1. a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.
Alex Cox is an operating partner and the General Manager of 22 Bistro in Squaw Valley, CA. He’s 31, works 12-16 hours a day, 6 days a week, and couldn’t be more pleased.
“I worked my way up from being a busser to a manager over a 3 year time span,” says Alex. “As a manager I was approached by investors, who saw potential in me. When the time was right, they offered a chance to buy out the original owner.”
Prior to being owning 22 Bistro, Alex has tried other smaller entrepreneurial ventures, one of them being a t-shirt business to make cash on the side while bartending, “That failed due to investors not coming through on their side of the deal, it happens.”
As with most things in life, Alex knows that being an entrepreneur comes with risks.
“I worry the most about the unpredictable things. Things happen with businesses and industries that are unpredictable and can throw you for a loop,” he says. “Hypothetically if it were never to snow again, I could be liable for some losses, but being in a desirable spot in terms of our location, Squaw [Valley] would be willing to buy us out.”
In order to buy out the original owner, Cox made had to make rather substantial financial and personal investment in the business. He sold a parcel of land that he inherited from his Grandfather, back in his home state of Indiana. He was nervous, but says that in the end he knew investing was the right thing to do.
“Two people that I respect a lot and looked up to told me the same story at separate points in my life,” says Alex. “The the advice they gave me was this: No matter what happens in life, you’re going to have a shot at a couple of big opportunities. Most people don’t recognize that there’s an opportunity present or capitalize on it on it when it’s there. The moral of the story is to be ready when opportunity knocks.”
When opportunity starting knocking, the banging on the door was loud. In addition to the owner being willing to sell to Alex, he also had the wealthy investors believing in him. The combination of the two made it hard for Alex to turn the offer down.
“To be an entrepreneur you need capital. Truthfully, it’s hard to be successful with out it," says Alex. “It’s difficult to be an entrepreneur in this day and age because no one is lending out money. So unless your business is really small or you already have money, it’s tough to find it.”
Most of his friends are out skiing all day and partying all night, so how does he keep his eye on the prize and focus on being a young business owner?
“That’s part of being invested. You know that if you’re out partying all night skiing all day that you’re not going to make money, and you’re not going to have anyone to blame but yourself. With that in my head it's easy to stay focused.”
“Being my own boss and having control of my own bottom line.”
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Love it! Good for Alex. Is there a link to 22 Bistro that you could include? Maybe a graphic about how the restaurant industry as a whole is doing? Just some ideas, but it's a great story!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea Laura! I just added the links to 22's Website, Facebook and Twitter page. I'll do some research on the industry as a whole and maybe post it as a follow up to this article.
ReplyDelete