Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Young.
Hi Taylor, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Taylor; I’m married to Valorie, have been married for 5 years, and have been together since my Junior Year of High School. We have two baby boys, Eli (2 years old and Archie (2 months old). As I went through my first college years, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I changed my degree 5-6 times as many students as you have to decide because it will determine your life path. It’s a wild thought. I pursued an education degree for my first two years because I wanted to coach. Then, later on, I switched to business administration because I wanted to get into restaurant management. And I’ll explain what made me make this decision. Throughout my first 3 years of college, I worked 3 jobs.
I was a server at Crackle Barrel, Olive Garden, and Outback. As a full-time student, I worked every hour possible, taking 15 – 18 hours per semester. I averaged between 3 jobs, about 65 hours a week during school and 95-110 hours a week during the summer. To some people, that might be hard to believe, but to this day, as an owner, I work 7 days a week, open to close, rotating between all my business, averaging 110 hours a week. I’m an owner-operator and firmly believe that just because you make it to ownership doesn’t mean you’ve “made it.” It was like starting all over in a new position. I love it.
As I excelled at all three restaurants and became the top server, the managers started asking me about my plans after college and if I had any interest in a management career in the restaurant industry. I wanted for sure then, but as I talked to them more, I realized I was very good at what I was doing in the restaurant industry, and I enjoyed it every day I worked. Manager salaries ranged from $45,000 to $50,000 yearly compared to a coach who made $36,000 to $40,000 yearly.
It was then that I decided that I wanted to throw all my marbles into this pot and start my leadership career. In my fourth year of college, I got offered an assistant management position at Dairy Queen, making $10.50 an hour. It wasn’t much, but I understood that just because I was about to have my degree didn’t mean that put me above anybody else. Everybody has to start somewhere. I took this position very seriously. I spent countless nights training myself to be a better leader, learning new viewpoints from successful business individuals, understanding what leadership means, and breaking it down. In my mind, everything I was a part of would only get outperformed by some, from minor tasks like doing the dishes to countlessly crushing our store goals and developing leaders underneath me. Within 60 days, I got promoted to salary store manager (position under GM) at the DQ on Gentry Parkway in Tyler, TX.
I was trained by the best during my time there under Julie Johnson (My area coach) and Meagan Massey (My GM). They molded me to be precise and detailed and helped me understand the breakdown of food and labor costs. They taught me all the fundamentals I needed to kick-start my knowledge in the restaurant industry. After graduating, I was offered the marketing coordinator and catering coordinator positions for that DQ company. I was introduced to Jordan Giles, the Marketing Director, who would mentor me for the next 4 years. I aggressively shined in this role as my catering sales were top in the state. I would sit down in our weekly meeting, and when I would give a projection, some would laugh as they thought my catering sales projections were impossible to hit. Stuff like that would make me not sleep for 7 days straight and work 120-130 hours weekly. And when I walked into that following weekly meeting, I would slap my sales reports on the table and not say another damn thing as I would crush even the “impossible number” they thought couldn’t be reached. That is where it all started. From then on, I was tired of people around me living in a possible world. I craved the impossible. I am obsessed with it.
About 1 year later, I was offered a job as a director of operations for another DQ Company at the age of 23. As a director of operations, I did some wild stuff with my team and achieved great accomplishments. My most proud moment as a director of operations was when my team and I broke a world record for DQ, having the biggest grand opening day ever recorded. This was great because it was the first time the owner said, “This one is all on you.” The marketing, the training, the developing, getting to know the community, the grand opening packages, the digital ads, the whole nine yards. If the store failed, it was 100% on me. If you called my wife and asked her what my schedule looked like for the 6 months before the grand opening and 6 months after, she would tell you I stepped on average for 2-4 hours max a night and countlessly studied and trained in preparation for my first grand opening; I was over. It was in December, 44 degrees, raining, during Covid. The odds were against us, but we did not care. We smashed that record.
This helped me gain a name through the DQ Community. 2 years passed, and I could save enough money to start my ownership journey. I searched for a failed store that I could buy for Pennie’s on the dollar and flip. That DQ store was in Charleston, West Virginia. My wife, I, and my 2-year-old (he was 6 months old at the time) moved up to Charleston to prepare to take over the store. I took it over on February 11, 2022, becoming the county’s youngest DQ Owner/Operator at 25. My bank almost declined my loan because they said my sales projections were way too crazy and that it looked inexperienced. I replied that I’d done this countless times and knew exactly where I would end up. I sent in that I was going to be up 80% in sales. And yes, that is almost doubling sales from the previous year. My bank pleaded with me to turn it back in at no more than 15%. I told him I would do that for him, but when I prove him and his boss wrong, I need them ready to write another loan for my following location. By the end of that year, I had finished up in sales by 98%. We were 2 percent away from ultimately doubling sales from the previous year. I then bought Mongomery Dairy Queen down the road from Charleston as the bank gained their full trust in what I said I would do, which is just what will happen.
