We recently connected with Donovan Hollis and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Donovan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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 started selling barbeque in 2019 however I’ve been working a grill for as long as i can remember. I didn’t start wanting to be a caterer. I just really like feeding people. As more people wanted me to cook for them; i realized the potential to make this a living. I signed on to the Semper Fi fund mentorship program to help me figure out a direction. They helped me to figure out that i need goals. Not three or four big goals, but 10-20 tiny realistically achievable goals. After getting I started selling bbq from my apartment, delivering to all my customers. It wasn’t the best setup but i did what i had to. After hitting my goal of selling bbq once a week for a couple months i realized we needed to move to the next level. I found a commercial kitchen with a health petmit and started cooking there to be fully legal. We also started selling bbq publicly from our pop-up in Anna Tx. People loved our food so we spent the following year catering events and selling from our pop-up. This really got my name out locally. After several great weddings and a year of steady sales we are ready to upgrade to a food trailer. I had to dip into my savings and finance trailer, but without my mom’s help it wouldn’t be possible. Now were all caught up. Were about to be selling bbq from our trailer with actual employees fully legally thanks to small goals and sticking to the plan.

Donovan, 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 Donovan Hollis and im the owner/pitmaster of Hollis Texas style barbeque. Im a bbq caterer and mobile food vendor serving the north Texas area. I got into barbeque by watching my family’s great pitmasters make this delicious beautiful food. It would have me full satisfied and in awe and those are the feelings that i try to give my customers. Good food puts people in a good mood and what would any event be without great food? When people come back for seconds at a wedding telling me how good the brisket was;it warms my heart. I put a lot of care into my bbq and sides and the customers can taste it. Our brisket is killer and our smoked mac& cheese is out of this world! We now have food trailer so come see us in Anna/Melissa Tx.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After finally getting all our permits, LLC, business banking, and other business essentials in order we were ready to start selling barbeque. Things starting great catering small events and gatherings. Shortly after covid started. It was a devastating blow to my business and I first thought it was a death sentence. I decided to use this as an opportunity. Even during a pandemic people need to eat. We just needed to figure out how to be safe enough. With enough planning and forethought, anything is possible. We successfully sold and delivered bbq without a single incident. This gave us great footing once covid started to slow down and the restrictions eased. With proper planning and will power anything is possible.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our social media presence started with me posting the menu for that weeks cook on facebook with very little presence. My wife saw the potential for growth on social media and began to take more photos of food and post to my Facebook and Instagram stories. It started off slow but as we began to sell more and cook more often; we’d post more and save excess pictures for slow times. Even when we arent selling and its a slow season; we still post pics and other bbq pertaining posts to stay relevant. We also add personal touches to make customers feel part of the business journey. My advice for social media is ,to stay relevant, keep posting regularly, and to keep it real.

Contact Info:

• Website: Hollisbbq.com
• Instagram: @Hollistxbbq
• Facebook: Hollistxbbq

Image Credits
Jasmin Antu