Building Biscuit Belly: From Pharmacy to Restaurant Chain Success

In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast, the hosts welcome Chad and Lauren Coulter, co-founders of Biscuit Belly. They share their journey from being pharmacists to becoming successful restaurateurs, developing their biscuit-centered restaurant brand. The Coulters discuss their strategic branding efforts, the challenges and adaptations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their expansion plans. They also reflect on the importance of maintaining a unique dining experience, both on-premise and off-premise, while highlighting their focus on building a strong, community-centered brand. Listeners gain insights into the operational intricacies of franchising and the duo's vision for future growth.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:27 Meet Chad and Lauren Coulter
02:30 The Origin of Biscuit Belly
17:02 Navigating the Pandemic
22:15 Biscuit Belly's Menu and Experience
24:42 Expansion and Franchising
30:25 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

0:02

This is the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. Helping you run your restaurant better.

Jeremy: 0:11

Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I think everyone out there for joining us, as I say, each and every time I know you guys have got lots of choices. So thank you guys for hanging out with us each week when we post one of these episodes. Today, we are joined by a couple, that are going to tell me some really cool and fun stories. I'm excited to hear about them, but, I will let them dig into it. Chad, why don't you introduce yourself and then you can introduce, your partner to your left, I'm guessing it's to your left. and then we can talk a little bit about what y'all get to do, for, for a living.

Lauren and Chad: 0:38

Yeah, my name is Chad Coulter, founder, co founder and CEO of Biscuit Belly. And my wife, Lauren is next to me on your right or left. And, yeah, so we've been at this biscuit thing for gosh, four or five years now, brand developed in 2018 and the first units opened in 2019. yeah, we're up to 12 units. We'll be at 15 or so by the end of the year and looking forward to some growth ahead of us.

Jeremy: 1:07

Awesome. Awesome. Lauren, you want to say hi, just for our audio listeners, so they can at least hear your voice so that they, they know that it's not going to be Chad taking over everything.

Lauren and Chad: 1:15

I bring the fun. Okay. So your listeners are going to come out of this thinking Chad is smart and that I'm fun. So

Jeremy: 1:22

I

Lauren and Chad: 1:24

I'm Lauren, as you mentioned, and I serve as the integrator for our team. We run on EOS. And so my official title, very official is chief biscuit eater. So nobody better be coming for my. Job or I will come at you. but yeah, I just work with our small, but mighty team to project manage things through, make sure everybody's, got what they need to be successful in their roles, get rid of issues, barriers, et cetera. So yeah, just help work out things that Chad doesn't want to do, or maybe isn't as skilled with. It's

Jeremy: 2:05

love that. I love that. and I always love, when I get a couple on that's, that's built a brand and, for those that are less familiar with EOS, I, we were on, I don't know, I think year four of EOS.

Lauren and Chad: 2:15

cool. Yeah. Yes.

Jeremy: 2:17

a week and a half from now, I've got my quarterly. July 8th or July 9th, when, at the time of this recording. And I also play the role of integrator. So I get to, chase our visionary around and tell him what he can and can't do all day. So Chad, I'm guessing you're the visionary and you get the privilege, you get the privilege of getting told, no, you're not supposed to be doing that. Get out, get your hands out of that.

Lauren and Chad: 2:35

percent of the time. Yeah.

Jeremy: 2:37

Yeah. And sometimes you just do it anyway, even if she tells you not to, I'm sure. Awesome. Awesome. So give me a little bit of the backstory. Talk to me a little bit about where Buscapilli came from. I said to you guys, pre recording before I hit the recording button, like I've been watching y'all's brand as you guys have grown and watching where you guys are at and, am a fan of what it is that you guys are putting out into the world, not just from a product perspective, but even the messaging, but talk to me, take me back a little bit, back to 17 or 18, as you guys were developing the concept and going through, Going through your paces as to what you guys were going to do

Lauren and Chad: 3:06

Yeah, and I'll even take it a step further just to get a little background on us. Lauren and I originally from Georgia, grew up about 15 minutes from each other and met in college. So we are both pharmacists by training. So we have taken the usual path of pharmacy to get the heck out of pharmacy.

