Oscar’s Hangout Cafe. Small Business Ownership. The REAL story

Oscar’s Hangout Cafe. Small Business Ownership. The REAL story (scroll down for video)

As part of our series of business related interviews, I have interviewed quite a number of really interesting, knowledgeable consultants regarding their area of expertise.

I have been interested in also including accounts from business people about their real life, first hand experience of being in business.

I have seen the story of Oscar’s Hangout Cafe from the very beginning, when Brad took over a property where several eateries had failed before. A place that is not highly visible. However, once found, it is easy to get to and park your car. It is an easy walk for the surrounding residents. It opens to a park area. Brad has combined hard work, creativity and a solid cheffing background to make Oscar’s Hangout a community hangout for families and a place for functions and local events.

I asked him if he’d like to share his story…..

Olivia:

Hello everyone.

Brad:

Hi, how’s it going?

Olivia:

I’ve known you for a long time now. Brad has been … well before you had Oscars Hangout, well Brad was a chef.

You were in five-star restaurants weren’t you? Like high-end restaurants?

Brad:

Been a chef for a long time. Since late in high school, then into my apprenticeship, and worked in lots of fine dining restaurants, and then all around Melbourne, and then before we opened Oscar’s we actually invested in a fine dining restaurant, and then we decided to get out of that for lots of different reasons, but the main reason, which we’ll discuss soon I guess, will be the link to family life.

Olivia:

So okay, tell us about that then. Why did you decide to start (Oscars Hangout)?

Brad:

Yeah, so, when my wife was pregnant with our first child, we decided (Deal with that, time I’ll be back soon.) When we decided to have our first baby we were at 38 weeks pregnant or so, I said okay, what are we gonna do? Well, time to get out of the kitchen and get focused a bit more on the family. A lot of chefs don’t actually get to see their family. They work long hours, long nights. So we decided, okay, how about we open something close to home? I grew up in Mordialloc, we live in Edithvale, and make it something that my kids can come to along with everyone else’s kids.

Olivia:

So that’s the reason you wanted to make it family friendly so that your own family could be part of it. Because a lot of the places you’ve worked were not family friendly at all.

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Brad:

Yeah, exactly right. It can’t be that hard to … there’s gotta be places for families to go out there, so we decided, right, this is what we’ll do. Since having our first child, we’ve now got three, so it sort of keeps that family vibe going.

Olivia:

Yep. That was always our intention wasn’t it? Big family.

Brad:

Yep.

Olivia:

So, 38 week pregnant, that’s-

Brad:

It’s sort of like the ultimate nesting program.

Olivia:

It is, I remember when I was pregnant and they said, who here is doing a renovation? It’s when you make big crazy changes in your life.

Brad:

Well yes, that’s when the crossroad for me was. Okay, do I keep working late nights in the city? Or do I actually see the kids growing up? So it was a bit of a no-brainer for me to work out which way to go.

Olivia:

Okay. So then tell us about how went about finding a place. How did you end up in this spot right here?

Brad:

Okay. We actually looked at another site first. It was on the main strip in Mordialloc, and we all wanted to be in Mordialloc. We saw the sign, went through it, didn’t really like it. Then the real estate agent goes “Alright, were we looking in the Epsom Estate?”, which is an old race track here. I grew up Mordialloc, never had been in here before. I knew it was a race track, didn’t notice that it has an estate here. We came in here, we saw it, and then we thought, okay, yup, this, with our open park land, which I’m not sure if you wanna spin that around to sort of-

Olivia:

Spin around to see?

Olivia:

Can you see? Out there, it was a lot of space for kids to run around in. From time to time there’s a jumping castle out there, we’ve had various events which we can get in to as well. So yes, usually for our interviews I try to pick a place that’s quiet but I thought be it would appropriate to come here, so there’s a bit of ambient noise and stuff around but that all adds to environment.

Olivia:

If anyone’s watching, if you just make sure you can let us know, I’m using new microphones today, so if you can just let us know if there’s any sound problems can if you can’t hear us.

Olivia:

Okay. So yes, so you came around and found this place, and then …

Brad:

Yeah so there was a few businesses in here beforehand, which I think was one of the other questions. So we thought okay, let’s change it up. Let’s do wanna do. It was an old run down fish and chips shop, take-away sort of place. We thought, no no no, we can change this up. We had to do some renovations to block out the kitchen and create a proper bar area. We are legal licensed for 140 people, with an on premise license which means that we can, during the day we operate as a café, but at the night time, we can operate as a bar or a night club, doing functions, which that is where we’ve directed the business too now. On top of being a café, we do a whole heap of catering and functions and community events and all sorts of things here.

