1237: Maria Degaine and Joshua Santana, Co-Founders of Cerboni Services

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore

Episode: #1237 – Maria Degaine & Joshua Santana, Co-Founders of Cerboni Services
Date: December 8, 2025
Episode Theme:
Fractional Executives, Financial Operations, and Outsourcing—The Future of Restaurant Success

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Overview

In this episode, host Eric Cacciatore sits down with Maria Degaine and Joshua Santana, co-founders of Cerboni Services, to explore the power and future potential of outsourcing financial operations in the restaurant industry. They break down the “7 Reasons to Outsource Your Financial Operations” and discuss how leveraging strategic partners (like Cerboni) empowers restaurateurs to focus on what they love, scale their businesses, and future-proof their operations against industry challenges—all while saving time and money. The conversation is laced with practical examples, operator testimonials, and actionable insights for independent restaurateurs seeking to go “further together.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance of Teamwork and Outsourcing

Timestamps:

• [06:03] Maria Degaine: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
• [26:36] Maria Degaine: “By yourself you can go fast. Right. But together you can go far.”

Summary:
The conversation starts with the power of teamwork, not just internally but through external partners. The hosts and guests champion the shift from doing everything yourself to collaborating with specialists—the path to growth and sustainability. Outsourcing key functions such as bookkeeping, payroll, and CFO services allows restaurant owners to stay focused on their passion, be it the front or back of house, while experts handle the complexity behind the scenes.

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2. Cerboni’s Backstory: Restaurant Roots Meet Financial Expertise

Timestamps:

• [07:40] Joshua’s tax/accounting background meets Maria’s operator experience
• [09:53] Maria’s journey from Brazil to the US and her growth as a restaurateur

Summary:
Cerboni was born when Maria, a seasoned restauranteur from Brazil, collaborated with Joshua, whose roots are in accounting and tax. Seeing a gap for truly restaurant-specific financial services, they combined industry knowledge and technical expertise to build a specialized solutions provider that now supports 800+ locations across North America.

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3. The 7 Reasons to Outsource Your Financial Operations

1. Access to a Team of Specialists

[16:08–27:18]

• Cerboni provides tax, payroll, accounting, inventory, and fractional CFO expertise—far more affordable than hiring in-house.
• Specialists communicate cross-functionally and benchmark across clients in the same region or concept.
• Operators “don’t know what they don’t know”—experts uncover unseen savings and compliance risks.
• Quote [24:41]:
  “Having these specialists paying attention to all the touch points, they're not siloed...they can advocate, they can see the big picture.” – Eric
• Example: Saved a client (Jason Carrier) $7,000/quarter by catching a simple decimal error.

2. Eliminate Turnover

[27:23–33:08]

• Outsourced services provide stability—no more losing key knowledge when staff leave.
• Consistency in categorization, database management, and tech platforms is preserved.
• Quote [28:20]:
  “Sir Bony is not quitting anytime soon.” – Maria

3. Because You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

[33:26–42:25]

• Most operators miss out on tax credits, strategic deductions, and nuanced reporting because they’re unaware of them or lack the expertise.
• CFO-level insight brings proactive management versus reactive survival mode.
• Quote [33:52]:
  “If you don’t know about credits...you’re not going to know you should be taking advantage of it.” – Joshua

4. The Fastest Way to Scale

[43:46–50:41]

• Outsourcing to experts allows you to “flip a switch” and instantly have a full back office team to support rapid growth.
• Enables focus on core operations without being bogged down by admin and compliance.
• Quote [45:02]:
  “Growth is an opportunity made lead. When you have good operators, when you know your numbers...you’re able to make really good, smart decisions to be able to make that next step.” – Joshua

5. Avoid the Technological Nightmare

[51:21–60:18]

• The world of restaurant tech is a confusing maze; the wrong tools, or poorly set up ones, cause chaos.
• Cerboni helps operators choose and implement the right platforms from day one, avoiding redundant or unnecessary tech expenses and bad data.
• Quote [57:43]:
  “If you don't do it right the first time, good luck getting your team to buy in the second time because they're going to know how that ends.” – Eric

