Love, Business and Kalei's Kitchenette | Andy & Khara Mangiduyos

Transcript note: This transcript was generated from the episode captions and lightly formatted for readability. Speakers are Jet Bunditwong and Andy and Khara Mangiduyos.

[0:01] hi and welcome to the personal side of business podcast where every business has a story today we'd like to introduce Andy and Cara they are the owners of Hawaiian restaurant uh Cay kitchenet in Rancho penasquito and opened up in 2018 and now thriving in their going on the second year welome welcome both aloha aloha thank you for having us Jeff yeah you're welcome so tell us a little bit about your story of uh the journey from when you first opened up is you guys started as a catering business correct correct we started 2018 as a catering SL Farmers Market um Farmers Market um all over San Diego and then we did a lot of um events as well specialty events like paa and all of that um during 2018 201 19 we were looking for Brick and

[1:02] Mortar at that time we were ready to pull the trigger and then 2020 covid happened so we step back and reassessed that you know what we cannot do this because covid is happening so from there on we start doing our due diligence of doing business planning forecasting and all of that so that way when we're ready to pull the trigger to get a brick and mortar we're all set and we have the knowledge of um the financial part of it of the business and that was um very adventurous cuz we when we were talking we're like you know what you don't really know if we're going to be here tomorrow you know now it's funny but before you're just like really scared because restaurants were closing and then literally people were dying and then we were talking that's our Dream to open the brick and mortar and I was like when are we going to do it you know what let's might as well start looking but meantime when we were looking that's when we were um trying to study it we're we're planners we try to

[2:07] plan a b and c that if plan a doesn't work there should always be a plan B and C already um pretty much like the worst of the worst and you got to be ready for the worst of the worst no with our with our background I think that's what really helped us to know the possibilities and and all um with that one year of searching by the way we you made it sound easy that we were searching for Brick and Mortar it was so was hard because a l we were driving a lot yeah I I I'm not kidding you jet we would drive cuz we we live up North County so we were drive around you know Mar Mesa marar you know escono s Valley and we just hit like all the spots that you would think of like okay this is nice location we're calling the least calling the leasing office or you know the property or realtor but the challenges that we had there was oh it's

[3:08] already taken we're like wait the restaurant it was a restaurant before it just closed what do you mean it was taken it was places were just or maybe they just didn't want to have another business that is in a restaurant because they knew you know there's I don't know I don't I don't have the statistics but we know that a lot of restaurants closed during that period so we were not able to find one and part of it with shaf fand's experience being in the food industry he knows what he wanted um we also had friends during that time who started opening a a food business right before covid and we saw the struggle of being ground up so he said we're not doing groundup well let's let's be patient well let's look for a existing kitchen and for those people who doesn't know um there's a whole new world if you do a groundup for a restaurant yeah

[4:09] ground up meaning it's just an empty space so a lot of the cost would go to permitting grease trap the you know just the whole um logistic of equipment wise and all of that so we me and car decided you know what let's just wait um on a closing restaurant because that's an existing kitchen already and permitting is really hard with health department and build up permitting for the county or or the city so we just waited you know like and in God's time you know we found this place in ranch up piso which is two blocks away from our where we were reiding so it was really you know I think when you put it out there I know might sound very Juju or whatnot but if you put it out there that you're really looking looking and you're I We Believe even it's going you're attracting it you're definitely attracting it we tell some of our closest friends that this is what we're going through we're looking for places and you know a friend of a

[5:09] friend connected us or G alerted us that this place was opening and it was a blessing because it was a perfect spot the size was also our ideal um layout it was close to the house and I think it was a perfect cuz it was like 2022 of August and it was the last week of August and it landed that week of my birthday so I was like oh man this is a blessing it's kind of like a good birthday gift so the owner of that restaurant that's closing or the bakery called me personally and said hey you know um we're closing down the shop you want to check it out so you know that's when I drove I stopped whatever I'm doing I took out I'm like hey let me go drive up there and check check it out and we started talking to the owner the old owner of the that prop all the rush all Bakery and from there we started doing the math you know Logistics and all of that so and I think that meeting also was very beautiful when we when he

[6:09] met with the owners it was not very transactional it was not very business the owners's husband and wife um they said that we wanted another family to take over this and I thought you know sometimes you be it's the first time I met this couple we're like man you know maybe cliche but then we were talking already as the weeks came they were they will tell us oh man I mistakenly left the the door open or whatever there's like Realtors or Brokers coming in the restaurant and they wanted to drop cash and get this place in cash but we said that we already you know gave our word and we haven't given them any money at that time but they kept their word because they kept their word of wanting another family to take over this this spot and no Rancho is not very popular but it's really around mam Mesa pawe um Rancho Bernardo area and there's a lot of residents there so it's very homey and I

