One piece of advice:

Be kind! Be kind to others and be kind to yourself as you navigate the business ownership process, just be kind. 

Last week we had a major problem at our restaurant location. The truck driver delivery a massive load of 22 pallets, 4 of which weighed about as much as a Honda Civic each! He was ready for us to take our load out of his truck but we were not told to have a fork lift. As fear sunk in and arrangements were in the works, I stepped away and said a prayer for guidance. With the HUGE disconnect between the place we ordered tables and chairs from and the trucking company, we were truly stuck. Luckily, with our natural kind nature, things were smoothed over and he was willing to work with us. He had planned a 2 hour delivery window and it turned into 7 hours! By the end we were hugging Nicholas and he went on his way! He mentioned that "if you weren't so kind, I would have dumped the load somewhere and left." (this is not me being dramatic, it was a major ordeal for all involved)

For the last 16 months during the process of starting our business, we have had to learn patience. This could be the lesson but more importantly, being kind in our struggles, we've had things work out in a much more beautiful way than we could have dreamed of!

President Monson shared from his "Finishers Wanted" talk from June 1989 that Jesus said to David to go sell his belongings and give to the poor. President Monson said, "He preferred the comforts of earth to the treasures of heaven. He would not purchase the things of eternity by abandoning those of time." This lesson really spoke to me. The treasures of heaven can be right here on earth if we place our priorities in line with an eternal perspective. Be kind and have a heart that listens to the spirit as you are directed down paths where you can do good and be of service.

My final words of advice that I want to remember to give to myself, along with the advice of being kind, is to enjoy the process! Enjoy the people that cross your path. Enjoy the journey and remember that things happen for a reason at the perfect moment they are suppose to happen!

 

Chapter Closed

The reflection of another semester coming to a close brings feelings of completion, feelings of sadness when it was so enjoyable, sometimes feelings of "finally", so many wrapped up feelings! 

Looking over 13 weeks: Bucket list, measuring our life, spreading happiness, passion, challenges, disciple leadership, dreaming big, measuring costs, being a change-maker, and to end this journey on gratitude and showing love to others who we partner with, I could not have asked for a more enlightening semester! 

4 years ago I started my education journey on a whim. As I mention that remember that I do not believe in coincidences and that I belief with my whole heart that Heavenly Father has a way of guiding us to be better and things line up in perfect timing. I had my husband and kids ask me, what do you want to do for work after graduation? I couldn't even think that far in advance but I said, "Nothing! I don't need to work outside of the home. I am just going to school to learn." Fast forward to today! The information and the knowledge that I've gained while working on my business management degree have all played a major role in opening our business! From creating the LLC to signing leases to hiring reputable construction crews with insurance tape slapped onto everything, I've been able to keep learning but I have the base knowledge I didn't have 4 years ago.

We all have the potential to learn. The potential to grow. The potential to take risks. We all the the potential to be touched by others and their stories and the ability to love more than we ever knew we were able! The gratitude I have to my husband for his love and support for 27 years, the love from my kids and grandbabies, the love I feel from my neighbors and friends, my local community, my professors that I've never been able to shake hands with, the gratitude almost hurts. It hurts so much that the tears squeeze from my eyes. 

Thank you for the support, the listening ear, the information that has taken hold of my heart, thank you from a distance and I hope to meet you one day! 

 

What is a business for?

Is it naive to go into a business wanting to offer employees profit sharing? The purpose of a business is not to make a profit, it is to make a profit so that the business can do good for its customers, employees, and the community. It's to bring about something new, exciting, helpful, creative, and necessary. Do not get me wrong, making a profit is mandatory for a business to succeed and grow. 

Let's talk guardrails, moral guardrails as well as financial guardrails but I also want to add, time guardrails. Having a set of standards that are written down and kept in our minds and hearts is a must be followed from the beginning. I don't believe that Ponzi scheme members set out to defraud. If we have set guardrails, we will tend to stay in the legal and ethical boundaries. 

