We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Zawacki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brian, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think to be successful it takes integrity and focus. There’s a saying that I love that goes “If you chase two rabbits you’ll catch neither one.” This is extremely relevant to me as I’m always trying to fill my plate with as many things or opportunities as possible, which ultimately becomes a detriment to my desired outcomes.
When we opened The Bird we were available through all the delivery apps, our website, walk-ins and phone orders which seemed like a good idea because we’d have maximum exposure to our customers. What we discovered is that no matter how streamlined the order input system, brunch doesn’t make good to-go food. More over, people are more likely to modify items online at a rate that wouldn’t be acceptable in-store. The lack of quality control we were able to keep from the food leaving our business to the customer through a 3rd party (coupled with outrages commissions) ultimately became a liability, so we stopped all online and to-go orders and focused solely on the in-store customer experience which has paid dividends. Since stopping online/3rd party order gross revenue is up 12% month over month.
Being successful becomes possible when you go deep, not wide, and see things through.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My entrepreneurial journey is a wild one.
I think I got my work ethic from hustling in bands all my life. I started touring when I was 15, learning how to make money on the road, what makes a band successful, etc. This lead to some really cool opportunities like playing and working on the Vans Warped Tour, working some merch gigs at festivals, and making friends all over the country.
When I wasn’t on the road I was a barista at a local coffee and poké shop in Virginia Beach. I never really “loved” working in restaurants, but I loved working with customers. Seeing in real time how you can engage, influence and educate people on niche products like craft coffee and poké gave me a real sense of pride in my work. Doing a little extra, and going beyond expectation resulted in more tips. I pretty quickly became the manager of that shop, but felt a little claustrophobic with the uncertainty of the growth potential of a small business that I worked for, so I wanted to start my own business.
I happened upon a reddit thread by Rohan Gilkes about how he started a million dollar maid business and never set foot inside a house. What a hook! This set me off. Over the next few years I’d start a maid business, a subscription box business, and a dog walking business each of which only got so far off the ground because of the biggest hurdle–me. I was too shy to put myself out there and work the businesses like they needed to be. So each closed business carried with it their own valuable lesson that I took onto the next project.
When COVID hit in 2020, my then boss and I had become closer and were looking at a new coffee/poké location in Richmond, VA, one that I’d be an owner operator of, but lockdowns derailed all progress as the existing stores were shut down. I, being someone who doesn’t like to sit still, began planning my next business–a window cleaning and pressure washing business. I resigned from the poké shop and immediately got to work on branding, building a website, researching and implementing a CRM, and registering on sites like Thumbtack. I offered gutter cleaning services as well, so work came pretty immediately as people don’t like to be on ladders. This business wasn’t going gangbusters, but it sustained me for a year. I paid myself $15/hour and reinvested every extra cent into the business. I learned a lot about communication, the customer life cycle, problem solving, marketing and more through this business.
One day, my landlord hired me to wash a building of his that we was going to sell and came out to the site to check on me. He asked how I learned how to wash a house and run a business, to which I answered “books and youtube.” He was pretty impressed by me being a self starter and asked to meet me for coffee the next week. Over coffee he asked me to come work for him and if I’d like, he’d teach me everything he knows about real estate investing. He gave me a book called “The Book on Real Estate Investing” which I quickly read cover to cover. I had to accept.
While working maintenance I not only learned about investing in real estate, but also basic plumbing, electrical, framing, drywall/plaster work, masonry, landscaping and more–any skill I needed to renovate a property. I was still pressure washing and cleaning windows on the side, but I more so enjoyed working on the properties and acquiring new skills.
It was now mid 2021 and after working maintenance for a year my old boss from the poké shop reached out to me. He told me that him and his partner were going separate ways and that there may be an opportunity to take over one of the existing stores. Since COVID this store fell into a state of disrepair and needed some serious help, so in exchange for a small buy-in and some sweat equity, a piece of it could be mine. While still working maintenance I’d wake up at 3:30, be at the store by 4:00am to work on renovations, work until 7:45am, clock in at my maintenance job at 8:00am, work until 4:00pm, take a nap, then go back to the restaurant when they closed at 8:00pm to work more until midnight, and repeat. I did all of the tile, drywall, electrical, painting and more which took about 2 months to get ready for a grand reopening. I was back in the restaurant biz.
My now business partner would focus on the accounting and I was to handle day to day operations. What really stood out to me was how the numbers act as a roadmap for the day to day ops. I learned how to utilize labor, how to get costs of goods sold in line, how to regulate capital expenditure, and how to increase value in the eyes of the customer. The first year that I was back at the restaurant gross revenue increased by $150k.
Once we got that store back to prepandemic sales/efficiency levels we went in together on another location which is when I resigned from my maintenance job. A year after opening that location is what brings me to The Bird.
The Bird was started by two friends of mine. One was a band mate, the other was an old coworker of mine at the poké shop. All three of us were pretty like-minded and have always wanted to start a business together but we didn’t exactly know what. We’ve gone through plans for a “Salsa Bar” (an actual bar of salsa, not dancing) and a speak easy that was designed to look like an old VHS rental shop. We knew that we definitely wanted to have craft cocktails as a heavy element of our concept. We ultimately settled on brunch and craft cocktails because no one around us was doing brunch as well as we knew we could.
While scrolling on Loopnet one day I found a storefront that I was familiar with in a great location. I knew who had had it before, and exactly what it looked like on the inside. I scheduled a showing immediately. The store looked like it had just been left one day–oil still in the fryers, fridges with rotting food in them, tables, chairs, all left untouched. Apparently the previous tenant stopped paying rent, so they were locked out. If we leased the space we’d get access to all of the equipment which were: ice wells, half a dozen fridges, a range, a fryer, two freezers, bar wares, food warmers, food containers and so much more. It was a steal. The kind of opportunity you pray for. I hit up my future partners and we all agreed–this was the spot.
Lots of blood, sweat and tears went into getting The Bird open and making it the place it is–which is a counter service brunch model with craft coffee and cocktails, that moonlights as a lounge. We opened in October of 2023 and at the time of writing this (8/2024) and have grossed $450k in sales.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The interior of our store is definitely an observatory and this was very intentional. When we started to get the idea for this business together, one of the first things we did was make a mood board and decide on colors. Knowing what the space would feel like before we started was extremely important. Atmosphere is the first thing people notice about your business, so we knew our social media had to be an accurate extension of that.
We looked at local tastemaker-business’s social media and who they were using to create content, which is were we found the company we use. A lot of people assume “I can take a good picture and post frequently enough”, but they’re not paid to do it, so it ultimately becomes an afterthought. Building this brand from the ground up would require investment and it’s been worth every penny.
Have A Good Day, the company we hired, books a shoot with us once a month and will ultimately deliver 10 pieces of content. They work with us on a treatment, schedule a shoot, send us a posting schedule, caption the content for us, and post. I then take the most popular posts and make them into instagram ads to extend our reach.
My advice would be to start posting early. The first few pictures we posted didn’t even have food in them, they were just of design elements in our space to build hype, and people became hyped. Make your social media a window into your business that makes people run to the door.
Any advice for managing a team?
Leading from the front and taking responsibility. On busy brunch shifts me and my partners are in the thick of it with our staff. They see us working hard and it makes them want to work hard. We’d never ask them to do anything we wouldn’t do. Are we going to work IN our business forever? No. But it’s year one and we’re still building systems and growing this thing. If there’s a problem we attack it, and not with band-aid solutions. Band-aids fall off.
We also invest in good people. An A player is worth three B players.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebirdva.com
- Instagram: thebirdnfk
