We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mike Simuns. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mike below.
Alright, Mike thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
I had been planning to start a Food Truck for many years, just working on saving the startup funds. Finally got to the place where I had the funds and a great starter truck became available. I jumped on the chance.. Unknown to us, there was a panademic coming! We had planned to start in March of 2020, but due to the all the uncertainy of Covid it continued to get delayed until June 2020. At that point, we decided to take the jump and take the risk of opening up a brand new Food Truck just as Covid was shutting down most restaurants. But, this actually turned out for us, to be the perfect timing.. People still wanted great food, but couldn’t go to local restaurants for sitdown meals. But the food truck was a perfect place to pick up a great breakfast and social distance easily. What unforunately hurt alot of resturants was a boon for us… We provided good food, good service, social distancing and easy pickup. We immediately took off and exceeded our business plan by 100% in the first 3 months. I was able to leave my part time job and concentrate fully on the Biscuit truck in less than 5 months and in our first year we won Times call “best food truck” readers choice award 2021 and have continued to grow and expand. We actually just won “best food truck” readers choice for 2022.. so 2 years in a row.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started in restaurants as a teenager and fell in love with the rush of working in a busy restaurant. The challenge of serving lots of hungry people while maintaining the quality of the food and service was something i really enjoyed. As i grew older i worked in as many different types of restaurants possible, from fine dining to breakfast diner joints and everything in between. While experiencing all these different types of restaurants, I also moved to every position within a restaurant.. from cook to server so that I could understand all facets of what it took to deliver great meals. As i got older, i really wanted to start a restaurant business that could be used as a vehicle to allow me to help others start their own food business. That’s the main reason I started Biscuits @Mike’s. I wanted to test my theory that you could have food business that can be started by the average joe and paid a living wage for employees. That could be replicated easily and at a cost that was realistic. My hope is that within 5 years, I can shape this theory into a actual commissary for food trucks and start working with others to start their food truck. We would offer kitchen services, business services, possible franchise or lease to own and training on starting and running a food truck.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Our orginial goal when starting Biscuits @Mike’s was to follow the standard food truck model and do events, go to breweries and offices parks to serve our biscuits. We barely got started in June 2020 and as we all know the world changed in a minute and those avenues where no longer available almost overnight! Breweries and restaurants shutdown to inside dining, offices emptied. So what to do? we had to step back.. look at our options.. determine how we could still serve biscuits and make a living. We realized that people still wanted good food, they still needed breakfast.. but needed it to be delivered safely.. So we quickly pivoted setting up mornings only in business parking lots that offered visiblity, easy access and plenty of parking. Then we went on a social media blitz to share the word. Within a few weeks it was working and working extremely well. People found us via social media or driving by… they could get breakfast in a safe manner while social distancing and we where serving biscuits like crazy! We still follow this model and it is working so well we have actually added a second truck recently. I learned that you have to do you.. whatever you is… and be ready when changes happen
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
For me, I have a few key tenants that I want our business to revolve around: consistency, community, customers and simplicity. I really feel these are what make a difference and have worked to build our reputation within the northern colorado market. Consistency and simplicity go togheter… be there, on time, every time so your customers can find you easily. Then use the KISS method for great food… Keep It Simple Stupid. Just because i could add 15 ingredients.. doesn’t mean i should. Our menu is quality or quantity.. no fluff, no frills. Just great breakfast biscuit sandwiches to get your day started. Customers and community round out our model. Customer service is king.. be happy to see your customers, acknownledge them, take care of them, help them want to support you. We love sharing our customers pictures and social media and this has been a huge help in spreading the word about us. The final piece of the puzzle is give back to the community that supports you. We do this as often as we can.. from providing free breakfast to struggling comunity members on Christmas day, to collecting clothing donations for several months for homeless outreach programs, to hosting the scouts selling popcorn. Be involved, Without our community we wouldn’t be succesful.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biscuits.at.mikes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Biscuits.at.mikes
Image Credits
Lyn Simuns