[7:11] think that's what they're trying to hope for and you know this owners when we actually you know fast forward during the grand opening they actually came also which was really sweet very supportive um kindest kindest people ever that's great and so I have a kind of a two-part question right can you explain to listeners what you guys were looking for maybe like the top three things that were important to you when you were looking for that space and then could you explain when you're doing stuff from the ground up what does that end up costing um like you know for new equipment build out and all this stuff that way listeners can get an idea of they're trying to open up a restaurant what actually goes into that so for the first part of the question is what I'm as a chef what I'm looking for um it has to have the grease trap grease trap meaning they have to do the plumbing and all of that that cost a lot if there's an existing grease trap you don't need a permit for that from the city or from the health department and also the hood the hood system that built in there okay

[8:16] um because that costs a lot of money as well and and time for the permitting because remember during covid everything was hold on stop meaning all the permit permitting whoever was building out was on hold so you were working in also an not a regular environment to try to get a restaurant going as well yes yep yeah so and it was a struggle too because during that time if you're building from ground up meaning you're permitting it's going to take at least six months to a year yeah our friends we saw it for two years for two years before they actually it's a just an empty retail space and you're putting a grease trrap all the plumbing and all all of that the city was backed up all the way for like a year because of covid everybody was like on hold so imagine if we got a spot that's a retail spot man that's like a year of hold or two years I would say of not getting income and you're just like waiting for

[9:17] you know the GC I'm like hey you know we cannot we cannot work on this because we're still wai waiting for the permitting to get approved before we even dug a hole and put a grease strap or piping underneath the build so it's definitely it needs to be a pre-existing kitchen was the first thing and then the second thing was this square footage we've learned a lot from covid meaning we also understand there's a lot of you know outdoor seating maybe not even having a seating and so when we were thinking about our concept we were not into let's have more seating so that people can um dine in here and H make it as a Gathering Spot that was not quote unquote a trend also looking into the business perspective we also know cuz in the meantime like for for starters for us let's have our overhead a little bit manageable so meaning let's not have a lot of seats because that would equivalent to the rent also for the labor and supplies and utilities and everything else so let's lessen the

[10:18] square footage so that our overhead would be also less and overall it would help us operationally we can focus more on the customers we can focus on the the staff making sure because I think when we first started the business it was just me and him and we have a very good control from the beginning till the end of the customer experience now there are a team of um other team members who's actually touching customers where we want to make sure hey they need to extend the same Aloha as what we have been giving our customers and so there's that training now I need to go one onone with them hey this is how you greet them you know we don't do good morning and good afternoon here we say aloha we say Mahalo here and so just even the twang of um the new verbiage needs to be trained and so you know again the second must thing that we we were looking for is the square footage not too big we were being offered um 3,000 square footage it was a fine dining restaurant in Rancho Bernardo and Z po we're like

[11:21] this is too big and we even played the idea of maybe we can maybe we can do banquets and we're like uh this is going to be tough again bigger over head bigger Capital longer time for us to recover and then it really depends on what equipment and um you know what you're needing for for your operation um roughly you know equipment would cost like about 50k if you have a new flat top you know grill fryer fridge those kind of stuff like um Merchant merch fridge and all of that that that cost a lot when we took over this spot it's basically assd sales so whatever they had in there like fridge sinks and all of that it's ours so meaning it was just a quick buyout from from from us to them basically so would that be something you would advise especially uh newer restaurant business owners to maybe look into that

[12:22] right to to help cost down but also to like TimeWise to help everything yes I would advise just looking into that um meaning existing kitchen um and also business planning that really helps you a lot you learn L you learn a lot cuz you want to do a business planning what kind of type what type of um you know operation you're doing for us it's just more like quick grabbing go grabing go and we don't want like what Cara said we don't want no people sitting down or anything um your overhead is low and also for that is is it easier if we just do your hours of operation what is it like are we breakfast lunch dinner type or lunch dinner or what that's another Factor too and also you want to have like a cushion money for un unexpected stuff a lot cuz you you when we did our business plan I said you we got to give us oursel a buffer three to four months of rent right just the basic just the basic stuff cuz your first month that

[13:23] you opened up you're not gonna make x amount of money right away or the first second month you're getting your name out there you know and just you know your brand and all of that brand recognition they they want to see like who are you guys or you know and that takes a while and that takes a while it's like either pay to advertising marketing organically or whatever that takes time but you know it helps us a lot with when we did our um business plan business planning and also you know being relevant to the community um you know doing other events and all of that cuz you guys already had that edge right like you already were catering and then being involved in community for a a small restaurant or business owner just starting out and there's like New Concept new everything that's probably taking now five steps back and you have to try to catch up with the whole ecosystem of a restaurant exactly yeah but you know going back to you know if we advise to start off with

[14:24] you know getting maybe use use equipment if that could save you some money have um looked for a place that is already pre-existing kitchen and the reason for that is I think to save quote unquote save money on those things is because you're putting priority on something else you know like for Chef there are some area some equipments that are non-negotiable needs to be brand new you know not everything is secondhand we had uh we have a couple of fridges there that needs to be brand new already if you know we're not Bakers but for a baker maybe they need to make sure that that's a brand new mixing um mixer because that cannot crash down for us like in the oven and all that stuff um so definitely look into that because there are other priorities not just you when you save the money part you got to be prepared that one of those equipments or one of those things are going to break down but

