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Business Acquisition: Transforming an Established Brand with Layne Mayfield · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody and welcome back to the show.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're diving straight into the culture, craft, and business of outdoor cooking.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you ever walked past a backyard smoker at 5 a.m.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: or marveled at a custom outdoor kitchen, you know that grilling isn't just about cooking, it's a lifestyle.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So my guest today is Lane Mayfield, the owner of BBQ Outfitters.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: After spending over a decade in real estate in Dallas, he and his wife Kristen decided to turn a lifelong passion into an entrepreneurial adventure.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: In late 2021, they took the leap and acquired BBQ Outfitters, a legendary staple in the Texas barbecue community that's been fueling backyard chefs since 1998.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to talk about what it takes to transition from corporate life to small business ownership, how they scaled a brick and mortar institution centered around community and the demos, and why deep down the secret to great retail, it's all about building confidence for the customers.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lane, thanks for taking the time and thanks for coming on the show.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pleasure, Phil.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I appreciate it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you give us a little bit of I I tried to do justice to your background, but you know, let's how did you get into this?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you get into this?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, you you if you were doing real estate before, it's probably a cushy little lifestyle, cushier than uh running retail.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, if you could give us a little flavor, yeah.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll keep it somewhat brief.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I spent about 12 years in commercial real estate in Dallas, started that right after college, and um it was a good run.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's funny, I remember six months into doing it, I looked at the guys 15, 20 years ahead of me and thought, man, they're they're doing pretty well financially, but I see what they do every day and I don't have a lot of passion about it.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so fast forward 12 years, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, but I just kept my head down in the meantime.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in a few months before COVID really hit, early 2020, I just had the the realization and through learning different channels that I wanted to buy a business.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um I kind of always knew I'm really not a zero-to-one guy.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think starting something from the ground up was gonna be my specialty.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so working with something built and ability to try and grow and and enhance that sounded better for my skill set.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've spent the better part of a year and a half looking at hundreds of different businesses.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I certainly didn't think I was gonna buy a grill and outdoor kitchen company.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in about mid-2021, Barbecue Outfitters came on my radar, was able to quickly move and ultimately closed on it uh in November of 21.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the main things I was looking for is that it needed to be something that I could understand.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's plenty out there that I don't.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was a in hindsight, I didn't know how valuable it'd be that it'd be something that I had a natural passion in.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was a barbecue nut hobbyist before that, watched nothing barbecue stuff on on YouTube and started smoking stuff with my dad when I was a young kid.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's been it's been great on that front because it's something I just naturally enjoy.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so interacting with our customers and everything else is just fun.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that wasn't the goal.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: The goal was just to find a well-established business that I could hopefully grow and at worst maintain.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so we closed in 2021 and you know, in the midst of the the COVID craziness, and you know, this industry was booming because everyone was locked away at home and spending money on enhancing their homes.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so it was just head down from the beginning, and and yeah, happy to go into every detail, but that you'd like to, but uh, it's been a journey.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Has every bit of it been a blast?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, but would I have done it differently, or would I uh, you know, if I could go back and do it again thousand times over, I'd do it again.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's funny.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of entrepreneurs always think about starting from ground zero and coming up with a concept and starting from ground zero.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And like you, I did a a retail um uh uh startup many years ago, and I sat there, we had drawn out the plans for a store from the ground up and what we wanted and how we wanted to do it.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, this is gonna cost whatever it was at the time,$500,000 to build a store.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: These were small grab-and-go meal stores.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, we could probably buy an existing store that's sort of similar, and then supplant the concept on it, and we'd probably pay less for for doing that, and we can like grow into it, test the concept, fix anything that we that's broken.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's sort of that's what we did.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we were able to grow that to, you know, five or six stores before we needed to uh raise capital.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a better way of doing it.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you're you're not the only one, the the only entrepreneur I've ever talked to that bought a business and sort of took it to a different level.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you hear the term ETA, entrepreneurship through acquisition, and that's kind of what I fell in love with and and uh learned from a lot of great people that helped me get there.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you know, I just in in hindsight now, you know, we there's times we talk about opening new additional locations and new markets, and and with the benefit of nearly five years of doing this, I realized not only do you need to budget for the cost to build out your space and all of that, but you need to have 5x the budget you think you need for marketing to get the word out and and awareness because you're new to that area.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's something I didn't fully appreciate uh before, and now I definitely know that I see companies open up all the time, they're great little shops, but they close down in six months to a year because they haven't figured out how to get the word out that they're there, right?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a that was a huge benefit to me, was just the you know, 25 years or more of awareness of who we were.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we when we built the stores, they were again grab and go meal stores over in Washington, D.C.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I I wanted to put them on top of the metro stops.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: 10,000 people were coming out of those doors every day, and you know, and I would sit to find a location.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I would sit and look at which way people went when they came out of the metro and where the bulk of them went.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that was sort of how I that was my concept of how to find real estate or how to find a store.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it worked well because you're 100% right.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, especially in a I don't care what market you're in, it's expensive to try and build awareness.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's expensive to try and build awareness online.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's expensive to try and build awareness in general.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: You sort of have to come up with, you know, uh a concept or something that's going to break through the clutter.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't agree more.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, uh, as you know from commercial real estate, you know, the your your location is is everything.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:50
