I am really, really excited here.
This is the first time we've ever done this.
We're calling this out of the weeds.
We are going to interview and ask questions, we're starting all these
different interview series, but we have Michelle and Mariah here from
Savage Fine Goods… Savage Goods.
I don't know why I inserted the word fine, I shouldn't have
done that, I knew what it was.
Savage Goods out in El Paso, Texas, and they're going to just kind of
share a little a couple of things with you, some of the experiences
that we've had together and how it's helped them a little bit, how
we got the baby out of the weeds, but more than anything, I am so
deeply touched and appreciative for both of you to come on here today.
Welcome and again, thank you and sorry for the awkward start there.
So can one of tell us a little bit about your restaurant and
what you guys do there and what makes your place so awesome?
Yeah, so we have an all-day cafe like you said here in El Paso
and we originally started in 2013 as a home bakery and a farmer's
market stand, and we did it that way for about four years.
Mariah is our baker and she was baking cakes, we were frying donuts
in this commercial fryer connected.
We had to rig up these extension cords across the kitchen and
donuts really took off, so that's something that we still incorporate
today, but then in 2017, we opened our brick and mortar here.
So we did the home bakery for about four years and now we've been doing
this just over three here at the café.
In pre-Covid times, we were open seven to ten, every day 7 AM to 10
PM, all-day breakfast, lunch, baked goods, live music, beer, and wine.
Things are a little bit different right now, but that's the concept.
This community gathering, neighborhood space, we're in the middle of
a downtown neighborhood here, so it's got a really fun feel.
Awesome, awesome!
And how did you guys first find out about me, I’m always curious?
Well, we were actually looking for an inventory system.
We had been working with a few… we had tried a few different ones and they
were all unbelievably intricate and detailed and we would spend weeks and
weeks and weeks inputting every recipe down to the gram, and then it just
was never sustainable and so our third business partner actually found bacon
and it was like, guys, it's simple and we never have to do inventory.
Yeah, that's a big thing when you say you're looking for inventory.
I'm like, I'm the like antithesis…
We didn't actually know what we were looking for.
Anyways, and so we started using Bacon and that's how we found you know the
restaurant boss and all the videos and everything and really have felt like
it's been such a valuable resource, especially through this last year.
Awesome, well, I appreciate that and glad to help.
when you were searching, I’m always curious we find people might be
looking for different things or feeling different things like
what were you feeling maybe when you were searching for different
stuff and like when just what the business looked like, what
were you going through there…
Sorry…
Well, you know it's so interesting to look back a year ago.
A year ago, it felt like everything was constantly on
the brink of falling apart.
We had, you know when we opened, we opened to a line out the
door, people were excited.
We had built this cool community, following, but then it was like
we left the first day after opening and realized, oh no, we
have to now run this every day for the rest of our lives and
we don't know what we're doing.
And so we felt like the business side, the numbers and you know the
metrics and how to have any control was just beyond us, and so when we
found Bacon, we were just looking for a way to understand why are we
always busy, we're working 100 hours a week, and we're hemorrhaging money.
How can that be possible?
And so at the time, we were just using our P&L statements to know
what was happening, but they came 15 days into the next month, and so
by the time we had any information, we were generally a month too late
to do anything about it and so we were always one step behind.
And so with Bacon, we really loved… it's in real-time, we
can see what's happening, we can make small adjustments and see
the impact of those in real-time instead of waiting for a month to
realize, oh, you know if we tweak it, but you know not actually
knowing if it's making any impact.
And I don't have it written down in front of me, but I remember
when we talked… there we go, we're getting a Facebook error again.
Oh, I think it's… okay, we're good.
It's only giving us an error on one of the live streams, we're all good here.
There was a very specific numbers or a feeling or something.
Again, I don't ever write down, but I remember like when I heard that, I
was like we have to have you as our first guest on this show, like what?
What changed for you in that period of time?
I remember we talked, it was probably almost a year ago
now, maybe 10 months ago.
It was right after COVID's first hit, and then we talked again about
a month ago and I remember when I got on the phone, I was like, whoa!
Like all of that happened for you.
Tell us a little bit about kind of what that was?
Well, we really took the opportunity when we closed for COVID to go
through the restaurant owner's road map and took that time to
reevaluate everything and laid out that massive action plan that you
talk about in there and set out some goals, it's very specific ones.
So when we reopened in June, we weren't just reopening, we had really
restructured our entire company and had very specific goals, monthly… like
monthly and yearly goals from there.
That was the biggest change, I think pre-COVID, we were looking
at prime costs of like 85-90%.
And just had no idea how to even address it because like
Michelle said, we didn't get those numbers until a month later.
And so we started up with Bacon when we reopened in June and I think those
numbers every month or every week, plus this massive action plan, it just
gave us a sense of some direction, somewhere to go to address how much
we were working, how much we were spending, we addressed like roles
in our company and with our team and even today, we're still working
on getting all of that going, like checklists and training guides,
that's we're still working on it, but it's also a long-term process.