[15:24] what would be what would be the other compensation because I think what one of the things that we learned from business planning which by the way we work with the business plan writer took us six months and our agreement we said we don't want a business plan that's just going to be put in on the drawer or is the the when we were borrowing for our Capital they didn't even ask it we just showed it to them it's like by the way here's our business plan if you need it and they were like oh they were surprised like no we we did this because we wanted to go through the exercise of asking each other Why by the way I didn't even know why a business plan needs a menu I thought you could just make some menu but it it makes sense the hours of operation like everything I'm like oh it's connected and this is what I learned when you create your menu once you decide just simply deciding the menu it actually affects the operation and what equipment you're going to be using and what pricing and the everything and I think knowing also um or going through that exercise you already picture again

[16:30] plan A B and C if this doesn't work what are your backups already and also besides the back of the house I think it's mostly important to the front of the house the facade of the front you know when when they walk in there what is the feeling is it like a AA Spirit feeling like or they're from the island or you know visiting Hawaii or whatever you know you want that also the front of the house to to look beautiful also you know not equipment or back of the house but also this is a hotel year speaking right here this is a true Hotel year speaking because it's all about the experience not just about the food I guess yeah the experience and you know uh just the look of the whole store is it bright is it dark is it oh wait the ceiling is too short or is it open because I've seen that too I know exactly what you're talking about and I think I've become aware of it over the past couple years when you walk into a place and you're like oh they're they didn't have enough money to stretch into these areas and you feel food's great but chairs are

[17:32] cheaper you know the tables are rickety you know there's not good paint on the walls there's no Decor to it so it changes the mood of it and I think in the long run that is what subconsciously people don't realize that's why they're coming back or not coming back yeah yes it does hurt um one way or the other because we we again as I was joking about him being a hotelier because it is true in in the hotel industry that's why there's that's why Ritz Carlton and four seasons are in that caliber because they take into account the five senses of a customer for a customer experience when you see what do you see what you hear and that's why kitchen your volume turn your volume down kitchen guys you know um and then also just the smell does it smell sewer because you know there I mean you're in the food industry or does it smell too much I don't know detergent or Fabuloso somewhere too strong and then the the sound kind of music are you trying to um include into the whole experience and if you take into that

[18:34] account and again that's what we we went through during the whole um business planning and it doesn't have to be all you have to spend but just creating that awareness and again the welcoming of um from the team from their staff is a simple um change in the experience that again we joke around with our with our customers this is way cheaper than flying to Hawaii you know we're your L get here yeah and I think I think you start to see that we're like and I don't know you know this big presumption but I think you can start to tell where there's experience in a restaurant that you go to and then also the other step of like someone coming up with a business plan and go we thought this out like we there were so many details in this and were I've spoken to a lot of uh business owners who were like yeah so I make this great dish my family tells me it's great I should open up a restaurant and then I'm like let's

[19:35] start have you ever worked in restaurant and people will be like no I've never worked in I've never managed a restaurant I've never even served in a restaurant so I I think a lot of people kind of lose sight of well I can make good food at home but can I make it for 200 people a day exact right and work with other people in that environment and also deal with the stress of vendors money is everything working right it's a lot of different things and as as you said you know there and I wanted to mention this to I know we were talking about heavily on the business plan there's two different things you can be books marked on business plan and you can keep on planning but if you don't have the experience which you know me and Chef Andy have different backgrounds we used to work in the hotel industry but I never worked in a restaurant I worked on the front of the house and you know other stuff but he has all of the kitchen the operational experience and so I feel like again you know the the combination of our experience what um putting our strength and weaknesses

[20:36] together um I think we haven't killed one another so I think where marriage is still going strong there's always a mutual respect you know like back of the house and front of the house as well so with between me and her we always talk about like hey you know we're going to executed this way I'm like okay or if she has an idea you know with a special or whatever promo codes or or anything that gimmick that we're doing in the restaurant we'll talk about it and then we'll game plan and then execute it oh yeah by the way um one thing that we also talk about on the side although we did not put in the business plan who has the last shot who has the last call and it's Chef yeah it's not written for a reason but we have that agreement and everybody in the team knows Chef has the last call and also you know when you're getting into this business hiring the right people is always is a must it's a big thing it's a big thing the right people the right people cuz you can you can go on a route like oh I'm hiring a GC oh he's $20,000 cheaper but does he have experience

[21:41] experience or that $20,000 cheaper that's what you're going to get yeah you know or you want to go to a caliber like okay you know what they'll they'll do the the whole thing and you know you got peace of mind cuz they're working on it kind of deal so and their experts already I know you touched on the uh hiring the right people um and this goes also to our team members we we totally believe in we both believe that skills those can be trained we got Sops we got Pro processes already we we have um our HR company who helps us with those things but attitude that's something you can't train in and so I think that's why when we when we said ni you have to really um hire the right people and we're learning you know you you I feel like even the best recruiter has a um a bad hire so I feel like that's those are just charge it to experience yeah you know you're not going to get expensive charge

