Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Deagon Williams, principal of Culinary Business Strategy, located in Oakland, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Culinary Business Strategy- I help food and beverage entrepreneurs- I now bring the business side to the food world to help food biz owners be more successful with less chaos and more profit.
I work with food biz owners in 4 areas.... culinary excellence, financial analysis, operational efficiency, and branded marketing. I love my work and have the best job in the world. I now needed what I was a classically trained chef with no real business experience or education but a lot of drive and determination.
It's really gratifying to work with a client and watch the transformation from incredibly hard-working and barely making ends meet to a calmer, working efficiently and making a profit simply because we looked at their company through a business perspective and create systems for their success. And to watch their exponential success is truly amazing!
Tell us about yourself
Oddly, I knew I wanted to be a chef from the time I was a toddler. (who does that?) and so I pursued it with singular focus until I was I became an executive chef at 24. I cooked in any kitchen I could get into in high school, went to cooking school in Paris just out of high school, and apprenticed for several starred chefs throughout France afterward.
I came back to the states and found myself at the helm of a fine dining restaurant far sooner than I had anticipated with a stellar culinary education but didn't know a lick about how to be a chef, let alone be responsible for a $12M business. I drank from the fire hose to learn as much as I could as fast as I could and soon realized that most chefs knew how to be chefs but not business people. I was not alone and began helping others. Twenty years later, I stepped out of the kitchen to become a full-time business consultant to chefs.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I am so proud of my clients and their growth, and just a few months ago, for the first time, I really calculated the impact and change that my clients in 2021 had in working with me. The growth of their businesses from before to after was 115X. That was way more than I had realized, and I was blown away to see that impact. That means that every dollar a client invests in themselves to work with me creates an average return of $115.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Not having a boss to tell me what to do. It's the beauty and the curse of being an entrepreneur- I get to do whatever I want, and I have no one telling me what to do. As a business owner, the results rest squarely on my shoulders. That's both. The hardest thing is prioritizing. I love client work and have to really pay attention that my business is also tended to and doesn't get totally lost in client work.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Know your mission and vision.
- Know who you serve.
- Know your financial model.
- Measure all three regularly.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
In addition to consulting, I created two online courses for food and beverage business entrepreneurs so that success and systems are very accessible to anyone that wants a business education in the hospitality industry. Food Financials and Beyond the Plate.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.culinarybusinessstrategy.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CulinaryBusinessStrategy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culinarybusinessstrategy/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deagonwilliams/
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.
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