Jeremy: 3:22

to restaurants, cause it's easy, right? Running restaurants, a little thing called a pandemic in the middle of it.

Lauren and Chad: 3:27

people actually want to be at a restaurant and don't want to be at a pharmacy because they're sick and their insurance doesn't cover things. So, we moved up to Louisville for a job that I got at a local pharmacy school. we got the entrepreneurial itch in 2011, opened a couple of those painting and drinking. studios, we were selling a lot of wine. It wasn't good stuff, but we were selling a lot of it. We looked around the Louisville landscape and as you probably know, it's all beer and bourbon. And so we decided, Hey, it'll be fun to open a wine bar restaurant. So we often kid that the very first night we've ever worked in a restaurant was the night we opened our own. So it was a small plates, tapas style wine bar, had, 60 wines by the glass that opened in 2014. We ended up growing that to five units in three different States and had always played around with this biscuit idea with our executive chef, who is a small partner in the brand. And in 2018, I told Lauren I wanted to start something else for the third time and got a lot of, the visionary kicked in and. She said no a lot and I begged and pleaded, but anyway, it eventually got in my way. And, and by the way, I'm an only child, so I'm used to, begging in case you were, there was any question about that. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we started biscuit belly, started the branding and Mindy and all that good stuff in 2018 and opened the doors to the first location in 2019 and I believe early June we proforma like 800 to 900, 000 a year top line we were doing, at least the first annualized because of COVID, we're going to exceed that. So that first location did very well. We decided, Hey, let's do a second one. And there was a Zoe's kitchen going out of business. And so we were able to flip that for, very quickly and very cheap. And obviously the pandemic hit in 2020, we decided, Hey, let's franchise this thing. We think I have the unit economics to make that work. we did bring on one, one business partner from a capital and just strategic standpoint for the wine bar concept in 2016 to help us grow that, and then he liked what we were doing and wanted to be involved in the biscuit. Okay. So he had, many years of experience within Papa John's, was there from basically store zero to 3, 500 and, still with us today, obviously. And yeah, fast forward to today and 12, we just opened number 12 in Raleigh and, yeah, I should have a few more open this year and a couple more for early next. Yeah. Little just tidbit that I like to throw in and tell people is with the wine concept with Luvino It was very much let's do this. Okay, what color should we do? And what should we call it? Like we didn't spend a whole lot of time on this branding and the vision of what we wanted it to look like. And it just rolled, if you come to the first Lugano location, it's still here kicking on Barbstown road. It's just a very different experience than if you go to the fifth one. And so obviously a lot of learnings took place and Chad does have a really incredible knack at just like style and decor and lighting and, just look at this office behind me. People always ask if it's my office. I'm like, but I think that was one of the big differences with Biscuit Belly is we spent A year, developing the menu, developing the name, like what the colors, the branding and the feeling that we want people to get in there. And so it was all very intentional. And, I just love having the ability to do that was incredible. I think for us, it was definitely a, leisurely experience, like time, instead of it just being rolling with the punches and, you We need a website.

Jeremy: 7:33

Yeah. Figuring it out as you go. I talk about, building the plane on the way down, that kind of thing. Lauren, talk to me about why biscuits, talk to me, you talk about, your unofficial title of, of, chief biscuit taster or whatever. Biscuit eater, chief biscuit eater. So tell me a little bit, where did biscuits come from? Obviously growing up in the South, that is a staple of almost everyone's home. But up until maybe, it feels unless you were going to a family run place in a small town, there wasn't a lot of biscuit. chains that were, they were focused around the concept of biscuits. So talk to me a little bit about where that came from. Anybody that's ever run a restaurant knows the craziness that happens during a meal period in a rush. One of our partners, Restaurant Technologies, Total Oil Management Solution, is an end to end oil management system that delivers, filters, monitors, and recycles your cooking oil, taking one of the jobs that none of your team wants to do and takes it off your hands, allowing your team members to focus on their guests. Control the kitchen chaos with Total Uh, restaurant technologies and make your kitchen safer while maximizing your staff's time. The solution can be provided at no upfront costs. If you want to learn more, please check out rti inc. com or call 888 796 4997.