So that was really the biggest change for us over the last year,
and we've sort of gotten the handle on things and don't feel quite
so much like it is on the brink of falling apart all the time.
And where do you think… maybe I missed it, I was with the
warnings and everything, but where do you think your prime cost
is running roughly now or with Bacon, what's your recollection?
I remember it was a massive change when you told me.
Yeah, year to date for 2021, we're at 57%.
I think we ended 2020 at around 59%.
So we went from an 80%ish prime cost down to a 57% prime cost,
and that was the year today.
Yeah.
That's insane and I mean that's really the goal is to get under 60%.
I just… again, I forgot the specific numbers, but I remember when we
hopped on the phone here a couple months ago, I was just like,
oh my gosh, we've got to share.
So, how do you think like… okay, you mentioned systems, you
mentioned processes, procedures, you mentioned the simplicity
of Bacon and all the timing and everything, but what can you
contribute or what can you attribute to making this change for you?
Like what can people take away from here today if they're struggling,
if they either don't know what their costs are or they know their costs
are high like it's a massive change in a very short period of time.
I think part of the problem was and I don't know if this is common
for restaurant owners in general, but we were very good at the people
side and the food side, but we just didn't really have any training
in the business side, and so I remember sitting down listening
to the first day of the restaurant owner's road map and feeling for
really the first time like, oh, we're not crazy, oh, this is a normal
experience and just like cautiously 1% hopeful that it could be different.
I kind of felt like this is just what running a restaurant is, everyone
we know who runs a restaurant is also running crazy and you know
ready to rip their hair out and says, it's the worst thing, so this
just must be restaurant ownership.
And hearing like, no it can be different and this is how just
laid out this plan for us and I think having that, I mean
literally, a road map for, okay, work on this first, then work
on this and then work on this.
And all you need systems.
Well, you need these specific kind of systems.
We were trying to create systems and we were trying to do our own thing,
but we were creating it from nothing and so to have someone with experience
actually say like, no, just focus on these things, and then you'll be fine.
It simplified it so much and it made it attainable and doable, it
really gave us like a checklist to just be working our way
through, which was invaluable.
I mean it truly changed the way we do business completely.
I mean beforehand, we're family, Mariah and I are still
in-laws and our third partners is my husband, her brother.
We were destroying those family relationships, we had so much
employee burnout, we had unbelievable turnover and we were losing a bunch
of money and from the outside, it looked like an incredibly
successful business, but on the inside, we were really crumbling.
We unfortunately hear that a lot.
I see people who even sometimes they may think that their answer is opening
up a second location because they have all these dollars coming in and
they're like, well, we're just not making any money so we just need more
dollars coming in, so they'll open up another one or a lot of times, I'll
have restaurant owners that compare themselves to other restaurants.
They'll say look how busy that restaurant is, I'm like but
just because they're busy…
In the speaking profession, there's an expression of never compare someone
else's front stage to your backstage.
Like sometimes we'll see a speaker on stage and they're super polished and
they deliver everything perfectly, they don't mess up Facebook live like
I did and all this other stuff, right?
So you're in awe of them, but then we don't know what their business
looks like on the back end.
And so it sounds like that's what you were experiencing was you know a
steady flow of customers, people that loved your product, people that were
spending the right amount of money and coming in often and all that other
stuff and the dollars are coming in, but where's it going and at an 80%
prime cost, we know where it's going.
Yeah.
So, for those of you who don't know prime cost, total cost of goods sold
plus total labor - the most important number you can measure in your
restaurant and check out any of the free videos we have on our YouTube
channel or back at the website.
But really quick, I don't want to take too much more your time, what
are you guys most excited about?
Well, I think we're excited I mean we're super grateful to have made it
through COVID and to be coming out the other side, that's not the case
for everyone, so I just think we're incredibly humbled and grateful to
still be here and I don't know what you can answer too, but I feel super
excited that it's not… reopening won't look like how it was before, we're
going to have some freedom and some more control and, you know like we
aren't going to be running ourselves into the ground anymore and so I
think we're just really excited to see people back in the space to go back
to that community gathering place, but not killing ourselves to do.
We talked about opening this restaurant to build the life that we
love and to provide something amazing for this community, and we need to
do that without killing ourselves and that feels hopeful and possible now.
Awesome, awesome.
Amazing, thank you so much for sharing.
Any closing words or anything else that we didn't cover here?
No, I mean I think we're really grateful for everything you're
doing for the roadmap for Bacon.
It truly has changed the way we do business substantially and
just thank you for all of that.
It's been really helpful.
Oh my gosh! Thank you and congratulations and I'm always so honored and humbled to
have the time to do this and to help out and it's just such a privilege.
So thank you, as you guys know if there's ever anything I can
do to help you, let me know.
And again, thank you so much for sharing here.