We were lucky to catch up with Rayan Mykal recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rayan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

One quote that I always have listened to, which was written by Tom Bodette states “ In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

I’m currently still in university finishing my last 2 classes before graduating with a sociology degree. I also had graduated from college with a paralegal degree so if any topic was to be chosen, it would be this one. Our education system has taught people to act, think, and solve problems in a specific way. When I was in highschool, there wasn’t much teaching of how customer service works, if you want to open a business here are some suggestions, if you want to problem solve with customers here are some tips and tricks. Now the reason why I stuck with highschool is because that’s the time where people are going into their adult life, starting jobs, realizing what they want to do when they are older. The schools should be teaching the students on how to communicate with people how to act in certain situations how to deal with people that are stubborn.

Schools should offer in the business programs on how to properly run a business, teaching them that if someone is to run a business they are going to experience things they don’t expect. For instant in my personal example, friends go against you, some of your best staff will leave and you have to deal with it and learn that when you lose one of your best staff members that will be a chance will grow the business. School will not teach you to not rush into deals. We rushed into a deal that we thought was so good, such a great idea and seemed like it made us a lot of money when in reality we didn’t NEGOTIATE. huge part in business. When dealing with almost anything you want to negotiate and not rush into something that you’re not mentally prepared for. So for Instance (and this is where I wish school taught me as it would have saved me tons of money) negotiate with suppliers so if you’re buying a product and can get it cheaper elsewhere, negotiate with your current supplier and 90% of the time they will be able to work with you. This is only part of an example about how schooling should be showing you about business.

Next, schooling has also been proven that you’re not guaranteed a job after, you’re not guaranteed to make tons of money, school is there if you want to excel your knowledge on certain things such as theory or history or things that people find interesting. School at the end of the day is a business. They are there to make money. The staff that work there will help you for sure, but they are there to make sure you’re in school as long as possible so they can get every dollar out of you.

School should also make a cooking class mandatory, a health and fitness class mandatory, a home cleaning or basic life work class mandatory and anything else that involves taking care of yourself. With the world becoming more lazy, people have gotten away from cooking at home and started going to order take out and have unhealthier options during the days. A lot of people that we know don’t know how to cook, clean, do laundry, organize, take care of themself or anything that has to do with one’s self. This is becoming a huge issue as todays society is very depressed, lonely, struggling to get by, and unhealthy. If people learned to take care of themself mentally and physically we would notice a huge change in the world we live in. People would be more social, they would not be feeding their bodies hurtful things like McDonald’s and burgerking. It’s the small things that we should be taking into consideration when doing a school curriculum.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Rayan Mykal (pronounced Ryan Micheal) and I am 26 years old and live in the city of Windsor located in the providence of Ontario Canada. I own 2 restaurants, an aftermarket auto parts performance company, a realtor, and a university student.

I have been in the Resturant industry since I was 14. I was always fascinated by chefs when I was working as a dishwasher and had a passion for cooking and always loved the idea of feeding people as everywhere you go food is needed. I am also very heavily involved in the automotive community.

Starting off with the restaurants. As mentioned I was 14 when I started dishwashing. I used to always watch the chefs create a fire in the pan, season food, make creations, have such wonderful tasting ideas and be able to make anything. I remember going to my boss when I was 15 asking if he could teach me how to cook and he said maybe later. Well later came by and the chefs started making me do work that taught me the basics such as cutting vegetables, some desserts, cutting meats, thawing out product etc. when I turned 16 one of the cooks quit and I was up. I started on the grill making the basic appetizers and slowly moved up into the pan sections where majority of the food was being made. I was taught under 12 different chefs from around the world and eventually hopped from Resturant to Resturant learning the different type of dishes and how to make food work together to make dishes that is heavily focus on the fine dining cuisine. December 1st 2021 I took over Bacchus Ristorante. I was the head chef at bacchus for about 4 years and had left for about 5 months and came back to take it over. While owning bacchus I learned a lot about running a brick and mortar business. Lots of debts, learned how to talk to customers, learned about what people like and not like, learned that your friends will not always be there the way they say the will be, most of all, I learned that you’re the one who will care about the business more than anyone else. You HAVE to be married to the business you have to watch every move. You have to question things. You have to be there. People enjoy seeing the owner involved. If you’re negative on your business and hate it, your staff will feel it and they will hate being there, your clients will feel negative energy and will not want to be there. You must be positive at all times no matter what’s going on.

Next is Buddies Performance my auto parts business. This is a drop ship company that I had started back in June 12th 2020 and I’m an authorized dealer for over 5,000 brands and supply the Windsor Car community with their aftermarket auto parts. Some parts can be exhaust systems, turbos, superchargers, coilovers, springs etc. I actually made this company as my first business and has been very well known since the time it has opened. People from around California, Toronto, Mississauga, Saskatchewan and many other locations have heard about Buddies and is growing to be North America wide.

Next Is Chatham street diner which is my breakfast Resturant from October 1st 2022 and this one Is the same idea as Bacchus Ristorante except all breakfast.

Lastly is my realtor license which I had recently gotten on July 17th 2023. This one I’m currently working on and have gained multiple clients in a short span of time

I do have tons of competition but there is a few things that stand out the most. I am honest, personable, and fair. People love honesty, that is the one thing that will make or break a business. If you’re going to lie to customers people will catch on and you will have a bad name, they will end up never supporting your business and you’ll close before you know it. Next is the customer service I offer. There is a lot of good reviews about my businesses and a lot that have my name on it. People enjoy having the owner go talk to them wether it’s in a Resturant or when purchasing products. The owner is the one who is knowledgeable on the products offered and have a better sense of trust when choosing what they want. When I serve tables at the diner and people know I’m the owner they talk to you in a different way and will always be willing to help. They will give you positive feedback and come back just for you. This is what I have learned through the years in business.

I’m very proud to see how far I’ve come along. I always tell people chase your dreams and stop chasing others dreams. You have a plan go for it. If you want to own a business do it. If you tell yourself I’m going to own a business next week start a business plan today. If your boss tells you “you start work at 9:00am tomorrow be here 8:45” you listen and are there at 8:45. If you tell yourself I’m going to start a business tomorrow and don’t my question to you is why did you listen to someone else and not follow what you said to yourself. This is where I went wrong it was always about making sure everyone else is satisfied before myself. Sounds selfish right? It’s true. It’s YOUR life at the end of the day, but that lambo, get that house you dream of travel. Yes it will take you a little bit of time yes you’ll be tired, yea you won’t see results tomorrow. Don’t give up.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

As mentioned in the other one. I bought Bacchus Ristorante and Chatham street diner. Bacchus is a fine dining Resturant that serves steaks, pasta, seafoods, salads, etc. I got into this business because I was the chef there for 4-5 years and saw a great potential.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Follow ups is huge. When I have customers who haven’t been at the restaurants in a long time and haven’t purchased parts I always reach out and see how they are.

You always will have their number or some sort of contact information, your best option is to reach out “hey how are you? We just released a new wine menu it would be great if you came by and checked it out” that “invite” back will drive your cliental back into the businesses. Sending a Thank you for purchases so when people purchase a bigger part I always send a Thank you pack which includes stickers and lanyards and bottles of cleaning for their vehicles and it keeps people coming back.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: BacchusYQG, RayanMykal123, Chatham street diner, Buddies Performance.
• Facebook: Rayan Mykal, Bacchusygq, Chatham street diner, Buddies performance