[22:41] exactly in the first H you're not going to get 100% like oh yeah this is the best team we went through a lot so I mean you know already you started with us jet so you know that the turnover and all of that so yeah and do you think that as you're hiring people and you're looking for qualities is it qualities do you think that mesh well with you or are good fit for the restaurant or a little bit both I would say for the team and the restaurant MH yeah we were just because we the promise you know like I always tell my staff you guys don't don't work to please me you work to please the customer because they're the one who's paying us yeah paying your paycheck so if the customers are really happy and they have great experience you own it up to them because that's that's the way we operate you know it's the customer you know and it's not me you know I'm here to guide them but at the end of the day it's the customer because they're the one who's coming in buying the food and you know and therefore for

[23:44] the experience so and that goes for both front of the house and back of the house funny that we were just talking about this cuz we're just we just finalized our promise to our customers and this is an internal Mantra or as I was teasing with the team this is the Kool-Aid that you guys are going going to be drinking and and it's a joke because they're already doing it I just we just put it into words of basically delivering Aloha to our customers because we want our customers to feel welcome and valued through our warm hospitality and thoughtful prepared food so it's basically both front of the house needs to make sure that anybody front and back of the house because our our space is very small you know we want to make sure that in in Hawaii I don't know if for those who have traveled right away you'll feel the difference everybody Smiles it just seems to be relaxed everybody seems to be everybody seems to be like a family it's so chill yeah and their family and you know and this is what me and Cara always encourage our staff you know we cannot tell you guys

[24:44] what is Aloha spirit it's hard to Def it's hard to Define it but we practice it as a owner so they see that they it's more like as a owner or a management team if you have the Good Vibes and you know the AL Spirit they'll they'll rub into that yeah respect kindness kindness yeah they'll rub into that you know like cuz no matter how you know the customer complaints and all of that if you just you know hear them out and you being kind to them they'll they'll just they understand they like okay you know what you just made a mistake you know at least you just hear me out kind of deal so yeah and and I think throughout the year and a half that we've been operating the brick and mortar I we have a very good team and we're very blessed and happy that our team that we have right now and you know that's why when you said when if we're you know bringing in a new team member honestly again you can have the skill but if your attitude does not F fit in our team's puzzle and or our promise to our customer about

[25:44] bringing in Aloha if you're going to come in here very cocky brah Chef is gonna you know the kind uh I don't know the kind is going to come out and you're going to get kicked out easily I'm just kidding so you know it's it's more of you know and I always as a leader you know I always tell them like you follow what You Know Your Leader do you know if if a leader is always like cranky or always swearing or in a bad mood they'll rub into that but if you're just like chill you know very calm and Collective they'll be like you know what he's not panicking so we shouldn't even Panic it's like you're coming in yelling but you're telling everyone to be Aloha yeah right it's opposite side right so opposite like oh you better smile but you're not even doing it yeah no Chef I don't think s them gets mad he uh yeah I'm very calm and colletive very calm for a chef even though the kitchen gets very heated and coming from someone who

[26:45] grew up most of her life in the east coast especially New York City visiting Hawaii I always it was almost too nice like I it almost like I was like yeah it it makes you uncom I want want some resistance somewhere right but every time you go some everyone's just like yeah come in you know and it's just it's nice and everyone starts talking to you and I you know coming from someone that grew up where you didn't say hi to people I didn't know that was a thing until like I moved out of the East Coast I came to California went to visit the Midwest I'm like people say hi to each other they don't know each other like what is that you know smiling at youo yeah yeah you're like you're trying to steal something from me that's that's always the there is a bad intention I'm I'm looking around there's two other people going to be jumping out of the corner so there's always a bad intention now kind of speak to how you guys you talk about dealing with uh your team members and then customers how do you guys approach each other in terms of the business like

[27:48] when it goes home does it you go okay we're only going to talk about so much or it's a it's free reign we'll take it out and and discuss it with each other is there certain rules that you got came up with at the beginning when we get home we talk a little bit but it's mostly focused on the family now with the kids we try to um we try to shut it down and and we just focus on the family even though it's hard but here and there we'll talk about it but like no negative stuff cuz it's like come on like we already left that this is the kids time our kids are very young Cay is eight and a half kameha is turning six so and this is the reason why we started this business is because we want wanted to make sure that we give time to them and not just being there but actually present there are occasions where you know and we we got we're very flexible Chef is mostly he he works um he's very early in the kitchen he tries to get out of there as soon as like the kitchen is set um normally like 2:00 in the afternoon in the afternoon and then again cuz the kids get off I don't even

[28:50] know why public school is out at 2 o00 man I do work when I was young my gosh so by the time that kids are out you know um we're also trying to get ourselves ready for dinner and have quality time within when we say quality time it's like extracurricular activities with them so yeah we tried to shut it down um Monday became our mandates um like today before we we we had lunch so that's our quality time but we also did a little bit of um work it's very hard to sit down with Chef just like just undivided attention and do paperwork and actually work on the business it's very difficult um because it's mainly on the operation side of things and so we try to we we respect our calendars it's really crazy all of the um if you're not in my calendar I'm sorry honey I'm not going to have a meeting with you I am not picking up your call and I'm not really a big planner but like I always writing things

