We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angie Yi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angie below.
Angie, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Buying Sumo was definitely the biggest risk my husband and I have ever taken.
We just had our third child, and I took some time off from my corporate job. When it was time to think about returning to work, I decided to pursue a career change and went back to school to become a teacher. To supplement our income, I worked for my aunt and uncle in-law as a server at Sumo.
They planned to sell one of their other restaurants and knew that I had finished up my MBA and had worked in restaurants for a long time. They asked if we were interested, but that particular location was too far of a drive, so we turned them down. I don’t remember why we did this, but we asked if we could take over Sumo instead. They probably weren’t thinking of selling it since the restaurant was doing well, but we asked anyway. Surprisingly, they agreed.
Buying the restaurant was a pretty crazy idea for us. I had no ownership experience, and the only management role I had was for a very small office. The financial risk was huge. We borrowed money from my parents and put not just our house, but their house, up as collateral. If we failed, we would all be homeless.
It turned out to be a great decision. There have been difficulties, but we’ve always pulled through. Now, we can spend time with our family and live a lifestyle we never imagined seven years ago.
Angie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Angie Yi, and I am the owner of Sumo Japanese Steakhouse. I received my BA in Business Administration and MBA at the University of West Georgia. I’ve worked as an accounts payable manager, a payroll manager, and have over 20 years of restaurant experience.
I started out hosting, worked on a kitchen line, and eventually ended up serving tables. As an owner, I am very involved in the day-to-day functions of the restaurant and can be found supporting my staff and sometimes even filling in for missing positions. You may see me cashiering, hosting, or even bussing tables.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We’ve had several challenges while owning the restaurant, but the toughest time to work through was the beginning of COVID-19. Many restaurants had to shut down because of the regulations that were put into place to keep everyone safe, but we were determined to stay open.
There were so many factors to consider when deciding to stay open. Would we be able to pay our bills? What about the employees? We would need to lay-off part of the staff. Would they be able to find other jobs with everything shutting down? If they did, would they come back when we re-opened?
We changed our model and became a to-go only restaurant. While we couldn’t avoid lay-offs completely, the majority of our staff were able to stay with us. Everyone had to work fewer hours, and some changed their positions. Our servers became order takers and delivery drivers, and hibachi chefs became line chefs.
Our staff showed amazing flexibility during this time. They showed me how much they cared about the restaurant. It wasn’t just a place of work. Everyone worked together to figure out the best way to operate and openly discussed when things needed to be changed.
Even though we had a hard time, I feel so much pride thinking back on this time.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
We were very young and inexperienced, so finding funding to purchase Sumo was pretty scary. We found a broker who helped us apply for an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan. They required both a large sum of money and collateral, which we did not have. Thankfully, my parents were willing to loan us the money we needed, and we had to use not just our home, but my parents’ home for collateral. I wrote a business plan and we sent all of the necessary documents to get the loan processed. There was a lot of back and forth between the bank and us. We were very surprised when the loan was approved.
The entire loan was used to purchase the restaurant. After closing the sale, we started off from zero. However, because Sumo was already a functioning restaurant, we were able to start paying invoices right away with what we earned. It took a bit of time to figure out costs, and we had to be very cautious with where we were spending our earnings those first few years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sumovillarica.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sumovillarica