me, hey,
that's my plan coming in, I would have told you, no,
that was not my plan. Right, But it suited the
skill set that I had.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
So well you kind of anticipated me because I was
saying at the time you were bleeding, what kept you going? What?
Why didn't you stop sooner? Did you see a path
ahead of you or were you just tell me about that.
What about you that kept you in that time?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Well, I would have to say there there probably was
at least a belief that, okay, I could turn this around. Now,
let me just say this. It wasn't on anything that
I saw, right, It wasn't anything that I saw there
that said okay, yeah, I can do this. It was
really a matter of I jumped in and I'm like,
(23:24):
oh my gosh, I didn't know was this bad? Okay,
let's figure out a way to make it work. And
so really just started, you know, going to one vendor,
then into another, and to another, and it just got
creative with how I paid them, when I paid them,
and then ultimately started finding out a way, Hey where
can I cut costs? Hey I cut costs here, and
let me do it in such a way where the
(23:46):
customer base is not affected, and was able to do
that over the course of the next couple months.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Really, was it experience that gives you gave you that
or were you figuring it out as you go or
were you learning it?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah, a lot of it was.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
You know, there was a mix. I couldn't tell you
what the percentages are, right. Some of it was was
certainly an experience. A lot of it was stuff that
I had learned at my time away when I was
at Meryll Ninch Working Ways. So yeah, so some of
it came from there, you know, maybe forty percent, you know,
another thirty percent was well, I already.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Know what to do.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I've kind of done this before, and then some of
it was really just taking a risk and saying, you know,
I don't know if I can do this, but let
me see if I get away with it. So yeah,
that's where a lot of that came from.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Okay, I'll be right back with the day.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
If you are a new entrepreneur and you're looking for
some tips, you're welcome to visit us at www dot
ryosports dot com, slash entrepreneurs dot.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Each m L.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I repeat that, that is www dot ryosports dot com,
slash entrepreneurs dot HTNL. I am back with mister de Leon.
(25:26):
The story you've shared with us so far as a
passionate one of running a family business.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
However, we often hear.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
The claim that most restaurants fail. Is that true?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, I think you know, there's some truth in that,
but there's also a lot of misconception. You know, one
of the things that I always say is whenever I
meet somebody and they asked me what do I do,
and I'll let them know, they always say two things.
Oh well a restaurant is that's a very hard business,
(26:03):
you know. Or they'll say, oh wow, there's really a
lot of a lot of restaurants fail, you know. Yet
when I dig deeper and someone asked me that generally
it comes from somebody who's never worked in the restaurant industry.
But it's just a regurgitated statement that they heard and
they believed it to be true, and so it is
in their mind. Well, the reality is I always tell them, well,
(26:23):
what business is easy? Right, because if it's easy, you're
probably not making any money at it, right. I mean,
that's just a matter of fact, you know. And as
far as restaurants closing all the time, I would say
that there, well maybe maybe not. I mean, look at
how many restaurants are out there, right, There's tons of
them out there that haven't closed, right, But there are
many businesses that do open by people who want to
(26:47):
be They want to open up a business, they want
to open up a small business, and it's easy to
do it in a restaurant because there are low barriers
to entry. You don't need a special knowledge. Right, you
can go high line cook and you know, say, hey,
we're just gonna serve breakfast, right, and you can do
that very easily. But the problem is a lot of
people who start down that road don't understand. Number one,
(27:09):
they don't understand the cost structure. And number two, they
probably aren't willing to get dirty and do what it's
gonna take to make it take off, to make it survive, right,
to make it survive, then to make it thrive, it
takes a lot. And most people, right, if they're trying
(27:30):
to do that from what I would call the CEO position,
I mean, forget it, right, it's just not gonna happen. Right,
You're gonna have to get your hands dirty, and so
you're probably gonna find That's probably what has happened with
a lot of people that have opened up a restaurant
and then they close it, right, and then they never
do it again. And that's how you know, right, they
tried it once, Oh I'll never do that again. Well,
then you never really liked it to begin with, right,
(27:52):
I mean right, but look at someplace like take a
national brand like an on the Border or an All
of Garden or whatever. Right, those places, they have lots
of resources, right, and they go out and they open
up restaurants and sometimes right more not than it does. Right,
but they may you know, stub their toe and they
have to close a unit. Well, they don't close every
(28:14):
single unit exat Well, we'll never do that again. Right now,
they say, this is the business that we're in, this
is what we're dedicated to. So you know, what we
chose wrong, we'll learn from our mistakes and we'll do
it again. And so again, part of owning a restaurant
is that while there are low barriers chantry, you know,
it is very capital intensive. So if you're going to
(28:35):
start down that road, right, you're gonna have to if
you're not thriving right away, then you're going to have
to learn to cut costs, which means you're gonna have
to shoulder some of the work. And some people aren't
willing to do that, right, I mean they're wanting to
maybe maintain some other job that they have and somebody
else run this one. And oh it's passive income. Well,
nothing is passive. There's no income that's passive.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Now assuming they have the capital of the may just
skill sets.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You say at the beginner, we need to have to
you know what, I never would have thought thought this, right,
But the fact of the matter is your biggest challenge.
I think in any service business will not be your customers.
It's going to be managing your staff right, right, because
everybody has different personalities or different goals, different schedules, you know,
(29:24):
and just a different makeup, and you're going to have
to learn to remember when you have to learn to
deal with that. But you're also if you have a restaurant, right,
any sort of a business, you're going to have to
enlist them on your vision, right and not their own.