6. Less Expensive Than Doing it In-House

[60:40–62:21]

• More affordable than hiring a full internal team—no payroll taxes, no benefits, no turnover costs.
• True value comes not just in cost savings, but in the financial gains from expert oversight and hidden savings.
• Quote [60:59]:
  “A solution like that should not be a cost, should be an investment.” – Maria

7. Get More Time and Money Back Doing What You Love

[62:53–65:48]

• Delegating these exacting tasks returns your energy to guiding staff, creating community, and growing the concept.
• “Freedom” and “peace of mind” are the most common words clients use for Cerboni.
• Quote [65:25]:
  “As an operator, your time is more valuable operating a restaurant than being the office behind the computer.” – Maria

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “When we close the books, the numbers tell a story. And our numbers need to be correct.” – Maria [27:18]
• “The financial P and L should not be used in the end of the year to file a tax return...should be used to take operational decisions.” – Maria [36:13]
• “The goal is to prevent fires, not put out fires.” – Joshua [41:38]
• “It’s a different animal, you know, the restaurant industry. It’s something you have to really love." – Joshua [50:09]
• “We remove those financial blind spots.” – Joshua [68:19]

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Notable Testimonials

• [14:07] Eric relays a client story (Jason Carrier, Mama Betty’s):
  • Increased revenue from $1.5M to $6.5M.
  • Reduced prime costs from 71% to 57%.
  • Increased profit to 25% on $6.5M revenue.
  • Discovered and corrected $7,000/quarter savings.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Teamwork & Mantra: 06:03
• Cerboni Founding Story: 07:35
• What Cerboni Offers (Specialists List): 16:08
• Turnover & Consistency Issue: 27:23
• Uncovering "Unknown Unknowns": 33:26
• Scaling Strategy: 43:46
• Tech Nightmare/Avoidance: 51:21
• Cost/Value of Outsourcing: 60:40
• Return of Time/Freedom: 62:53
• Final Thoughts on The Changing Industry: 65:55

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Final Takeaways

• Outsourcing financial operations frees up owners to "go further together" and future-proofs growing restaurants against increasing industry pressure.
• A fractional, specialist team offers not just technical but strategic firepower—affordably.
• Consistent, expert-backed systems across tech, bookkeeping, and payroll lay the foundation for growth.
• The greatest returns aren’t just financial—they’re psychological (“peace of mind, freedom, more time for your purpose”).
• The era of the independent operator survives through community, specialization, and the willingness to “choose to go further together.”

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For more details or to connect with Cerboni, call 281-888-2413 and mention Restaurant Unstoppable for a 20% discount on your first month.

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Transcript

[Eric]

What up, Unstoppables?

First and foremost, I just want to.

Say thank you so much for supporting.

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I cannot do what I do without people like you hitting that play button every day. And you make my dream possible.

You make this mission to inspire, empower and transform the industry possible. And I just cannot say thank you enough.

But we're just getting started.

We need more help. And you can subscribe to help serve this mission.

You can share this with everyone you.

Know aspiring to be great in the restaurant industry.

And you can just get the word out there. The more people who download the show, the more leverage we have to land.

Even better guests on the show.

And tell me who you want to.

Get on the show.

I will show up with my camper.

And I won't leave until they agree to give me two hours of their time. And I, I truly believe we go further together. And I want to get, I want to recruit the best people in the industry on the show. And again, the more downloads, the more leverage I have. Thank you.

So today we have a very special show.

You know, I try to do journalistic work and I this organization, through word of mouth, through talking to people, I really do think that the future of the industry, its survival, hinges on fractional executives. I think that that is going to be a part of the key to cracking the code of how difficult the industry is getting. And I think we, we have to stay in our lane and we have to outsource and go further together. And we're going to talk about that today. So I hope you enjoy this and.

Stick around if you do enjoy this.

