Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Matthew Stong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Matthew, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

When I started my business, it was just me. I baked the bread. delivered it, marketed it, took care of the books, and everything else that went into the business. After a couple of years, the workload was enough to keep me busy around 80-100 hours a week. That’s when I brought on a friend of mine who wanted to learn how building a business works so he could start his own. This worked out very well for both of us, but the day came when he was ready to move on, which meant I needed to hire again. I had never worked a job as a hiring manager before, so this was a new experience for me. I had to figure out where to post the job, how to interview, how to evaluate the people I interviewed, and everything else that goes into bringing a new person on. The biggest issue I ran into was that I was too optimistic. I would interview someone, and they would tell me about themselves, and an issue would arise that should have told me that they wouldn’t fit the job. My head would then think of all the ways we could “make it work” which just meant they were going to quit in a short time. this was an issue when it took several months to train someone as a baker. I had to learn to be more patient in the hiring process and to ask questions that would be more revealing about who they were. An important part of the interview was to see if they would ask me about the business or the position. I learned that if someone wasn’t curious about what was happening here, then they weren’t going to find enough in the business to enjoy working with us.

If I could do it again, I would give myself more time when hiring. I rushed things for a while, and that led to a lot of wasted time and money. I also wish I had worked as a manager before starting the business, so I could have learned this lesson on someone else’s dime.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always loved sandwiches, and I was told that I should start a sandwich shop by some friends when I was younger. That stuck with me, and I started formulating a plan to make it happen. The first thing I needed was the right bread, so in 2010 I started working on a bread recipe. I had never baked bread before, so I just started researching it every chance I got. I worked a few jobs as a baker to help me along in the learning process. After years of trial and error and using the things I learned, I finally got the bread that I wanted for my sandwiches. So in 2018, I started my bakery by selling my house to purchase a building that I could make into my bakery. Starting right into sandwiches was more risk than I wanted to take though, so I came up with my home delivery subscription. This subscription solved a problem that I always had while going to college. I took my lunch and dinner with me and most of the time it was sandwiches. Sometimes I wouldn’t have the bread I needed to make my sandwich and that would ruin my day, and I thought “What if someone just brought the bread I need for the week to me like the milkman used to do”. That’s where the idea came from and that is what has been a major part of the business. We also found success with providing restaurants with bread that holds up to the diverse sandwich options out there. A big solution for some burger places had been that my buns don’t get soggy when you have a wet burger meaning the bun won’t fall apart on you.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

While trying to hire new employees, I built up my business to a place that was too much for one person. Since I was in the process of hiring and was doing a terrible job at it, I had over a year where my schedule consisted of me working for 20 hours a day and only getting 4 hours of sleep each night, 6 days a week. Every time I thought I found someone to help me out, they would disappear on me. Even with the difficulty of working some much with so little sleep, I pushed through and Now I have been able to hire the bakers I need.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

A book that helped me significantly was the book “Who” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It was all about how to find, interview, and manage a team of people. I based much of my interview process on this book as well as many management techniques.

Contact Info:

• Website: stongsbread.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stongsbread/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stongsbread
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/stongs_bread