We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Valdivieso. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.

Ashley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

Honestly, we could not have done what we have in the time we have if it weren’t for our family and friends supporting and helping us. We have a core group that we are grateful for every day. They have all been with us since the beginning and have helped us along the way with little payment in return except maybe for a pizza and beer here or there. I don’t know if they enjoy the work, but I hope they do. Or at least enjoy helping a friend which I know they all do. We are surrounded by the most selfless, kindest people. Whether its screwing bar tops to the wall only to find out there is metal behind the drywall and in the way making a 30 minute project turn into an all day thing or putting tables and chairs together or taking out what seems like an endless supply of garbage in bags to the dump or hanging ivy to bistro lights and literally making a divider wall of wood between the front of house and bathroom because I have a vision or literally screwing benches into concrete or moving several of the heaviest flower pots from our house to the restaurant a few times (and we don’t live close), the list goes on and not once has anyone said no or complained or made us feel like we were abusing our friendship. When I say we are eternally grateful for those around us, that is the absolute truth and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I would not own a restaurant today if it weren’t for my husband Victor’s passion for food. He is the reason I am here today. He has been in a kitchen now for 25 years. I have a marketing background which has also served us well. The two of us together make a great team to have that vision to succeed in this business. The thing that really keeps us going though is our never give up attitude. We don’t believe in stopping. There will be hurdles along the, scary, tough or big ones, but you just have to focus, compartmentalize and push through. If you don’t, what was the point of starting something to begin with.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we first opened our food truck a few years back, we were literally one month into service and the engine blew. My husband walked in and said he didn’t know how we would move forward. I thought, nope that is not an option, and I knew he didn’t want it to be an option either. So we put our heads together, strapped in, and figured out the best route to get it fixed. Several thousand dollars later and nine weeks of no income or truck, we pushed through and man are we glad we did. We wouldn’t be here owning a brick-n-mortar, moving forward with our dream, had we just thrown our hands int he air and given up. Don’t allow circumstance to defeat you!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Personally for us the best option was a HELOC (equity line against our house) and not “going all out” with rent or what we purchased for the restaurant. We started small and smartly (if that’s a word). We had an opportunity to be in a great area of town, but the cost to open the restaurant would have been 3x what we paid for our current location – rent, Triple Net, equipment, furniture, you name it. Was it our first choice of where we wanted to be location-wise? No. But was it the smartest decision for us? Yes. It’s what we did with the food truck too. Start with your vision and work backwards. What must you have and what can you settle on so you don’t overspend and end up in so much debt you can’t get out? These are important things to think about when opening a restaurant. I will say though, the first space we looked at, we were working to get a loan with the Small Business Administration, and they are amazing. Remember though, it ain’t easy! We did all the legwork to get to the approval stage, and let me tell you it was a lot of work (but worth it had we gone that route – but also been in a ton of debt) – 14 page business plan (this is gold, even though we didn’t need it in the end because of the HELOC, it really helped us understand our own vision and see it on paper and define who we are as Smashley’s Burger Bar), getting ALL the financials together (even those you didn’t even know existed or even mattered), interviews, paperwork, more paperwork, and that’s just some of the things I remember. But again, if its right to help you start your business, it must be done! Never give up!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://smashleysburgerbar.com
• Instagram: @smashleysburgerbar
• Facebook: smashleysburgerbar
• Yelp: smashleysburgerbar

Image Credits

Jonathon Stout