Confessions of A Creative Entrepreneur: A Conversation With Sharon Mays
This week, we’re preparing for the launch of our Money Mindsets series, a three-part conversation with local Austin leaders at the Capital One Café downtown on November 21, December 7 and December 19 exploring money setbacks, leveling up and staying financially informed.
In anticipation for this Thursday’s first discussion with creative entrepreneur Sharon Mays, we’re publishing an interview with Mays about her experience launching, closing, then re-opening her healthy fast-food concept Baby Greens. In this Q&A, Mays shares some of the mindset shifts she has navigated throughout her experience self-funding, taking on investment and even filing for bankruptcy.
ABOUT SHARON:
Sharon Mays is the owner and founder of Baby Greens, one of the first fast food salad restaurant concepts. She also serves on the Austin/Travis County Sustainable Food Policy Board. Mays started her first company at 25 years old (a marketing agency called M City Marketing). She started Baby Greens in 2003 when she was 30; she opened 3 stores in the Austin and grew the company to a value of over $1MM, then she closed all of the stores in 2009. She had created Baby Greens to be a franchise but the operations were not meeting her vision for the company, so she closed to realign Baby Greens' mission, values and operational goals. Baby Greens reopened in 2016 and was one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings in Austin that year. On top of being a community activist and realtor, she's also launched a consulting agency called Embark which focuses on helping entrepreneurs and soon-to-be-entrepreneurs open and/or expand their business.
Describe the way your business and projects have grown and/or changed within the last three to five years.
Reopening Baby Greens (BG) was very different the second time around because it's exponentially more expensive to start and run a restaurant in Austin right now. I was inexperienced the first time around so the fact that it was cheaper to open a restaurant made the situation more forgiving. All of my bills combined were less than my current rent and property taxes. So I'm fortunate to have come to this second time around with a much keener sense of business, because I think it just takes more skill, strength and resilience to succeed. I would say the biggest thing that has changed is me. I was so unaware of how risky it was to open a restaurant in the way I did the first time around, so I wasn't afraid because I didn't really appreciate what I could lose. But I also felt like such a small fish that no one was paying attention to what I was doing. There were things I wanted to do, but because I hadn't seen any other brand doing them I would chicken out. My first attorney told me, “You always come into my office asking my advice on an issue that you have already figured out. If you want to pay me to tell you that you're on the right track, that's fine. But you should save your money and trust yourself more. You are really good at this.”
Today I am less afraid because I have an extensive knowledge of my industry, but also because I fully own the fact that I'm still ahead of the curve. I own my power, completely and unapologetically. I can say without flinching that I am really, really good at my job. I don't think that the core of BG has changed. I would say the way we do things has changed. Before I would question if something was a "good idea" because I was doing things that other brands weren't and I wasn't sure that I knew enough to justify that innovation. I never question that anymore. Next year we're rolling out a new product line and adding new, more sustainable options to our product packaging. Both will be fairly unique to the Austin market as well as the fast, casual and quick-serve market (those are just fancy words for fast food). I've been working on them for awhile. They will show the evolution of the BG brand as well as reaffirm our innovative spirit. And most importantly, our customers are going to love them.
What's a money tip or trick that you've learned recently?
I took on investors when I relaunched BG. So I asked a VC friend [venture capital investor] if I could give him my pitch, so that he could give me feedback on my presentation. One of the things he told me was, “Raising money is one of the easiest parts of starting a business,” which sounded crazy to me. I felt like raising money was very difficult. But in the end he was right—if you don't go to a bank.
When you are starting something new, what you are asking/needing people to do is to invest in you. People don't invest in businesses, they invest in people. Except banks. Banks invest in businesses. So when you are starting out, you need someone to see your vision and hear your passion and buy into your story. A bank will not do that for you. I also learned that having more money means you will spend more money, but it does not mean you will have more success. I opened BG on a shoestring budget. I invested money in customer-facing things so that we looked legit. Customers didn't know that inside we had an old school cash register and hand-written tickets and second-hand equipment. That didn't stop us from having lines out into the street every day at noon and being voted “Best Salad and Dressing” in Austin four years in a row. When I reopened BG, we got a fancy POS system and shiny new equipment and all kinds of bells and whistles. And it didn't make us any more profitable than we were before. It's definitely nice to have nice things and I want my staff to have what they need to be successful. But on days when we have technical issues and I'm on hold with Tech Support, I miss that old $150 register. It never made me yell, "Speak to Customer Support," into the phone over and over again.
What advice or lesson would you share with someone who’s at the start of doing their own thing?
Reduce your personal expenses as much as you can when you before you launch your business. I lived in a two-bedroom apartment when I first opened BG. I moved in with my best friend after the first year. That move helped me save money, and it also meant I had someone to help entertain my dog while I was working crazy hours. (And someone to ask my how my day was when I got home from work.) I also paid off all my credit cards. Cutting my living expenses in half took a lot of pressure off, because it takes awhile to start seeing any money when you start your own thing. Even if it's a side hustle. It's going to take some time to start seeing any real money. I cut back on going out and eating out and buying things that I wanted more than I needed. It bummed me out at first, but as the saying goes: "If you want something you've never had, you have to be willing to do something you've never done." Or in this case, do without something you've never done without before. Stay at home. Work on your plan. Read books and blogs, listen to podcasts, watch vlogs, go out and network. Instead of spending money, spend time educating yourself
Also—be resilient. There will be days that you will question your decision. You will lose faith. You will talk yourself into giving up. It's the entrepreneurial emotional roller coaster. Making it out to the other side—to your launch—is the pound of flesh you pay to become an entrepreneur. That first leap is the scariest one, but you absolutely can do it.
Design by Danni Wright
want more?
Join us at Confessions of A Creative Entrepreneur this Thursday, November 21 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Capital One Café to hear Mays’ story. Thanks to Capital One’s commitment to supporting women in entrepreneurship and small business owners, this event is free and open to the public with RSVP.
Can’t make it? We highly suggest learning more about our biannual conference WORK, a one-day event that presents new ideas and approaches to creative and entrepreneurial work. Hosting 300 guests every summer and winter, this biannual, one-day event's panels, workshops and speaker sessions touch on personal and professional development, marketing, wellness, business management and entrepreneurship. ✨The next WORK conference will be held in January 2020 at the University of Texas at Austin’s Rowling Hall.