We were lucky to catch up with Sam Amato recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sam, appreciate you joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

There are times I sit back and think to myself, “why did I wait so long in my life to start my own business?” Then I realize that life events small and big are carefully placed in your life by the graces of GOD to set you up for success, meaning it was planned for me to make that jump at a certian ti.e in my life, the paths are layer out for us and it’s up to us to take the correct path and the correct time.

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

As a kid growing up I spent alot of weekends with my Grandparents. My Grandfather in particular, his name was Sam Greco a.k.a Poor Sam, he was a WW2 veteran, an artist, carpenter, Gardner, baker, fisher, tool and die worker, father of 3 and a very patient Grandfather that taught me the ropes, how to work with your hands, strong work ethics and how to treat poeple. Hanging out with him was the best, We would go around town, get a hair cut, go shopping and everywhere we went he was known and loved. One day I found one of his Biscotti cookie recipes and decided to make a bunch, are they were so good they brought me right back to the days I would wake up at 4am to the smell of fresh Biscotti cookies (Anisette) emanating through out the house. I would get up, for downstairs and sit at the table and watch him bake, he would give me the ends of the cookie loaf to try it out, sitting there listening to his small transistor radio on the window ledge playing 40’s music on WWJD on the AM dial. I told my wife we should start baking and selling these cookies, we did and they were a hit, so I started baking different flavors and different types of Italian cookies and selling them. At this point I decided to start a small business out if the house and start taking orders, so We decided to pay respect to my grandfather and call the business “Poor Sam’s Italian Bakery”. With that being said, we decided to make home made Mini cannoli’s and that was a huge hit. Now enjoying the business, serving the community and gaining more business with the Mini cannolis, we decided to kick it up.a notch, so we offered Chicago Hot dogs and Italian Beef sandwiches. Before we knew it we had a line of cars outside our house for curbside pick up. Ultimately we did get a call from the health dept. Explaining we couldn’t sell hot food from the house and that we should get a food trailer. So that’s what we did, with the support of the wife and family, my wife and I decided to draw up a custom hot dog trailer and have it built. We also decided to register a DBA name of “Poor Sam’s Italian Beef”. The custome trailer is complete and we launch our new small business part time on weekends and some week nights for just over a year, weather permitting. Now that a year by, things are foing great but we feel we can grow and dedicate more time to our business so we decided ro have an enclosed food trailer built to our needs with HVAC so we can work summer and longer hours. Thus has brought us to where we are today, I was able to quit my full time job and focus 100% on our family business, making that jump, taking that path that GOD has cleared for us. Now we are scheduling All kinds of events both business and private, Fairs and Auto shows and setting up at regular sites in town. Poor Sam’s is a success and growing. Able to serve the community Authentic Chicagoland street food. Italian Beef, Italian Sausage, Chicago Hot Dogs, Maxwell Street Polish, Pizza Puffs and more, all imported from Chicago.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

1. Marketing and photography is very important for growing clientele. Facebook is my largest most important for of marketing. Our Facebook page is growing everyday plus posting in multiple groups reaches out to thousands of poeple for free so another perk is its free. 2. Availability, responding quickly and professionally with customers. Creating a great repor with customers equates to positive word of mouth advertising.
3. Most important is the quality of your product and the quick turn around from order to serve is important and keeping the quality of your product at top level. I hear everyday,”WOW, that was quick”
Three very important steps above Equals success and business growth.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest point in my, Our lives that pertians to business and life is making that final decision to jump, making that extreme change from a full time job and Poor Sam’s part time to Poor Sam’s full time and leaving my career job. It was scary and nerve racking. But then I sat back and thaught of all these successful business owners small and big at some point in their lives in some way has stood at the edge and jumped, spread their wings and flew, to fly on to success. You think, what if I fail, all the “What if’s”. Then I thought, I don’t want to be a 90 year old man thinking to myself, “What would of happened if I jumped,” I never want to be in that position of thinking what if I would have tried this. If I don’t fly after take off, so be it, we lick our wounds and get ready to take the next jump and saving what you learned from the last jump. So, one day sitting at the office I thaught, why am I sitting her when I can be out there with our own business spending more time with my wife and kids, this was my pivot moment, after running the numbers and forecast for revenue and making sure all our obligations and bills will get paid and our business can run self sufficient I made the jump, left my full time job and with the support of my wife and family we started our own business without any regret.

Contact Info:

• Website: Hey, check out my website, “Poor Sam’s Italian B” with this link: https://poorsamaitaliano.wixsite.com/website-1
• Instagram: @poor_sams_italian_beef
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamAItaliano?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits
Sam Amato