243: From Busboy & Broke to Building a Taco Restaurant Empire – Joe Kahn of Condado Tacos

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Background on Joe Kahn of Condado Tacos:

Joseph Kahn is the Founder of Condado Tacos, which started as a single restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Today, there are 32 Condado Tacos restaurants with about 3,000 employees nationwide. Since he was a teenager, Joe has been working in the restaurant industry until he was given the chance to transition to the management level. When he turned 38, Joe was able to start his own restaurant business, which gained success but it didn’t last long. On his second attempt, he founded Condado Tacos with several business partners. Joe focused on building a great culture within the business, invested in people, and took a lot of chances, which fueled the success of Condado Tacos.

Condado Tacos is a rapidly growing private equity-backed business that offers a unique build-your-own-taco concept menu. They have been operating since 2014, with their first location in Columbus, OH. They are currently expanding throughout the US with more than 20 locations across the Midwest each sporting a custom floor-to-ceiling mural. Condado Tacos remains deeply committed to its core values of equality and respect, and contributing to the communities they serve.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • [1:00] Joe Kahn, 50 years old from Nashville, Tennessee, is the founder of Condado Tacos. They offer a customizable taco menu at a reasonable price.
  • [2:10] Currently, Condado Tacos has 32 restaurants with 3,000 employees. They plan to have 40 restaurants by the end of the year.
  • [5:50] Joe talks about how he picked a location for his restaurant in the early days of the business.
  • [7:27] The average unit volume for Condado Tacos is enormous, which can compete with Velvet Taco and Bartaco.
  • [10:39] According to Joe, the restaurant business is like going to war.
  • [12:52] At 15 years old, Joe had his first job as a busboy in a sizzler steakhouse and he loved it.
  • [13:52] Completely disinterested in going to school, Joe left home before he was 18 and was working in the restaurant industry.
  • [17:39] Joe shares the story of how he eventually transitioned into restaurant management.
  • [21:02] Bad management and bad culture can be disastrous for a restaurant.
  • [25:48] Joe broke up with his girlfriend, which devastated him completely and he ended up being homeless for a couple of weeks.
  • [27:46] At 38 years old, Joe had the opportunity to start his own company with a business partner.
  • [29:52] When Joe and his business partner parted ways, it affected him and his wife tremendously because all his hard work was gone.
  • [32:28] Joe talks about his relationship with his daughter as she was growing up.
  • [36:35] Wanting to start his next restaurant business, Joe took on two partners who were both retired and very successful multi-millionaires.
  • [38:33] For his second business, Joe and his partners had to put in about $100,000 each to start the restaurant. It was all the money Joe had during that time.
  • [41:32] One story that Joe shares is shutting down the restaurant because they were not doing it well and they were not consistent with the quality of their product and service.
  • [44:16] The ten original employees in Condado Tacos are all in the C-suite or high-ranking executive level today.
  • [46:58] Another good story that Joe shares, which clearly shows that he cared for the company and his employees.
  • [50:47] Joe opened the second Condado Tacos restaurant and then decided that they are going to branch out to Pittsburgh.
  • [54:12] His CFO pointed out that they had a very high prime cost, which is not ideal.
  • [56:24] Joe loves his private equity partner, The Beekman Group and shares an interesting story about it.
  • [1:00:32] Investing in people and taking tons of chances are just some of the factors that led Joe and his restaurant to success.

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  • [17:10] Tommy in Minnesota was in a one-on-one call with Austin and Raine and he felt like he was in debt to Austin for everything he has learned as an entrepreneur. If you want to get more detailed help in your business, join our Patreon Group today, just sign up at: millionaire-interviews.com/patreon
  • [34:04] Derek in British Columbia says that joining the Patreon membership at only $24 bucks a month was a no-brainer for him because he gets a lot of good advice from different entrepreneurs. To join our Patreon membership and participate in our Group Calls, sign up at: milionaire-interviews.com/patreon
  • [34:26] Justin in Texas has listened to a couple of the Patreon Group Calls, which gave him tons of valuable nuggets of information that he can use. He plans to join our Group Calls to engage with other entrepreneurs and acquire more business information. Join our Group Call by visiting: millionaire-interviews.com/patreon
  • [59:58] Richard in Missouri listened to our first Patreon Group Call, which got him intrigued with some of our members. You can also be a part of our Group Call and One-on-One Calls by joining our Patreon community, just sign up at: millionaire-interviews.com/patreon

Fabulous 4 Questions:

  1. 📖📚 Favorite Books? Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
  2. 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Robot to help my 17 yr old dog and me get up and down a really steep driveway
  3. 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? 7 shifts to communicate with restaurant teams. It has proven to be a great tool for forecasting and management and has helped us maintain our strong company culture
  4. 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Getting enough people internally to become company leaders. Due to the fact that we are growing so fast.

Key Point from the Interview:

  • “I think the statistic is 80% of all restaurants fail and to move past a couple is nearly impossible. So, when you have lightning in a bottle, you capture it, but it has not been easy, I will tell you that much. I’ve made it, lost it all, made it, lost it all, I took a ton of risk, ton of chances and I built an amazing team underneath me that believed in the culture that I was preaching, and they went to war with me.”

Resources Mentioned:

 

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