00:02 The thing for me is treating people the way I want to be treated. When I interview people, when I hire people, I always tell them that's the one thing that I will do with them, and I want to encourage them to be with our customers to go out of their way to try to help other people.
00:45 Well, Tim, we're so excited to talk with you today and hear more about how you made this incredible journey from being a CPA right to running a restaurant. Yes, that's it. Tell us about Barberitos and this transition.
00:57 OK, well, I've done a whole lot of things in my life. I was a CPA for probably 20, 20 some years. But at the time when my wife and I, our kids were getting ready to go to middle school, we wanted to move to the mountains in Asheville. And I was just not ready to keep sitting behind a desk and looking at computer screens and that sort of thing. And so I just wanted to open open up a business of my own and came up with a Barberitos franchise.
01:27 Tim, as you were looking at franchises, was there anything in particular about Barberitos that drove you to that to that restaurant in particular?
01:35 Well, the first thing was I used to eat their food in Greensboro, and I really liked it. I mean, I didn't even think about owning one. I just liked the food. I thought it was healthy. We wanted to feed our family you know, something that wasn't fast food and something that was economical, and it tasted good and they liked it. And so those three things were what stuck out to me would be something in a good or bad economy would have a better chance of succeeding.
02:03 And it took me about two years before I finally made the jump. And that's what I did and no regrets. I'm glad I did so.
02:13 You talked about giving back and giving back to the community, and that is that is really important to you. So what are some of the ways that you do that?
02:22 You know, we always give gift certificates, discounts to all of the local schools around us, all of the local churches, any charities, you know, as long as they're local around us. I've always tried to donate and give as much as I can to them.
02:36 I've always heard that it's not about what someone says to you, but how do they make you feel? so that's what I feel like I've kind of got going on right now with employees I have. It's so hard to find new employees right now. I can't hire employees I just can't find them. So the ones that I have been with me for a pretty long time and they're very loyal and I think it's just because they know, they know that they're going to get treated the way they want to be treated there.
03:04 And as a result of that, they do that for our customers. It's just amazing. It's fun for me to sit back and watch.
03:10 If you were able to talk directly to other small business owners who want to foster that same kind of loyalty or see themselves as a good leader what are some of the things you would advise other entrepreneurs to be thinking about when they're building their team.
03:23 I would say, most importantly, just to listen to them and hear what they're saying and listen to them and try to put yourself in their position and, you know, understand what it is that they want. And it's not always it's not always a higher hourly paycheck. It's about work life balance. It's about giving them an opportunity to learn something new, challenging, not doing the same old thing, but just letting them know they're appreciated.
03:53 It's inspiring to hear you talk about your team and your associates, and I know one of the things that you're passionate about also is helping them with the financial education and the financial literacy part. How have you made that important and what inspired you to do that with your team?
04:12 Sure. I mean, and I've done this many times, a lot of them I'll sit down and I'll try to help them put together a longer term plan, maybe do a budgeting thing. But I've always encouraged, you know, employees past, you know, if that's a goal, they have to go on to, to leave Barberitos, to go back to school, you know, learn a different skill or whatever. I always encourage them to do that and never, never stop growing and learning. And so that's kind of what we do.
04:41 Speak a little bit about your journey.
04:43 I would imagine there's a lot of people out there today that are in their careers, and they want to make that leap to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Don't do it, and I didn't do it because I wanted to make a lot of money. I did this as a challenge, as a goal and to find something that I was passionate about and tried to do everything I could to make it successful. If you do that, then chances are you're probably going to make some money, you know, may not get rich, but at least you maybe you can support yourself and get into a different scenario than if you're stuck in a rut job that you don't like.
05:20 And so that's what I would say, but you don't make money your primary reason to open a business.