Brad:

Last year, for example, and that basically my job most of the time is to talk one on one with the client, and whether we are doing weddings here, whether we are doing corporate business parties, which we do heaps of them. Last year our goal was to do 150 functions, we did 152. So that means this year we’ll … 200.

Olivia:

It’s hard but go for it.

Brad:

So we’ve done all sorts of things here, so it’s a very versatile space, and with my chef-ing background has helped … so I know exactly how the front house works and back house works now. When we get really busy days or whatever, I’ll just jump in wherever I’m needed if all the team is doing their job properly.

Olivia:

It sounds to me that you … it’s good that you know how to do that if you have a staff problem or something. You know you can jump in there, but also that you haven’t put yourself as being…. You’re not the main chef all the time, it depends on what’s going on, but you work on the business a lot with all this.

Brad:

The best way to, and I knew that … the business won’t grow if I’m behind the stove the whole time. So I need to employ in the spaces overseeing them so then we can look at growing the business from there. Yes, go on, sorry.

Olivia:

No no, see a lot of people struggle to do that. To let go of that thing you know how to do.

Brad:

Well I’m still on six days a week, and I don’t give them much leeway, they always need to know that the boss is watching. We have gone through quite a few staff, quite a few chefs, this is hospitality. It’s-

Olivia:

It’s not easy.

Brad:

No, but having the bonus that whether a chef walks out mid service for whatever reason, okay, bang, you can just go in there and do the job, so you’re not held ransom by your chef, which a lot of cafés owners are.

Olivia:

So this spot we were talking about, to bring it back to-

Brad:

Yup, yup.

Olivia:

I think we got four business that tried something here before that didn’t take off. So you got the … well, what could be seen as a disadvantage. You’re not in a highly visible area. However, you’ve managed to capitalized on the advantage, which is that green area out there, and it’s easy parking, and it’s easy to get to, and that you’re in amongst where everyone lives, so instead you’ve turned it into let’s be the community place to go it.

Brad:

We’ve got about 800 houses around us, surrounding the estate and all that, and then all along MacDonald Street, which is the street that runs adjacent to here. It’s, as you can see Olivia, it’s just growing with high rise apartments, and knocking down one house and putting on ten. That’s been happening over the last couple of years, so high density housing.

Olivia:

So for you, that’s good.

Brad:

Yeah that’s very good. I want people in little houses so they have to get out and have their coffee and their brekkie-

Olivia:

And use the park land over there.

Brad:

Yup. But in saying that as well when we came in here, we did a demographic study through the council, because when we came in here there was lots of really big houses. We thought, okay big houses, big mortgages, but a lot of people had boats and nice cars. A lot of families in the area as well, so we saw that and dual income families through the study, and well okay, so it’s that type of market and exactly what we want. Most people walk here, as this grassy area is fenced off, so it is safer to have your kids here running around while you can have a glass of wine or beer, as opposed to taking him to indoor playcentres.

Olivia:

Yes, a bit more pleasant for the parents.

Olivia:

Okay, so how did you get known? How did you make yourself known in the area?

Brad:

So we haven’t spent any money on marketing, because-

Olivia:

When you say that, you mean on advertising? Because you might spend it on …

Brad:

Yeah, we do it in different ways. We don’t put ads in local papers. We have done letterbox drops, but being a bit more creative about what you’re doing with that and actually physically doing them up ourselves so we know exactly where it’s going in our target market. But getting on board all the local schools, kindergartens, sporting clubs. Last year we sponsored six sporting clubs and donated … I think it was about two and a half thousand vouchers across six clubs. We’ll only sponsor the junior clubs. It gets them a free bowl of chips or a milkshake. So that way, and you know what it’s like when your kid wins an award, they’re gonna annoy the absolute crap of you until they can use it. And what we found was about ten percent would come in and that was all, they just get their free thing and go. Then you get 50 percent of them that would actually spend more money, and then the other 40 percent will actually become return customers.

Olivia:

Well, which is ideal, which is what you want.

Brad:

Yeah. So we found that a lot more effective marketing so that way we had a relationship with all the clubs then as well. And then same goes with all the schools, and then we’ve got all the corporate things we do throughout the year, the corporate catering. So we run our catering company through here as well. So we do lots of functions, not just here, but all sorts of things. All different areas.

Olivia:

And the other thing you do is a lot of events, isn’t it?

Brad:

Yeah, yeah. So we throughout the year, we run our own internal events that are mostly community events. So in March we did Make-A-Wish in Mordialloc Festival, so it was a big day for Make-A-Wish Foundation. There was auctioneers, there were jumping castles and mini-golf and entertainers, and I think raised $3,500 dollars for Make-A-Wish that day. And that was a way to get a whole heap more people here, and doing something that makes it worth while.

