Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

With this podcast you will learn how Jen started her health and wellness business, Jenerate Wellness. Note that is Jenerate with a J, as in Jen, as in Jen will help you generate your wellness.  Clever and true, indeed.

Jen discusses her move from back of the napkin idea to opening up a retail spot for customers to come in, unwind and recharge using a variety of methods but focusing on Infrared Saunas.

In addition she tells us all about the fun/grind of owning a business.

Enjoy!

Exercise your right to start a business.  Corey from Digman Fitness tells us the secrets to making it all work out in business.  Keep moving, keep smiling and make sure you have a goal in place.

Gerry deals the dirt on starting a restoration company.  From dealing with wet basements to less than sanitary things he and his crew have to deal with.  He gives us the dirty secrets of running Hydra Pro Damage and Restoration Company in Madison, Wisconsin.

Mark from Actuate Improvement has been a force for change in the construction industry.  Removing the typical stigmas of general contractors by having ultimate communication with his customers.  This includes answering the phone when clients and potential clients call.  As well as keeping clients up to date on where their project is at.  Who knew communication was this powerful?

With this podcast you will learn how Katie left her solid, well-paying job to start a non-profit centered around getting kids moving and bringing more money into schools. She did this through sheer will, intelligence and a great desire to make the world a better place. Katie Hensel is the owner of Tri 4 Schools. Katie and her employees and volunteers operate triathlons for kids aged 3 and up in and around Madison, Wisconsin.

Visit Katie at: https://tri4schools.org/

Enjoy!

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With this podcast you will learn how Nate quit the grind of cubicle life and jumped on the beer and food train. Nate started Rockhound Brewpub a couple years ago and has been navigating success, beer in hand, ever since. You'll also learn some of the challenges of starting a restaurant, brewing beer and making a go with both. Nate Warnke is the owner of Rockhound Brewing Company. Nate and his crew make beer, food and smiles on Park Street in Madison.

Visit Nate at: http://rockhoundbrewing.com/

Enjoy!

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You have found Authentic Business Adventures. The business program that brings you the struggle

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stories and triumphant successes

of business owners across the land. Coming

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to you in the sweet, sweet, sweet Draw

In Customers makeshift studio here.

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So we are welcoming today Nate Warnke,

owner of Rockhound Brewing Company.

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Nate, how are you doing today?

Good.

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Thanks for having me again, James.

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I'm excited.

I'm excited.

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And I'll tell you why, because, one,

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you're the first person that I've ever

had on the show for the second time. Woah.

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So that's cool, right?

It's already a big deal.

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Yeah right.

I'm honored.

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Thank you.

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And then second thing,

you're the first person I've had

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on the show that's in the process

of closing their business.

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Sure.

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So this is I'm excited because

the authentic part of Authentic Business

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Adventures business is

close, man, arguably.

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Well, eventually all of them

do right, nothing lasts forever.

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Eventually, everyone closes.

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It's just like the covid

thing with death, right?

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Somebody died like, everybody does.

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Nobody gets out alive.

Right.

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At any rate, we're talking to you.

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You're closing in a month.

Just a little less than a month.

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OK,

so for the people that don't know who you

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are and what you do,

let's just start with the beginning.

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So when did you start your business?

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Why did you start it?

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Just let's just give

the Cliff's Notes version.

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Yeah, I'll give the the two

minute version of that.

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So basically six a little over six years

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ago, I left the corporate job and I

wanted to start a business and

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and I decided that business was going

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to be a brewpub because I

really like the vibe of brewpubs.

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And it was a growing business segment.

All right.

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So I came up

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with Rockhound Brewing Company, which I'm

wearing all the logos today. Nice.

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I go to wear them while I can.

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Sure.

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So, I started Rockhound Brewing Company

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in 2016

and it was kind of my my brainchild,

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my desire to, to make good beer and make

a community around, around a brewpub.

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And then here we are four and a half years

later and we're working on shut down.

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But yeah, we have a small brewpub,

it's about a hundred seats.

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All right.

So there's one hundred seats.

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We, we have one hundred eight capacity

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and I'll segway into the covid thing

like right now our capacity's twenty seven.

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Yeah that's crazy to me.

That's a quarter.

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And you know it's one hundred

seats at a small restaurant.

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It is.

And we have a full kitchen,

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so we have a full restaurant, full food menu

and a full brewing operation on site.

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Every one of our beers is brewed onsite

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unless otherwise stated

as a collaboration.

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Sure.

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So I want to make it its

own little community.

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And it was owner operated.

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So that's basically me.

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And I've got a couple of very,

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very dedicated staff and they've

been there for my house manager

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she's been there since day one.

Wow.

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Yeah, I still got the same,

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she wasn't house manager day one,

but she promoted two years later because

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that was the future

of the of the pub.

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Wow.

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My chef has been involved

since before day one.

