American Express Open Forum recently launched a video series interviewing successful business owners called “Inside Successful Small Business”. As part of this series they talked with Oliver and Leo Kremer, founders of Dos Toros. Specifically they talked with the founders about the risks of expanding their business and how other business owners should do it.
Key: You have to expand at your own pace. Expanding too quickly is far riskier than expanding too slowly. If you grow too quickly the whole thing will die. You have to make sure you’re ready to grow way before you try to expand.
Long-time burrito lovers Oliver and Leo Kremer founded Dos Toros and opened their first store in 2009 in New York City. They quickly found themselves featured in the New York Times which led to lines out the door and changed their business forever.
Their key as they expand is not to do anything that they can’t do well. It’s a scary thought that as they open just one more location that is now an entire 50% of their brand. Growth can threaten consistency. Once they opened their second location they made sure to taste the food everyday and made sure everything lived up to the expectations they had on the first day.
First they say to focus on quality and then you have to get more organized than you even think you need to be. Create a checklist for every system before you expand not after.
The key to growth is that as you grow spend more and more time thinking about what your core values are and making sure that is infused throughout your product. Taking care of every little detail, serving a great product and never compromising on quality.
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You can find more video interviews like this here.
This interview was sponsored by and originally published on American Express Open Forum.
