We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lo Soukhavong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lo below.
Lo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Back in the 90’s, no one saw cooking as a true and serious profession. People where pursuing a higher education in healthcare, legal, sales, marketing, finance, but not culinary. Being a cook was looked down upon as a peasant, low wage position. There was no Food network or celebrity chefs with their own TV shows. Growing up, I worked in the food service business making ends meet during my teen years. After graduating from High School in 1997, I though long and hard about attending a culinary school to pursue a career in the food service business. It was not well received from any of my friends and family because they have not heard of such a thing!
In addition, there were only a few colleges that offered a culinary accredited program. Because these programs were far and few, they were quite expensive. With a true belief that this is what my path needed to be, scraping every bit of savings, decided to attend Johnson & Wales University RI. This decision was a risk in itself.
Lo, 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?
Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island is recognized as the World’s largest hospitality educator and holds a distinction in Culinary Arts. After 4 years at JWU, I holds an Associate degree in Culinary Arts and a bachelor’s in Food Service Entrepreneurship.
Working at various prestigious restaurants and private clubs, as a culinary instructor for the Radisson Hotel, Chef de Cuisine for Gaylord Palm’s Florida, and now equipped with the title Chef Lo, I have launched one of the most eclectic catering & private chef business servicing all of central Florida called Millenia Event Catering.
Millenia Event Catering currently has 14 full time, 4 part time and 90 on call team members. The company just reached a milestone of 15years of service. Over the decade of service has produced over 25 million dollars in revenue. Chef Lo continues to give back to the community that once giving so much to him and his family. During hurricane Irma, which many out of food and clean water, Chef Lo and his company donated their time and service to cook over 20,000 meal to feed the community. The company just incorporated a philanthropic pledge where Millenia Catering works with The Lovely Project & Ronald McDonald House. “We are humbled and have been blessed to be in a position to give back to the community who gave so much to my family and I.”
Millenia Catering currently executes over 400 events a year. Millenia Catering also own 3 event venues: Idlewood Venue (Idlewoodvenue.com) Dr Phillips House (DrPhillipsHouse.com) and Town Manor on the Lake (TownManorWeddings.com)
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
After being in business for 15 years and 3 event/wedding venues later, we faced a challenge that we have never experience before: COVID19. This devastating pandemic crippled the hospitality industry causing many food service business to completely shut their doors for good. With my wife loosing her job, our 1st born just turning 2 years old, no revenue coming in and very little assistance, I decided to pivot into real estate. I took all of the $300K that was saved over a decades time and deployed it on several spec home projects. 9 months into the pivot, there was huge shift in the real estate market showing an upward spike of 20+ percent. We were able to capitalize on the opportunity and create enough cushion until the pandemic was able to subside.
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
Coming out of pandemic and being able to maintain the catering business along with the 3 event/wedding venues was a blessing. This included keeping all my key leadership on payroll throughout the process. With the tough pivoting decision made and executed, I came out the pandemic in a better place mentally, financially and spiritually. We are currently seeking to purchase 2 additional event/wedding in the coming year. I am also offering partnership to all my key leadership and staff to join along the ride as equity partners. We are excited about the next chapter in our business as we grow into creating legacies and generational wealth together as a team.
Contact Info:
- Website: milleaniacatering.com
- Instagram: @milleniacatering
- Facebook: Millenia Catering