So, should our top management make up to 400x's it's employees? Some would argue yes, they deserve it. However, again, is it naive to want to create profit sharing for every employee? I answer, no! If the the business succeeds, employees should be shown that they are appreciated and their contributions are noted. This type of appreciation is typically well received by employees in monetary form, although expressing appreciation often is also a powerful tool.

No one goes into creating a business just to break even. If there is a well established idea, research backed, goal oriented, businesses can do wonderful things! Taking time out to give back to the community is a really exciting part of business. Helping others, without fanfare, but simply to reach out and help uplifts and rejuvenates. 

I hope with all my heart that when my husband and I start our restaurant, we will be able to be in our community, helping and serving on a larger scale than what we are doing now. Opportunities have been presented and I hope this continues. I am grateful that my husband has done accounting for so long so that when we want to contribute or profit share for our employees that we do it within reason. No employee wants to come to work just to find out the business is shut down because of improper money management. Quite the opposite! Volunteer work, charitable donations, profit sharing with employees, and YES, making the business profitable, these are the goals!

 

How do you feel about money?

After 26 years of marriage, which has built an undeniable sense of love, trust, and value, my husband and I are going into business together! I haven't had fear about his intentions of taking us both in a direction that is unknown and unfamiliar. I have had however, great fear of not having the security of knowing that a check will be in our bank every other week for a specified amount of money.

I view money as a necessity but not of a measure of happiness and status. My husband views money as something that is necessary and yet frustrating. He lives in a way, where "IF" this happens, I'll be happy. "IF" I make this amount annually, I'll be happy. 

The differences in our money management and the differences in our attitudes toward money are evident. We drive older cars that are paid off. We have a 20 year old home that we update when we have extra money. Our kids drive 20+ year old cars that have been taken care of. We don't vacation, which suits both of our personalities so that might seem sad to some but to us, we'd rather go camping in our beautiful mountains, which are right near us.

With this business build we are doing, we have been pleasantly shocked that we find importance in different things and we have both been extremely cautious with spending. We also have noticed that we don't purchase anything without the other knowing about it. We didn't have set plans, which could be a problem in the future, but we have naturally taken that love and trust we have in each other and carried that out in our decisions. 

Our goals for all the money we are going to make (right?!), is to make sure we are comfortable. We have talked about our bootstrapping moments, our plans to pay back the bank loan we have gotten for this, and our goals when this becomes successful, because we know it will (or really, really hope) be amazing. 

Saving, being transparent, understanding, trusting each other and ourselves, putting our family first, this will be evident in how we treat the actual dollars. I don't want to wish away time BUT I am anxious to see how this plays out in 6 months, 12 months, 60 months, and more!

 

Why is cement so beautiful when it is really very dirty?

Dreaming big can be dirty! As we've worked on opening our smoked meat, BBQ restaurant, we needed a place to "house" our smokers. We live in Utah and it snows here. The week they were to pour the cement pad, it snowed a heavy and very wet 6" of snow! The ground took 3 weeks to dry with a lot of tarps and prayers. 

Dreaming big is all I think about! This dream has been overwhelming for me as I am supporting my husband's biggest dream!

We have had another major week of absolute blessings. We were contacted by @ministersofsmoke and they offered to come to our grand opening. We don't have any idea how this guy from Dallas found us in little ole South Jordan, Utah. We also have been contacted by another company to do collaborations to bring people together for a beautiful cause. Also, this week we were able to purchase a box truck to haul our wood for the smokers from Las Vegas to our restaurant at a much cheaper rate. 

My husband, near tears, said, "Why do people have faith is us?" It has caused a lot of reflection from both of us. Anyone can smoke meat. Anyone can do what we are doing. Finding what makes you happy, what your dream is, this is a gift!

President Dallin H. Oaks shared what a father told his son, “All that I have I desire to give you—not only my wealth, but also my position and standing among men. That which I have I can easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself. You will qualify for your inheritance by learning what I have learned and by living as I have lived. I will give you the laws and principles by which I have acquired my wisdom and stature. Follow my example, mastering as I have mastered, and you will become as I am, and all that I have will be yours.”

