Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Outsourcing to Scale with Chef Eboni Bowman

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Outsourcing to Scale with Chef Eboni Bowman · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  But at that time, I wasn't really scaling.
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  I was kinda making everything work because things were really coming at me fast.
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  Like, the business was like building, building, building, quicker than I was prepared for too.
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  So I didn't start scaling until probably a year or so in when someone was, like, looked.
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  You're gonna burn yourself out if you're doing things the way that you're doing them.
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  So it wasn't until we sat down and had that conversation that I really sat there and and
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  and and thought about, like, You know what?
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  You're right.
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  So they started helping me put together a system, where I was able to scale the business.
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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business spurt, Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi everybody.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to another
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  episode of the small biz chat podcast.
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  We have an amazing show in store for you today.
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  And you wanna be able to tap into a strategy to grow your business.
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  And it's very hard for service businesses.
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  I know I've been running 1 for 23 years.
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  So you wanna make sure you're thinking through all of your technology options and staffing
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  options.
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  And if you're running a service business, a solo business, and you wanna figure out how to
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  scale your business, I got an expert here that's gonna give you her secrets on how she
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  did it.
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  The goal of all of this is to help you with your long term business strategy.
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  Here on the small business chat podcast, we talk about how to start and grow a successful
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  business.
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  Our mission is to end small business failure, and we bring in guests with amazing expertise
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  to give you advice from multiple angles to help you take your business to the next level.
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  Now the small beach tap pockets is a peer to peer mentoring show.
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  We're really about giving small business owners invaluable business advice that they otherwise
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  would have to pay for.
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  The small biz chat podcast can be seen on my small bus lady YouTube channel and on my
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  Facebook page.
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  So please do me a favor and subscribe to both and share it.
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  More people need to know about how to get great information to grow their business.
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  Now let me introduce my guest, chef Evony Baumann.
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  And she's gonna talk to us about how she scaled her solo business into a full service catering
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  service.
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  And she is the founder of Flavor Atlanta, and she turned her lifelong love of of cooking into
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  a successful Georgia based small business offering personal chef services mill prep,
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  cooking classes, and catering.
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  Both of Ebony's grandmothers did a lot of cooking and baking, and one was a professional
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  caterer.
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  Ebony started helping them in the kitchen from when she was just five years old.
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  Then she went and studied at the Art Institute of Atlanta's culinary school more than And now
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  she has more than 20 years of experience in the culinary and hospitality industries.
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  And if you want more information about her business, It is flavoratlanta.com.
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  Evony, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
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  Thank you.
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  I'm glad to be here.
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  Alright.
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  So talk to us.
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  How did Flavor Atlanta come about?
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  Flavor Atlanta came about as kind of a side hustle.
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  I've always loved cooking, loved baking, being in the kitchen, of course, test tasting, with
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  with my grandparents.
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  But I've worked in the food industry for quite some time, started catering on the side, but it
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  wasn't until I had, left my my full time employment that I went full force with a flavor
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  at Atlanta.
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  So how long did you run it as a side hustle before it became your main gig.
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  It was about 2 years.
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  It's not an easy thing I might add.
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  Especially working in food service industry.
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  I was working in a kitchen, managing, a kitchen for a senior home, and I manage the kitchen
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  staff and dining room staff.
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  So having that big responsibility, which things are always going on, it's like I'm on call 24
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  hours a day.
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  And then on the weekends or after work, I'm catering, you know, small parties or doing
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  cooking classes, that kind of thing.
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  Alright.
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  So how have you funded your business?
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  I started small.
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  I didn't take out any loans.
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  I just, again, started booking small gigs.
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  I had a lot of referrals.
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  A lot of my friends know that I could, know that I had started a business.
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  So they were referring people to me.
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  So I just started small.
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  I didn't wanna start off in a lot of debt.
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  I didn't wanna buy a big building.
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  I rented space in a, commercial kitchen, which I still do and it makes it a whole a lot
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  easier.
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  It makes it more affordable.
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  I'm not taking in a whole lot of overhead.
