Today we’d like to introduce you to Harlan Scott.
Hi Harlan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Since I can remember, aside from wanting to be president when I grew up, I always wanted to wait tables. The excitement of being “on stage,” meeting new people, free food, and of course being rewarded in cash for your efforts, was all a kid could hope for. Growing up in the Houston area, I took my first job as a busboy at a local Denny’s, and served by the time I was 18. In my senior year of high school, after already being accepted to Texas A&M early in the fall, I don’t think I ever went to class; I worked the graveyard shift serving coffee to drunks. This was in1999; I was getting home at 6 am with $200 cash. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was a lifer. In college I continued waiting tables at the town’s most renowned restaurant Café Eccell, but by now I’d been exposed to fine wines and spirits, exotic foods, and service etiquette that I never would have appreciated or been able to afford as a customer.
At some point, the allure of the business, the dynamic characters in it, and the money were too surreal, and my life a ship without a rudder, the owner asked me what my life plan was and I said, “I don’t know.” He made me an assistant manager. About a year later as we developed more concepts, I was now director of operations at 26 years old. I never went back to school. But a year later I learned the true risk of being an employee and not an owner. After having built the infrastructure, culture, and systems to run three concepts on autopilot I was abruptly fired when the company contracted due to one ill-fated concept we opened in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis. So I answered a craigslist ad to be the general manager of this new restaurant in Austin, Parkside on 6th street, for about a 50% pay cut. I soon found out that I’d been hired by the hottest new chef in town, Shawn Cirkiel, and Parkside was at ground zero of the explosive Austin food scene that started in the early 2010s. Feeling a sense of Deja vu, within six years we’d opened five more successful concepts together. I was now director of operations for one of the most respected restaurant groups in Austin, Parkside Projects. One thing that separated us from our peers was our systems. I was an early adopter of new restaurant technologies, and created detailed training manuals and workflows for every position that lead to best service and most consistent product in town all while helping us manage explosive growth. Along the way we hired some genuinely good people and implemented systems and cost controls that quite frankly made me obsolete.
And my boss knew it too. When I asked for equity in the company, having received a few job offers by now, I was hoping to keep history from repeating itself, but instead, within months, I was fired again. It was March 2016 when I sent out an email to all my friends and colleagues in the service industry. I told them I was on my own and looking for opportunities where I could be vested. 60 emails lead to 60 cups of coffee and the same questions over and over again. “What happened?” and “Can you come work for us?” I learned a lot that month about my value, but more importantly how the service industry in Austin takes care of their own. It was typical to walk into any restaurant and bar in town and know three people that work there, get moved to the best table, and the chef sends out three extra courses. Sure, I put in the work and made friends over my decade in Austin, but this was more about the service industry culture in Austin. I could have been a busboy and felt the same love.
I also realized that I had a brand, my contribution as the Wizard of Oz behind the celebrity chef was noticed. I never would have had the courage to leap into being in business for myself, if I wasn’t pushed off the ledge to see who would catch me. So, I refused every job offer and instead asked if they’d like some advice, for a price of course. Harlan Scott Hospitality was founded just a few weeks after I left my job as D.O. Naming it after myself made me cringe, but my friends in the industry insisted I was the brand, so I went with it. Within a month I had a full client roster and my revenue was exceeding what I made as an employee. I don’t watch these shows, but I’m told my job is very much like Bar Rescue or Restaurant Impossible.
Operators hire me to fix their culture, get their costs in line, improve the product or guest experience. Maybe they’ve never counted inventory before, maybe they have no employee handbook, maybe they need a beverage program or a kitchen redesigned. I do everything but cook. Today my client engagements are more long-term and conceptual. I’m fortunate to be in an explosive market, but it’s the nature of the industry that would keep me busy with clients now all over the country. Restaurants and bars are funny in the sense that consumers think they’re an expert on them; we all eat out, but not everyone has a CPA or a Chiropractor. Wealthy or middle class, you’re a restaurant expert and you probably notice that inconsistency, lack of professionalism, and head-scratching experiences are the norm. Why?
I always say that most of us got into this business when life took a left turn. And by that, I mean we started with a plan, ended up cooking or bartending to pay bills, and next thing you know it’s your career. This is a business of misfits that love to cook, love to drink, love to entertain, that accidentally found them here. There’s no college course for the restaurant business. So, let’s take a bunch of right-brained, creative artist types and then put them in charge of a business that to succeed requires mastery of Microsoft excel, the ability to manage dozens of unique personalities, the bandwidth to answer 100 emails a day, and scrutinize a profit and loss statement. The result is the industry you see today. And my job is to fix those blind spots. My favorite book, and the foundation for my consulting business, is “The E-Myth.” The entrepreneurial myth is that if you love to bake cookies, then you should open a bakery and you’ll get to do what you love for a living. Hardly.
My passion is getting business owners out of working IN the business and get them working ON the business and doing what they love. The special camaraderie of the service industry, is how my now business partner, Cody Taylor, talked me into opening a restaurant. We waited tables together at the restaurant I mentioned I worked at in college, and like me, he was hooked.
After college Cody worked at an old icon of the Austin food scene, Café Josie, and later became the owner. I always said I’d never owned a restaurant. Owning a restaurant means 80-hour workweeks, making 20k/year, developing a drug habit, and destroying a marriage. I didn’t want that life, but Cody convinced me that with his experience, my systems and principles of consulting could be made into a brick and mortar. In 2018, we opened our beer garden style, counter service hangout “Industry” in San Marcos, just south of Austin. It’s a subtle homage to life in the service Industry. To the general public, the word “Industry” evokes emotions of every day, lack of pretension, authenticity, and honesty. To anyone who’s ever washed dishes, cooked, or cashiered the entire concept is appointed with “Easter eggs” that remind you that this is a safe space for those that serve others for a living. We have special discounts, late hours, and use menu language that all respects service industry workers. For the first two years, I think I actually made $20,000, we almost didn’t make it, as our progressive concept wasn’t instantly understood in our small town.
