Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Broyles
Hi Brent, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Started bartending when I was 18 and worked service industry while at the University of Texas at Austin. Certainly had thought of owning my own place but wasn’t certain I would get the opportunity to start my own business, and just assumed I would work managment in the service Industry. Luckily, I made a friend in college who had aspirations of starting his own business, and I guess he liked the idea of starting a bar with me. He since has moved closer to his family and sold his half of the business to me. While in college, he and I played raquet ball at one of the UT gyms as much as we and the loser alwasy had to buy the winner a six pack of beer we hadn’t tried yet. After a few years we started to notice the surge of local breweries in Austin, and decided to model our business plan around that. I think it took two years of researching other bars to write the the business plan, and then another two years to find a property, but we finally found one. Most landlords won’t give potential business owners with no experience a chance. I think our realtor may have lied a little for us. Lucky to have made the right friend in college, lucky to have gotten the fincial help, lucky to have that realtor and lucky to be in one of the best spots in Austin for a Neighborhood Bar serving local fare to real locals. We had tremendous support from the neighborhood and other industry workers in the area, to get us where we are today.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a realatively smooth road. There were the usual close calls; build out took a lot longer than expected, used up more of the finances than expected, feared a couple of bounced checks, and the first payroll was hard. We didn’t pay ourselves much for the first 3 years and worked 10am to 1am everyday for about a year and a half and didn’t get a day off for probably 2 years. Aside from the first month of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we just dedicated all our time into making it work. Not sure I could do the same now.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are most known for our prices and local selection. Might have been ambitious for a bar on a little over 1000 square feet, but we have 50 taps, over thirty of which are local. Even with the local selection and local All Natural Angus Beef, we still have some of the best prices in town. It is hard to pick a favorite feature of my baby, because I love the food, the tap wall, the jukebox, the artwork and the clientel. Aside from the plumbing and the electrical my business partner and I built it all.
Built the tables, the chairs, stained the floors, designed the layout, designed the logo, stocked the jukebox, created all the recipes, Workhorse also has some of the best staff in Austin. With an extensive history of service industry in this city I was able to bring on the best I had seen from each of my experiences.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I don’t view myself as much of a risk taker. I think I needed my business partners confidence to push me over the edge. I knew with many years ahead of me and no kids, I would find a way to work off whatever debt we took on, but I still needed someone more willing to take the risk. As with any profession, I don’t think someone should take on this kind of risk unless they know they will love the work. I here peole talk of opening a bar as a retirement plan or if other things don’t workout, and can’t help but think that isn’t the best way to do it. Not only did many things go our way that may not have, but we still worked non stop to make sure we had the best chance, and we loved it. We loved creating something, being apart of something new. It was never going to be a hobby for us. This was what we wanted for the rest of our lives. I have heard many success stories a lot of them make it sound like any one with a dream and hard work can do it. I don’t think that is true. I think we are part of the fortunate few. I can’t stress the amount of good fortune I believe has lead to any amount of success we have add. I am sure there are some that say we have made some smart choices, but even some of those choices were guesses or made out of necessity, and could have just as easily gone the other way.
Pricing:
- Bastrop Burger and Fries $13.37
- Wells $4
- Tall Boys $2.50
- Workhorse Margarita $7
- Several local drafts starting at $3
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.workhorsebar.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/workhorsebar
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/workhorsebar
- Other: https://workhorsebar.e-tab.com/workhorsebar/venue/5ea0812fad8074513197d76a/menu
Image Credits
Stephen Hertenberger and Myself