Lauren and Chad: 8:48

agree. growing up in Georgia, my mom wasn't a big cook, but my best friend, when I was a kid, we'd go over and every single morning her grandma made. homemade biscuits and dip dot just every morning rolling, rolling. And, that was such a special and unique experience. And similarly where Chad is from right outside of Athens, you could buy these great biscuits at the corner store, a very kind of gas station type place, but they would just have these banging biscuits. And so, early on with Lubino, the wine concept, he was saying we should do a biscuit place. And I was like, No, like these Louisville people are posh. They're not going to be into these biscuits like we are. Destroying ideas one day after another, this woman.

Jeremy: 9:36

good at saying no. That's our job is that, if we let the, if we let the visionaries take over, they'd have 40 different businesses open. None of them making any money. None of them actually doing anything consistently, but they'd be having fun doing it.

Lauren and Chad: 9:48

It'd be so fun. Fun for one of us. so he did start talking about it and I put the kibosh on it and then, We did start seeing these places open. We were visiting in Oregon and I think we went to this place, Pine State Biscuits, and we're like, this is so good. And then, holler and gash, the Cracker Barrel version opened. And then we had, Also just throughout time, like my family's still in Georgia. We go to Florida, for, to the beach every year. And we saw, what's it called? The one in Florida, maple street. Okay. But now,

Jeremy: 10:28

I'm going to say now, I was like, did they rebrand it? Cause it's now a maple street. There's one up the road. There's one off the road for me. And I checked it out a couple of months ago. So

Lauren and Chad: 10:36

And then even in Nashville, a line out the door, our wait on a rainy Tuesday, we were just seeing all these things pop up and Chad was like, really, look, this is a thing. And so of course I'm like, of course you're right. But ever since then, I don't know, it's been a learning experience. Send definitely a totally different ballgame than doing the other concept, breakfast versus dinner, not wine versus lots of wine. So just a lot of learnings have happened over the last couple of years.

Jeremy: 11:11

I love that. Chad, can you paint a vision for our listeners that may not have had a chance to experience? what was the vision for what it is? If I'm walking into a biscuit belly, walk me through that journey. What does it feel like? Feel what does it look like? what is the experience as a consumer? what are you looking for that consumer to walk in and feel, and then as they leave, because ultimately I talk about this often on the show is, brands that do it well, they do it with intention, they know what they're trying to get, they're trying to get this feel. They're trying to serve some customer in some way. So talk our listeners through what that looks like for those that haven't had the privilege of going to one of your stores. Oh,

Lauren and Chad: 11:47

So I think the original idea was like, we wanted to be a really cool, upbeat, basically Chick fil A, like from a service aspect, maybe with a few more cuss words in the music, playing loudly and open on Sundays. So it's like, how do we take this, Like pop scene versus and good food and good service and kind of the Chick fil a, make you feel good inside. and put those in a one. we have a very bright color scheme. So teal. Teal blue, white, a bright mustard yellow, coral, so very southern as far as like a color palette and then we just wanted a little funk, right? So we have a lot of different textures of tile and again, pops of color, funky light fixtures are the branding and like lighting package and sign packages all evolved. to be, just really in tune with that. communal tables at a lot of our restaurants, because breakfast is a very communal event, and you get everything from, three, sometimes four generations all coming in and getting breakfast together. So that was important. what we wanted to do differently than some of our competitors was add more of that full service approach. So instead of the bad word Maple Street, no, where you have to, answer a silly question, which is, when you go to order, which is hard for, as people with anxiety or introverts. and then, You have to, go get your own food and your own drinks and you have to bust your own table and you have to, all this stuff is like that. There's so much friction there. And so how can we have a kind of a fast, casual feel with that full service experience? And so that was that. And then, that one, one thing I'm really, proud of. That we just started to put in all the restaurants is a viewing window into the, into the prep area. we were not getting credit for scratch made biscuits or a lot of scratch made things that we were, yeah, fried green tomatoes. Lauren, it takes her like three hours to make a batch of green tomatoes hard and they're so good, but it is hard. So we weren't getting credit for that. People, which I think was a compliment. in a way they're like, these are just biscuits from a can, and that, and we're like, Oh, those are actually pretty good. And maybe they're just used to more of that. I don't know, more like the cat head biscuit where it's just, it looks like more of a scone than like a formed biscuit like we do. But we're like, man, how can we tell the story? And so we, anyway, we started to, we actually have a group out of Louisville that goes to all the restaurants and does custom murals in the queue line. And, and then, so you walk in, you're met with these really colorful, just scenery, And funky vines and tile and whatnot. And then a lot, yeah, I'll do it. You can tell in the back, I like plants. So you got plants just to add a little life to it and as a little barrier or two. And then, you're met with merch. So that kind of helps with the, experience, a little bit of revenue, but also like people can tinker with things in line, and it makes it feel like a little bit of a shorter experience. And then we have our like little retail theater or a restaurant theater, as we, we call it with the viewing window. And you get to see people making biscuits from in front of you. And then they'll start to interact with the kids in line. They'll throw flour up on the window and draw a little heart or smiley face or whatever. And so there's that engagement piece that I don't know anywhere else. You really get that at any restaurant. Texas roadhouse has. a place where you can see them like grilling steaks, but what are they going to throw like a raw piece of meat on the window? And they'll scare kids.

Jeremy: 15:35

Chevy's gives you the little dough balls from tortillas every once in a while, like my kids, I've got four kids, so I remember them, them throwing those at each other in the booth. But, but to your point, yeah, still fun stuff like that.

Lauren and Chad: 15:46

Yeah. So it's just trying to make it, how are we going to make it unique, connect with people, and again, pass the time quickly and also get that scratch made. basically you're seeing the action, Literally how the sausage is made. And and then by that time you're like, Oh, I'm at the register. Cool. And so it's a little bit of a, you're just taking their mind away from the weight. As well as getting credit for what you're doing. So yeah, that's the experience you get. And, I think it's quite enjoyable. and once you order and sit, you don't have to get up again and we, we bring the drinks, we bring the food and we clean up after you, which is. It's a bit more leveled up experience compared to other fast, casual concept. Yeah. Pretty much the only thing that's fast casual is the ordering at the counter and then everything else is pretty much full service other than like getting refills

Jeremy: 16:44

Yeah. And, I often talk about that being a hybrid fast casual because it is, it's a higher touch fast casual than your traditional or they, squawk your name over a squawk box or they put a number up on the wall to get you to get your food or give you a pager and you're in the middle of a deep conversation and the pager's buzzing at you, you're at a business breakfast or something like that.

Lauren and Chad: 17:01

We call it Craft Casual.

Jeremy: 17:02

Okay.

Lauren and Chad: 17:04

that's our name. Yeah. Do

Jeremy: 17:08

the fact that y'all told me you were EOS, so I can reference the, visionary integrator roles, all day, every day. you guys talked about this being kind of one of your guys first forays, you guys had the wine bar and then you guys went from that to biscuit belly, talk to me about how you guys really, I guess pivoted through the pandemic, because I think it's always interesting to hear, Y'all started like at the beginning and then the world completely changed. It's not like you had 20 or 30 years of experience of, okay, we can do take out this way. We can do drive through just whatever those things are that, that, that overnight, even in the South, you had to go to, primarily off premise and not on premise. And the vision that you had for the brand had to change almost overnight. Talk me through a little bit of how you guys were able to work through that. Cause it was hard for everybody. I But I'm certain on the backside of that, you guys are a better brand because of it and have more of an opportunity to grow and do what you guys need to do.

