We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Upshaw a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
The beginning of my business started with a lifestyle blog called “Northwest Workshop” 10 years ago. I knew I wanted to be in the food space, but I wasn’t skilled enough at that time to know what I was doing. Through the years, I would write articles about the Northwest and my home cooking, but I didn’t have a voice of my own.
I knew food was my passion and my Korean-American background was being washed out by me mimicking the most popular blogs at the time that were euro-centric. So I pivoted into continuously making content on the blog and eventually video form, taught cooking classes, and wrote a cookbook, all while working a corporate job.
And then the pandemic hit, and it made me examine my life. I knew I’d always wanted to have a community space surrounded by food and my Korean heritage, and I was so miserable at my job. My mentor tells me that was a clear sign I was an entrepreneur because “Small business owners can’t work for anyone else. You’re going to find the problems instead of falling in line.”
I jumped in doing pop-ups, collecting data, and using all the years of food blogging to market myself to get my small business loan and eventually a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood in Seattle.
Something I noticed within the decade of trying to go towards my biggest goal of being a small business owner of a physical space was how many people told me I should quit. Some would say it bluntly, but others would project their doubt because they couldn’t see it themselves. I’m here to say, that when you cross over to actually accomplishing the goal, you’ll hear that “they always knew you could do it”. But you have to remember from day one, you need to believe in yourself.
Sara, 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?
I’m Sara, the owner of OHSUN Banchan Deli & Cafe in Seattle, WA. We focus on Korean-American home cooking and specialize in banchan. I wasn’t always a cook, and this is my first restaurant, but food has always been an integral part of my life. My restaurant first focuses on community. That means we purposefully create events and workshops that bring value and a safe space to gather. We also just happen to have delicious food, too!
Any advice for managing a team?
All of our job postings have a “How to Thrive at OHSUN” guide so that the culture is set from the beginning. I explain during the interview that these are the things that I as the boss are looking at when managing the team. I also have a 3-C’s mantra: Consistency, Cleanliness, Comfort. Because the restaurant industry unfortunately has deep toxicity in it’s history, for some people, the guide and mantra are too much for them. This is how you sort out the right people for your space.
I remind my staff that we are all human, from the customers to me as the owner. Because of that, we will all make mistakes, but that also means you are responsible for doing better for your team and patrons who pay our paychecks so that everyone benefits. On top of that, I remember that everyone doesn’t need or want the same thing. Some need rigid structure, and others need a more gentle approach. As long as your team is doing their job, it’s up to the boss to foster that environment to make it so.
As long as you set systems in place, treat people with respect, connect to them as a human instead of a number, then you’re off on the right foot.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The biggest thing you have to remember is consistency and connection. Even from the beginning of having your account, you should post as if you already have your audience, with authenticity and content that they’d actually want to see. I think the reason why we’ve had a positive community form on our social media is because we’re not always trying to sell folks something. We genuinely want to make a connection, whether you’re a patron or not.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ohsunbanchan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohsunbanchan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ohsunbanchan
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ohsunbanchan
Image Credits
The dinning room shot with all of the people and me, that was @lifeofgai
The rest were photographed by me.