And some of them will join that vision, but some
of them will join that. Some of them will join
(29:44):
that vision because they believe in your vision. Some of
them will join that vision because hey, it's kind of
on the road to my vision. So I'll stay on
there while until my vision is coming into fulfillment and
then I'll bail. So people will join you for all
sorts of reas, but if you need to be able
to get them on the bus, So I would say,
learning to manage people, and you know, and again I
(30:07):
don't want to say manage, right, that's a bad that's
not a good word. But you really need to learn
how to interact with people and get them to buy in.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
But ultimately you getting them to buy And doesn't that
start with you bringing in the bringing them into the company.
Why would you bring them in and then discover that
they're well?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Because right, because you have to remember, right, you always
see the other person's best side right when it's come
come interview with time. Right, they're gonna show up on time,
you know, if you're lucky, right, they're showing up late,
you know, dishoveled or drunk, and you're seeing all that
right away, which case o great, Hey you're definitely not
someone I need. Right, But more often than not, right,
(30:49):
they've cleaned up, right, they're showing up on time, and
you're seeing their best side right, right, And so they're
certainly not going to tell you, Hey, you know what,
I'm probably gonna call in say, at least once a week,
I'm not going to be able to show up late.
You know, I'm gonna ask you for an advance, and
you know, I'm probably gonna need you to bail me
out of jail.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At once every three months, right, right, that just doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you know. Just and I think
what's interesting is how some people like just expect you
or you know, are hoping that you are going to
take on their problems, right. And I've seen some business
owners do that where hey, I've got this way or
I gotta go bail.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I'm like, are you serious?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Leave them there, let them learn, right, it's not your responsibility,
you know. So so yeah, it's really about just learning
to manage people's behavior again just en listen them into
your vision and getting them to buy in right on
a daily basis, right because they forget right because because
a lot of times between fulfillment and the start, right,
(31:49):
there's a lot that has to have a lot of time, right,
a lot of a lot of groundwork has to go in.
You know, rarely does a company go from zero to
one hundred million overnight, right, It takes years.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
So, well, you're not only a restaurant tour you are
an entrepreneur or what's the difference.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well, I think being an entrepreneur is really I talk
it as your ability to generate revenue, whether it's specific
to the restaurant industry or branching out and finding other
ways other avenues to develop revenue. While we have the restaurant,
we've also developed a catering business that services primarily a
(32:31):
lot of corporate companies. For myself, I've also done some
real estate that allows me to generate revenue, as well
as doing consulting on the small business retail side. And
so those are avenues that I've also pursued that have
allowed me to generate other revenue but also provide some diversification.
Because you never know what could happen in any one
(32:51):
of your industries. So as far as you know, how
would I would differentiate that within I would call it.
You know, you know you can be a very good
business owner of one type. You know, for some reason
I have, I feel like I understand several basics that
transcend across all spectrums of business, and for whatever reason,
(33:15):
those have just come very naturally to me. So I
can walk into any business and see or if it's
in dire shapes, to be able to turn it around.
If we need business growth, some dysfunctional teams, I've been
able to walk in and turn those around and identify
what changes need to be in place. And made to
(33:37):
make it an ongoing successful business.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
And which aspects of you do you find more appealing
to where you are in your life now running a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Or you know.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
The thing about the restaurant is that you have to understand, right,
it is very much home for me, right, I mean right,
A lot of time has been passed there, a lot
of birthdays, right, we're celebrated there. Right Again, right, I
mentioned like I wasn't didn't go didn't go to one
high school football game on a Friday or Saturday night. Right,
(34:13):
So it's just it's more comfortable for me to be there.
And again right, true success comes out of your comfort zone.
So it's comfortable to be there, but it's important to
me that I just don't stay there, right, So that's
why I've kind of developed other channels for me to
funnel creativity but also to try to experience growth.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So as a businessman, ha, do do you keep those
as separate entities?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah? They're all separate entities, Yeah, absolutely, And you have
to remember that ultimately one ultimately ends up providing the
funding for all the others. So you know, if I
didn't have the restaurant, right, catering business probably wouldn't have started, right,
that probably would not allowed us to develop a real
estate arm. You know, if you don't have successes in
those three, then how can you really consult?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Right, So.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
For a new you gave me a very it'steresting definition
of or of an entrepreneur or those who think they're
entrepreneur's business tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Well, you know, I mentioned earlier that there's there's a
term called entrepreneur where people want to start a business
and they may even undertake it, but it just doesn't happen,
it doesn't materialize. And so we all have personalities, right,
and but some people the question is if you start
(35:39):
a business, do you stay mired down in the details? Right?
That ends up being much more what I would call
a lab an engineer or a technician, in which case
their personality doesn't really lend itself to being an entrepreneur, right,
because you have to because they tend to stay in
a refinement. Well, let's continue to make this better and better.
And the reality is this pro fit ability is the well,
(36:01):
perfection is the nimitty of profitability. So you need to say, hey,
let's get it good and let's hand it off and
let's move on to the next project. So that's what
I would call, like, you know, one of the other iterations,
right of being an entrepreneur, there's an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
And so yeah, if you were to give a young
man who has the capital or who has a desire,
who wants to be an entrepreneur, what would be.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The you know, I think the first thing is they
really do need to have a well rounded knowledge of
business basics, right, I mean, you need to have some
sort of business formal training understanding. You know, again you
don't need to be an accountant, but you need to
understand that if you don't have any money.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
You can't spend it, right, right.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So so those are some what I would call fundamental
business basics. The second thing is in any given business venture,
you really need to know the avenue that you're pursuing, right.