To this day, my Charleston DQ is up 10% and still climbing, and my Montgomery DQ finished up 25% in sales after the first year, and there will likely be another 25% increase this year. As I fully developed my DQ Teams and leadership in West Virginia, we moved back to Texas and started creating my company closer to family. We chose San Antonio and Austin, TX, as our development locations. My first location to build in Texas was Axe Escape – Axe Throwing & Zero Latency VR here in San Antonio, TX. I decided to enter the entertainment industry because I was craving to test my limits. Boy, did I. Many mistakes were made in planning and spending too much of the budget on certain things, and figuring out how to do marketing for entertainment took a lot of work—learning the ins and outs of owning your brand. Google ads, PR, Website designing, website optimization, and SEO are all things I didn’t have to think about owning a DQ blindsided. Absolutely. Again, if you called my wife and asked her when my last day off was when I was at home for a full day, she would say sometime in May of last year. If you ask her how many hours of sleep I averaged for the previous year, she would say 2-3 hours max. With 2 days a week that I work straight through the night. When most people break that down, they would think working 180 – 200 days straight with only 2-3 hours of sleep on average every day doing 150 hours a week dedicated towards the business is a fantasy tale.
My journey as an assistant manager started on January 1, 2018. I barely even knew how to filter a fryer at age 21. To an owner on February 11, 2022, at age 25. 4 years from start to finish to reach the top. I can 1000% say I put in more time and work than some in 20 years. It was the most eventful, exciting, brutal, mentally demanding, most challenging 4 years I’ll Probably ever experience in my lifetime. And if I could go back to do it all again, I wouldn’t hesitate to take that opportunity. I might have the wildest goals ever set, but I also have the wildest means to do whatever it takes to do what I put my mind to. I want to inspire young individuals and demonstrate that opportunities are not just given because you have a degree or have been at your job the longest. Opportunities will always come to the hungriest, most ambitious individual.
When I was 22, I wrote a 10-year goal on my mirror.
- Become an Area Manager by 2020 (Did it in 2019) 22 years old.
- Become an Owner of my first restaurant before 2024. (Did it in 2022) 25 years old.
- Payoff all dept by 2027 (this will be tough, but I’d achievable and will be achieved). I will be 31 at this point.
- Retire my family by the age of 35 years old.
I was as precise as possible about where I wanted to be. From there, I came up with my game plan for achieving it. That’s my story at a glimpse.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Many business owners don’t go into depth on the struggles almost every small business owner goes through, mainly because it horrifies us.
Bankruptcy Conversations
I’m not afraid to admit that in my 3 years as a business owner, I have twice sat down with a bankruptcy lawyer to prepare for what was to come. There isn’t anything scarier than your thought when you think about all the hard work, the time, the sacrifice, the time away from your family and home, and the personal assets you put up for collateral that can all be wasted and gone in just a heartbeat.
Your credit score you’ve built over the years all rental properties are tied to collateral on your business loans. All gone. That is the scary reality of being a business owner. On the outside looking in, it might sound like a dream. Make your hours, make plenty of money, and get to do whatever you want. At the beginning of any new business journey, it is far but the truth. The taxes catch up on you. The interest rates rose for 3 years straight to double where they started. You have to defer all your loans to catch up on rent and try to pay off credit cards that have been maxed out for 2 years straight. It’s the time of the month when you struggle to think how you’re going to pay payroll that comes up in 10 days when your employees have been grinding their faces off for you to provide a living for their families—delivering food or doing some side job from 1 am – 4 am to bring in some other revenue to pay bills.
These are the complex realities that you will never learn in college. In most instances, only some people are comfortable opening up and sharing their heartbreaking thoughts. So it’s a subject that needs to be discussed more or brought to attention. There are a lot of things I look back on and think, damn, I wish somebody would have been honest with me because it would have helped me prepare and be more cautious with certain decisions I have made along the way.
As an owner, when you get in this spot, and most likely it will happen at some point, there are only two ways to attack it. You either fold up and dread mistakes that were made in the past or put too much thought into what you can lose. Or you can lock the hell in and get your monthly expenses in a spreadsheet. Find the breakdown of where you are going wrong financially: overspending on marketing; payroll is too high; food cost is 4% higher than what it should be, reoccurring expenses that are no longer needed, reoccurring expenses that you didn’t even know you were spending, deposits missing and possibly got a thief, areas where you can negotiate a better price like a trash bill that cost me $1250 a month that I negotiated down to $350 a month. Savings like this make the most significant difference. I’ve learned a lot over the last 3 years as an owner. Did I go multiple days a week with less than 1 hour of sleep, or if any? 100%. But Ive gotten myself out of this dangerous spot twice now. I learned from my mistakes and continued to move forward. It’s a scary truth, but it’s the nature of this business.
As you know, we’re big fans of Axe Escape – Axe Throwing. What can you tell our readers who might need to be more familiar with the brand?
At Axe Escape – Axe Throwing in San Antonio, TX, we are the premier #1 axe-throwing venue in San Antonio. What sets us apart is that we have state-of-the-art digital targets that feature up to 10 different unique games and targets. Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, hosting a corporate event, or just looking for an exciting night out, we’ve got everybody covered. We offer various weapons, including tomahawks, shurikens, throwing cards, and axes of multiple sizes, so there’s something for all ages. Axe throwing is perfect for any occasion, from bachelor and bachelorette parties to graduation and divorce parties!
What are your plans for the future?
I just opened another entertainment venue in Austin, TX. Later this year, I will open my Sports Bar on the South Central side of San Antonio. 3000 square foot covered patio with live music, yard games, pool, darts 35, foot double bar, and a fantastic food menu.
Pricing:
- 1 Hour Axe Throwing: $27/Person
- 1.5 Hour Axe Throwing: $35/Person
- 2 Hour Axe Throwing: $40/Person
Contact Info:
- Website: www.axeescape.com
