Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Jess Metton and Tim Stenovik here in the Bloomberg Interactive
Speaker 2: Brokers studio in New York, and Tim, I have to say,
Speaker 2: I'm very excited about our next segment, especially because our
Speaker 2: guests are here in studio on this rainy day here,
Speaker 2: and I have to say, our next guests have ventured
Speaker 2: and also are entrepreneurs in so many different areas when
Speaker 2: you're talking about what's happening in real estate, restaurants as
Speaker 2: well as obviously when it comes to dating and coaching
Speaker 2: in that particular area. So I'm excited to have Scheri
Speaker 2: and Tracy Sifax, who are the founders of Just the Facts,
Speaker 2: here and in studio with us. And I first want
Speaker 2: to start off because when you were here about three
Speaker 2: months ago, both of you had your Fax Entertainment Group
Speaker 2: company had announced that they were taking over ownership for
Speaker 2: Booker's Restaurant in Bar in West Philadelphia. So before we
Speaker 2: get into the other things with real estate and dating
Speaker 2: and all of that, Jazz I wanted to hear how
Speaker 2: things are going as far as when it comes to
Speaker 2: the restaurant space.
Speaker 3: The restaurant space. Then this is going great. We are
Speaker 3: sells up twenty six percent over the first quarter, and
Speaker 3: we are excited to be in this position. As you know,
Speaker 3: we kept the majority of the staff, maybe seventy five
Speaker 3: percent of the staff we kept there, so we didn't
Speaker 3: change much, but we elevated the menu, added some special drinks,
Speaker 3: and it's been a real great ride.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting dynamic because especially coming out of the
Speaker 2: pandemic right tim when you think about how challenging it's
Speaker 2: been for specific restaurants from.
Speaker 1: Exactly where my head was going to go, Yeah, like
Speaker 1: if you're going to buy a restaurant, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, when you're coming out of a pandemic, tracy
Speaker 1: is not really the time to do it. Can't find labor, Yes,
Speaker 1: costs are going through the roof, food costs are going up,
Speaker 1: and then you have this whole pandemic thing that you
Speaker 1: got to worry about. What what's the uh, you know,
Speaker 1: what's why take a risk like that?
Speaker 3: Well, we felt we looked at the model the previous
Speaker 3: Onasava had built a great model over six years, so
Speaker 3: she had built the SESS. It was already pretty much
Speaker 3: there when we inherited the rest oft, and we just
Speaker 3: really felt with our profile and our social media presence
Speaker 3: that we can elevate it and market it in a
Speaker 3: whole different light. Bookers is located not too far from
Speaker 3: the colleges the hospitals, so it's in a prime area
Speaker 3: for that type of growth, So we really felt that
Speaker 3: we could really enhance Bookers by just our presence.
Speaker 2: I'm curious what y'all are seeing when it comes to
Speaker 2: because Tim brought up labor and obviously when you think
Speaker 2: about inflation issues with what you're seeing, what do you
Speaker 2: think this tells us about the direction of the economy.
Speaker 4: Well, a couple of things. I think the economy is
Speaker 4: doing better than initially when we started talking about recession
Speaker 4: and everyone was concerned and worried, and even we were
Speaker 4: because we were in the middle of negotiations during that time.
Speaker 4: We felt good about our business evaluation and the ability
Speaker 4: to retain employees. The really great thing about being in
Speaker 4: was Philadelphia, and Philadelphia period is very neighborhood centric, so
Speaker 4: a lot of our employees come right from the neighborhood
Speaker 4: that they can walk to work, so it's rare that
Speaker 4: you're able to walk to work and not have to
Speaker 4: work in center city and still be able to make
Speaker 4: a really good wage. So those things helped us retain
Speaker 4: and have helped us grow.
Speaker 2: How challenging is that from a business perspective, because I
Speaker 2: feel like at Bloomberg, Great Tim, we're always talking about, oh,
Speaker 2: the employment costs index, and it's really challenging for businesses
Speaker 2: as far as to keep up with that type of
Speaker 2: wage growth. From your perspective and what you hear anecdotally
Speaker 2: from your employees, what is that challenge?