If it's if you're planning to open up a restaurant,
then you need to go work in a restaurant, and
you know, you should probably do it for a couple
of years, right because and learn to manage one and
(37:14):
do it profitably, right and preferably if you you know,
and if you can do that in a franchise, then
you know, hey, that's great, learn from them, right, But
if you can do it from a small business, then
you probably learn a lot more and you probably learn
a lot of mistakes that you know that you say, hey,
I'm not going to do that. But because you know,
you've always heard the expression, oh he got lucky, he
(37:35):
got lucky. Well, we all know, right luck that the
definition of luck is where preparation and opportunity meet.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Well, only when you're prepared, do you know what opportunity
looks like? Right, Because there are many other fields. Right
in medicine, I would not have any idea what opportunity
looks like, But someone who has prepared in medicine will
know what opportunity looks like. Right. And you know, for me, like,
I've done enough in real estate and the business side
(38:05):
where I can look and I can say, you know what,
I know what opportunity in that field looks like.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I think before you give us more, I just want
to emphasize how beautiful I think that is that you
made that point that preparation allows you to recognize opportunities,
or opportunities would be swirling all around you all the
time and you wouldn't even know that it's there.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, exactly, love it.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
Yeah yeah, no, I mean that was just kind of
you know, I think that's kind of all I have
on that particular Okay, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, but no, you know, those are two things that
I mentioned that you need to have. Is, you know,
if you can have a basic business background, you need
to have expertise in in the field that you're going
to go in. Right, if you're going to go launch
a business, you need to go learn from a business owner.
(38:58):
And I'm going to add two more things. If you
can surround yourself with other business owners. Right, there are
several organizations affinity groups that you can join that you
can learn from them and that they can because that's
going to be your new textbook as you go forward,
and as you operate a business, you're going to run
across problems that you don't know how to solve. And
(39:22):
chances are these the people that you surround yourself with.
I mean, and you need to surround yourself with entrepreneurs, right,
entrepreneurs that know what it's like to run a business,
to be short of capital, to have these headaches, because
they will be able to give you expertise that they've
kind of gone through. It might not be the same
as yours, but they're going to tell you their experience
(39:43):
and you're going to need that support. You're going to
need that sounding board.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
So, if you can surround yourself with an affinity group
of that nature, right, whether it's if you're in a restaurant, right,
if you can surround yourself with you know, a local
restaurant group, or if it's just an entrepreneur group, you know,
ones that can help you, that's gonna be key. And
the fourth thing I always say, again dealing with people,
if you can get a psychology degree, you know whereas
(40:10):
I'm joking on that one, but just understand, right, if
you could pick up a few books, right and just
read and understand the human dynamic, that always helps.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
So wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I'll be right back when I return, I will play
a game with mister dinlong. Those of you who have
been a long time on the journey with us may
remember as playing frequently for those of you in the
(40:43):
neighborhood or traveling through the neighborhood. Just to reminder that
La Margherita the restaurant is located at two nine to
two North Belfline Road, Irving, Texas. The telephone number is
ninety seven to two five seven zero one one three seven,
(41:04):
and they do catering La Margharita two nine two two
North Beltline Road, Irving, Texas. Telephone number nine seven two
five seven zero one one three seven. Okay, mister de leon,
(41:27):
let's play the game. It's called three hands. The Sage
did's a very wise and prophetic thing that warrants heeding.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
Every one, every one living long long enough will slip
and before.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Into a deep, into a deep, all.
Speaker 7 (41:58):
Three hands will appear the hand of a hustler, the
hand of a riddler, and the hand.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Of a clown. Choose wild.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Or you or you will be bety be bellied there there?
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Which will you choose? Or will you stay in your hold?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
You've got a hustler, you said, a riddler, a riddler,
and a clown and a clown.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
You know what, I think I'm gonna have to take
the riddler. Why you know I would take the riddler
because that's a thinking man, and we're gonna need to
think to get out of the hole.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Right, you can't laugh your way out of a hole. Right,
you may laugh yourself that you're still gonna be in
the right. You never trust the hustler.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah, the Riddler's gonna be my man.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Okay, good good. Well, you know I appreciate that you
spend this month of your busy time to share with
our entrepreneurs and all our listeners. Thank you so much
for doing.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
That for us. Sure, no, absolutely glad to do it
all right.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
The Journey is available free on iTunes, blog, talk radio, rio,
sports radio, and several of your favorite internet platforms. Download
event and share why any of the social media you love.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
See you next week.
Success is not an accident. Change your choices, change your life.
(00:30):
Welcome to another in our Young Successful Entrepreneur series. Today
my guest is restauranteur and entrepreneur Adrian de Leon, owner
of the restaurant La Margarita.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hello, and welcome to the Journey, your radio show hosted
by Nevill d Angelou, author of a sound bite Life
and Flight of the Fused Monkeys, a PRG Emerging Technologies Forum,
keynote speaker and founder of Rio Sports. I am Joseph Ellison.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Enjoy I am Neville. Now, many people are enamored by
the idea of owning their own business, being their own boss,
changing the landscape, establishing a legacy. But beyond the dream,
(01:42):
beyond the motivation, what is the nitty gritty? How does
one get there? How do you succeed? That is one
of the questions we're exploring, and for this season's Young
success Full Entrepreneurs series, I've invited young businessmen and entrepreneurs
(02:06):
who are in the midst of accomplishing exactly that. Today
we have the pleasure of mister Adrian de Leon, who
has agreed to share his expertise with us. I'm sitting
at his stable and am immediately oppressed by the books
(02:27):
that are spread around him. A few of them are open,
and he has agreed to let me share the titles
of those with you. It's quite a revealing lot. Success
is not an accident. Change your choices, change your life.
(02:48):
The Purple Cow Free Prize inside good to great. Why
some companies make the leap and others don't? Culture of honor,
keep your love on. Well, let's get down to the nittigritty.
