We talked to Jerry Navas, owner of Navas Patisserie, about being a young small business owner of color, starting from scratch, and life lessons from the hustle.
1) Tell us about Navas Patisserie
Navas Patisserie is high conceptualized wholesale bakery located in Oakland serving the Bay Area. We take root in traditional pastries and merge it with contemporary French techniques, providing a nostalgic experience that still caters to the notion of what’s new and what’s up-and-coming.
At Navas Patisserie, it is very important that the values we share with our customers reflect our true beliefs. There are many food establishments flashing “high quality” and “service”, but fail to provide that to their customers. We truly believe that careful planning, organizing, implementing, and analyzing strategies puts us on the road to success. Our values of excellent service and high quality not only aredirected to our customers, but to our management styles and our team. We believe that treating our team with utmost respect and giving them the resources to succeed will naturally keep us on the road to success.
2) You’re a young, queer, small business owner of color. It’s awesome! Have you always wanted to be a small business owner? What made you feel ready to do it?
The spark that pushed me to start my business was frustration. In meetings, I felt my superiors not listening to the problems I presented. The funny thing about it is that, I provided my solutions and they still didn’t listen. It was degrading to work for people who had given me the title of “Executive” Chef and yet I wasn’t even allowed to “execute” my duties independently. After presenting the same problems repeatedly- insubordinate employees, understaffing, low wages, burn out- I just told myself, ‘I’m putting literally ALL my efforts into something that isn’t mine. Why am I not putting ALL my efforts into something that is?’
Any business is a reflection of your thoughts and actions. When owners disregard problems such as insubordination or providing their team with unsanitary or unsafe work environments, it truly says a lot about what they think of “service”, “hospitality”, and “high quality”. If your thoughts really were, “I treat everyone with respect and dignity”, or “here to serve our community”, then your actions should reflect that.
3) Do you feel any of your personal identities (POC, queer), have impacted your road here?
Yes, to some degree. I used to fear what people thought of my sexuality and how people would treat me because of my color. I am very fortunate to say that I have not experienced scarring moments of hate.
If anything, my own personal identities have provoked curiosity from myself to try to understand why I am the way I am. I have asked myself, “who am I?” so many times.
This has led to me the deeply think about everything, including my business. It’s obvious that finding all the answers is not realistic, but I think it’s fun to try to understand the world.
4) What tips would you have for other queer folx or POC in starting their own businesses?
Know who you are, what your intentions are, and what your purpose is. Then, analyze various aspects of the your industry and see if they match with your values; if you don’t, the mismatch will show as unhappiness in the future. Once you have this down, believe in yourself that you WILL make it to fruition.
A positive, open-minded, self aware, proactive mind gets you much farther than reacting to problems as they come. Treating people right and loving the process of your craft is where success is born. More customers and more money become secondary and are perks that will come naturally if you love yourself, the people who work for you, and the intention you communicate with your passion. With this mentality, you will never fall out of love with your work.
Jerry Navas is a student of the Japanese philosophy “Kaizen”, or “the process of constant improvement”, and is the Chef and Owner of Navas Patisserie.
