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

Marco , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

When I initially came up with the idea to start my business. I started by selling plates out of my apartment in Daytona Beach. I created the LLC, got an email address, and made an instagram and Facebook strictly for the business. I figured I have to get my name out there some type of way!

So I advertised to friends, family, co-workers, fraternity brothers, anyone that would give me a chance. I would either sell brunch plates on Saturday’s or Soul Food plates on Sunday’s. Then I started setting up at various events around the state of Florida ( football games, bike week, concerts). Then eventually I got booked for a wedding, that’s when I had my turning point, that’s when things took off. Events were coming my way I couldn’t send out an estimate fast enough. Prior to that I wanted to quit, It was stressful and I was going to give up. Glad I didn’t! I went months with no job or event. It didn’t feel good at all.

I’m really thankful for the people that supported me, that’s where a lot of my strength came from, because without them I wouldn’t be where I am today. If you want to truly see who your friends are, start a business.

As I sit and reflect on those times when I first started , all I can do is laugh! Simply because outside of the food itself, I made a lot of mistakes, being an athlete I always knew to just move at 100 miles an hour. I eventually became a lot more strategic and effective once I started to ask questions, do research and gain more information. I’ve always remained humble and in my mind there are chefs out there that are better than me, so I need to keep working.

Marco , 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?

The name of the business is T&T Soul Cuisine Catering LLC.

We specialize Soul Food, Caribbean Food, and Maryland Style Seafood, but we aren’t limited to that. No event is too small or too large. We also travel anywhere!

I decided to get into catering because I wanted to create another stream of income. I chose the food industry because I’ve been around it all my life. At the age of 13 my mom worked at a restaurant that she later on became the owner of (T&T Carry Out) .So from birth until about 17 years old, I spent a lot of time watching her and my dad. Those moments stuck with me.

I wanted to start a business that I actually had passion for, something that I genuinely enjoyed doing. Being in the kitchen is therapeutic for me.

Professionalism and Customer service are the most important parts of my business. I believe that the customer/client deserves to be treated with the upmost respect. Next is the product that we are putting out there. I take my time to make sure that everything I cook is the best, whether I’m cooking for 2 people or 100. The integrity and consistency of the food is something I take very seriously. Customer feedback is a major key, if the food/service was good I want to know and if I was bad I want to know even more. I believe a chef is only as good as the last meal they cooked.

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

I remember this one job where I didn’t get a chance to go see the venue where I would be serving. So the morning of the event, the event planner factimed me and showed me the kitchen. When we initially spoke, she told me the kitchen was a fully equipped commercial kitchen. I find out the morning of that she was misled and the kitchen only had warmers and fridges. My plan was to have all the sides cooked prior to getting there and cook the meat/seafood on site.

I still had 120 pieces of Salmon, 120 pieces of pork chops and 100 pieces of Chicken Marsala to cook. I was freaking out because I didn’t have the oven space at my house to cook all that food on time. I didn’t want to be late because it was a formal event and the client paid a lot of money. So I had about 5 min to figure it out. Not to mention the venue was an hour and a half away from my house.

So my assistant showed up to the house and I basically broke everything down and separated it really quickly. I gave him all the salmon to cook in his oven at his house, I cooked the pork chops in my oven and I went to my neighbor and asked her if I could use her stove for the chicken. We got everything done on time.

Til this day, I don’t know how that was pulled off lol. I just knew I was screwed. It worked out though. You had to be there, it was wild. I learned a valuable lesson that day, never take an event without seeing the venue( which my parents had already told me) and teamwork is essential.

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

Social media is a very valuable source of marketing, especially for the food industry. It gives you the ability to showcase your product on a consistent basis.

The more I got booked, the more my social media presence grew. I honestly hate doing this, but I would ask my customers to post me on their social media. That helped a lot! I just felt weird asking them to do so.

When it comes to social media, post often, be ok with some post not getting as many likes as others, don’t be afraid to switch up your content. Take ideas from other people that have the presence you desire to have.

Honestly I’m not as good with social media as I could be, but I do try.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: tntsoulcuisine
• Facebook: T&T Soul Cuisine Catering
• Yelp: T&T Soul Cuisine Catering