(03:18):
What brought you into the restaurant business.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, for me, it was really life circumstances. You know,
growing up in a Latin culture there typically the headship
always wants to typically, you know, find a better way,
better opportunity, and for me and my family, at least
(03:42):
for my father's family. You know, he had the dream
or the idea that he wanted to open up a restaurant,
and so he worked in that industry for many years,
and in nineteen ninety he had finally, you know, I
would say, put together enough money to start that opportunity.
And so originally it was my father, my brother and
(04:04):
I when we opened up La Margherita in nineteen ninety
in Irving, and I was approximately fourteen fourteen, fifteen years old.
You know, my brother was about two I think he's
two and a half to three years older than me,
and then my father, and so that was really the
initial start of what I would call the restaurant and
(04:25):
the journey of an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
What most most folks at fourteen or a teenager, especially
if it's a second or third tend to go away
from the business of their father. Why did you stay
with it?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, that's probably so. And again, much like life circumstances
that I was not really afforded that opportunity, not from
the standpoint of I wasn't given a choice. But when
we started that restaurant, you know, there is the want
to to help out, and that was that ran its
(05:02):
course for about six months. But shortly after that, my
dad became ill and so he I'm not sure what
the proper terminology is, right, but he developed cancer, and
so within cancer comes treatments, so right, and so you
know that carries a weight physically, and so me and
(05:23):
my brother had to really step up and help out more.
And so the battle of cancer, we know that it
generally is not quick, and it's long and arduous at times,
and so it was that for him as well. It
was not quick. It was met with some success, it
was also met with some failure. And so over the
(05:46):
course of the next five years, you know, he had cancer,
you know, would go into remission after you know, certain
bouts of treatment, only for it to come back again.
And in the end, in ninety five, after about a
five year battle off and on, he succumbed to it.
So so for me, at fourteen, fifteen whatever, you know,
(06:11):
it was necessity that for me to step in and
help out more than a normal fourteen or fifteene old
would probably want to write. So for me, you know,
at that time, high school it was pretty much you know,
I had two jobs. Right, high school is one job
and then you go to to your other job, which
was the family business. And for me, there was really
(06:32):
no extracurricular activities, right, no band. Right, he didn't go
to any high school football games. Right during the fall,
every high school kid is there at the football game.
That's where thought was at. Right, didn't go to one
high school football game, not one, you know, my entire
four years there. So you know, I think I barely
(06:52):
decided to go to prom, you know, you know, so
so yeah, that was just kind of it was for me.
I would call it a very much a survival period.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
So do you see did you see yourself as a
learner during that or were you just a worker? Did
you see yourself?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Well, you would not. You were not going to be
around my dad and not learn. Yeah, he was good.
If you were going to be there working, you made
he made sure that you were going to learn. So
so yeah, I would very much say it was very
much a learning process as well.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
La Margherita, Why why that name?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Tell us about the restaurant? Right? Well, most people think, oh,
the drink, drink, right, and again that that that is
very typical of just the American culture. Really, what it
is is is actually the name of a flower in Mexico.
And it is also a very typical flower that is
(07:53):
thrown out from in novels, you know, where you have
the you know, the damsel that is high up, you know,
and you have the man comes courting her, you know,
she meets with his approval, then she throws him the flower, right, right,
So that's ultimately what it is is actually the name
of a flower similar to a sunflower, is what you
(08:17):
would say, It would be similar to that so so
that's what that name means.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
But why did he chose He chose the name.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yes, he chose the name. Well I think it well,
it sounded good right in his mind. It sounded good.
It was reminiscent. He was probably a bit of a romantic,
is what I would say. And you know, I think
those were probably the predominant factors, and it was just
something that was catchy at the time. We felt like, hey,
(08:45):
that that would be a good name for a for
a Mexican restaurant. Because again we're going back, you know,
over over twenty years, and so you the Hispanic or
Mexican influence was not as heavy you have always had
that here. But we felt it was a name that
Anglos would be able to pronounce easily, versus taking some
(09:10):
very indigenous name with Aztec influence.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
You know, tell some of the food then the food.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Well, it has been an evolution. It originally started as
text mechs your very basic enchiladas, tacos infiheitas with a
little bit of what I would call modern Mexican. So
we would take interior plates, interior dishes and prepare them
(09:39):
in with a new twist, a modern vision, new plate
presentation and our food has evolved over time. We've been
open twenty eight years, twenty nine years now to where
we still sell quite a bit of what I would
call Texmexha. Right, your enchiladas, your tacos, in your fijiitas.
(10:00):
You will probably not survive in Texas without serving Texas.
I mean you just won't. But now our Menumix has
has gone a lot more to be creative what we
would call modern Mexican. And again we take interior dishes
or dishes that we find when we travel, and we
(10:21):
look at them through a new lens, whether it's a
modern presentation, modern flavors, modern coloring, modern plating. And so
that's kind of what we do now that probably drives
about fifty percent of our business.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Now, I'll be right back with mister de Leone. You
can find le Margharita the restaurant. That's two nine at
two two North Beltline Road, Irving, Texas. The telephone number
is ninety seven to two five zero zero one one
(10:58):
three seven. That is nine seven two five seven zero
one one three seven the Margherita. Here's a quote from
(11:21):
Tommy Newberry. The author of success is not an accident.
Change your chances change your life. He said, before you
can have, you must do, but before you can do,
you must first become. Before you can have, you must do,
(11:44):
but before you can do, you must first become. I'm
back with mister de leon Adrian. Most every business endeavor
go through certain transitions that require particular skill sets. Did
you have to deal with any particular major transitions?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So we basically operated the restaurant as a family me,
myself and brother and my father from ninety to about
ninety five, and again in ninety five. You know, we
talked about how he had developed cancer off and on,
and at the time it was intermission, and we made
(12:28):
two strategic decisions. Number One, we made the decision to
move the restaurant that we had just a few blocks.
We wanted to get a better visibility, a bigger location,
and so we started undertaking that process of moving it.
