We recently connected with Taylor Swenning and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I love owning my own business. I never could imagine having a regular job. To me, life is about experiences and learning as much as you can in the short time we’re here.

In college at Texas A&M, I studied Construction Science. My parents were always home builders and that’s all I ever knew. I wanted to follow in their footsteps by owning my own home building company. College was actually the place I learned, I most definitely never wanted to work for anyone else, but myself.

When I had my Donut Darlin’ food truck through college, the superintendent told me to let go of the food truck and to focus on construction because I would never make more money on my own, than I would in the construction industry. This comment fueled me to make sure to prove her wrong.

And I did :)

There is so much pride in owning your own business. There is also a lot of pressure to make sure that you are successful. If you love what you do, you will make sure you thrive – and there is no cap on your salary.

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?

It all started with a food trailer, named Donut Darlin’. In 2017, as a sophomore at Texas A&M University, studying Construction Science, I needed a life of a little more color! A retro 50’s diner themed trailer had my name written all over it. The trailer was named ‘Holy Crepe’, but I was not an expert crepe maker. We scratched the crepe idea and landed on mini donuts and coffee. I traveled around Texas for 4 years catering large parties, weddings, greek events and attended festivals all while going to school full time. Word traveled fast and soon we had 3 concession stands inside Kyle Field during the 2018-19 football seasons and were attending events, such as, Magnolia Silos in Waco, Texas and Formula 1 in Austin, Texas.

I continued to travel the state for a year after graduation in 2019. Living in hotels and out of my donut van had me dreaming of a place to settle down! My parents had told me of a historic building across the street from their wedding venue in this little town, called Flatonia, Texas. After wrapping up a catering event with Donut Darlin’, I made my way to Flatonia to check out this building…..and when I pulled up… the large sign at the top said ‘The Darling Emporium’ – this LITERALLY had my name written all over it.

A bitter-sweet decision, turned into the biggest and best jump of my life. I sold Donut Darlin’ and everything with it, bought the building and renovated with my Dad for 7 months through COVID. My boyfriend at the time (who is now my husband, Christopher) and I, moved in above the diner and we opened the doors to Darlin’s Diner in September of 2020.

Since then, we have expanded by opening Loula’s Loft (named after our sweet daughter) – an event rental space upstairs where we once lived for 2 years. We also opened a boutique in the building next door attached to the diner for customers to shop and enjoy mimosas while waiting for a table, called Sala de Soul.

Flatonia has our hearts. And so do our customers. I love what I do, because I went my own way!

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

I sold my food truck, Donut Darlin’, in 2020. The best advice I can give is to hire a business broker, As a business owner, you don’t have time or patience for paperwork, logistics or legalities. There was a lot above my head that went into selling the business. Also, my business was trademarked nationally. With that, there was a lot of necessary paperwork that my buisness broker handled for me.

Business brokers are great! Think about when you are looking for a house, you’re on realtor.com, zillow.com or MLS – It’s the same for selling businesses. Some people would rather buy an already successful business rather than starting one from ground up.

Invest in a broker. It’s worth it!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first started Donut Darlin, we had purchased a mini donut machine from Germany that made these mini donuts with the hole in the middle. All you had to do was put the batter in and it did the rest! The awesome little machine was very short lived.

In order to operate a mobile food business, a fire permit was required – especially because we were frying donuts. The permit had to be given by the local fire marshall after he tested the system and approved. Frying any food requires what’s called a fire suppression system – an automatic system that sprays green goo (ansul) in the case of a grease fire.

During the permit test, the fire marshall accidentally discharged the system with a full tank instead of the empty tank for testing. The FLOODED my brand new donut makin’ machine the day before my first public debut at a local festival in town.

I had to pivot. I went to Walmart immediately and bought these deep dish electric fryers and an ice cream scoop. From then on we were a donut hole company. Coincidentally, that’s what set us apart from anyone else from then on. Cute little gourmet donut holes from a cute little 50’s diner themed trailer.

As catastrophic the incident was, it was essential to our story and success. It’s funny to look back on the moment. I thought my business was over before it even started. I had to make a good situation out of a bad one, and we did!

Contact Info:

• Website: darlinsdiner.com
• Instagram: darlins.diner
• Facebook: darlinsdiner