[29:50] down so I bought a planner like for the month like okay what are the upcoming events or all of that and it keeps you alive with whatever it's going on in your life with personal and business yeah you know I I know you probably know jet but the other viewers or listeners here um you know we're close Sunday Monday so Sunday is really our family time um Monday you know I still operate because of you know I serve for the utter tech company Monday through Thursday out there in Sano Valley so Monday is really like one of those like okay I only got Sunday off so Saturday when like everybody said like I'm leaving early and they already know that so if there's no catering and all of that so you know like having a calendar and dotting it out and you know making sure that everything is align is one of the things too that a a owner should do as well yeah so we um we're we're early risers um Chef is up in about at 500

[30:51] a.m. well I try to keep up with him so he's going to be in the kitchen I'll be on my computer already at 5:00 a.m. um working because again we try to sand bag well for me specifically I'm I'm more in the computer so I sand bagget in the morning and same thing for him and then get ready for kids and then they again get out at like 2 3:00 and um that's pretty much when they're in school then we focus on the kids already you know they said that this the kids grow really fast and this is the time that they still want us you know we try our very best to um volunteer in their in their school activities we do quite a lot of um fundraising for the schools also and it's our way to almost just like connect with the fa with the parents their schoolmates and all that stuff and also giving back to the community you know like um that's one of the thing also you know every year we always have a goal that as a business owner um this year you know it's more like a Community Reach Out kind of deal like giving back

[31:53] more of more fundraising for the school or you know like sports team funding events in general because you know at the end of the day as I as I mentioned earlier we live close by and then the kids go here to go to school in the district where we basically work and live we go to church in the area our radius is pretty small so this is the part where um it's why it's so easy whenever we say we give back to the community because honestly this is where we live we want this little Rancho puso Community to to thrive um I joke around that there's nothing that happens in PQ so let's throw an event or even like you know like with the um you know we're planning with the sdpd of Eastern or you know something we're working on something with them during holidays and all of that to just give back to the community as well so we give value to I think the um the local you know the officers the servants to um

[32:53] the community servants so we just I think we are already recognize that there's a lot of kind people in just in general but we also just feel like sometimes they're just waiting for that opportunity and we saw that during the Maui Wildfire you know three months when we opened up the the Brick and Mortar you know Ma laah got hit with a wildfire and we're like uh Chef what are we going to do we felt like we need to do something so we opened our restaurant the parking lot a donation drop drive and for those listener out there I'm my my family is from Lina so they got affected big time so it was one of those that time of the fire it's like so hectic and so nerve-wracking for me cuz I couldn't get a hold of them and then after that you know I got a hold of them finding out our place got burned down you know our family home and then like they needing help so for us you know business owner small Mom and Pop

[33:57] restaurant you know I got to do something so we started connecting with different people and we opened up our shop they just came and that's when we realized they just wanted to help everybody just wanted to help and some of them they were even just like passing by almost like um they they used the place as I don't know say a morning site some I visited there during my honeymoon way to connect it was yeah they wanted to talk yeah and received letters with donations like monetary that time we were only doing um non monetary cuz I told them I don't want to do but some will like just give letters and um money and then they will tell the story their story with Hawaii in Maui specifically and it just was amazing of we said you know what it was very moving and it was so it was a lot of hard work and money by the way during that thing we just opened the brick Mort 3 months we didn't even know what oh my God we got to pack

[34:59] we got to do this we need packing tapes we need boxes where are we going to get this where are we going to say oh we need a storage box where we going to we didn't even know that those things were going to need but then people helped out and we were so overwhelmed with the people that came that were like okay even though I'm tired it's okay it was well worth it it was one of those things it was well worth it and the help of the community yeah it's really like heartwarming a lot of people showed up and I was like oh wow and even the people who who helped also to to to ship it there to ship it there we just we were just um let's just say a location to for people to know that okay this is the hub spot however there were a lot of key people who helped 400 boxes to be brought to Maui that's one and volunteers flying to L to help distribute that distribute the boxes imagine imagine that yeah coordinating that stuff okay I had to get a help from our good friend Joanne

[36:03] Fields cuz she did the what is it New Orleans during Katrina so the logistic part she she helped us with the Guam before that even the Guam too so you know she she knows the logistic part cuz I called her like Joanne I'm doing this and she's like what are you doing you just open the store in the store crazy crazy you're busy right now blah blah blah okay let me go there so she drove the next day and went over the logistics and how we're going to execute it and a lot of the people from the islands different islands that lives here now um helped during that that um packing and all it was beautiful and that's why I was like man there's a lot of kind people out here it was overwhelmingly amazing and so I feel like you know again restaurant business this is brutal but there are things that keeps you makes you go and go and like when people ask why you and okay my late mom has a running joke she she told me and she was she's in the food industry before when she was alive