And so part of that process was basically signing a
lease at the new location and then beginning to do
(12:51):
the construction work to get it ready. Then we also
decided that well, we're also ready to expand, and so
we opened up a second unit out in Arlington. And
so while all this was going on, you know, we
get the news that oh, he has cancer again and
this time it was much more aggressive, and that he
(13:13):
had developed a brain tumor. So at nineteen twenty I
was starting you know, I had graduated, but college was
not really going to be in the vicinity for me.
You just weren't going to I just wasn't gonna have
the time. So at nineteen to twenty I started running
the unit that we currently had and the move that
(13:34):
we did, and then my brother went to go run
the other unit that we had launched in Arlington, and
so we operated that unit in Arlington. So we we
opened the second unit the first unit again, the unit
that we moved had opened in August of ninety five,
and that process was basically shutting down the one location
(13:57):
that we had really on a and then opening on Monday,
right right at you know, a couple of blocks down.
And so you have to remember, right this was also
very much pre internet, so it was pretty much starting
all over again. And luckily we had gotten the word
out a bit that we were moving, so we had
some customers that followed, and Irving was a small town,
so we did have people that followed us. But again
(14:20):
it was very much a process of starting over. So
in ninety August of ninety five we started running. I
started running the unit nerving, and then my brother went
to go run the unit that was in Arlington that
we had also opened in August of ninety five. And
that month, about the middle of that month was when
my dad ended up passing away, And so it was
(14:41):
really just me and my brother operating those two units,
and we had some family that came into help out,
and we ran or walked that journey for you know,
quite some time, and in about I want to say,
about a year and a half to two years later,
we ended up closing the unit in Arlington, and my
(15:04):
brother came back to work at the unit in Irving
and we both worked together for some time.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
What precipitates did you close in the one in Arlington.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Well, lots of things. Number One we had taken out, well,
we did not, but my father had taken out a
small SBA loan to renovate the place. So having some
debt on the business creates a different cost structure. So
it wasn't really generating enough revenue to cover its its
(15:33):
cost structure on a consistent basis. It would a couple
of months. The next month, it wouldn't right. So it
was pretty erratic and we did not feel that long
term in that location. Some decisions were made by the
city that changed the zoning that ultimately told us, you
know what, long term, this is not going to be
a good avenue to be on. And it actually turned
(15:56):
very quickly within the next within the months of the
city doing that rezoning. Within a couple of months, I mean,
businesses were leaving and relocating and so we probably could
have weathered the storm and for it to return, but
it just wasn't a road that we were willing to travel.
And then again, it was just it was a lot
(16:17):
to deal with. Really, You've got a new business that
you've launched. You know, you've got dead on it. You've
got the patriarch of the family dies. You've got this
other unit as well that is starting all over again.
So imagine trying to open two businesses at the same time,
geographically different markets, you know, on a shoe string. A
lot of stress, a lot of stress.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
So yeah, now you guys concentrated on the irving. How
did you make it successful.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
One plate at a time?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Yeah, I mean I think that's if you look.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Now we have, like we've been in business twenty eight
to twenty nine years, and we have customers that their
kids have now had kids, right, and so we've got
a customer base that we've really built over time. Right,
there's no beendo. It was a very slow incubation process.
So the reality is we showed up every day and
(17:19):
we were there shaking hands, putting out a good product.
And you know, through the years, we have always gotten
out into the community, attended chambers in any kind of events.
We would make the effort to show up and you know,
to greet people and make sure people let people know
(17:40):
that we were there. But that's ultimately how it became successful. Right.
Nothing was overnight, you know, I think it it took
about five to six years from ninety five until before
we hit like a million in revenue, and now we're
just under We average about two million a year.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Now, at what point did you see yourself as a
business matter? You know, you're growing through the business as.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Well, right, So in so that kind of opens up
another story. So in about two thousand and five, the
business was doing pretty well and I wanted to open
up another restaurant. I wanted to grow, whereas my brother,
you know, wasn't really on board with that, or at
(18:25):
least you know, it was going to be difficult for us,
for us to do that together. And so at that
point I made a decision. I was like, you know what,
I don't think that together that we're probably best suited
to work together to build a new business. It's one
thing to do it out of survival, but when you're
trying to do that after no longer surviving and now
(18:48):
you're in a growth phase, then that's a different story.
And so ultimately we just weren't able to work together,
and I saw that it wasn't going to happen. So
at that point I decided to go do something different.
And so I actually had I always enjoyed finance and investments,
and I got an opportunity. I had a friend that
worked at Merrill Lynch and so I joined them for
(19:08):
about five and a half years and so worked on
the retail side and on the institutional side. So that
was an opportunity that I took. And in two thousand
and eleven a window opened for me to come back
to La Margarita. So if we remember from two thousand
(19:29):
and five till twentyd and ten, we had probably two
of the worst what I would call recessions that we've seen, right,
we had we had the real estate crisis, and then
we had the financial crisis. Well during that time, my
brother took a risk and he went out and opened
up a restaurant. Well, you know, without getting into too
(19:54):
much specifics, essentially it didn't pan out. It performed very well,
right once someone and whatnot. But you know, it's just
very difficult to open in the middle of re session,
particularly when it's the greatest one that we've seen quite sometime, right,
And so we opened in you know, you have leases
signed and contracts are executed. So I think they opened
(20:15):
in two thousand and nine. By the end of twenty ten,
I mean by the beginning of twenty ten, it was
over and so you know, it had quite a bit.