Olivia:

Yeah you’ve got lots of community fundraising activities.

Brad:

Yeah yeah, so lots of people come to us wanting vouchers for their different sporting groups, or schools or whatever, so we help them out with that.

Olivia:

It’s good for people to get to know you and to come in here and try once, and then hopefully come back.

Brad:

Yeah. In October we, do our Pink Ribbon. So we do lots, we do a lady’s lunch then, so we’ve done that for the last seven years, so this year will be the eighth, technically the eighth time that we’re running that lady’s luncheon, so … raised thousands of dollars there as well. So that’s where our marketing comes in, as opposed to just putting an ad in the local paper and hoping someone will come in, or …

Olivia:

Well that builds more of a relationship with people anyway, which is what you want, a real connection.

Olivia:

Yes, and of course you do the Christmas ones, so I’ll mention that because I have a sung in a few of those.

Brad:

Yes. We get Olivia to sing at our Carol by Candlelight, which is a big event that we do. Santa arrives a couple of times, we normally have music for about ten hours straight, and it’s a nice family friendly environment, so my kids are running around here.

Olivia:

Santa comes on a fire truck if the fire truck is available. And what else do you do, Australia Day, Queen’s (birthday), lots of things to run yet.

Brad:

So we’re gonna have Porkathon coming up next.

Olivia:

Porkathon, yes. Curry nights. But you got Porkathon, that’s coming up soon so talk about that.

Brad:

Yeah, so that’s coming up in August. We’re doing a two day event. So we got seven different breweries involved, so it’s gonna be gonna the middle of the Winter where it’s cold and miserable, so we get outside and cook on open fire pits and open spits and just celebrate pork and beer. This year we’re doing that, we actually got a local radio station coming down to broadcast from here on the Saturday night. This year we’re actually running it over two days, we’re doing it Sunday as well so we can keep promoting that family friendly environment, so that will be when you have all the kids and families down.

Olivia:

So do you basically have a planner, like a yearly planner or something? How do you have all these … how do you work it? Have you got a whole plan for the next year? How…

Brad:

Not really, sometimes we sort of … a couple of years ago we did Christmas in July, and because where there’s a lot of English and Scottish and all that around here, they kept bugging me every year to do it.

Olivia:

Yeah I guess I know who those people would be. Hi Muriel, Hi Gary!

Brad:

I said, my idea of Christmas in July is a whole heap of people sitting around in an RSL, eating a crappy roast, pretending it’s Christmas. If I’m gonna do it, we’re gonna do it properly, and we’re gonna go well over the top. So we ended up blanketing the outside area in fake snow, we had a snow machine blowing snow in the air, we had kids doing snowball fights, and then you’d make your way inside and had mulled wine and suckling pig and all that. And then Santa came, gave a whole heap of really crappy present to all the adults. Yeah it seemed to work, so okay, cool.

Olivia:

Yeah. That’s one thing I like about what you do is that you add some creativity to….

Brad:

Yeah, it’s pointless just going, okay, we’re gonna do this, and then do it half-assed so to speak. But okay, let’s see how we can do it and people go wow, I didn’t expect that.

Olivia:

Yeah. I’ve seen…I was looking for photos for this interview, coming up looking for pictures, and there’s certain ones we all dressed up in all sorts of crazy outfits and stuff, so-

Brad:

That’s generally the father-in-law, which you know very well. So Harry, my wife’s dad normally will dress him up the Easter bunny, we dressed him up as Elmo before, Santa … I think there was a teddy bear once as well, so he knows if I’m just walking towards him with a dress-up suit it’s like, yeah alright.

Olivia:

He’s knows it’s on. Because he’d do that himself, like he would do that to people too. He ropes people into things, so, fair enough.

Brad:

Exactly right. A bit of payback.

Olivia:

Okay, so have you got the family time that you hoped for?

Brad:

Yes. Now that we’re sort of slowly getting there, as my wife frowns at me …

Olivia:

“Yeah sure”, she says. Right.

Brad:

Now that two of the boys are at school, it gives me more flexibility to do school drop off and pick up.

Olivia:

She (Brad’s wife) is probably bursting to jump and interrupt, is that true? (asking Carly – Brad’s wife)

Brad:

Occasionally.

Olivia:

So I’ll just … turn it around here. That’s Carly and Willow.

Brad:

So any time that I can take time off, I do. Been saying that as well, we do have very big weekends and so, okay, I need to be there for that, but I’ll be taking tonight off for example. Most probably. Possibly. And then we’ll be open on Queen’s Birthday, but we’ll have staff to be up to do that, and even though we’re paying them penalties, we’ll put the staff on because very rarely now do we, with the boys gone to school and me working weekends, that we’re all sort of got the day off together.

