Small Business,
Big Mindset Podcast
Episode #34
Exponential Restaurant Growth in the Time of COVID
We met Mo at his Austin brick and mortar restaurant, JewBoy Burgers. While born in Cleveland, Mo grew up in El Paso, Texas and meandered his way to Austin. From pre-med to advertising to now owning one of the most sought after and talked about diners in the Austin area, Mo has a wide breadth of knowledge in business - both starting and scaling. Let's dive in.
The Start
- Started pre-med in university
- Left school a few years in, worked at Club Med in Cancun
- Back to El Paso, played in the band AYB
- Back to school, graduated with a degree in Advertising
- Owned an ad agency from 2002-2012
- Started to consult after that, not his thing
The Shift
- At a crossroads: go back to corporate America with a steady job or be a serial entrepreneur
- Owned a food truck for 3.5 years
- Steady growth, toward end of 2019 saw increased media exposure - bloggers, influencers
- January of 2020 started to see real exponential growth
- By June, doubling income almost every month
- In July approached by a property owner to create a brick and mortar restaurant
- Decided to give it a try, lots of outside seating so perfect for the pandemic
- August 22nd last day on truck, Sept 1 first day in restaurant
- Now has 21 on staff
The Strategy
- Saw exponential growth through patience
- New business owners get jumpy and are always in reactive mode - avoided that
- 80% food is critical but 20% is the experience, you have to do more
- On the food truck he could connect with each customer
- Work on the repeat business
- Take the pretention out, be yourself
The Action
- Research is critical - know who you are and who your customer is
- You can't have a good review without a good customer
- Have a strategy and then intel and then tactics
- A word of caution re: discounting and delivery services
- Identify which media makes the most sense - for food, it's Instagram
The Mindset
- Always over-deliver
- Value the 2 C's: content and culture
- Marketing is effort and commitment - it's a process, not a product
- Goals and vision
- possible local expansion
- potential ideas other than JewBoy
The Wrap-Up
If you could only listen to one music artist for the rest of your life, who would it be? Eagles
Where can people find you online?