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  And I just take my time to I took my time and build the business, kinda like a brick by
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  brick.
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  Oh, I I think most of us have done that.
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  So
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  Yeah.
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  What would you say was your shipping point that made you realize you needed to do something to
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  grow.
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  I was not happy at my full time job.
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  And so when we decided to part ways, I I said I'm not gonna, you know, go full time anywhere
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  else.
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  I'm just gonna decide.
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  I'm just gonna dedicate my time to doing this full time and make it really work for me.
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  And I cannot say that it couldn't have happened at a better time.
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  It was in November.
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  I was thinking to myself, like, gosh, the holidays are coming up.
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  How am I gonna balance this because holidays are always busy for me from, like, how I I was
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  growing.
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  So I was a lot busier than I was the year before.
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  I'm like, how am I gonna balance this?
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  And go to work and manage my staff at the same at the same time.
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  But I think everything happens for a reason.
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  So when we decided to part ways, I went all in with Flavor Atlanta.
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  So what what did you have to do to scale?
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  Like, when you went all in, did you have to get a team?
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  Did you have to get a virtual?
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  It's like, how did you handle it?
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  So I didn't I did have I do did Indu still have some people that helped me But at that time, I
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  wasn't really scaling.
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  I was kinda making everything work because things were really coming at me fast.
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  Like, the business was, like, building, building, building, quicker than I was prepared
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  for it to.
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  So I didn't start scaling until probably a year or so in when someone was like, look, you're
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  gonna burn yourself out if you're doing things the way that you're doing them.
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  So it wasn't until we sat down and had that conversation that I really sat there and and
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  and and thought about it and like, you know what?
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  You're right.
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  So they started helping me put together a system, where I was able to scale the business.
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  For things like our milk, the meal prep services, I was doing a huge, long menu because
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  I'm thinking about my customers.
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  I'm like, my customers wanna eat something different every day.
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  And they were like, no, they just really don't wanna cook.
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  So I instead of making instead of making, you know, a menu that was like 7 different meals,
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  You're like, no.
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  Do 4 or 5.
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  And then we'll take the same ingredients and do the same thing.
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  So while I'm not holding onto the ingredients from week to week, but I have a similar
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  shopping list where if I have leftover oats or flour, what whatever ingredient I might have
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  left over.
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  I'm just buying the same thing the next week versus having to buy a whole new set of
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  ingredients.
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  Wasting, you know, it keeps me from wasting stuff.
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  It keeps me from having all this overage running out of space storing all these extra
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  different ingredients.
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  So that was the first thing.
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  So it wasn't that I noticed that it was a need for it.
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  Someone else said, look.
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  You're not doing this the right way.
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  Let me help you.
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  So that's how I started my scaling process.
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  Now did you outsource parts of it too, or did you just kinda just organize your time and
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  better?
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  A little bit of both.
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  I love a system or a, not system, a company, that I use is called Rodee Incorporated.
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  They are an Atlanta based delivery service, and they're owned by UPS It's almost like a
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  DoorDash or, Uber Eats.
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  When they pick up for me, they do my deliveries.
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  So that kept me inside the kitchen, instead of me doing my own deliveries, which I was doing
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  and running myself crazy, because I can't be two places at the same time.
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  So I outsourced that.
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  I outsourced somebody to help me with my my emails and email blast and social media,
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  writing out some of the verbiage for my weekly emails, doing my graphic designs for my flight,
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  not necessarily flyers, but when I put out a menu every week, of course, when you get the
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  food, you want everyone to see a certain thing.
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  People are more attracted to stuff that has a picture of a a nice pretty plate versus just,
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  hey, order this meal.
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  And it's all worth.
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  So I have somebody that does that graphic design for me.
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  I bring in people that help me in the kitchen.
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  So having somebody who has the time and the expertise to do something else that frees me up
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  to do what I do best, which is being in the kitchen.
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  So how important has your marketing and your networking been to like keeping things keeping
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  things going?
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  Like, do you feel like you have a loyal following on social media or on your email
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  list?
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  Like, are people waiting to see what the menu is?