So the existing restaurant, the original La Margharita, you know,
shouldered a lot of the debt that was used to
start this second location, and it was it proved to
(20:36):
be crippling. And in twenty I guess it was twenty eleven, ten,
twenty eleven, it was just hobbling along. You know. The
idea had been floated that they were going to close
it or just turn it over to the banks, and
at that point I kind of saw an opportunity. I said,
you know what, I initially I wanted to go back
(20:57):
and say, you know what, let me go back and
help out see how I can. And so I went
back and decided, well, let's see what we can do.
And during that process, you know, I think my brother
decided ultimately he didn't really want to continue down this path, right,
He'd always kind of he'd already had a bad taste
in his mouth from when my father passed away and
(21:18):
we had to close that one unit and then ultimately
to have it happen again. He decided, you know what,
he didn't want anything to do with it. And so
I kind of made the decision that, look, if you're
gonna leave, then I'm gonna take over and you know,
and I'll you know, pay off what needs to be
paid off. And they agreed. So at that point, you know,
I was probably you know, either blindly optimistic or very
(21:41):
foolish because I didn't know how bad the situation was
until I really got there, and I thought, oh my gosh,
you know, we were probably bleeding, you know, four thousand
dollars a month in cash, which is a lot for
a small restaurant. And over the course of probably the
next six to eight months, you know, I just pinched
pennies and robbed Peter to pay Paul, and for about
six to eight months, six eight months, we started just
(22:03):
breaking even. And at that point I was like, okay,
now we needed to start growing revenue because sales were
starting to decline. So made some small changes again, just
started showing up day by day, shaking hands, greeting people,
getting back out in the community. We launched a catering
arm that really ended up propelling us into profitability again.
(22:26):
And over the course of the next five to six years,
close to doubled sales, increased our profit margins, and we're
really able to retire a lot of that debt. So
that was and again, right, had you told me, hey,
that's my plan coming in, I would have told you, no,
that was not my plan. Right, But it suited the
skill set that I had.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
So well you kind of anticipated me because I was
saying at the time you were bleeding, what kept you going? What?
Why didn't you stop sooner? Did you see a path
ahead of you or were you just tell me about that.
What about you that kept you in that time?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Well, I would have to say there there probably was
at least a belief that, okay, I could turn this around. Now,
let me just say this. It wasn't on anything that
I saw, right, It wasn't anything that I saw there
that said okay, yeah, I can do this. It was
really a matter of I jumped in and I'm like,
(23:24):
oh my gosh, I didn't know was this bad? Okay,
let's figure out a way to make it work. And
so really just started, you know, going to one vendor,
then into another, and to another, and it just got
creative with how I paid them, when I paid them,
and then ultimately started finding out a way, Hey where
can I cut costs? Hey I cut costs here, and
let me do it in such a way where the
(23:46):
customer base is not affected, and was able to do
that over the course of the next couple months.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Really, was it experience that gives you gave you that
or were you figuring it out as you go or
were you learning it?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah, a lot of it was.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
You know, there was a mix. I couldn't tell you
what the percentages are, right. Some of it was was
certainly an experience. A lot of it was stuff that
I had learned at my time away when I was
at Meryll Ninch Working Ways. So yeah, so some of
it came from there, you know, maybe forty percent, you know,
another thirty percent was well, I already.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Know what to do.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I've kind of done this before, and then some of
it was really just taking a risk and saying, you know,
I don't know if I can do this, but let
me see if I get away with it. So yeah,
that's where a lot of that came from.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Okay, I'll be right back with the day.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
If you are a new entrepreneur and you're looking for
some tips, you're welcome to visit us at www dot
ryosports dot com, slash entrepreneurs dot.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Each m L.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I repeat that, that is www dot ryosports dot com,
slash entrepreneurs dot HTNL. I am back with mister de Leon.
(25:26):
The story you've shared with us so far as a
passionate one of running a family business.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
However, we often hear.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
The claim that most restaurants fail. Is that true?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, I think you know, there's some truth in that,
but there's also a lot of misconception. You know, one
of the things that I always say is whenever I
meet somebody and they asked me what do I do,
and I'll let them know, they always say two things.
Oh well a restaurant is that's a very hard business,
(26:03):
you know. Or they'll say, oh wow, there's really a
lot of a lot of restaurants fail, you know. Yet
when I dig deeper and someone asked me that generally
it comes from somebody who's never worked in the restaurant industry.
But it's just a regurgitated statement that they heard and
they believed it to be true, and so it is
in their mind. Well, the reality is I always tell them, well,
(26:23):
what business is easy? Right, because if it's easy, you're
probably not making any money at it, right. I mean,
that's just a matter of fact, you know. And as
far as restaurants closing all the time, I would say
that there, well maybe maybe not. I mean, look at
how many restaurants are out there, right, There's tons of
them out there that haven't closed, right, But there are
many businesses that do open by people who want to
(26:47):
be They want to open up a business, they want
to open up a small business, and it's easy to
do it in a restaurant because there are low barriers
to entry. You don't need a special knowledge. Right, you
can go high line cook and you know, say, hey,
we're just gonna serve breakfast, right, and you can do
that very easily. But the problem is a lot of
people who start down that road don't understand. Number one,
(27:09):
they don't understand the cost structure. And number two, they
probably aren't willing to get dirty and do what it's
gonna take to make it take off, to make it survive, right,
to make it survive, then to make it thrive, it
takes a lot. And most people, right, if they're trying
(27:30):
to do that from what I would call the CEO position,
I mean, forget it, right, it's just not gonna happen. Right,
You're gonna have to get your hands dirty, and so
you're probably gonna find That's probably what has happened with
a lot of people that have opened up a restaurant
and then they close it, right, and then they never
do it again. And that's how you know, right, they
tried it once, Oh I'll never do that again. Well,
then you never really liked it to begin with, right,
(27:52):
I mean right, but look at someplace like take a
national brand like an on the Border or an All
of Garden or whatever. Right, those places, they have lots
of resources, right, and they go out and they open
up restaurants and sometimes right more not than it does. Right,
but they may you know, stub their toe and they
have to close a unit. Well, they don't close every
(28:14):
single unit exat Well, we'll never do that again. Right now,
they say, this is the business that we're in, this
is what we're dedicated to. So you know, what we
chose wrong, we'll learn from our mistakes and we'll do
it again. And so again, part of owning a restaurant
is that while there are low barriers chantry, you know,
it is very capital intensive. So if you're going to
(28:35):
start down that road, right, you're gonna have to if
you're not thriving right away, then you're going to have
to learn to cut costs, which means you're gonna have
to shoulder some of the work. And some people aren't
willing to do that, right, I mean they're wanting to
maybe maintain some other job that they have and somebody
else run this one. And oh it's passive income. Well,
nothing is passive. There's no income that's passive.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Now assuming they have the capital of the may just
skill sets.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
You say at the beginner, we need to have to
you know what, I never would have thought thought this, right,
But the fact of the matter is your biggest challenge.
