We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dawn Huston. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dawn below.
Hi Dawn, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
I made a huge leap of faith to make a long time dream possible in the summer of 2019. I was a boutique salon owner in Bucktown, Chicago for close to 20 years to make the radical transition to a Restaurant Owner in the Indiana Dunes National Park?! I survived our first season and we were spending the winter planning for a less chaotic 2020 when as you already can predict—Covid took out plans and basically tossed them out of the door.
As my family & management team navigated the scary unfamiliar events, I dug in & started to fill out every piece of paper the government had available and offered as many food/ drink options as our state would allow.
A small plug for the SBA..in my humble opinion, this facet of our government is one of the highest functioning arms of the U.S Gov. (just happens to be managed by a woman-just sayin’!).
Back to scaling up. I was blessed to get the help I needed and invested every single dollar in my staff, expanding our space and developing more business options within our 4 walls.
Goblin & The Grocer has since become not only a restaurant but a bar, market, boutique, caterer, event space & community hub. Because of our expanded footprint and a very principled management plan I am proud to say I was able to become a sole woman owned business, buying out not one partner but two partners over 3 years.
I feel blessed beyond belief with an amazing team and looking forward to years of good food & great wine 🍷
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am the owner of Goblin & The Grocer, a restaurant, market & takeaway built to be an inviting year around lake retreat & respite in the heart of the Indiana Dunes National Park
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
I have to go old school on this one. It truly is connecting with our community! The new advantages are obvious open arms of social media – but that being said…you can’t simply do it on your own. This where it pays to hire an expert!!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
COVID 🤣
Contact Info:
- Website: Goblinandthegrocer.com
- Instagram: Goblinandthegrocer
- Facebook: Goblinandthegrocer
Image Credits
Jamie Hogan