We recently connected with Albert Shim and have shared our conversation below.

Albert, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

I’ve had many failures in my career, but the biggest one I can share is walking away from a business I built with a partner over 7 years. I started a food truck back in 2012 (when i was 26 years old) that eventually caught the attention of a business partner who brought in a second truck. We spent the next 7 years expanding that out to a few brick and mortar establishments and had aspirations to franchise the business, but we expanded so fast, we didn’t have any of the proper systems or processes in place to run a smooth operation. Add in the “burn out” factor of working practically every single day, and you have a recipe for eventual disaster.

Through all the hardship, we still began getting our company organized to begin franchising the business model, but that’s when we really weren’t able to see eye to eye as partners. Now without getting into too much detail, I will share that through weeks of prayer and self reflection, Where did I go right? Where did I go wrong? If I had a second chance, how would I do it better?

I finally decided that it was best to just walk away and start over by myself. I always had a little voice in the back of my mind that always said that it was going to be better to start over.

Lucky for me, I’m a chef by trade, and I always like to create new menu concepts and ideas if I ever get inspired to do so, and I save them in a little file on my computer. A few months prior to coming to this decision we were approached by a new development in the city of La Habra, CA. They originally wanted our previous concept in the center, but my partner at the time did not want to move forward thinking that the rent was too high. So naturally, me being a chef, I decided to pitch a few other menu concepts to him and thought nothing of it. A few months later, the listing agent reached back out to me and said that they were interested in gettin the EggBred concept into their center and they were willing to contribute a generous amount of money to help build the space out.

So after really sitting on it for a few weeks, I eventually got our companies evaluated, and approached my partner and offered to sell my shares and I just walked away from it all.

The pride. The ego. The people. The social media following. The thousands of yelp reviews. The revenune. The 7 years of pain and suffering that was experienced to build it to where it all was. And I accepted utter defeat with the amount of money left over after paying off any debts tied to my name and everything else.

Talk about a leap of faith right?

So, after putting all of that behind me, I begin engaging with an architect who then begins submitted floor plans to the city and health department.

And while they’re going through the process of that, COVID hit…

I to be quite honest with you, I really don’t know how we got through it, but we were basically forced to open our doors before one of the last lock downs in January of 2021. And I don’t know if it’s by the grace of God, or the fact that everyone in the community was feeling very pent up by then, but our grand opening was a huge success!

Since then we’ve been tracking to a very healthy revenue operating only from breakfast and lunch, and I’ve been able to start over properly, with the right systems, the right process, and the right people and mentors.

We began franchising the concept back in 2021, and since then have partnered with 11 franchisees mainly in Southern California, and one out in Florida.

We’re also very excited to begin opening these stores up and hope to be at around 6 EggBred restauants up and running by the end of this year!

Albert, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am currently the Chief Executive Officer of EggBred International, Inc. which is the franchisor company of EggBred restaurants. I am a a chef by trade and graduated from culinary school back in 2003 at the young age of 20. I’ve basically been in this industry for almost 20 years by now.

Although I don’t cook as much as I used to, I’ve definitely grown into more of an executive role maintaining relationships with our franchise partners, vendors, and our executive team.

The fact that we had an opportunity to learn from our past mistakes, we’ve really been able to implement the right systems and processes into our company and I’m extremely proud of our team and the brand and concept that we’ve been able to build up to this point.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

It’s all about culture and making your employees and customers feel safe and well taken care of.

I spent a majority of my career in the high stress and anxieties of fine dining kitchens. Chefs throwing hot saute pans across the kitchen and putting them down in a form of humiliation in front of the other cooks was a common thing coming up in the back of house. So naturally, I brought that same energy into my first food truck and restaurant concept. Little did I know, that was the worst thing a business owner can do.

I had guys stealing from us, calling out sick all the time, quitting, etc. So when I had the chance to really think things through, I decided to launch EggBred with an energy of positivity and real purpose to provide something special for the surrounding community.

We’ve built out a full on 4 hour orientation track that all new hires come into before they begin training. We’ve also digitized all of our processes into video format on a proprietary software so everyone has something to refer to along with check lists to document their steps throughout the day.

We try to focus on team culture and accountability at EggBred, and the results speak for themselves.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I actually started my very first concept out of a pop up tent at a farmers market in Long Beach! Customers loved us and recommended we look into a food truck so I went that route and the rest is history.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eggbred.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eggbredoc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggbredoc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albert-shim-46449a97/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eggbred-la-habra-3