“Go all in as soon as you can. If you are going to fail do it fast, learn your lessons and move on” with Michael Oraschewsky of TBJ Gourmet
Ihad the pleasure of interviewing Michael Oraschewsky who opened his first restaurant at age 24 and he has been leading teams of passionate food professionals ever since. After co-founding TBJ Gourmet in 2013 he has taken several recipe ideas from stove top to scaled production all while focusing on quality and integrity.
Michael is on the retail advisory board of Philabundance Food Bank and has helped developed the concept of and products made by UpCycling. He has earned several awards including the Fancy Food Associations Front Burner Pitch Award, SCORE Small Business Award and has been recognized as an Emerging Leader by the SBA.
Michael is a graduate of Millersville University and a native son of the great CommonWealth of Pennsylvania. He is the father of two children who he raises with his wife Llana outside Philadelphia.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Many of my family members worked in a restaurant at one time in their lives. I started bussing tables at 15 and carried on working as a server then a prep cook through college. After College I worked a 9–5 in an office for about 6 months before realizing I was meant to be in food. A buddy and I opened a small take out and catering spot which snowballed into a larger restaurant where we first developed bacon jam into a sellable product.
Can you share your story of Grit and Success? First can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
We had a strong run with quick successes and profit right off the bat. This made it even more difficult when we hit our first wall. After crushing it at the Love Park Christmas Village in 2013 we decided to expand to another christmas market and two mall kiosks in the 2014 Christmas Season. The malls were a disaster for us. Overhead was huge and not just for the rent but set up costs and labor. We went from a 2 person e-commerce company with some live events to a 15 person company operating semi permanent retail locations for a total of 120 labor hours a day managing inventory in 4 locations 100 miles apart in 2 states. I drove a lot. Covered a lot of shifts for absentee employees. Missed a lot of time with my family. In the end markets that were successful overshadowed the kiosks that were in the red.
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Often you do not know you are in over your head before its too late. I was lucky to have a business partner, Bruce, who really stepped up; a mom who jumped into a management role, and a couple of team members who dug in and worked extra hours. Without them I think I would have gone crazy.
So, how are things going today? How did Grit lead to your eventual success?
Our determination carried us through and we were able to generate a ton of brand awareness. We were able to parlay the perceived success of being in these high profile malls with tons of exposure into some PR wins and the beginnings of a real B2B push, which had its own challenges. We have been fortunate enough to some of our losses into lessons because we were resilient enough to not have them knock us out. Last year we had a 75% increase in revenue over the previous year and growth looks to be heading in that direction still.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early on I had a batch of bacon jam made and ready to go out the door. It was only 500 jars or so which seems small now but at the time it was a lot. We always checked the jars a few days after production but before they went out for sale just to make sure there was no fat separation or that the pectin set up right. When we checked this batch the jars were green. Noticeably green. Every jar. I had no idea how this happened. My partners were freaking out. Tossing 500 jars would not sink the company but it represented hours of labor, a good amount of sunk money and $7,500 in revenue. Right before I tossed the product I did some digging. Turns out the sulfur in garlic oxidizes copper and turns it green like the statue of liberty. You only need a little copper to do this, like a tiny miniscule amount that is sometimes in the water supply or in lemon juice. It is also totally healthy to eat. So we had all this product that looked funky but was totally edible so we had Saint Paddy’s Day Bacon Jam!! Never give up. Use everything. Turn disaster into success.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We make a best in class product that we innovated, but most importantly we have been willing to grow as individuals in order to grow the company. Both my partner Bruce and I have learned individually and together from mentors, local small business resources and continuing education. Improving yourself is the greatest way to effect change around you!
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Make sure you love what you are doing. It is a lot easier to power through the hard times when you are doing something you love. Take time each day to focus on yourself in some way.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
My wife has been an amazing source of support. From our second date where I needed her to be a hand model for our first recipe book, to her reassuring comments before heading on stage for my first QVC airing to her willingness to sacrifice now because she believes in the future of the company, she has been amazing.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
We have partnered with Philabundance to help stem some food waste in our area. We do this through selling items like our Spiced Tomato Jam, some of the proceeds of which go to Philabundance and are used to capture at risk tomatoes which are in turn used to make tomato sauce for their food banks. We also double orders to military bases, something we do not advertise, but If you order 1 jar of bacon jam to be sent to your son or daughter on base we send 2 as a way to say thank you for their service.
What are your “4 things I wish someone told me before I started my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. Bacon Jam is a USDA regulated item. Before you launch a product see how scaling will affect your level of government regulation. Once we took bacon jam to B2B we fell under the purview of the USDA. This was not a huge set back, but it did cause a cascade of changes on our labels which cost money.
2. I would have loved to know the breakdown of the different layers of cost that go into the final shelf price of CPG items in the grocery store. We were fortunate to get this info sooner than later but not leaving room for distributors and re-distributors can be disastrous.
3. Create an operating agreement right off the bat. A real one. A good OA gives you the ability to resolve issues with your partners when things get hairy. You create it together when you are on good terms so if you ever get to the point where you disagree you can look to it to see what you all thought was fair before egos got involved.
4. Go all in as soon as you can. If you are going to fail do it fast, learn your lessons and move on. Failing slowly makes it harder to learn lessons as you will have made too many moves to pinpoint true mistakes.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I want people to be more food independent. Grow some of your own food. Buy local. I know this is not the best for my business, but there will always be a market of specialty gourmet items like mine.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: @TBJGourmet
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
