My Entrepreneurial Adventures

The business had now gone through 2 seasons successfully. We had a little money in the bank and the busy season was ending. In the catering business, you get a little jump during the holidays, but after New Years, it is 4 months of nothing really. Maybe a luncheon or dinner party here and there. It was killing me to have so much time on my hands, only opening the kitchen a few times a week to do smaller parties. Then one day I had a brainstorm.

The building was right in the middle of town and there was a portion in the front of the building that I was using as an office, but did not really need. It was enough space to open a small storefront. THAT would keep me busy through the slow season and during the busy season, we could use it to sell our over production from parties. Plus, it would drive more customers in so the catering would increase and it would be an additional source of revenue.  A good number of the New York City caterers had small storefronts and it gave them a bit of a higher credibility. I was really thinking now!! Brilliant I thought. This was going to be a huge expansion.

I began to look around for used display fixtures and showcases.  A few girlfriends of mine got involved with decorating to make the storefront more hip and modern.  It took about 30 days to get the front ready to open for customers.  A little marketing started to bring customers in to the store.

I was very happy to be working 12 hours a day again and I really felt like I had a renewed purpose.  I hired a few people to work part time in the store, while I produced the food.  One of the biggest categories was specialty cakes, specialty cookies and chocolates.  This area was one of my personal favorites to make.  I had been classically trained in chocolate and pastry by one of the best in the world, so the product I was making was truly unique and special.

What I Learned: One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is to be The Knowledge Base of the company.  This leads to a business that is not sustainable and totally dependent on the Entrepreneur.  If something happens to the Entrepreneur, then the business dies. The greatest Entrepreneurs develop a replicable model with systems for growth and hires the right people to run it.

The store was doing well and was serving it’s purpose as a showcase for the catering business.  As we entered another season, we were really growing.  And the parties began to get bigger with more weddings and garden parties.  Of course now I would have to run back and work after a party to make sure the store had product so I was working about 16 hours a day.  I had people working in the store, but no one had the skill set to produce what I could.  I fell into the classic dilemma of being the only expert in the business.

I was at a crossroads.  The part time business I started was suddenly requiring a full time effort.  I had to make a decision to either quit my job and focus on growing the operation or stay employed and not take on any new customers.  Really though,  the question I needed to answer for myself was whether I wanted the security of working for someone else or whether I wanted to plunge into the abyss.    I chose the latter.  Once I made the decision, it was scary and freeing at the same time.  I knew I made the right decision and success or failure fell squarely on my shoulders.

I had a great building for running a catering operation and had everything I needed.  As the season progressed, more customers came to us and we really didn’t do a lot of marketing. One party would lead to 3 others.  Some of the men at the parties began using us for business luncheons in their offices.  (Of course I was working 6 days a week, 12 – 16 hours a day.  But hey, it was definitely keeping me out of trouble.)  We started to get a lot of press for some reason also.

What I Learned: Having your name in the papers a lot is very good for business.  The best way is to be positioned as an expert and have the writers interview you every time they are doing a story in your business segment. This is why bloggers in your field are so important.  It is more credible than running advertisements. 

All was good in this first season.  But anyone who has ever been in this business knows that it is very cyclical.

Then came the slow season……….

I was in a new job in a new segment of the industry, which I pointed out in my previous post, with a lot more free time and I was not spending that time wisely. I found myself reverting to old habits with old friends. I had to do something or I was afraid I would end up with some serious health issues.

My thought was to start a business that I could use my skills as a chef, that I could do while still keeping my full-time job.  The only logical direction was catering.  Most of the business was in the evenings and on weekends, which is when I was now off!.  I began assembling the necessary equipment at auctions, used equipment companies on the Bowery in NY and restaurants that were going out of business.  I stored most of it in a storage unit while I found a location to build a kitchen, which came very quickly in the form of an industrial brick building in the middle of the town I was living in at the time.  And suddenly “The Fabulous Food Caterers” were born.

Somewhere along the line in the restaurants I had worked in, I picked up the nickname of Fabulous Phil by some waitresses.  I honestly cannot remember what prompted it but it stuck.  It seemed to work and we were in business.

The first year was great.  I was able to keep working and run the catering business at night and weekends.  I was busy and we were making enough money to pay the rent, buy whatever we needed which now included 2 vans and a fully equipped kitchen to operate out of.  I was feeling pretty good about my decision and we really started to get press which expanded our customer reach.

We began to get a following suddenly I was faced with a dilemma.  As I looked at the parties we had booked for the upcoming season, it became apparent that I would not be able to keep a job and run this business.  It was going to get very busy and require a full-time commitment in order to be successful.  This was a real crossroads I had not thought this would happen so quickly and I had been spending all of the money on building the infrastructure of the business and marketing.  I really did not have much reserves to carry me personally if anything went wrong.  I worked as long as I could and saved as much as I could until the winter was over and the party season began…………

 I had grown up in the restaurant business and toiled away in many kitchens around the New York area for a few years.  Anyone that has ever had a job in that industry knows how ridiculously tough it is. It isn’t just the hours that hurt, it is the lifestyle that you get sucked into. Lets face it, when you get off work at midnight, where are you going to go?  To the gym?  No, you go to a bar and drink until the sun comes up.  At least back then you could because the bars closed at 4 am and there were after hours clubs. Then you go home and get about 3 hours of sleep to do it all again.  It was a miserable life but one that gets comfortable.  Obviously, my thought was to open a restaurant at some point. So that was

the direction I was headed.One day, while I was working in the kitchen of a high volume NY restaurant in Central Park, the manager pulled me aside and told me that there was a job opportunity across the river in NJ if I wanted it.  It wasn’t a restaurant job, but a job in a supermarket.  He was king to take a job developing European style food halls inside food retailer.  I thought “What the heck, is he crazy?” But I went to check it out and was surprised and interested at the concept.  I took the job and we immediately hit a road block.

It seems that in the supermarket world in NY, workers are unionized into different unions.  Well Chefs didn’t fit into any of the job codes, so we didn’t need to join the union, which was fine.  However, we had to work under the union and business constraints, which meant we worked 40 hours a week and if we worked more, we were paid overtime.  Unfortunately, there was no overtime.  So we were getting paid about the same as we did in the restaurant business, but only working about half the hours.  Suddenly, I had a lot of free time.

Well, when you are young, making decent money and you have a lot of free time on your hands, there is only one thing to do…..get into trouble.  Well, for me anyway.  I began going to visit my friends who were working in restaurants on my way home from work.  One drink leads to 2 and the next thing you know you are back in the old habits.  I couldn’t go on this way for very long.  And then, I had a revelation……….. (next Post)