We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Gordon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kyle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear how you think about these two critical drivers
In the beginning and as you grow to scale there should be a very heavy emphasis on sales. It should take up 85% of you time, energy and effort. In short, sales cures all. Why is it such a magical elixir? Well, if you have top line sales you can cover all of your costs and start working on managing how the cash flows through your business. At first the cash will run through like a raging river after a flood. Slowly but surely you can start building a damn to ease the flow of cash in, through, and out of your business. During this time you can create controls, systems, and processes and you can bring people in to handle the job of managing the accounting and giving you reports so you can strategize on how to use the new “pool” of money you’ve accumulated. None of this is possible without a good “current” of cash to use our water analogy. You shouldn’t have to “cut costs” unless you’ve taken your focus off of top line sales. What you want to do is “manage costs” and work with your Team and vendors on P&L opportunity areas. Ensure you have solid industry benchmarks so you can work towards what is financial “high performing” for your industry. Focus on the low-hanging fruit and areas that can make the biggest difference. If you are having sales or financial performance issues, look closely at your ops formula. Manpower is first (perfect it – enough people? right seats? etc), then Culture (perfect it – onboarding, how people treat each other, vision, mission, etc), then look at your Operations (perfect it – training, systems, procedures, ease of production, refine the process), then and only then can you work on Financial Performance (perfect it – make it predictable, set benchmarks, P&L delivered 10 days after period closes, budgets, benchmarks, etc) and lastly you’re able to Market (SELL – get people to your product, share your story). Marketing is last because you never want to move people towards a crappy product or experience. This formula has worked for us for years and if something isn’t right we always revisit it and go in order…Manpower, culture, operations….
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It all started for me in high school. This is when I really realized that my Dad was an entrepreneur and that is when I realized that’s what I wanted to do too. In school I ran my own landscaping business, ready self help books, charted goal boards, and even joined ITI, a multi-level marketing business. In college is where I got the hospitality bug. I worked at a fast casual pizza place and got to see the view from behind the counter. The Managers, the Team, the BOH, the closers and everything in-between. It was intoxicating! The thrill of those back to back $1000 hours is something that I’ll never forget…I’ll also never forget getting those late night calls to see if I could come close because a call out! During college I had my idea for Dillas Quesadillas – a fast casual restaurant focused only on quesadillas. Dillas became the name after much brainstorming and after a scene from Napoleon Dynamite came on the screen “dang-it, Napoleon, go make yourself a dang quesa-dilluh!” We had the name! Dillas but pronounced dill-uhs just like Napoleon’s grandma said it. After school I asked for money to start Dillas and was immediately shot down – get a job they said…so I did. I started at a little unknown start up called…Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers…now a national brand. How lucky was I that my start was at what became one of the fastest growing, highest volume quick serve restaurants ever. I worked for 7 years there and rose to Managing Partner before leaving to pursue my dream of Dillas in 2013. Dillas opened in December 2013 and the rest is history. We now have 9 locations going on many more. Our vision is to be THE brand for Primo Quesadilla Meals with a purpose of building community through primo quesadilla meals. I’m very proud of Dillas but I’m more proud of my relationship with my wife, Maggie, and of the father I am to my son Parker (14) and daughter Grace (12).
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
There were many times throughout our business journey when things got tight. Covering payroll was a common occurrence in the early days. One story that sticks out is when we were about $100,000 short of a payment we needed to make to the bank. We’d over-shot our opening budget and other locations were also contributing less than they had done historically so it was a perfect storm. I can remember the gut feeling and the anxiety that was hovering around me during that week. It was like watching a train come towards you while you’re tied to the tracks, scary stuff. Fortunately, I learned a couple of lessons. First, ask for help and ask quickly. Luckily I was able to get with my banker and come to new terms that gave me a little breathing room (ultimately they want you to win!) and secondly, I made sure that I never again made a budget that wasn’t exceptionally conservative. I’d rather have to turn a project down because we just don’t have the money than get in over my head and put the entire enterprise at risk by sending us into the red.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My middle name is Resilience…and yours better be too if you’re getting into entrepreneurship. The way I like to describe it is like this. It’s a journey. A journey off a cliff and into freefall for which you have no idea of the end. The end could come with a quick splat or could end quickly into a plush inflatable cloud of foam and cotton balls! For most of us it’s onto a net after you hit a few bushes and branches on your way down. What the ancient Chinese proverb doesn’t tell you (Leap and the net will appear) is that the net is only safety. It’s not success or a place of thriving, you’ve only SURVIVED the fall, and you haven’t won the game of business. Once on the net, your true journey begins. You can climb down, put your feet on solid ground, and start the hard work of climbing the mountain that lies ahead of you. Welcome to the jungle my friend, we got fun and games! This part, the walk into the unknown where you’re really building your business and growing it is the most fun. You have freedom, you have some early success and you get to start building a Team and culture around you to join you on your journey. I hope you make it to the top, but beware, there are others in the jungle…who are bigger, stronger, and faster than you…you’ll need to build alliances and seek mentors to find your unique path…and win the race! I went all Jumangi on you there but it’s the best way I could describe it after being in it for 10 years!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dillas.com
- Instagram: @dillasquesadillas
- Facebook: @dillasquesadillas
- Linkedin: Dillas Quesadillas
Image Credits
Kathy Tran