Sometimes Healthy, Always Delicious

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sara Reckahn, co-owner of Comfort & Floyd, located in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Comfort & Floyd is a tiny neighborhood luncheonette serving breakfast and lunch five days/a week. Our menu represents the best of classic diner food, done well and from scratch. Our customers are mostly neighbors and often friends, with a nice steady stream of folks who found us online and made the trip to check us out.

Tell us about yourself

Bruce has been cooking in restaurants for 30 years. He loves the kitchen, and he loves learning new things and making new discoveries in his cooking. I am a native Philadelphian with a background in non-profit adult literacy, and I wanted to do something different, but I still wanted to impact the city in a positive way. For me, it's all about creating the space, inside and out, with the decor, the lights, the flowers and plants, even the music, and hearing people say, "This place is so cute" when they walk in. Fortunately, we love working together and sharing this amazing project. We don't have kids, so the restaurant is our baby. What motivates us every day is knowing that we created it ourselves, people seem to like what we're doing, and it's up to no one but us to maintain it.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our biggest accomplishment is that we've made our place in the community as a friendly, delicious, cute, and comfy place to eat, just by being ourselves and doing what we love.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

One of the hardest things is also one of the greatest things, which is that everything is on you. All of the questions that you don't have an answer for, all the annoying problems that you want to walk away from, all the financial hardship when there's no check coming in the mail from anywhere else, it's all on you. So while we cherish being able to "do whatever we want," we still have to do everything.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Be ready to work; hiring some cooks and some servers don't leave you with anything to do. Be prepared for the slow times and for lots of unexpected expenses. Do your best there is more than one way to do things, and you won't do it the same as everyone else. And sometimes, you find out a better way to do something after you've already done it. That's ok, as long as you keep moving forward and always do your best. You sort of have to balance staying in touch with what other people are doing with staying in touch with what you believe is best for you and your business. That can be hard!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://comfortandfloyd.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comfortandfloyd/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/comfortandfloyd/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.