  unknown: Yeah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that was one of the things that really stood out to me was the former owner, the founder, Bob Carroll.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: He he started in Austin, grew into San Antonio in 2014, but both of the locations we have are right on premier highways, great highway visibility.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: You hear customers all the time, oh, I've been driving by you for years.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you just that that signage out front is that free billboard that's so critical, right?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, to that too, easy access.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can be in a great spot that no one can get in there.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're a brick and mortar retail company, that's critical as well.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm it's funny you said that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I take my I was taking my car to this detailer uh that was that's down the road.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they they were there for years, corner building, you know, a corner, they had a big sign on the corner, and then they disappeared, they were gone.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and it was something else in there, and I was like, huh.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I needed to get my car detailed because I want to trade it in, and I was looking for them and I couldn't find them anywhere.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, I could have sworn I saw somebody else open up in that same spot as a car detailer.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I I I uh searched at that exact location and I found them.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I spoke to the guy when I took my car in and I said, you know, were you with the guys before?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, I ran this the shop there for 20 years.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How's business compared to you compared to them?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'm only doing like a quarter of what we were doing.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Can I make a suggestion?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to get involved in your world, man.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the best expense that you can make right now is two things.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you need a bigger sign on the corner of that building.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I said, your sign is so small that people don't recognize you're here.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you need a bigger sign.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I said, and the second thing you need to do is whoever's doing your website needs to fix your Google search.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I said, because you don't come up in my area, you don't come up in the area next to me, you don't come up at all.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I had to put in your exact address to find it.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: But and and both of those, one is online real estate, the other one is physical real estate.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and sometimes people spend too much money advertising when the simple thing, I guarantee you, when he gets that sign up, uh, you know, I haven't gone by, but it was about a month ago.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But when he gets that sign up, his business is gonna double.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, it's funny you say that because there's so many things, you know, when I first got here, and I remember the old owner talking about, Lane, I'm sure you're gonna see a dozen things out of the gate that just your eyes gonna see, we need to do better.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've been here for so long, you just get used to what's there.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And things like taking for granted this the impact of signage, in your mind, it's perfectly fine.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't realize until sometimes you get that feedback that you're way underserving yourself by you know something that can be a few hundred dollars even to upgrade, right?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it's amazing how those little things can make such a difference.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, tremendous.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we have a uh a client who's a landscaper, hardscaped landscaper.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: They do, you know, big stuff, put in pools, do the whole, you know, beautiful stuff.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we do their website and some some marketing and stuff.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, you know what the biggest thing that you can do, that's probably gonna get you the biggest return, I said, is you need a trifold pamphlet that can go in mailboxes and hang on doors.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I said, and when your guys are in the neighborhood doing a job, you need to blitz that neighborhood.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: You get a kid, I said, a 14-year-old, 15-year-old kid, pay him some money and and have him go out there and blitz the neighborhood.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I said, because that's gonna be your cheapest spend.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna spend$300 for a trifold, blitz the neighborhood, I guarantee you you'll get another client out of it, building a deck or putting in, you know, a patio or even redoing the landscaping, whatever it is.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure, you know, in your business, if well you're you're not doing the actual construction of the like the kitchen area, like the stonework and the brickwork and all that.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're just coming and doing the installs.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: So your your client you just mentioned is a perfect partner of ours, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: He may be building out this beautiful outdoor kitchen area as part of the pool and everything else, and partnering with him to supply the the cooking equipment and caventry and all that is is our specialty.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Probably still work for you though when you go into a neighborhood, you know?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've we've talked about that kind of thing because it's it's it's it's small money, but it can make a big impact.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Are most of the grills this is just a personal question, are most of the grills that you put in uh gas or um charcoal or something else?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's for built-in grills, it's probably 85-90% gas grills.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing else that we do built-in a lot, we well, we do a lot of the ceramics, like the big green egg, the you know, the green ceramic, the red Kamado Joe.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's a common add-on.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then there's also built-in pellet grills that are very popular these days.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at our revenue break broken down, gas grills is the leader by far.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I I like to grill, but I don't like gas grill.