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  I do.
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  And and, you know, we usually put our menus out on Thursday, around the holidays.
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  It kinda crazy.
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  It might be on Friday, but I'm getting text messages and calls like, hey, I'm looking for
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  your menu.
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  Are y'all not cooking this week?
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  I mean, my meals.
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  Or the week of holidays when I might not do a regular meal prep menu, it's like holiday food,
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  or we'll do a lot of baking.
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  You're like, So you mean my kids are home and my family's home and I can't order meals?
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  So that does make me feel good that people appreciate my service, and a lot of them has
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  told me that, the service that I provide to them makes it easier for their family.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  So do you specialize in any particular kind of meals?
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  Like, do you do organic or Southern Fried?
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  What like, like, you know, how are you do you kinda give people what the flavor or, you know,
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  what you how do
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  you I I pride myself on doing everything from scratch.
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  So while I might not, I don't have, like, a a specialty But from my salad dressings, from the
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  seasoning blends, I do shop in the farmers market.
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  All fresh vegetables, no frozen, no canned foods.
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  Those are the things that I pride myself on because I know a lot of other caterers or peep
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  people in the food industry take the quickest way out.
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  Food cost is crazy right now.
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  I can't even tell you, I would say, like, a rack of lamb used to be 8.99 a pound.
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  Now it's $15 a pound.
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  It's almost double in the last year and a half, but I still I mean, even though some of those
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  costs are passed over to the customer, just having that fresh food is super important, not
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  cooking everything with those preservatives and those process foods is super important to me.
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  And I make sure that my customers know that.
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  And when they're asking, well, why is this this price?
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  I can get it such and such place for somewhere cheaper.
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  Again, I mean, that maybe what you have to do, but if you want food to fresh, you want it to
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  be flavorful, which is why I'm flavored Atlanta.
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  Fresh food and flavorful food.
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  That's what I do.
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  Well, listen, what would you say is the best business advice that you've ever gotten?
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  Best outsourcing.
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  You know, when I'm in, like I, like I said earlier, when I'm in the thick of it and I'm
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  just on go mode, I go go go.
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  I work.
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  I had to get all of my clients taken care of.
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  I don't I don't think about how I didn't think about how getting others involved to help me
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  run the business or let them focus on what they can do to help me with so much more beneficial.
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  Now I'm not saying I'm not a tire person.
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  I'm not saying that there are times where I don't get a lot of rest, but just having those
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  people in place that can do those things and let them do what they're good at, and and let
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  me do what I can do and what I'm good at, it makes it so much more peaceful, better for me,
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  I'm a happier person.
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  I'm not a little grinch, which, you know, when you're when you're really busy, don't realize
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  how you come off to other people.
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  And I just
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  let you know.
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  I had to take my I had to take my life back.
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  So outsourcing outsourcing outsourcing.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  Well, thank you so much for being here.
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  You really have given us a lot of helpful advice.
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  I think it is very hard for service businesses to scale.
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  So I'm really excited to hear the things that you've been able to do to scale your because
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  basically you have a personal chef business, and that that is a lot.
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  And you're, you know, working with very specific people.
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  So I I love it.
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  I love the advice that you gave.
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  And thank you so much to chef Evony Bowman, founder of Flavor, Atlanta, Her website is
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  flavoratlanta.com.
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  Now listen, if you're interested in starting your dream business in 2023, I wanna encourage
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  you to check out my new course, become your own boss, It is a 10 week online course that is
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  gonna give you everything you need to launch your dream business.
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  It starts January 31st I'm doing in a partnership with Drexel University.
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  So I can also get you some CEU credits if that's something that you need.
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  I'm gonna help you build a business plan and a sales plan so that you're gonna be able to
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  drive sales on day 1 of your business.
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  If you're interested in checking out the course, head over to our URL
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  tinyurl.comforward/byobdrexold.
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  Now thank you so much for joining us night on this episode of the Small Bishop podcast.
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  The mission of the Small Bishop podcast is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady, your host, and I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
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  fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss dot com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.