[37:04] she said if you hate someone if you really really passionately hate somebody push them to open a restaurant you get your revenge right away and I was just like it's actually true one but we know the um profit margin is low the hard work basically for the amount of work you put in you only get x amount of dollars in return but this is what we know this is our passion and it's it's very natural for us the hospitality is something we're Filipinos um I grew up in the Philippines he grew up in Mai it's you know everybody is family you are hungry come you don't even have to call me that you're coming you just come we'll have food you or you make your own food in our kitchen that's how that's how we are growing up you know back home they'll just go inside our house I'm like and eat all my friends I'm like hey like I'm coming in I'm like okay whatever they'll just knock on the door you know and when you enter house you better live your slippers or shoes outside the door um get in trouble there yeah so besides that jet also uh as a business owner um

[38:08] you know it's tough also like what K said like you know in the food industry or just in the restaurant you got to as a business owner for a restaurant you got to find ways to get different source of income besides the walk-in besides that's the biggest one that's the biggest one because a lot of this restaurants they're just waiting for the walk-in people yeah no you got to go out there and go for marketing of we do party Trace we do catering get those you know like all those or whatever Uber Eats whatever it is like knocking on those corporate offices that doesn't even have cafeteria and you know they'll partner up with somebody that oh sure you know we're we're a company that does delivery for your um for your office building so we'll partner up with this restaurant you know those are the kind of things for those opportun opportunities because waiting for people to walk in that door you can be waiting

[39:10] for an hour and there's nobody walking in there you already losing sales cuz I think people think that way right like they think you open up a restaurant and then people just exactly we we've seen and what that's what we've seen when we were doing Farmers Market again my background is in marketing after the hotel when I left theot Hotel I dabbled into digital marketing for what good seven eight years maybe n i don't I lost count already and I always tell him my gosh we got a lot of friends who have good product but they're not doing the second part of it so just as a background you know when before we opened the brick and mortar what for five years we're doing catering and all that stuff we never have a brick and mortar but we were profitable because and and I always joke around with Chef I said man I make you look good you know in the in the internet I make you look good you know it's as if you have a brick and mortar your website is amazing social media is there um all of the stuff that is necessary for the customer who's making

[40:11] a purchase during the digital age so if you have a good product you also need to tell the world that you have it but you got to stay consistent I think business owners um forget that you you have to stay consistent and relevant basically Fresh So if you are putting time and money into let's say the product you also have to do the same for marketing because and that's why they said you know and again when a lot of free resources are out there I don't have the exact number but um what is it one uh three 3 to 5% of your sales needs to be um you need to allocate for marketing also because sales is not going to go up if you don't put marketing dollars and that's just true I know we're below our marketing dollars but I wish we could just put more and more but um because business owners think marketing is just social media oh I have to be on social

[41:11] media you know what if those are the things that you don't like that's the part where you need to Outsource already because you know that's equally important for you to get business you Outsource or delegate some things that you don't enjoy doing focus on the the tasks and the the job or that you love to do where your creativity or where your passionate is because you'll get burnt out if you try everything else and um it's going to suck financially and that's when that's why you just have to thrive and focus on what you're good at and I think that's when it's going to come yeah and I think for a lot of different Small Time small business owners that go in especially into restaurants right I've noticed that they come in with uh very limited budgets right we're just like okay we need to turn the lights on and get everything going so we can have money coming in but what would what would your advice be to someone that's like Hey we're L literally living hour for hour to try to

[42:13] make the money come in what's a strategy you think they can do TR Market our favorite word is cash flow yeah always check your cash flow check your cash flow that's um in I'm not an accountant we have a bookkeeper that's really not my for but you know in um when when bookkeepers report your profit and loss and balance sheet there's not really a line item there for cash flow they just balance the book but you need to know your cash flow and how much cash flow is not credit card debt that's not how it should Cas cash flow is your extra money that you should be in case of emergency you have that extra fund too it's different from savings you know layment term I think we're doing a very poor job in describing what a cash flow is however yeah so it's basically like your buffer your buffer for your expenses extra buffer so you you have your monthly expenses that you already know your rent your electric you know your labor your food cost or whatever or what's soever right but an extra cash

[43:16] flow would be like oh dude our fridge went down so now it's like you're not tapping into those operational expense so you're if you have that extra cash flow or for instance like oh I have a catering but they haven't paid yet yeah I think it's the best example there or we have a catering that's coming up this coming weekend but I still need to buy the supplies cuz they haven't paid yet so now you're buying the supplies for that catering but you haven't got the money yet but you have that cash flow so now like once they pay you you put it back in the cash flow in that bucket and then you're kind of like okay think of it as a your credit line but in cash form so once you have once you know what is your sweet spot you will not be tied up that when you when um when payroll is due when rent is due you're not stressed out and so um I think that's knowing your numbers follow numbers don't lie or

[44:20] bookkeeper today we just had our meeting with their bookkeeper today she just again followed the numbers and told us the harsh truth it was really rough inflation is getting us yeah you know like a good the food cost we have for a month it's it's pretty brutal it's pretty brutal it's been like 25% W which is a good food cost but January was like 30% so I look back at receipts you know like what went up everything went up everything 35 dozen of whole eggs was 30 35 bucks now they're selling for $135 so imagine that right it went up by quadruple whatever and you can't quadruple the prices to the customer no cuz you kind of like okay and that's the business decisions I think every business owner take it differently and I I think that's why when when you see reviews or feedback from different people of like oh my gosh it's expensive and and this is more of a blanket statement oh this place is expensive but