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: To me, it's like, why am I doing it out here?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I could just do that inside.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I love I love the smell of burning wood or burning you know different charcoals, you know.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I grew up in a household that gas grills, I mean that was that was a sin, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we were charcoal.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's taken some adaptation since I got here.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now that it's our bread and butter, I love them.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, I'm partial to getting my hands dirty and get some charcoal burning myself.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just like the I like the smell, I like the flavor, I like the the whole thing, you know.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a bit of a pyro, so I like to play a little fire.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so do I.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I like uh I I like um I have this one girl that I that I picked up and it takes small wood, small logs, and well, I I don't think you'd call them logs, but it's wood.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um and I love it because you know, we can buy like you could buy apple wood or cherry wood or whatever kind of wood you put in there.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just love burning it and I can sit out there watch it.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we had a heat wave about uh a month ago here.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Temperatures were like 105, 106 degrees.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: They were saying, you know, don't let the dogs out, stay inside, ever, etc.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I I my daughter said, you know, I'd really like to to grill.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'll do it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I set up the grill and and I'm standing out there, obviously I'm sweating like crazy, you know, and everybody's like, I can't believe you you're grilling.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my neighbors are like, what is wrong with you?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I just I think it's fascinating.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sitting there watching it go, I have no problem.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: You fit right in in central Texas, because what you just described is a few months of the year for us, and we still weather it and get up there and far up the grill.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So most Texans are accustomed to that.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you when you took it over, did were there things that you thought you saw to build a business, to scale the business even further?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously, you know, when you buy a business, you're buying it on the revenue and profit generated at that time.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you just pay for that and continue down that path, it really doesn't pay, does it?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, obviously you got to buy right.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And like when I said earlier, you know, I I wanted to buy something I felt like I could grow, but I bought it in a way that worst case, we stabilize or even dip down a little and we can still service debt and and and make enough cash flow to survive.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but of course I didn't buy it for that.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: That wasn't the plan, but I wanted to be conservative enough that we weren't, you know, upside down if we had a 10 or 15% decline overnight.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, the things I saw right away that it was a well-established business, had a great reputation in the markets we're in.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but and it's no, you know, it's no uh negative to the former owner, but a lot of times and when you're looking at buying a business and I talk to dozens of owners, everyone says, Oh, I'm an absentee owner.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, you don't have to do anything.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And most of the time they're full of it.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time they're working 70 hours a week and they're having their finger in every damn, you know, every hole in the dam.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: This was the first one where I met the owner that I didn't fully appreciate how absentee he really had become until I got to know the staff better after taking over, that they're like, Yeah, we we saw Bob maybe once every few months.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And otherwise he was down at his place at the coast fishing.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, he had truly built something that could operate without him, which was great.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: But we it was the company was also riding the wave of the COVID demand, in which any company that was somewhat serviceable could do no wrong.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And what I saw was there was so many operational inefficiencies.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: The company, the the business, even though he owned both, they were run as two separate entities on two separate QuickBook desktop files.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: There was no communication between the two stores.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so out of the gate, I set out and said, we've got to figure out a way to get the company combined where we've got an ability to see everything going on at one place, where our sales team in San Antonio has visibility into our inventory in Austin and vice versa, and cross-sell and everything else.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that was, you know, as you can imagine, it sounded easy, it was anything but, but we got everything on to one system.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then two, there was really no operational system at all.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're I don't know if you've heard of EOS Entrepreneurs Operating System.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: We instituted EOS about six months in and started to institute it and build out that operating system for the company.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're still on that now, and that just created a much more simplified, clear vision for both myself and the leadership team, but as well as the store-level teams to see everything we're trying to do from the highest level, but also just strip away all the confusion, and not to say it's all stripped away, there's still plenty of confusion any given day, but show everyone these are the goals, these are the things we're trying to accomplish, these are the metrics we're trying to achieve.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that that made a big difference because it went from leadership team knows their role, we have a set meeting once a week, we're gonna go over issues that have come about instead of my door opening every 10 minutes with some new fire to fight and nothing ever really getting done with it, right?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was just much more organized.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the two big things we set out in year one that you know has since really done a lot for us.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think, you know, when I coach entrepreneurs, I coach them on building the business that runs without you.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't mean you can't be you don't have to be there.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that you're setting up systems and and processes that can operate.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because if everything has to go, just like you said, if everything has to go through you, if if your door is constantly opening and you know people are coming in and asking you questions and you're the bottleneck, then the business can't grow.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, chaos doesn't scale.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so whether you want to stay in one location, two locations, build more locations, or just grow the existing locations to a higher revenue level and get as much out of it as you can, you do need an operating system.