I think in any service business will not be your customers.
It's going to be managing your staff right, right, because
everybody has different personalities or different goals, different schedules, you know,
(29:24):
and just a different makeup, and you're going to have
to learn to remember when you have to learn to
deal with that. But you're also if you have a restaurant, right,
any sort of a business, you're going to have to
enlist them on your vision, right and not their own.
And some of them will join that vision, but some
of them will join that. Some of them will join
(29:44):
that vision because they believe in your vision. Some of
them will join that vision because hey, it's kind of
on the road to my vision. So I'll stay on
there while until my vision is coming into fulfillment and
then I'll bail. So people will join you for all
sorts of reas, but if you need to be able
to get them on the bus, So I would say,
learning to manage people, and you know, and again I
(30:07):
don't want to say manage, right, that's a bad that's
not a good word. But you really need to learn
how to interact with people and get them to buy in.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
But ultimately you getting them to buy And doesn't that
start with you bringing in the bringing them into the company.
Why would you bring them in and then discover that
they're well?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Because right, because you have to remember, right, you always
see the other person's best side right when it's come
come interview with time. Right, they're gonna show up on time,
you know, if you're lucky, right, they're showing up late,
you know, dishoveled or drunk, and you're seeing all that
right away, which case o great, Hey you're definitely not
someone I need. Right, But more often than not, right,
(30:49):
they've cleaned up, right, they're showing up on time, and
you're seeing their best side right, right, And so they're
certainly not going to tell you, Hey, you know what,
I'm probably gonna call in say, at least once a week,
I'm not going to be able to show up late.
You know, I'm gonna ask you for an advance, and
you know, I'm probably gonna need you to bail me
out of jail.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At once every three months, right, right, that just doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you know. Just and I think
what's interesting is how some people like just expect you
or you know, are hoping that you are going to
take on their problems, right. And I've seen some business
owners do that where hey, I've got this way or
I gotta go bail.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I'm like, are you serious?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Leave them there, let them learn, right, it's not your responsibility,
you know. So so yeah, it's really about just learning
to manage people's behavior again just en listen them into
your vision and getting them to buy in right on
a daily basis, right because they forget right because because
a lot of times between fulfillment and the start, right,
(31:49):
there's a lot that has to have a lot of time, right,
a lot of a lot of groundwork has to go in.
You know, rarely does a company go from zero to
one hundred million overnight, right, It takes years.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
So, well, you're not only a restaurant tour you are
an entrepreneur or what's the difference.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well, I think being an entrepreneur is really I talk
it as your ability to generate revenue, whether it's specific
to the restaurant industry or branching out and finding other
ways other avenues to develop revenue. While we have the restaurant,
we've also developed a catering business that services primarily a
(32:31):
lot of corporate companies. For myself, I've also done some
real estate that allows me to generate revenue, as well
as doing consulting on the small business retail side. And
so those are avenues that I've also pursued that have
allowed me to generate other revenue but also provide some diversification.
Because you never know what could happen in any one
(32:51):
of your industries. So as far as you know, how
would I would differentiate that within I would call it.
You know, you know you can be a very good
business owner of one type. You know, for some reason
I have, I feel like I understand several basics that
transcend across all spectrums of business, and for whatever reason,
(33:15):
those have just come very naturally to me. So I
can walk into any business and see or if it's
in dire shapes, to be able to turn it around.
If we need business growth, some dysfunctional teams, I've been
able to walk in and turn those around and identify
what changes need to be in place. And made to
(33:37):
make it an ongoing successful business.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
And which aspects of you do you find more appealing
to where you are in your life now running a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Or you know.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
The thing about the restaurant is that you have to understand, right,
it is very much home for me, right, I mean right,
A lot of time has been passed there, a lot
of birthdays, right, we're celebrated there. Right Again, right, I
mentioned like I wasn't didn't go didn't go to one
high school football game on a Friday or Saturday night. Right,
(34:13):
So it's just it's more comfortable for me to be there.
And again right, true success comes out of your comfort zone.
So it's comfortable to be there, but it's important to
me that I just don't stay there, right, So that's
why I've kind of developed other channels for me to
funnel creativity but also to try to experience growth.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
So as a businessman, ha, do do you keep those
as separate entities?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah? They're all separate entities, Yeah, absolutely, And you have
to remember that ultimately one ultimately ends up providing the
funding for all the others. So you know, if I
didn't have the restaurant, right, catering business probably wouldn't have started, right,
that probably would not allowed us to develop a real
estate arm. You know, if you don't have successes in
those three, then how can you really consult?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Right, So.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
For a new you gave me a very it'steresting definition
of or of an entrepreneur or those who think they're
entrepreneur's business tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Well, you know, I mentioned earlier that there's there's a
term called entrepreneur where people want to start a business
and they may even undertake it, but it just doesn't happen,
it doesn't materialize. And so we all have personalities, right,
and but some people the question is if you start
(35:39):
a business, do you stay mired down in the details? Right?