Speaker 4: Like? Yeah, So what we think about is every dollar
Speaker 4: that we spend, we have to figure out what that
Speaker 4: return on investment is. So we have to look at
Speaker 4: every single line item. We've done well with having a
Speaker 4: fractional CFO that really helps us look at not just
Speaker 4: the food and things like that we adjust.
Speaker 1: Wait, explain what a fractional CFO is. I Mean, it
Speaker 1: sounds like it's pretty self explanatory, but it's differently saying
Speaker 1: a part time CEO basically a.
Speaker 4: Part time CFO. Our accountant has that service and they
Speaker 4: offer that. And I think sometimes when we go wrong
Speaker 4: in business, especially at entrepreneurs, is that we try to
Speaker 4: do it ourselves. We try to wing at ourselves, and
Speaker 4: having that outside help really helps us look at every
Speaker 4: single line item, so we know how what percentage we
Speaker 4: want our labor to be. We know what percentage we
Speaker 4: want our expenses to be as far as food, so
Speaker 4: we have to look at those things. Obviously, we have
Speaker 4: to look at everything and make adjustments for inflation and
Speaker 4: look at wind, eggs are up, wind, butters up, you know,
Speaker 4: those types of things to adjust pricing accordingly.
Speaker 2: It's funny because McDonald's has this sort of fry indicator
Speaker 2: as far as how many people are adding those on
Speaker 2: to where they can tell this is what an indicator
Speaker 2: means for the economy. I'm curious if you have any
Speaker 2: sort of way to gauge as far as when it
Speaker 2: comes to spending in the consumer.
Speaker 4: Well, at this point, we're what five four months, and
Speaker 4: so everything is still a first for us. But we're
Speaker 4: definitely looking at the market. We definitely look at our
Speaker 4: sales versus last year. We look at how many seats,
Speaker 4: not just what the revenue number is of, but actually
Speaker 4: how many people are coming into the restaurant. So we're
Speaker 4: assessing all that data and that that helps us with
Speaker 4: our forecasting, and it helps us build out knowing how
Speaker 4: much we need to make sure staff is proper we're
Speaker 4: properly staffed, and that we have enough inventory so that
Speaker 4: we have we're able to serve our customers with our menus.
Speaker 1: Hey, Tracy, give us an idea of of how you
Speaker 1: think the economy is based not just on the restaurant,
Speaker 1: but the work that you've done in real estate development,
Speaker 1: what you're seeing in your other business right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I've always believed in real estate as someone who
Speaker 3: started my first investments in early two thousand. Even when
Speaker 3: the market crashed in two thousand and eight and I
Speaker 3: lost millions of dollars in the real estate crash, it
Speaker 3: was still my saving grace as I came out of
Speaker 3: that that allowed me to continue to do business and
Speaker 3: actually eventually buys Bookers. So I'm always big on economy.
Speaker 3: I really believe in us. I believe that what we
Speaker 3: can do as a husband and wife team that gives
Speaker 3: me a bright look on what the economy can bring.
Speaker 3: So I really believe that our combination has really been
Speaker 3: the proven recipe.
Speaker 1: It's less about what's happening externally for you, yes, and
Speaker 1: more about what the two of you were sort of like,
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing from you is it doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: the economy is, because you guys can weather it.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'm thirty years as being a serial entrepreneur, So
Speaker 3: I've seen the highs and the lows. I really have
Speaker 3: felt them. So really believe that even when we have
Speaker 3: a bad economy. I think good business, good customer sells
Speaker 3: in any economy.
Speaker 1: But do we have a bad economy right now?
Speaker 3: I don't believe so. I don't believe so.
Speaker 4: And real estate has always been my anchor as well,
Speaker 4: so when we put it all together, that really gave
Speaker 4: us leverage to do a lot of other things. So
Speaker 4: real estate does always tend to be that foundation that
Speaker 4: if you have that and you're able to get in
Speaker 4: on some really good opportunities, that that propels you and
Speaker 4: can't propel you to other things, and you always can
Speaker 4: leverage it.
