We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hugo Meyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hugo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I am not only a business owner but I am also a father, a husband, a son and a brother and time with my family is very important to me. Without dedicating time to spend with my children as they are growing up and with my parents as they are growing older, I feel I would resent my work.

I have often felt unsure or worried about stepping away from my role in our restaurant and what the consequence of an undercooked steak or the wrong timing of an order being sent too soon or late.

But, I have realized it is all about your mindset.

Instead of worrying about what might happen without me, I should empower my team to feel confident without me.

By stepping away I give them the opportunity to demonstrate their capability without me, increase their self-confidence and grow as an individual and team member without me.

Which later will only make our team stronger.

There will be mistakes and there will be some chaos, but letting our team learn from their mistakes on their own, problem solve without me present and succeed turns out to give them the strength they need to be even better at their job.

Hugo , 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 was raised in Argentina and left at the age of 17 for Germany to look for a better life.

Once in Germany I got a job at a brewery as a dishwasher. I worked my way up to manager quickly and was offered a position to open another brewery for the company.

I decided against it and moved to Spain where I opened my own restaurant and bar, Carpe Diem. I was the cook, the bartender, the server, I did it all. Eventually my three sisters and my father came to join me and we ran the restaurant as a family operation.

I met my wife a few years later and we moved to the Caribbean, to an island called Ambergris Caye in Belize. We opened our first restaurant together, Aji Tapa Bar, a small beach bar we constructed out of driftwood.

A few years later we sold Aji and developed the restaurants and food and beverage for a large resort on Ambergris Caye, called Grand Caribe. We opened two restaurants, a pool bar, operated the room service, onsite catering and events and loved every minute of the chaos!

Once our son was ready for elementary school we sold and moved back to Colorado where we fell in love with Erie. We opened our current restaurant, Piripi in the height of COVID and put to work all the skills we had learned throughout our restaurant experience abroad.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When we opened our restaurant in Belize there were no grocery stores or fresh fruit markets on the island. In order to get supplies we would close two days a week to get supplies.

I would drive my boat to the local ferry and take the two hour ride to the mainland. I would then hire a taxi to drive me all over Belize City to pick up fruits, vegetables, rice, flour, fish, chicken, propane and supplies.

The day was always long and hot. When it wasn’t hot it was pouring rain and we would sit under a tarp on the Ferry ride back.

I would then have to unload all my purchases into my small boat and haul it up the coast to my dock, unload and get ready for a day of business.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

When we opened our second restaurant in Belize, Rain Restaurant, the amount of personnel we needed to cover a two story restaurant, pool bar and room service was much greater than my 6-8 man crew I had at my previous restaurant.

We hired 40 people to start and spent days training them on the menu, the food, the rooms, service skills, etc.

When it came time for payroll we didn’t have enough funds to pay them. I went and sold our mode of transportation, our Polaris to make sure the staff was able to get paid for their time.

It was a major blow to me, because now instead of driving into town I was back on the bicycle to pick up small things or pay bills in town. But, it was more important to me to have staff who trusted me and wanted to work for me because they knew I would pay them.

From then forward our staff always knew we put them before profits and would always keep our word to them. It helped us build enormous trust with our staff which in turn helped our company grow exponentially.

Our 40 staff members eventually turned into 100 members and our restaurant became a restaurant group with three restaurants running simultaneous to room service, catering and wedding events. Without our staff, and their trust we would never have succeeded in growing such a large operation, especially on in island in the middle of the Caribbean!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.piripirestaurant.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piripioldtown
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OldTownErie
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/piripi-erie
• Other: www.chefhugomeyer.com