But, I knew we had the best product, best atmosphere, and best service in town. We held the line. We closed for seven weeks during COVID quarantine with $10,000 left in our bank account. When we reopened in May of 2020 we broke a sales record that first week and never looked back. Not only are we one of the busiest restaurants downtown, but we’ve also won Best Overall Restaurant in the local paper two years in a row. At this very moment, we are negotiating a lease for a second location in Austin. With almost 40 clients to date, Harlan Scott Hospitality is transitioning to just Harlan Scott. That’s the brand now, no need to clarify who I am and what I do. Call it proof of concept, just like Industry.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
They say luck is when opportunity meets hard work, so while I feel blessed by the instant success of Harlan Scott Hospitality I do know it was 20 years in the making. The hardest part was that absolutely nobody was doing what I did. If you Google restaurant consultants I show up on page 1 of Google, not because I’m the best, but because while there are dozens of hospitality groups offering consultation as a bullet point, there’s not anyone positioning themselves as Mr. Fix it. Finding clients wasn’t a problem, it was managing them. So when it came time to figure out what to charge for my services, how to protect myself, structure my contracts, and set client expectations I again turned to my service industry network. Some of the most respected and well-known chefs and operators in the city generously took hours of their day to show me their books, give me advice on what owners were looking for, and tell me what I was worth. I will never forget that time in Austin when everyone was rooting for each other when everyone knew a rising tide raises all ships when there was no such thing as a competitor, only friends.
Still to this day I take hours of my week to mentor friends, employees, or aspiring business owners because without the openness and kindness of others I’d be nothing. As for my restaurant, Industry, it was surprisingly difficult at first. I’d opened maybe eight restaurants in my career but always in savvy, dense markets where even if you failed you were at least busy at first because everyone wanted to try the new place. In San Marcos, our new concept was met with indifference, confusion, and no fanfare. Using my Austin playbook, I hired a publicist, invested heavily in social media, and other grand marketing schemes. Nobody cared. Nobody cared that we had the coolest playlist, a 100% scratch-made menu, and a beautiful design.
On the contrary; nobody liked my music and our menu was way too fancy. We almost went out of business, except that Cody and I had the ability to work 60+ hour weeks for free as our other businesses covered our rent. We invested heavily in the community, sponsored every parade, every charity, and went to every event. We gave back to the community before it gave us anything in return. When we had to close due to COVID I had emotionally let go of Industry, and while I knew it would survive, I knew that the respect it deserved was years away. We were too far ahead of the market. But the funniest thing happened when people were cooped up and banned from seeing other humans for almost two months while also being told on social media that independent restaurants were on life support. When they were let out of their cages they came to Industry and not because they were hungry, but because people want to be around people. That’s why surviving on take-out long term is a myth. We created a community space where there wasn’t one, and that’s what humans crave. Industry became the headquarters for students, for locals, for families… anyone that wanted to just sit and relax for three hours. We provided that. People finally got it! We became the 3rd place between work and home.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The celebritization of the restaurant and bar industry gives many of us a distorted view of what it takes to be successful. I’ll just be blunt. Most chefs are not chefs at all, but rather cooks. Creating a new recipe doesn’t make you a chef. Managing and mentoring an army of young transients, calculating exactly what to charge for every menu item for maximum profit and value to the guest, writing a schedule that accommodates the dozens of needs and idiosyncrasies of your staff and the restaurant, and constantly learning new processes and procedures for the business… that makes you a chef. Okay, so take that thought process and apply it to any position in the restaurant and you’ll find that many restaurant and bar owners find themselves in a building full of charismatic, creative, and dynamic individuals, but lacking structure, cohesiveness, and consistency. I implement systems, teach communication techniques, create workflows, build organization charts, job descriptions, and training programs, stay current on the newest restaurant technologies, and broker the best vendors and suppliers I can find. Need a 100-bottle wine list or a lesson on mezcal? I can do that too. Have an idea for a pizza concept, but you only have one recipe and a name? I’ll find the space, design the kitchen and dining room, hire the team, and develop your marketing plan. I’m most proud of my lasting relationships with my clients who I virtually now consider friends that will send me a text for advice to share some funny gossip. I tell my clients when I meet them that this relationship will last long beyond their contract and whether they like it or not, my mind is on their business all the time. With success comes the struggle to find a work/life balance and that’s the biggest priority with my professional development right now.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I’ve read way too many books on business and need to give fiction a try for once. Maybe I’ll enjoy reading more! But in that vein, I already mentioned “The E-Myth.” Another essential for any growing business owner is “Start with Why.” This generation of employees wants to know why they’re working for you, they want to have a purpose, they want to think they’re changing the world. Wealth is more elusive than ever, so give them a culture that they crave, that makes them want to come to work. When I was in high school my dad made me read, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” It completely defined my relationship with money and my understanding of wealth.
Pricing:
- $170/hour
- 3 – month minimum relationships based on deliverables $2 – $7000/mo
Contact Info:
- Email: harlan@harlanscott.com
- Website: harlanscott.com
- Instagram: harlanbrando
- Other: industrytx.com
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