Lauren and Chad: 17:59

Oddly enough, it's, it was our wedding anniversary this week. And so we were talking about this very thing and about, the COVID years. I would never want to go back. And the, it's interesting. No, we didn't have 30 years of restaurant experience, but Chad and I were even just talking about how these guys that he knows and are in, networks or small groups with that do have that experience, how literally no one knew. What was happening, what to do. And he was like, if they don't know what to do, how am I going to know, a little small business here know what to do. we're smart people. Yeah. We're

Jeremy: 18:44

You're a pharmacist for gosh sakes, that decided to start restaurants.

Lauren and Chad: 18:47

We're not the smartest, but we're pretty intuitive and we've, I don't know, we figure things out, but yeah, it was wild. CEOs of multi, multimillion dollar businesses are like, I have no idea how to interpret this PPP document. I would say, and I don't ever want to say that anything good came out of it, but obviously like everyone, we had to figure out takeout. we didn't. Like prior to COVID, it was like 1 percent of our sales would come for takeout. it was so minimal. We actually didn't even offer it on a weekend. We straight up discouraged it because we're like, we don't have time. We don't want to deal with this. And so it forced us to figure all of that out. And, for us, a big. biscuit sandwich that has gravy coming down the sides and when you serve it, it's so beautiful and it's delicious. When you put that thing in a container and, send it back, God knows who way, like 20 minutes away. It just doesn't have that same feel. And so we had to really figure out how are we going to do this and still do it well. So we did learn all of that quickly. The other thing I would say is that it gave us the capacity You know what I mean by capacity, like the time and energy and mental space to figure out the franchising thing. owning our own restaurants, opening our own restaurants is a totally different ballgame than franchising. you have to do totally separate marketing. You have to have legal documents done. There's just a whole world of work that has to be done related to the franchise process, that people. underestimate. And so it did give us the capacity, I think, to do that well. And we now, Our website, like all of that, that was developed during that time. When we started franchising, it looked incredible, our eyes were dotted, our T's were crossed and we had it from a marketing and legal perspective, I'd like to say we had a great product and we. I think that kind of paid off because we've been able to bring on some franchise partners who know their stuff, and are in multiple restaurants in that space. And so if one positive came out of it, I'll give that one. Just

Jeremy: 21:08

to ask it is Chad just eloquently talked about it. And you've talked about what the experience looks like from the food to the ambience to, and then that went away overnight because the food coming in a clamshell doesn't look the same way it looks on a plate. Yeah. the cool decor and the cool, window into the kitchen, which I know is newer, but none of that exists when you're having to serve it off prem and you guys know that there are still consumers that won't come and sit that want your product, but won't come and sit. And so being able to serve both of those markets and be able to increase what I like to call for a wall economics to be able to get stuff off prem, but still deliver it at a high quality with, Good product, good quality, as well as on prem, on prem back to what your vision was initially, Chad. I think it's great that, while it sucked having to go through it and any of us that lived through it, it's one of those things like, our grandparents or whatever, remember D Day, remember, Pearl Harbor, like this is going to be one of those, 9 11 for me. I was explaining to my eight year old. She's 9 11, what is 9 11? And I'm like, Oh my gosh. She's she hasn't gotten to that grade in school where 9 11 is a big deal. She's Oh, is that, that, that situation to happen? at the end of the day for many generations, even including my kids, I think this, this pandemic is going to really be a marking point that we'll all, but, To your point, Lauren, I think it did change us, but made us better at the end of the day, to be able to serve guests the way that they might need to, need to and want to see that. to me about the product and, what does the menu look like? I, again, I know, but why don't paint a picture? Is it just, Lauren, you talked about a biscuit with gravy. Talk me through again, what is that? What does the menu look like? everybody can go online and go check it out. but I'd love for you guys to talk about, I don't know, maybe even just throw out what's your favorite menu item and why for our listeners. and, and we can just talk through, what is that product that's your signature product that makes people go, wow, I've got to come back.

