Jim Clary is the co-owner of Crossroads Restaurant in High Point, NC. It is a Christian themed, family restaurant.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you started your business.
I run Crossroads Restaurant with my wife, Jeanne. We named our restaurant Crossroads because we were at a crossroads in our life. I had just lost my job at The Home Depot and my wife had worked in accounting but, she felt it was time leave her job. We decided to take the leap of faith and start a restaurant. We originally opened up in Archdale, NC about a year ago. We had a problem with the lease on that building and we were forced to close after a few months. But it turned out to be a blessing, a couple months later we were able to find another location and reopen. It just worked out for us, the owner of the building had a Mexican restaurant, a small chain that had 5 locations, ready to move into the building, but he liked our business plan better. We are a Christian family restaurant and it was important to us to be that. Since we don’t serve alcohol we converted the full bar in the new location to a dessert bar. Our passion is serving people.
How did you build a successful customer base?
We focus on providing people with great service, price and food. We haven’t done any advertising; right now it’s strictly word of mouth advertising. We have people come in all the time and tell us how much they love us and ask us if we are on Facebook or if we have website. We will have a website online in about a month. We also have Missionary Monday’s, where local church groups or local non-profits can come in and have a dinner together and we give them 10% on their purchases back towards the organization.
To what do you most attribute your success?
I think we have a passion for serving people. We love what we do and we are not doing for the money. If you are doing for the money you will hate what you do and not be very good at it. We also try to maintain a Christian atmosphere; there is no profanity and drinking. We have a lot of high school kids who work for us and we try to provide an atmosphere that their parents don’t worry about what their kids are exposed to here.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
We didn’t have the procedures outlined in the very beginning. For example, in order to be profitable you have to be consistent with portion sizes. If we get to generous with portion sizes you can lose money. Also sometimes employees don’t realize how being wasteful cuts into our bottom line. We now have procedures in place to correct this.
What advice would you have for anyone starting their own business?
Do your homework. Have a solid business plan and know your strengths. My wife and I make a good team. I’m good at marketing and sales and she is good at accounting and management. Together we make a great team. Also you must have a passion for what you are doing. If you are just doing for the money, you will run out of steam. If you have passion for what you do, you will always love what you do.