Our children may want to take over this restaurant when we retire but to instill in them that our legacy is what Kenny J's BBQ is all about. They way we make people feel, the way we serve others, this is what we hope to reflect from this "BIG DREAM". 

 

Interviewing and Hiring "Nice People"

Last week Kenny and I interviewed a person who reached out to us on LinkedIn about possibly meeting with us for a job. We didn't know her, she didn't know us. Jessie has worked in the restaurant business for years! She came to meet us at the construction sight, where the restaurant will be but we still have a month before we want employees to start work.

We have interviewed about 5 people a few weeks ago but it felt extremely premature. So when Jessie reached out, I was hesitant. 

Jessie is similar to us with her priorities, first is family! She shared a few situations at her current employment, which she did not want to really paint the owners in a negative light but we asked more and more questions to find out why she wanted to leave her job. She manages 2 restaurant locations and makes decent money. The issue of not feeling appreciated, while trying to make sure her employees are taken care of was quickly evident!

By the end of the interview, which ended up lasting way too long because we just felt like she could be part of our family, we naturally began brainstorming soft opening events, grand opening events, getting things set up, having her be my right hand man as I learn how to run the staffing, new equipment, and office items. 

We sent her an official offer of employment the next day and she accepted within hours! In the video where Frank Levinson says that as a company, they hire "NICE PEOPLE", it confirmed to me that Jessie is the perfect fit for us and we hope she feels appreciated by us! We tend to be known as extremely nice people and I thought that in the business world that would be read as naive. Frank's video confirmed to me that when appreciation and kindness is a key element in our personalities, we will find employees that are also kind and appreciative! 
 

 

Low Hanging Fruit is not enough

Our first thought with opening a restaurant started when we were asked to cater food for a friends mission farewell lunch. We had to plan and organize for 200 people. Shortly after we got a call to cater for my friends wedding reception. This will be 225 people. As we were then asked to cater for more and more events, we realized my husband's banking job was the top priority UNTIL the day came of the food events, and then we had to shift focus for a few hours/days.

Our first idea of simply catering was comparable to the idea of "low hanging fruit", which isn't bad fruit but it is the first idea and usually the easy idea. Our next idea: a drive through food stand, our next idea: a food truck, and now the idea has morphed into a full restaurant that seats 252 guests! We aren't in the business of fixing problems. We have a dream and with our 4th, 5th, 10th idea, we can make that dream come to fruition.

We have finally got our location, after searching for almost a year. Contract negotiations were completed in August, 2024. Then we hired a general contractor. We assumed the GC was doing us a favor. NO! We shifted the mindset that the contractor works for us! Quickly we went from the one guy that we thought we had to hire to the process of finding 4 GC's and choosing the right one to tackle this WITH us. Trent and his team are outstanding! Transparent, quick responses, quality work, clear plans, scheduling is done with precision, we have expressed our gratitude multiple times and he has said he enjoys working for us!

Now that construction is going at full speed, we've began interviews for potential employees. We can be picky! We should be picky! We have opted to not offer "tip share" when we open, where the customers tip and we divide that up to our employees. We are not going to ask for tips! We are going to compensate our employees. The expectation is that they will simply do their job for the agreed upon wage. Our belief is that if you stand as you order your food, seat yourself, take your own tray to the waste bin, you should not have to tip! We are going to absorb this burden as business owners and we've accounted for it in our financial projections. We feel strongly about this, only time will tell if this is a wise choice. 

As entrepreneurs, before problems arise, we must have solutions. Being creative has gotten us this far. We have done our research and feel like we are adapting the best business patterns from other tried and true BBQ restaurants. We hope for the most family friendly, bright and happy atmosphere that we can offer. Now, as David Carrington mentions, we must remember to run our business and not to let it run us! The best is yet to come!

Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/search/low%20hanging%20fruit/