We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason Noel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jason , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
I believe what corporate America gets wrong and doesn’t understand is that the industry thrives off of Mom and Pop businesses. The small neighborhoods and local Mom and Pop businesses are the businesses that bring the culture, hard work ethic, history/roots, flavors, love and original ingredients to the industry.
Jason , 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 love what I do and I love to cook. I love to bring a smile to my customers face when they try something that they may never have had before. I love to put out a consistent product that keeps people satisfied, happy and coming back to support a my food. I measure success by the amount of people I can influence not necessarily how much money I generate. Coming to work every day can be stressful at times and overwhelming but it’s the finished product at the end of the day that keeps me going. Taste Budz brand is built off of customer service, consistency, hard work, quality, and trying to use as much local produce or product as possible. Generating as many local jobs as possible is also important to our brand. We strive in valuing our customers and staying within a reasonable budget so we are not over charging our customers yet still maintaining good portions. Our main goal is to make sure after they eat at Taste Budz they leave happy and full and are repeating customers.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Funding for a business is never easy and it is usually the number one reason why people don’t move forward with their dreams or goals. First you have to have a direct game plan and vision and believe in what that vision. In my case funding a business did not come easy and it was a lot of hard work, long hours and discipline saving money for the vision and goal I had in mind. After I saved up some money I also had to liquidate things in my life that I felt were no longer important to me so I was able to have the funds needed to open my business. I also had a mother who supported my dream and saw the same vision I saw and was able to help put a little money towards my business. It is very important to have support no matter if it is from friends or family.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
Like anything in life there’s going to be struggles and sacrifices that are going to need to be made in order to keep your dreams alive. Anyone that has been in the culinary industry and has owned a business knows how financially difficult things can get. There were definitely times I’ve had to learn how to rob Peter to pay Paul and ontrol only what I was capable of controlling at the time. Not overthinking and stressing myself out on overwhelming bills. Payroll was the most important to me because coming up in the industry I was a dishwasher, prep cook and line cook. There has been numerous times in this cutthroat industry where I have not received paychecks and am still owed money from 10-15 years ago. I felt used, disrespected and underappreciated at times. So when I opened my business I vowed to make sure my problems never became my employees problems and they were always taken care of first and any other bills came second. This business is a numbers game. Everything is about numbers so when you learn how to shop correctly, delegate certain bills first and really manage your finances to perfection things become a little more clear and easier to deal with.
Contact Info:
- Website: Tastebudzmi
- Instagram: Tastebudzmi
- Facebook: Tastebudzmi