We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeremy Archer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeremy below.

Jeremy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Create a God-centered, community focused restaurant in Liberty Hill Texas. Also, to become the BBQ destination spot for the north central Texas area and surrounding areas offering craft BBQ and beer with a focus on showing every guest God’s love.

We are a Christian organization and believe that our purpose in life is to show love and acceptance to everyone we come in contact with no matter what your background is or what your beliefs are. Our mission is meaningful to us because we believe if we are achieving this goal, then everyone who comes in will feel accepted and loved from the time they step through the door until they leave. I mean, all of us want to feel loved, right?

Jeremy, 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?

Agape BBQ’s roots actually date back about 5 years prior to it’s inception. In 2018, after 18 years in the Information Technology sector, with the increasing popularity of outsourcing technical services, I was laid off from my job. Facing 40 and a new start, I decided that I didn’t want to be older in life wondering “what if” and decided to pursue my real passion of barbecue and serving people quality food. Over the next couple of years I started building my brand and product through garnering catering gigs. Getting things started was the most grueling part of my journey because I was learning the small business aspect and responsibilities on the fly while also trying to maintain the highest standard of a quality product while doing it by myself. As my catering business grew I had the opportunity to move into a small brick and mortar food shack in the parking lot of a Cedar Park convenience store. This is where I was able to really dial in my additional meat and side offerings to create recipes that my guests really enjoyed. After a year at that location, Covid come onto the scene and shut my business down. One of my regular customers heard I was shutting down and ended up pursuing me to see if I wanted to partner up and take it to the next level and a full service brick and mortar restaurant. 6 months later we had found the perfect location in Liberty Hill and opened our doors in October of 2020.

Starting a new business in the middle of a global pandemic definitely had its challenges, but being able to learn and adapt in a changing environment were key to being able to move the business forward. Additionally, inflation has had an effect on everyone, but the food service industry has been affected particularly hard. Being able to focus on financials and identify areas of improvement or where cuts can be made are critical to increasing every cent of margin possible. Cost Of Goods Sold was the most challenging area, but being able to identify price points to cover costs while not outpricing your customer base is key to success.

At Agape BBQ we offer the highest quality craft BBQ. Central Texas is a competitive market for barbecue, but what sets Agape apart is that everything we offer is craft, and made in-house with our own recipes. We only use the highest quality meats and prime beef. The thing we are most proud of is the feedback we are getting from our customer base. When they compare you to some of the best known BBQ places in Texas it does make you feel proud about what you are doing and it makes the hard work and years of sacrifice worth it.

In addition to providing craft BBQ, Agape offers a selection of craft Texas beers. We have made a commitment to support local businesses and keeping our beer selection to all Texas breweries is part of that commitment. Agape also offers a large back yard shaded by huge 300 year old oak trees which creates a unique atmosphere where people can relax in the shade while listening to live music.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We have built and established our social media presence all on our own. This began with just random posts about our food options. What we found is that people love seeing pictures of food. In addition, we started analyzing the engagements of our informational posts. Identifying what types of posts and what information is relevant to your customer base is important to your social media presence. We focus on three “p’s”….Product, People, and Pertinent information. Product is self explanatory, but having high quality imagery or videography is key. People is when we focus on a specific team member, or a loyal customer, etc. These get high engagements because its provides a connection of a business on a human level. Pertinent information is making sure that your social media base is not inundated with information to means nothing to them. When this happens people will “sleep” your posts or stop following you all together.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Having lost a job from a company I worked at for 18 years, grass roots starting a small business, closing a business due to covid, and starting another business at the height of a pandemic all within three years meant there were many opportunities to stop. In each of those moments, you have to determine what you are willing to fight for and how much you are willing to sacrifice to pursue your dream.       

Contact Info:

• Website: www.agapebbq.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agapebbq/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agapebbq

Image Credits
Spothopper