[45:24] there's value because there's they pack the plat so much so it's not really expensive and the word expensive is very subjective to the perception of an individual but then going back to the point of like yeah are you going to increase the price you might turn turn down um customers or some business owner especially I when was it last year when there was a huge inflation where a lot of business owners cut back on the portion we know we we go to our favorite restaurants where they cut back you cut back on the portion with the same price or a little bit higher people would notice that you would notice that and like really serving me a soup in a big bowl now it's like a medium Bowl it's same price but again you know what I feel like um and this is the harsh part sometimes but again we just I think we're we've been toughen up already but consumers need to understand Starbucks McDonald's and all of those fast food chains they have Dynamic pricing meaning they follow the numbers when I go to

[46:26] McDonald's because because of my kids Happy Meal and so I noticed when they were increasing from like $4 to $6 oh my goodness it was like so they are responding to inflations how come they don't get that much of a wrath versus a small business owner Where damn why are you guys um lessening your portion of your meat or your noodles or whatever it is or my goodness they're so expensive but if you look into a big picture why is it double St standard why are you treating why are you treating Starbucks differently where they have increased um a venti already for x amount of dollars or when they change their model also of not having seating because again you know seating is overhead and and all the other stuff so um but again we we figure it out um I guess AB testing let's see what's going to work which one's going to stick and we're always just try to find give value and that's why again going back to the

[47:27] experience you know um we we make it a good experience you know at the very least and and I appreciate that and and one of the to get to your back to your point like I feel like one of the my theories is consumers feel like they can pull a little bit more from small businesses because there's a there's a sort of a community connection right you're like oh this is someone who lives here they should help me out right but then you go to McDonald's or something like that I'm sorry we're not trying to you know crap on McDonald's right now it's just this is example but I I feel like it starts to become oh they're Corporation and they have so much more money but at the end of the day restaurants food food and beverage comes from the same thing right we're trying to just make it enough to keep going to keep going and it's it's a low small profit margin for a lot of different restaurants most restant exactly yeah exactly but then again you know I think

[48:27] I we we joke around once we get over covid I feel like we can go I just hope there's no other pandemic again happening in our lifetime I'm not sure if I can how I'm going to handle that anymore but I think I feel like you know you we surpass Co we survived covid so whatever it's coming in our way a badge of honor for restaurant people you know it's the people no in the restaurant industry those people who never shut down and they still fighting I give them so much props because they found found a way to Pivot their business no matter what and you know they they're tapping into more like catering now where they're not a catering or party trade kind of restaurant now they're tapping into that because they know that like okay you know what those are the ones that we need to hit and yeah you know the pivot moment of their business and you know I know we're talking about a lot of catering and yes we are a restaurant business here um when we look into the number numbers catering is our favorite business

[49:30] because the the profit margin is higher also guarantee on financial part you know we're not waiting for people to walk in basically yeah it's guaranteed already it's paid for the only thing that we need to make sure is we deliver the promise and we wow them which again if you look into our Yelp I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's still on the five for our catering profile it's been great because um again the the the upside of being a mom and pop is that me and Chef are still very handson like my favorite thing whenever we have weddings Chef is there he's there plating for the bride and the groom for their plate because what we were once um we had our wedding too and we always joke around that how come the bride some of the Bride in the groom that we see on social media they love saying like oh my gosh I did not eat my own food I'm going to go to the fast food in and out or whatever I was like wait you planned and paid for that and so for us us you know for our any weddings like that's we always played up

[50:31] their food because they don't have time to eat and he he because again this is that part where the experience you know I always tell our customers for our catering customers this is a hotel grade experience quality that you're getting in the Mom and Pop Shop which is 100% true you know Chef Andy used to be an executive chef for Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara r hundreds of luau in Maui and Kawaii in convention center uh beside Convention Center here in downtown San Diego I mean dude I didn't realize up until I started dating him that banquet chefs are different than restaurant Chef I didn't know that I was like oh my goodness how many chickens are those it's like and they're cooked the same that's the thing and they taste the same it's amazing it's it's the consistency part so that the the chicken are first of all they're cooked through and through and they're moist they're not dry and it's just uh it's it's amaz so they they're built differently but going back to those um uh bride and

[51:32] groom we well I know he because I'm not there um he makes it a point that he works with the wedding coordinator and the the photographer of sometimes like wait block everyone off you know no no no guest no family coming to the the bride and groom let them inhale the food give them 5 10 minutes just to eat because one of those factor is like what C said like you know those brighten group doesn't get to eat or when they're sitting at the sweetheart table everybody's like okay let's take a picture so they're all they're busy already they're busy already so it's more like okay let's plate their food while they're taking picture they can nibble on on something and then you know like kind of like okay let's take a picture and still still nibble after the picture taken with the group so it is tiring man it is tiring you know for the bride in the Grom day and I make it a point when I'm doing k ging I'm there from the beginning till the end and you know when we're cleaning up we want to make sure we thank the the host for the guest the event planner that's saying

