Is Scaling a Wise Move?

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some information about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Store. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a short stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment property and worked in business financing.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity purchased business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and then left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Store. My hope is that we can duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a drink component as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all day.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we think we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to include another shop this year and a minimum of four stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's fantastic to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I have actually remained in this role for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you know, is a leading service provider of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our customers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and essentially providing them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have business that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, among the factors I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak with clients about Chop Shop, they enjoy the place. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated principle in regards to providing an excellent experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's incredible.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one store, two stores, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into multiple states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory expenses stay high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and development at the same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that subject. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, appearance, how could technology assist? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to replicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great groups? And lastly, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to actually drive success in broadening dining establishments?

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I've been involved with are unique.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food item. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

A lot of it begins with the brand. Does your brand have something distinct that no one else is doing?

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The second thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they built the menu, they built the brand.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin enhances as sales boost. I have actually seen so many business where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be developing stores. Yeah, perhaps both, right? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary viability. You've got to begin with execution. If you do not have an operating design that works, broadening it simply multiplies problems.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or distinct idea that resonates with customers. And another crucial lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

But when we broadened to Dallas, I anticipated brand-new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. A lot of operators presume brand-new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That practically never ever takes place. And when the shops open sluggish, but you've signed leases and constructed a financial model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.