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She's a friend of mine and he was kind

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of a fill in for a while

and eventually became a chef.

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So.

All right.

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This is this is family, right?

So we are family.

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Yeah. And we built up a community,

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we built up a family.

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We had a lot of good time for for the five

years that I've been in operation.

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I live six blocks away.

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So it's in my neighborhood.

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And that's that's where we

are today now in covid land.

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And I'm sure we'll talk

about playing that later.

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Yeah, it's been a lot of fun for five

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years, but now it's time

to time to let it go.

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All right. So did you see when you first

started your business,

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what was the goal? What was the end game

or did you have an end game?

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Actually did it.

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When I started the business,

I had I saw the cash flow in beer.

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I saw the cash flow in restaurants.

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And I said, well, you know,

I'm a pretty smart guy.

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I've never had restaurant experience,

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but I had homebrewed experience, hired

people who knew more than I did

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from a restaurant perspective

because you hire what you don't know.

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And I was hoping to bring in some good

cash flow to pay down some loans and then

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turn that cash flow

into real estate property.

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Oh. So,

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my goal was actually to get that thing

self-sufficient, take the cash flow out

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of that and put it into

investment properties.

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OK, just small ones.

All right.

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That was the actual goal when I started

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talking about it six years ago

and then eventually sell the brewpub.

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My assumption was in ten

years to employees.

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All right.

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You know, and employees that were

potentially interested in I did at some

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point have employees who were interested

in buying the thing out.

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And I figured it would be a ten year

plan where I would sell it to them.

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You had employees

that showed interest already?

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Yeah, showed interest.

You know, three or four years in.

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I had employees are interested

in potentially looking at buying it.

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So they loved what I was building.

Sure.

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At the time.

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Is there any reason not

to sell it to them now?

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The economics are totally upside down

for that. Even at that bargain basement price.

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I would I would entertain that.

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But I don't think any

of my employees have the

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potential for loans or cash on hand to do it.

Sure.

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And I don't think they're going to be able

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to get that loan under

the current circumstances.

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All right.

That's even at bargain basement prices.

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Sure would entertain that.

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But so, like I looked at your.

I looked at your.

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Facebook page, your website,

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you have a following that any

restaurant would be proud of.

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Absolutely.

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When you got over 700 reviews,

the majority of positive of your four

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point whatever, close to five, four

point four, four point three on Google.

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Yeah.

Which is six on Facebook,

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a super awesome super look, because

there's always anybody that actually.

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That's hard.

That's right.

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That's really hard.

So that's what I mean.

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There's value to that.

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Right, because I guess it's not

necessarily tangible real estate,

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but in the Internet world,

that's valuable real estate.

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It is.

And that,

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you know, that's something that I guess is

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a good lesson for any business that's open

or closed or starting up is that

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I paid a lot of attention to social

media at the very beginning.

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The negative reviews,

I took every one of them seriously.

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All right.

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And, you know, restaurant

reviews can be completely.

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Oh, my gosh.

Right.

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I don't want to get into the Yelp

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discussion because I had

that the other day with Sony.

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But it's like you can go anywhere with.

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I was just joking with someone who looked

at the reviews for the Grand Canyon.

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Yeah.

Yeah.

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The National Park reviews.

Yeah.

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Like someone like you that was blogging.

Couldn't see it.

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Right.

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You know, you go to you go to like Sequoia

National Park, go to many big trees.

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Yeah.

You know, and that's true for restaurants.

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Five point are like, yeah.

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You know, you go to any restaurants

at the higher end restaurants and the ones

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that are very, very well known

and even they get to star one star.

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Oh, sure.

...

Jeanne Kolker of Insight Counseling and Wellness talks with us about starting a business with no plan. Growing it faster than anticipated to meet the need of your clients and moving forward regardless. Even if a big fire puts up a challenge for you and your business to overcome.

Visit Jeanne at: https://insightmadison.com/

Enjoy!

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Rachel Rasmussen of Rescue Desk Virtual Assistants chats with us about the struggles, fears and challenges that starting a business can bring on. Rachel is celebrating 10 years in business and that brings out all new challenges, such as how to slow the business addiction that entrepreneurship can bring.

Visit Rachel at: https://www.rescuedeskva.com/

Enjoy!

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Ryan Martin of Ryan Martin Magic joins us to discuss the drive necessary to pickup the phone and make some sales. These aren’t just any sales, these are calls selling magic shows to other businesses. The entertainment industry can be a tough market. How do you get people to see the value real talent can bring?

With this podcast you will learn what it takes to work well with your cleaning business, innovate and adapt in a changing industry, as well as some of the challenges of operating a small business today.  How do you define success and are you willing to hustle?  Kyle Ballweg is the owner of Clear Vision Cleaning in Madison, Wisconsin.

Visit Kyle at: https://www.clearvisioncleaning.com/

Enjoy!

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