[52:36] hey we're leaving by the way X Y and Z is already you know taking care of here you go so you know I I want to make that impression that that you know still doing the customer service for K as well you know um and we've seen this we've have a lot of repeat uh catering clients where after the wedding I'm not even kidding you we have first birthday of their kids and then sometimes grad for graduation it's like all three kids graduating we we threw the catering party so we're like okay it's uh graduation season already here we go here we go so if you guys can capture a family that is as eight kids that would probably be ideal yeah that would be ideal every year as long as they go to college and graduate every year birthday and graduation every year it too yeah I mean it's I think part of you know this is the sort of quiet factor that I think a lot of people don't know or don't think about in businesses right that you guys being involved with community and then

[53:39] also starting out with you're saying with sort of like uh farmers markets right it gets the brand out there but it also gets the comfortability of being able to get to know the owner like I want to support this business I and I you know and I don't think everyone has that opportunity right some people will move to San Diego I'm going to open restaurant they don't know anyone and then that's that's that's a gig right that it is what it is but I think there's so many things that I look at uh your business that came out that you did it in a methodical way and I feel like the stuff that came to fruition was because of those things right yeah like 100% business plans right like just just that it I I think you guys took how long you said six months six months do business plan I bet I I've seen people try to do it in like afternoon right I'm like there's no way you've thought through all these different things right yeah and when we work with a business planner business plan writer he we would

[54:40] put stuff and then he will challenge us and we're like oh yeah huh and because he he makes business plan he assists on creating those business plan I mean nowadays we have so much information um and resources available but but yeah you can prolong the the um planning out or writing it out however how true is it like because sometimes there's the part of it does take time because you know you go to the restaurant oh I haven't thought about that part you know the I think we have to have like a a promotional sign there on the wall and we did not put that on the business plan and that takes time and so I think you have to be patient with yourself but there's also the analysis paralysis so you got to be careful on that one too that you're taking too much time planning and planning planning and you're not executing already and when you mentioned earlier about the farmers market one of the things that we've

[55:40] learned there is also yes he has the credentials of being an executive chef but I'm going to tell you in a hotel setting you have a sue Chef you have a stewarding who's handling all of that no Chef did it all and safety food safety is one of his priority our priority and so when we were doing Farmers Market he needs to make sure that there's an everything that he takes into heart not only when he gets visits from the health department but also again the safety of the customers and so he was able to build confidence on his own product and the operation so that takes time too so earlier when you mentioned when maybe some people who never been to San Diego landed San Diego I want to do everything already you know you even though you have the resources money and time and maybe the network sometimes it's still a different experience when you actually work in the in the industry whatever factor or like whatever side it may be

[56:42] you would just have to work we're joking around like oh when when Kay and kameha turns you know um able to work in a um an a legal age already they definitely need to work and just be humbl down they need to see what's happening they need to you know scrub the scrub the floor and and and actually you know what working at the farmers market really you know brings me back in a days where it's very humbling you know like those those Farmers Market people they really work hard you know you're breaking down you're setting up rain or shine you know windy and all of that and you know like you're there waiting if it's like raining you're like you don't you know you're not going to have customer you'll play tricks on your mind and in your heart and heart and you're like thinking my God can I do this and it takes time exactly and it takes time you know and once you establish that that you know you got thicker skin and you can do that like you know going through this business now you know business planning and all of that it will be so much easier and by the way when you're going

[57:44] into getting a brick and mortar and all of that look at the true cost of how to build out because you cannot just shoot numbers there I'm going to borrow 300,000 or 200,000 really how much is your equipment how much is your GC permitting and all of that because you want to be exact kind of like close to that number the same time you don't want to shoot overshoot it that you're like you're in big debt and you don't know what you're getting into and I know we're talking about money and just brings me back Memory Lane about those time it was so hard the farmers market it was depressing Kay was very young that time I'm like are we doing this fair warning for those couples or people people who have day jobs and all that stuff stick to at least one one person to have the day job I you know you have to have that stream of income to becoming don't think that don't Bank on the farmers market or just your start up startup company you know if you're building the company don't

[58:45] think that oh I I made my business plan I did my research this is how much it costs everything I have six months of savings already I'm set okay go quit your job heck no don't do it don't do it it took 5 years running this business before we were both fully into the business already um and you know some I still joke around I'm like man I missed that paycheck but then again the the freedom the flexibility the decision making um the time you know the time nobody can buy that time ex that time my our mandates yeah and and also you know like when we open our brick and mortar um you know like another one to I mean it's off the subject but giving back to the community it's more like um I'm bringing in those vendors that that's are in the Farmers Market they're from Hawaii like our kuple coffee or Mochi and all of those mju those vendors that we sell desserts and coffee in our store they're from Hawaii too and they do

[59:48] farmers market so it's kind of like we are their extension to their to their customers because they don't have a brick and mor and we understand what we what they went through or what they're going through right now cuz they're