Lauren and Chad: 22:53

So the number one seller it, let's just, I'll take a step back. The media as a whole obviously focuses on The biscuit sandwich, gourmet biscuit sandwich, usually a more of a knife and fork thing you can pick up and eat unless you just want really dirty hands. we also have. A variety of like pancake options and omelets and sandwiches and various things, but it's mainly the biscuit sandwich. And even like our French toast, we make it with biscuits, our catering with biscuits. Like we do these casseroles. So it's obviously, the revolving feature there, but, I'd say. My personal favorites, I probably go for the mama's boy, which may say a little something about me, but, spread the biscuit sandwich with fried chicken, house made pimento cheese. And look, to make the proper pimento cheese, we use cream cheese. You gotta use cream cheese, not that shredded crap. we put shredded pimento in it. A little bit, but you gotta do cream cheese. Yeah. but, yeah, And one other thing. Fried green tomatoes. And, yeah, and pickles. So anyway, that's. So good. That's my

Jeremy: 24:02

your go to that's your go to. And I'm certain if we were talking offline, y'all would tell me all of the Modifications to the men that you guys make because everybody that I've ever known that's worked in

Lauren and Chad: 24:10

no, we don't do that. We get that as it is. It is so good. I get, okay, I have two faves. My first one is the goat and it's a goat cheese piece of fried chicken and pepper jelly. it is, that's it. It is so good. I'm telling you. It is so good. If you like goat cheese, I tell everybody to get that. But then when I'm feeling spicy, I get the fire in your belly, which is It's just got our Nashville hot sauce, some fried chicken, and our pickles. Oh, it is so good. Chips kiss.

Jeremy: 24:52

I love it. I love it. where are you guys at? You guys are talking about growing. I know part of what you guys were hoping to do is share where your guys growth trajectory and. I know you guys are looking for people to carry the brand into different regions. So talk to me about what the rest of 2024 looks like and beyond where, what are you guys looking for? What kind of regions, what kind of franchises are you guys looking for? Talk to me a little bit about what that might look like in your ideal case.

Lauren and Chad: 25:17

Yeah, so we are, just to recap on the states that we're in. We are in Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, Alabama. Virginia, North Carolina right now, we're going to add South Carolina to two units in South Carolina and a, an additional one in, North Carolina and Charlotte, this year. So at 12, we'll be in 15 or so by the end of this year, we're looking mainly in the Southeast, would love to be in Florida, would love to expand in Raleigh. we have a franchisee that are, they were the ones opening the two kind of in the greater Charlotte area. We have a joint venture location that's going in Somerville. and then we'll have likely Greenville, South Carolina, as well as a second, maybe a third in Raleigh next year. and then we want to start building out the Atlanta market a little bit too. So looking. Looking for partners to help us do that. But yeah, on the franchising side, it's mainly the Southeast, with the right operators, we look more in that Midwest, Texas, near you guys, area, maybe even further out West, Arizona, Utah, zero desire to go on the true West coast, unless a franchisee wants to take it and we can, Work with them on that. But yeah, I think it's just, this is a Southern, it's definitely Southern fair. I think that has translated well into other markets. And, you look in the Midwest and, Michigan and you see a lot of the kind of ancient concepts. And I think there's a lot of, there's definitely a lot of brunch. White space out there. you see what some other big brands are doing. And so I think it's just partnering with the right people. not, we're not trying to bring in people that have never owned a business or restaurant before, and train them how to do that. We're looking for true multi unit operators. They're going to have a dedicated, operator either at the store level or, above, several units, like a multi unit operator that's dedicated to. To this brand and not trying to be pulled in many directions.

