We recently connected with Jason Day and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I agree in regard to the small business versus the corporate/industry standard. And that’s what I think makes small businesses so special. In our case, in particular, I think we differentiate ourselves on a number of levels from what you’d likely see at a corporate chain. My 2 locations, specifically, are unique to our town here in Murfreesboro, TN. I have no interest in franchising or expanding to too many locations to where I can’t be on top of them and keep them special. It’s my Mom’s name on the building and as these restaurants are dedicated to her, I want to always make sure they’re special. Doing so requires me to be very hands on. Because we’re unique to our town here it enables us the opportunity to really get to know our customers. We know their names, their drink preferences, their families, work stories, etc. It’s a sense of community that is lost amongst the bigger chains. Moreover, as I tell my staff all the time, we work really hard to make sure our food, drinks, and coffee are great but what makes Joanie’s what it is and what we built ourselves on is our customer service and how we treat our customers. And, again, because I live in this town these aren’t just customers. These are my neighbors and my friends and that’s how I want them all to feel when they come see us. And that’s why I only keep the 2 locations and don’t expand. I want to keep them special and unique and knowing our customers so well allows me to really customize our menu and offerings to what our customers want. We listen and adapt. Murfreesboro and Joanie’s are, and will always be, synonymous with one another and that in and of itself is such a unique thing in today’s climate where most places you go to are big, impersonal franchises. We are proud to be the antithesis of that.
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?
Sure. Well I was working in Healthcare administration for the past 12 years prior to this. It was a great job. Job being the operative word. It paid well and I was good at it, but it was a job. I had zero passion for it and, at the end of the day, talking end-of-life scenarios every day started to really wear on me. I decided that life is short and, at some point, I wanted to take a big swing and really see what I was made of. Moreover I wanted to do a life 180 and rather than talk to people at their most stressed and their lowest point, I wanted to create an environment that made people happy every day. So, long story somewhat short, I decided to quit my career in healthcare, take my life savings, and move to Tennessee to build something that I hoped would make people happy. I chose the restaurant business because coffee and good food is always a special means to bring people together and I thought if I did it the way I envisioned it would resonate with people. Now, mind you, while I had a lot of business and marketing experience, I had zero restaurant experience. But that was part of the excitement for me. I wanted to learn something new and, again, really test myself. And test myself I sure did! Building that 1st location was about as stressful as anything I’ve ever endured. Everything went way over budget, went way over time, and by the time I was finally able to open I had spent every dime to my name and was in debt to contractors. From there, COVID hit 4 months into opening, which threw another wrench into an already stressful situation. Luckily for me, because I was so new to all this, I didn’t really know the difference so I just adapted and rolled with what was happening. And because I wasn’t part of a big chain or any corporate structure, I was able to adapt on the fly and try a lot of new things. Looking back, we became a much better restaurant because of COVID. It forced me to expedite things and try some things we likely otherwise wouldn’t have done. There’s a lot more to it but in order to streamline this answer somewhat, I can say I think that’s what I’m most proud of. Our ability to adapt and persevere through a very trying time and come out on the other end of it better than we were going in. In line with that, in terms of what I’m most proud of, the other part of that is the people I’ve surrounded myself with on this adventure. I have been so blessed and fortunate to have hired some amazing people who came in and worked their tails off to help us become what we are today. I look back now, 5 years later and now with 2 locations, so proud and humbled by the amazing people I’ve been lucky enough to have with me to help get us here. And in regard to the final part of that question in regard to what sets us apart – I think that’s the true answer. It’s the amazing people we have working at our 2 restaurants and how they treat our customers and each other. It’s a truly special group and as I eluded to in the previous question, Joanie’s is synonymous with Murfreesboro and that’s what makes us special and unique. You’ll never see another Joanie’s anywhere but right here in Murfreesboro, TN, which allows us to really get to be a part of this community, know our customers and neighbors, and hopefully give them an environment to enjoy, bond with one another, and leave a bit happier than they were when they walked in to see us.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Funding the business took about 15 years of hard work and savings. I never took a loan out to fund the building of our 1st location. I had been saving money for 15 years and when I decided this is what I wanted to do, I was all-in. I liquidated my retirement fund (401K) and used that money to move here to Murfreesboro and build our 1st location. It was definitely an “all-in” proposition without any kind of safety net. The most disconcerting thing was while it took 15 years to save that money, it then took about 3 months to spend it in order to build that 1st location. Without a doubt the biggest risk I’ve ever taken and, obviously, a pretty stressful endeavor. I then doubled down and took all the profit from my 1st location and used that to build our 2nd location on the beautiful downtown Square here in Murfreesboro. Another huge risk but a risk I was willing to take on, as I thought we could do something special. I’m happy and proud to say I never took any kind of loan (I hate debt) and funded both restaurants on my own from years of saving and hard work.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Obviously, as we talked about earlier, COVID is definitely the answer here in terms of business pivoting. My goal was to build a place that people could come and get together with one another. But COVID forced us into a carry-out operation by default, which is something I never intended on being but became necessity. Funny story – when I was building the 1st location, the original plans were for just a 4 foot hood in the kitchen, as I was primarily going to focus on coffee and breakfast items. However as I was building it one of my contractors told me there was a rehab center in Brentwood that had a 9 foot hood they bought but was the wrong size. I called them and they said they’d sell it to me at cost if I came and got it, which I did. So now all of a sudden I had this 9 foot hood in the kitchen which, before I opened, I thought would just be a luxury and quite honestly overkill based on what I was planning on doing. Fast forward to COVID and we noticed people weren’t really coming out for breakfast but they would for dinner. So because I had that hood, I was able to expand the menu and we started doing burgers, sandwiches, fries, etc. All things I never intended when I 1st started this. And those items essentially saved the restaurant all because I randomly got that bigger hood that enabled me to cook those items. Coming out of COVID, we then perfected the burgers, etc. and really expanded the menu well beyond what was originally intended while keeping the full gourmet coffee house. So now Joanie’s had really turned into something unique with this full restaurant size menu of scratch made food, but also maintained our delicious gourmet coffee house. Usually you’ll get a full restaurant but they don’t have the coffee options of a coffee house or you’ll get a coffee spot but their menu is relatively limited. We’ve kind of separated ourselves because we now have both, which makes it a very unique spot. And obviously when I built the 2nd location, now knowing what we’ve turned into, I built a big commercial kitchen with a 12 foot hood to keep expanding our menu as we move forward. I think there’s a reason things happen. And i think getting that hood in Brentwood that seemed innocuous at the time ended up saving our restaurant and helping us grow into what we’ve become today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.JoaniesBoro.com
- Instagram: @joanieboro
- Facebook: Facebook.com/joanieboro
- Other: Can download our FREE app at http://www.JoaniesBoro.com/app