Olivia:

Alright so, what would have done differently, would you say? Mention any mistakes.

Brad:

There’s always lots of mistakes, and I supposed that’s the thing, as long as if you learn from your mistakes, then mistakes are okay. We took up massive catering contracts which ended up costing us, losing us a lot of money. They were all good on paper, but by the time we factored in the extra seven full-time staff members, all the workload and everything, it just wasn’t worth the money at the ends. And then we got out of that and we opened up two other venues while having this one open, and by the time I’m running around doing all that … once again, it was sort of like, okay, it’s all that extra stress, not really bringing it in, and at the same time we’re watering down our brand and what we were trying to achieve, so let’s bring everything back to here, and then once we did that all the functions just exploded so we work with a much smaller team now, it’s a lot more controlled … and that’s where I get more family time.

Olivia:

Yeah, great. So it’s all consolidated and why spend rent on more places than you have to.

Olivia:

And what’s the best part of having your own business?

Brad:

It does give you flexibility. As I say to most of my staff, most people go into small business for the lifestyle, not to make millions of dollars. To be able to go, okay, I’m going away for three or four days. Away with the kids or whatever, or okay guys, you don’t need me here today, I’m going. Call me if you need me. And then being your own boss and not having to be answerable to some higher person who has no idea what you’re going through. So that’s what I’m mindful of with my chef’s as well, that they know that I know what they’re going through. And yes, that means some mornings that if I’m in here at five o’clock in the morning prepping just to get everything ready for catering for Spring Racing Carnival then, and then I’ll leave half way through the day because I already done my job, you guys do your job now.

Brad:

But yeah that’s probably the best part. That sort of freedom to do what you want, and when I’m quoting functions, which you sit down and have a chat, what do you want. We can negotiate, we can actually talk and I don’t have to take that to a boss that’s just about worrying about the money side of things, or whatever. It’s like okay, nope, alright done. Let’s make it happen, all the events we run.

Olivia:

So you’ve got control. You’re very creative with your ideas too.

Olivia:

Okay, what about the worst part?

Brad:

The worst part? Probably the hours, as well.

Olivia:

I think it’s a good idea to even that out. I can take off now guys, you got this. But then on the other side is that you’ve got very long hours yourself.

Brad:

Yeah, and as I say to the staff, hour for hour, you guys get paid more than I do. So they don’t see all the extra stuff that you go through, and everything else you do just to make it happen. And when we get cranky customers, which that’s inevitable, you’re always gonna have an upset customer for whatever reason, that’s my job, that’s my job to deal with them. And a bit of public relations and that sort of thing. So … yeah that’s probably the worst part. And then making sure you’ve got enough work to sustain everybody in their jobs and all that. That’s probably the next hard thing, you’re not actually just going to work your 40 hours, clocking off at four or five PM, and the money hits the bank. You’ve actually gotta go okay, how am I gonna make this happen. That’s probably the hardest part I reckon.

Olivia:

Any advice to anyone else wanting to go into business? A small business?

Brad:

Probably what I said before, that most of us don’t do it to make millions of dollars, it’s mainly lifestyle reasons. I talk with a lot of people and they love it for that flexibility to spend time with their kids or take holidays when they want to take holidays. Now, it’s taken us six years for me to get to that stage, and at the moment we got a good tight-knit staff, but at the top of the hat staff members could … one could be off sick, one could be whatever, and then bang you’re in there straight away again. So you just gotta be prepared to put in the hard yards for the first five or six years.

Olivia:

That’s a big whack of time. You’re not scared of hard work.

Olivia:

Alright. Well, is there anything you would like to … let people know?

Brad:

No I think we’ve covered a lot of stuff there.

Olivia:

We have, we have.

Olivia:

So, well anyway, I might wrap it up. I’ve definitely have been coming here a few years, definitely recommend. Anyone want a family friendly place to come out with your kids, with or without kids, it’s all yours to do. Date night, fun stuff. Check out and like the Oscar’s Hangout page, because then you’ll keep in the loop of the next events and come along to those. I’m gonna put all your contact details.

Olivia:

And that’s it. Thank you for your time.

Brad:

No problem. Too easy. Cheers.

Olivia:

Ciao.

Interview conducted by Olivia de Sousa-Ferres

You can contact Brad Mill from Oscar’s Hangout here:  Facebook Page Link  or Website

You can find the SEMBA South East Melbourne Business Associates Facebook page here.

SEMBA is sponsored by Officeway. The office furniture website is here.

 

 

 

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