Jeremy: 27:30

Yeah. and I think, sorry, Lorna don't mean to just, I know my, I've watched the better breakfast concept or what I like to call the better breakfast concept, continue to expand. There's a lot of people that have been in the space for quite some time. We all know these huge national brands that serve breakfast, but as people are coming out of the pandemic, I think the expectations of an experience for your breakfast is something that everybody's looking for. So I love that you guys are out there. So I apologize. I'll let you continue to learn.

Lauren and Chad: 27:57

I think that one of the learnings that we've had over the last couple of years is just. From a growth perspective, Hey, what can we handle? Because we, our little team, we have a very tiny team and we don't have just levels and levels of people. It's two and then a marketing and a ops and a training, like that's it. So what can we have oversight for? But one thing that we didn't know anything about. is a catch 22 with franchises. for us from a distribution standpoint, like making sure all of the same product is available at these different locations and, we're hard pressed to get a distributor to, to open up, a new site with just one location. And so there's this interesting catch 22 about, we want to get out there and want to sell these franchises. But. unless people are committing to multiple ones in an area, it's really hard. And

Jeremy: 28:55

and it's gonna be hard for y'all to keep consistency of the product and I was just doing an interview earlier this week with somebody that essentially is an accelerator for franchise groups that would come into people like y'all and talk about that. And he said that exact same thing. He said, you know what, if you don't have either, A ton of volume. we talked about one of the, one of the clients that we do business with the cheesecake factory, they were able to put a store in DC, but that store does 15 million. So they're fine because the distributor knows they're going to have a whole lot of product that when they went from Beverly hills to DC, they were doing that when you're in a. A little bit smaller box with a little bit smaller volume. Not that it's bad volume, but it's just, you can't put them in the middle of Maine and have somebody, trucking from Louisville up to Maine to go give them the same product. And you lose a lot of control of what it is that you guys are delivering to your consumers.

Lauren and Chad: 29:41

exactly. Yeah, it's tough. And, it just ultimately the franchisees pay the cost. it's a headache for us and it takes time and effort and energy to get all that stuff set up. But in the end, the distributors only going to buy so much at a time because they don't want to sit on 10 product. And, just the freight alone starts to add. 10 plus dollars a case, depending on where it's going from and to and then the margins aren't where the franchisee wanted and they're pissed. And then, it's just, it's a lose.

Jeremy: 30:11

Yep. No, absolutely. how do people get in touch with y'all and figure out, if this was the right brand for them? Cause I'm assuming, you guys probably, I see the press, we were teasing about it before the show. So I see you guys in the press all the time. So I'm sure you guys are getting lots of inquiries, but how would people learn more about what it is that you guys are doing and figure out if it's the right brand for them to, to consider moving forward?

Lauren and Chad: 30:30

Yeah. So we have a great website. It's just biscuitbellyfranchise. com or consumer site biscuitbelly. com. but yeah, the franchising site is the one to go to and submit a lead there. And then, we have people that are on the sales side that will them until they, until they call back.

Jeremy: 30:49

Totally figure out if it makes sense. Awesome. Chad and Lauren, thank you guys so much for sharing a bit of your guys' story. I always, it's always a privilege to watch entrepreneurs that just go figure it out, it's so much fun to, to hear those things. And now I can honestly say that I've had pharmacists, our future pharmacists turn restaurateurs. I had a guy that was like, he's oh yeah, I was an insurance adjuster. And then I decided to go into marketing, and then I decided to open a restaurant. how do these paths happen? But it's awesome that you guys have, Not only, taken that leap, but, have been successful at it. So thank you guys for, for joining to our listeners guys. As I said on the onset, thank you guys for, for listening and make it a great day.

31:24

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