Speaker 2: Do you see any sort of red flags brewing at
Speaker 2: all when it comes to the real estate space? We
Speaker 2: always talk so much about when it comes to commercial
Speaker 2: real estate, But are there things beyond that type of
Speaker 2: area that you think you're a little weary about right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, commercial real estate, Me and my wife. We was
Speaker 3: just talking about we visit a lot of malls, and
Speaker 3: we were just visiting the mall and some of the
Speaker 3: malls that we've been visited as we've been shopping, that's
Speaker 3: been pretty much non existent when it comes to customers
Speaker 3: inside stores like they used to be. So it's something
Speaker 3: that we definitely noticed. In the commercial space.
Speaker 2: Is that something that would give you pause and you
Speaker 2: wouldn't want to go into that.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't want to open up a restaurant in the mall, Right.
Speaker 4: That's where I'm headed with that, And I don't know.
Speaker 4: We wouldn't have probably purchased the restaurant without being able
Speaker 4: to purchase the real estate. So we purchased the commercial space,
Speaker 4: six apartments and things like that because it gives us
Speaker 4: so many more opportunities in the event that anything happens
Speaker 4: with the restaurant.
Speaker 1: What are you seeing the on the landlord tenants side?
Speaker 1: What are you seeing with the tenants right now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so far, attendants have been great. We've been really,
Speaker 4: really fortunate. We believe that we offer a good product
Speaker 4: and that they acquiesce and they do their part of
Speaker 4: it too. So we're pretty accessible, we're pretty available, and
Speaker 4: we just haven't had any tenant landlord issues.
Speaker 1: No late but we like to talk to landlords too
Speaker 1: because they start seeing, okay, well, late rents are a normal,
Speaker 1: normal part of being a landlord, especially if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of tenants. Absolutely, are we seeing more late
Speaker 1: rents now? Are we seeing people?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: Pretty fortunate through the pandemic. We had two people that
Speaker 4: kind of took advantage of not paying and that's of
Speaker 4: what twenty some odd tenants that was less than ten percent. Like,
Speaker 4: we were pretty fortunate. I think, you know the beauty
Speaker 4: of Tracy being a We keep our properties really well
Speaker 4: and things like that, so you have a good thing.
Speaker 4: Kind of why, you know, mess it up when you
Speaker 4: think of certain urban communities and landlorns that are not
Speaker 4: as invested in your quality of life. So to Tracey's
Speaker 4: point about service and customer service, we just live the
Speaker 4: model up, provide a good product, and we'll get a
Speaker 4: good result.
Speaker 1: Do you guys do the day to day with that too,
Speaker 1: meaning the day to day work on that or do
Speaker 1: you have a management company.
Speaker 4: We have someone that helps us manage the other raw. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but Tracy's able to assess whatever needs to be done
Speaker 4: and is able to, you know, get a team out
Speaker 4: there and take care of things.
Speaker 2: We only have about a minute left, but I have
Speaker 2: to ask about also your dating coaching business. You both
Speaker 2: met during the height of the pandemic virtually, so tell
Speaker 2: us a little bit quickly about your dating business. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, I don't have as much time for it as
Speaker 4: I used to because of the restaurant, however, and it's
Speaker 4: shifted a little bit because it used to be like
Speaker 4: how I attracted my husband and all the positive things
Speaker 4: about that, and now it's like, how are me and
Speaker 4: my husband really doing business and day to day? But
Speaker 4: ultimately the messages, you know, fall in love with yourself,
Speaker 4: make sure you understand and know what you want to
Speaker 4: love that out of the relationship. Yeah, and then the
Speaker 4: thing that you want will will come and find you. Basically,
Speaker 4: you know, if you have some gutten to be the
Speaker 4: results you're looking for, you may want to adjust that.
Speaker 2: Yes, because that's okay too.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 2: What a great little lotto there, well, Cheri and Tracy Sifax.
Speaker 2: Great to have you both joining Tim Stenovic and myself
Speaker 2: here in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker's studio. Who are the
Speaker 2: founders of Just the facts, but then also they have
Speaker 2: all of these different small business entrepreneur type areas like
Speaker 2: we were just talking about with Booker's restaurant and bars.
Speaker 1: Oh don't forget Seri's book too.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, and of course we have to talk about
Speaker 2: what's happening with her book as well with that, so
Speaker 2: people should check it out as far as second act,
Speaker 2: living boldly and a bunty at every age,