Latest news with #RussellJackson
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Food Network Star' chef explains 3 ways to finance a new restaurant
Listen and subscribe to The Big Idea on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Russell Jackson, a chef who's appeared on shows like "Iron Chef America," "Food Network Star," and "Going Off Menu," has learned some key business lessons after financing and running three separate restaurants. On Yahoo Finance's Big Idea podcast, Jackson shared the three different ways he funded each of his restaurant ventures, including the one method he would recommend above all others. "I would probably always say try to go with an SBA loan," Jackson advised budding restaurateurs, referring to the loan through the Small Business Administration that funded his Harlem-based fine-dining restaurant, Reverence. "It's still a sizable chunk of down payment that you have to come up with, but the terms are better than any other bank can get for you." This embedded content is not available in your region. Before opening Reverence, Jackson created and eventually closed two other restaurants: Russell's in Los Angeles and Lafitte in San Francisco. Russell's was Jackson's first business venture, which he said he opened with capital largely amassed from those close to him — a move he said he would "absolutely not" recommend others take. "I had some friends and my family ... [who] kicked some money in," he explained, detailing some of the names who were integral in getting that first venture off the ground financially. "My father kicked the lion's share of money in — and that was tough. Closing that restaurant was exceedingly difficult. But again, we went through some very unprecedented things when closing that restaurant." Read more: What can I use a personal loan for? Lafitte, on the other hand, was financed through private equity. Though that removed the emotional connections that can complicate getting a restaurant off the ground, he noted it also required him to forfeit quite a bit of say in the big decisions for the restaurant. "Ultimately, ... I didn't have the highest amount of equity," he said. "I had a percentage that was a reasonable voting block, but the decision was out of my hands in the respect of, 'Do I continue on with this while we're losing money, or do we have to close?'" In those situations with private equity investors, Jackson explained, "you lose the ability to have that say and control you need." In the end, when Lafitte closed, it wasn't ultimately his decision. "The investor said, 'Eh, we're done,'" Jackson said. Jackson was able to open Reverence thanks to an SBA loan, though he admitted the process was far from easy and one he said he didn't think would ultimately be successful. "The labyrinth of red tape and hurdles ... it always seemed like a sheer impossibility," Jackson admitted. "So I applied for the SBA loan in this respect, almost as just trying to turn over a last rock, not having any expectation whatsoever that this was a possibility. So when I got the notification that I had gotten it, I realized that I had turned into a unicorn." Though Jackson ultimately made the difficult decision to close Reverence this year after facing setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic and in the restaurant industry, he noted he's not one to give up easily when fighting for his business. "I've said this before ... you can never give up," he said. "You just have to keep fighting until you are utterly dead. I think that if I look at some of my other ventures, giving up when I did might have been construed as a mistake. I think that that's why now I'm willing to go down with the ship in a spectacularly fireball way and keep trying to figure out how to make it work to some degree or another." Every Thursday, Elizabeth Gore discusses real-life stories and smart strategies for launching a small business on The Big Idea podcast. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Food Network Star' chef explains 3 ways to finance a new restaurant
Listen and subscribe to The Big Idea on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Russell Jackson, a chef who's appeared on shows like "Iron Chef America," "Food Network Star," and "Going Off Menu," has learned some key business lessons after financing and running three separate restaurants. On Yahoo Finance's Big Idea podcast, Jackson shared the three different ways he funded each of his restaurant ventures, including the one method he would recommend above all others. "I would probably always say try to go with an SBA loan," Jackson advised budding restaurateurs, referring to the loan through the Small Business Administration that funded his Harlem-based fine-dining restaurant, Reverence. "It's still a sizable chunk of down payment that you have to come up with, but the terms are better than any other bank can get for you." Before opening Reverence, Jackson created and eventually closed two other restaurants: Russell's in Los Angeles and Lafitte in San Francisco. Russell's was Jackson's first business venture, which he said he opened with capital largely amassed from those close to him — a move he said he would "absolutely not" recommend others take. "I had some friends and my family ... [who] kicked some money in," he explained, detailing some of the names who were integral in getting that first venture off the ground financially. "My father kicked the lion's share of money in — and that was tough. Closing that restaurant was exceedingly difficult. But again, we went through some very unprecedented things when closing that restaurant." Read more: What can I use a personal loan for? Lafitte, on the other hand, was financed through private equity. Though that removed the emotional connections that can complicate getting a restaurant off the ground, he noted it also required him to forfeit quite a bit of say in the big decisions for the restaurant. "Ultimately, ... I didn't have the highest amount of equity," he said. "I had a percentage that was a reasonable voting block, but the decision was out of my hands in the respect of, 'Do I continue on with this while we're losing money, or do we have to close?'" In those situations with private equity investors, Jackson explained, "you lose the ability to have that say and control you need." In the end, when Lafitte closed, it wasn't ultimately his decision. "The investor said, 'Eh, we're done,'" Jackson said. Jackson was able to open Reverence thanks to an SBA loan, though he admitted the process was far from easy and one he said he didn't think would ultimately be successful. "The labyrinth of red tape and hurdles ... it always seemed like a sheer impossibility," Jackson admitted. "So I applied for the SBA loan in this respect, almost as just trying to turn over a last rock, not having any expectation whatsoever that this was a possibility. So when I got the notification that I had gotten it, I realized that I had turned into a unicorn." Though Jackson ultimately made the difficult decision to close Reverence this year after facing setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic and in the restaurant industry, he noted he's not one to give up easily when fighting for his business. "I've said this before ... you can never give up," he said. "You just have to keep fighting until you are utterly dead. I think that if I look at some of my other ventures, giving up when I did might have been construed as a mistake. I think that that's why now I'm willing to go down with the ship in a spectacularly fireball way and keep trying to figure out how to make it work to some degree or another." Every Thursday, Elizabeth Gore discusses real-life stories and smart strategies for launching a small business on The Big Idea podcast. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Funding a restaurant is a beast - here's how one chef tackled it
Listen and subscribe to The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcast. This week on The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore, chef and restaurateur Russell Jackson joins the show to answer the question: How do I fund a small business? Jackson breaks down all the different ways he has financed his restaurants in the past and offers his pros and cons to the different methods, especially for small business Finance's The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore takes you on a journey with America's entrepreneurs as they navigate the world of small business. This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff
