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!