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a lot of that's really the I think the biggest stumbling block that I have with founders when I get involved.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And some of these founders can grow a business to 10, 15 million a year and still, you know, they they just don't they just don't see it.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a good point, you know, setting up an operating system so that everybody knows what's happening and there's clear, clear lines of what people are doing, who's who's doing what, clear systems, clear processes.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you do it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's you know, like everything else, you you know, in hindsight, you everything sounds easy.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you get on some new software to implement, that'll be easy.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's never easy and it's never as smooth as you hope.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say getting EOS to where it's actually functioning and working for us like it should is it it took the better part of, I would say, a year for the leadership team, two years to get the the store-level entire teams bought in and appreciating what we're trying to do.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: But that just takes that discipline of continuing to drive it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, as I have peers that I meet with regularly, it's it is very easy to throw in the towel and just be like, this is too big of a pain in the rear.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna go back the way I was doing it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm really glad we've kind of stuck with that because it was a big aha moment for me.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: My my third child was born beginning of December last year, and I decided I was like, you know what, I'm gonna check out.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm taking off the month of December, I'm available if you need me, but I'm not coming in.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and did so, and everything was fine.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it was amazing to come back in the first of January and realize that we have finally built something that while I like being here and I love working on the business and thinking about what we can do, the big picture.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Largely, I you know, my door's not busting open every 10 minutes with a fire to fight because someone doesn't know what to do.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that but that that took the better part of four years to get there, right?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's been, God, what a relief and a lot less stress for me when I have a team that can can handle it without me.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I uh honestly have no choice when I build a business but to put in an operating system because I am not uh I know what my strengths and my weaknesses are, and I know what I'm great at.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when I hire people, I'm tell them, you know, if I if I did had your skill set, I wouldn't need you.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I do, and this is what you're gonna do, and this is how we're all going to you know build a business.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I I would never be successful if I didn't put systems and processes in and have a uh and have a dashboard with metrics that I could look at because that's what I do.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I look at it every morning.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to people if if I cease to see a problem, but I've hired people, I have people that have been with me for you know 14, 15, 16 years from a prior business, and they know how I am and they know what I look at.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal, my role in the whole thing is just to continue to build and get more clients to keep them employed so that we can, you know, move on.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then come up with you know hare-brained ideas to, you know, do send the business into a tizzy every once in a while.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: But you know Yeah, I've done that a few times.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So is the business is the category that you're in, is that growing?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: What what's your what's sort of your expansion plans?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is there an opportunity on e-commerce with that?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is there not an opportunity?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is it just strictly stores?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, it could I could give you a 30-minute answer.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll try to be concise.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'll tackle the last part first, e-commerce.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's definitely opportunity there.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: We have grown our portion of e-commerce or or our our uh you know percentage of revenue in e-commerce a fair amount since I took over.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was virtually non-existent when I got here.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: We completely rebuilt the website and um really have invested in SEO and a lot of things to help expand our reach, and it's been and it's worked.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's still, you know, a small percentage of what we do.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there operating an e-commerce business as I've had to learn is very, very different than running a brick and mortar.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Your operating breakdown, your operating expenses are extremely different.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so, um, you know, shipping the product we ship to be competitive, it's got to be free shipping.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well that, you know, as you can imagine, is Shipping a 300-pound grill that while it seems indestructible is actually highly fragile.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the the denting and everything that can happen in transit, it's expensive and it's prone to have issues when it gets there.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And now you've got to be prepared to deal with that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's hard to make that work until you get to a certain scale.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: For us, we kind of see that as just kind of gravy income that is still profitable for us at a lower margin, but it's still worth it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the since I bought the business, we're really just fortunate, and it wasn't something I really foresaw or thought about.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: But one, we're, you know, we're in Austin in San Antonio, the central Texas area ran, there's a high concentration of wealth, um, especially in the Austin market.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so just so happens that our company was already really heavily or not heavily reliant, heavily focused on outdoor kitchens versus your cart gas grills.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: So think brands like Traeger and Weber, and you know, we sell those.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: But if we just focused on that, we'd be like so many I know that have gone under since because of what's happened in our economy since COVID with inflation and everything else, the typical buyer of that kind of entry-level$1,000 grill has dried up consistently or could uh considerably just simply because they're trying to figure out how to pay for gas and groceries and they don't have the kind of disposable income they did during COVID as much.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: However, on the higher end of that economic scale, if you're riding the wave of the stock market and things are going well for you, and you know, you've got all this equity built in your home or what have you, they're still spending money like crazy.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're just really fortunate that our primary bread and butter customer is on that end.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, you know, yeah, we we'd love to see that other segment of our you know industry come back, and I'm sure it will at some point, but uh we're just fortunately positioned towards that higher end customer.