That ends up being much more what I would call
a lab an engineer or a technician, in which case
their personality doesn't really lend itself to being an entrepreneur, right,
because you have to because they tend to stay in
a refinement. Well, let's continue to make this better and better.
And the reality is this pro fit ability is the well,
(36:01):
perfection is the nimitty of profitability. So you need to say, hey,
let's get it good and let's hand it off and
let's move on to the next project. So that's what
I would call, like, you know, one of the other iterations,
right of being an entrepreneur, there's an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
And so yeah, if you were to give a young
man who has the capital or who has a desire,
who wants to be an entrepreneur, what would be.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
The you know, I think the first thing is they
really do need to have a well rounded knowledge of
business basics, right, I mean, you need to have some
sort of business formal training understanding. You know, again you
don't need to be an accountant, but you need to
understand that if you don't have any money.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
You can't spend it, right, right.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So so those are some what I would call fundamental
business basics. The second thing is in any given business venture,
you really need to know the avenue that you're pursuing, right.
If it's if you're planning to open up a restaurant,
then you need to go work in a restaurant, and
you know, you should probably do it for a couple
of years, right because and learn to manage one and
(37:14):
do it profitably, right and preferably if you you know,
and if you can do that in a franchise, then
you know, hey, that's great, learn from them, right, But
if you can do it from a small business, then
you probably learn a lot more and you probably learn
a lot of mistakes that you know that you say, hey,
I'm not going to do that. But because you know,
you've always heard the expression, oh he got lucky, he
(37:35):
got lucky. Well, we all know, right luck that the
definition of luck is where preparation and opportunity meet.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Well, only when you're prepared, do you know what opportunity
looks like? Right, Because there are many other fields. Right
in medicine, I would not have any idea what opportunity
looks like, But someone who has prepared in medicine will
know what opportunity looks like. Right. And you know, for me, like,
I've done enough in real estate and the business side
(38:05):
where I can look and I can say, you know what,
I know what opportunity in that field looks like.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I think before you give us more, I just want
to emphasize how beautiful I think that is that you
made that point that preparation allows you to recognize opportunities,
or opportunities would be swirling all around you all the
time and you wouldn't even know that it's there.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, exactly, love it.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
Yeah yeah, no, I mean that was just kind of
you know, I think that's kind of all I have
on that particular Okay, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, but no, you know, those are two things that
I mentioned that you need to have. Is, you know,
if you can have a basic business background, you need
to have expertise in in the field that you're going
to go in. Right, if you're going to go launch
a business, you need to go learn from a business owner.
(38:58):
And I'm going to add two more things. If you
can surround yourself with other business owners. Right, there are
several organizations affinity groups that you can join that you
can learn from them and that they can because that's
going to be your new textbook as you go forward,
and as you operate a business, you're going to run
across problems that you don't know how to solve. And
(39:22):
chances are these the people that you surround yourself with.
I mean, and you need to surround yourself with entrepreneurs, right,
entrepreneurs that know what it's like to run a business,
to be short of capital, to have these headaches, because
they will be able to give you expertise that they've
kind of gone through. It might not be the same
as yours, but they're going to tell you their experience
(39:43):
and you're going to need that support. You're going to
need that sounding board.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
So, if you can surround yourself with an affinity group
of that nature, right, whether it's if you're in a restaurant, right,
if you can surround yourself with you know, a local
restaurant group, or if it's just an entrepreneur group, you know,
ones that can help you, that's gonna be key. And
the fourth thing I always say, again dealing with people,
if you can get a psychology degree, you know whereas
(40:10):
I'm joking on that one, but just understand, right, if
you could pick up a few books, right and just
read and understand the human dynamic, that always helps.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
So wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I'll be right back when I return, I will play
a game with mister dinlong. Those of you who have
been a long time on the journey with us may
remember as playing frequently for those of you in the
(40:43):
neighborhood or traveling through the neighborhood. Just to reminder that
La Margherita the restaurant is located at two nine to
two North Belfline Road, Irving, Texas. The telephone number is
ninety seven to two five seven zero one one three seven,
(41:04):
and they do catering La Margharita two nine two two
North Beltline Road, Irving, Texas. Telephone number nine seven two
five seven zero one one three seven. Okay, mister de leon,
(41:27):
let's play the game. It's called three hands. The Sage
did's a very wise and prophetic thing that warrants heeding.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
Every one, every one living long long enough will slip
and before.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Into a deep, into a deep, all.
Speaker 7 (41:58):
Three hands will appear the hand of a hustler, the
hand of a riddler, and the hand.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Of a clown. Choose wild.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Or you or you will be bety be bellied there there?
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Which will you choose? Or will you stay in your hold?
Speaker 3 (42:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
You've got a hustler, you said, a riddler, a riddler,
and a clown and a clown.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
You know what, I think I'm gonna have to take
the riddler. Why you know I would take the riddler
because that's a thinking man, and we're gonna need to
think to get out of the hole.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Right, you can't laugh your way out of a hole. Right,
you may laugh yourself that you're still gonna be in
the right. You never trust the hustler.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Yeah, the Riddler's gonna be my man.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Okay, good good. Well, you know I appreciate that you
spend this month of your busy time to share with
our entrepreneurs and all our listeners. Thank you so much
for doing.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
That for us. Sure, no, absolutely glad to do it
all right.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
The Journey is available free on iTunes, blog, talk radio, rio,
sports radio, and several of your favorite internet platforms. Download
event and share why any of the social media you love.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
See you next week.
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