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, it's it's funny.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's like when interest rates were low and everyone's moving into new homes, we benefit from that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: People want to invest in their new homes.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: On the flip side, when interest rates really high, everyone's hunkering down and saying, hey, we weren't gonna stay here forever, but now we are, so let's invest in making this home what we want it to be.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's build something for our outdoor kitchen or whatever.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we kind of win in both of those.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't, again, I didn't realize that until now, but uh it's been great.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're you know, I've I've come to realize, and I and I researched this as much as I could looking back at you know the great financial crisis years for this company.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: As much as we I assumed it was highly uh, you know, highly recession um at risk, it's it's surprisingly resistant.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so you know, it's it's I don't even remember where I was going with that, except that just it's it's turned out that what we're focusing on, even if there's a you know drop in the stock market, things like that, it's pretty resilient.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I agree with you.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that, and I'm and my wife and I are guilty of it too.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it's when when you move into a place, a new house or whatever, you want to make it look great, but you're always investing in your house.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of your bet it's one of your biggest assets.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you even if you think about, well, we're gonna leave, you know, at some point, or maybe we're gonna sell it at some point, you you're still investing in it because you want it to be able to sell quickly.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and it also depends on uh on the neighborhood.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we see it in our we live in a very small neighborhood and we see it in our neighborhood.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: People are now, you know, rather than moving, some of the the older people their kids are moving out of rather rather than moving or selling their houses and downsizing or whatever, they're uh investing in in the house.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh not so much in pools, but more important more in patios and uh and things like that.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, and we've done and and we've done it, but you're right.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: When the interest rates go high, you're investing in in your house.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: When the interest rates go low, you know, you're investing in your house.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I I just think that it's uh it's always fun.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it lasts, you know.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: You build my my brother-in-law has an outdoor kitchen that they built on their patio 25 years ago.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, they replaced some of the equipment in it, but they the the the structure itself is still very viable and very, you know, very strong, resilient.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like something you build and then you know, 10 years later or five years later you have to redo it, you know, like bathrooms or kitchens when you redo it because you did something that's sort of a fad and then it goes out of style, and you've gotta, if you want to sell the house, you've got to bring it back to like white, you know.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and that's actually it's a really big piece of our business.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: People that are just simply retrofitting the grill that was in their outdoor kitchen, everything else is totally fine.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're just they've been in that grill for 10, 15 years, they're ready to replace it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've we do that kind of work all the time.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh yeah, you're right.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: You may have to make that initial investment, sizable investment, but once you're replacing a single grill 10, 15 years later, it's not so painful.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I uh a buddy of mine up the street, he um he his wife wanted an outdoor fireplace.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, okay, you know, I'll do it.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna put a television out there, you know.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to build the outdoor fireplace.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then on the side, they built this outdoor grill, but it's not uh gas grill, it's not a grill, it's not a structure, it's brick with a uh, you know, and so he's got a uh screen eye, he loves it.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he just he constantly cooks on it and he thinks it's the greatest thing in the world, you know, and he goes out and he finds all these exotic woods that have different flavors, and he's like, you know, sending out emails saying, hey man, you know, you gotta taste this, it's fantastic.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's got a smoker next to it, you know.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: The guy's a maniac, but you know.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what that's one of the things that makes it so fun for us.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I tell everyone we ever interview looking to work for us, is we sell 100% of what we sell is a want.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing about it that's a need.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the benefit about that is when someone comes to see us, I mean, they walk in our doors and it's like a it's like an adult's, you know, toy store.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's not hard to get excited with the customer and start helping them, you know, bring their their dream to reality because you know, a lot of what we do is design work.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, once you can get that design to real life and get their their reaction, you know, at the final install and check in with them how they're doing with it.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's so fun to hear about just how much they use it, how much they enjoy it.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, for our team, that are that's just nothing better than seeing that kind of thing.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's great.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Even in the winter, it's great.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, having an outdoor fireplace and that whole setup, it's great, e you know, even in the winter.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I enjoyed the conversation.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're just about out of time, and uh, I appreciate you coming on and sharing.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and people can find you how people in Texas obviously can find you in your store.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got our our our stores in Austin, San Antonio.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: You can find us at bbqoutfitters.com.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: We also have Instagram, Facebook.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've got live cookouts every Saturday if you're hungry and want to come by just for some free food and a cold beer.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, come and see us or call us.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: We we can help you anywhere.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you coming on, man.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you again.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Bill.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pleasure.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.