Because you can connect. I'll let you know how to connect with our our guest today to to go deeper into questions. All right, here it is. Enjoy it.

Welcome to restaurant Unstoppable.

For 10 years and over 1, 000 episodes, I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable.

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Again RestaurantUnstoppable.com live join the community, get access to this training this episode is made possible by Mees Mies is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus and nail food execution at scale. We know to scale you need consistency because consistency builds trust with your guests and your staff. Staff, we all want to know what.

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When you have systems, your systems are a picture of perfection of what that job done right is and that puts us to peace. We are so happy when we know we're doing a good job. M will be the one source of truth for your entire team. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getme.com unstoppable. That's www.g e t m e z.com unstoppable. This episode is made possible by Sir Bony your all in one bookkeeping and financial solution. We're talking about reliable tax preparation, business incorporation, seamless payroll and compliance reports, strategic CFO services that drive business growth, detailed custom reporting for complete financial clarity, dedicated support for restaurants and multi location businesses. Did I mention bookkeeping? Sir Bony handle the numbers so you can focus on the vision. Call Serboni today at 281-888-22413 to schedule your free 30 minute consultation and discover how Sibonic can streamline your operations and boost your bottom line. Limited time offer an exclusive to Restaurant Stoppable listeners. Mention this Message and get 20% off.

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Expect more with excitement. Allow me to introduce to you today's guest co founders of Sir Boni Services, Maria De Gaine and Joshua Santana. My lady, my man, are you feeling unstoppable today?

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

And you should be feeling unstoppable because I've heard nothing but amazing things about Sir Bonies and my travels, getting incredible testimonials and I'm really excited to dive into who you are, what you're all about. Before we dive into who Sir Bony is, let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quote or a mantra. What do you got for us?

[Maria De Gaine]

Teamwork.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah. I think Bill Gates has this phrase that it means a lot. I think it's if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

[Eric]

I love that.

[Maria De Gaine]

Right. So that's what it's about.

[Eric]

It's so true. And I think we're going to get into how you go further with Siboney today. I think that's going to come out in today's conversation. We're actually going to be discussing seven reasons to outsource your financial solutions. And before we get into those seven reasons, just real quick, what is Sir Bon in one sentence or two sentences?

[Joshua Santana]

Max. Yeah. I'd say for me or for us, I think we're more than just bookkeepers, we're more than just financial advisors. We're.

[Maria De Gaine]

And a strategic partner.

[Joshua Santana]

We're a strategic partner, I would say.

[Eric]

Yeah. And that's what I've heard from people on the road. I've spoken to many of your clients today and some of the words that they said when I asked them that question, what is zon? When sentence freedom is one word that came up. Peace of mind. And it's because they can stay in their lane and focus what they love, whether that be front of house or back of house, wherever you fall in the world of restaurants. And they can outsource to the specialists and you go further together. And it's, it's a, it's so true. So I kind of want to get an idea of who you are individually before we kind of dive into these seven reasons to outsource your financial services. So real quick, 2017 is what, when Serboni started, right?

[Maria De Gaine]

That's right.

[Eric]

So why did it start? Like what's, what's the origin story?

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

So I'd say in the beginning my background is in tax and accounting. I graduated from the University of Houston and I had my own practice. And I, I met Maria through her restaurant that she and her husband owned. And it was something where they needed a little bit more assistance and help on tax and accounting side. So then we, through mutual. I'd say mutual friends or mutual. Let's say mutual friends, we were able to connect and we had the idea. Maria brought the idea of let's. Let's create a business for accounting, specifically for the restaurant hospitality industry.

[Eric]

Did it not exist? Could you not find something like this in 2007? Was there a void in the market?

[Maria De Gaine]

I think it exists some, you know, accounting firms that.

Is more focused in the restaurant. But what I. Being an operator as well and. And on restaurants, I think makes a lot of difference when you really understand the lingo of the industry. Right. Talking with your accounting team and understand what is the difference between tip share and tip pool. And, you know, how you. You manage your deposits when you use triple C to doing catering. It makes a lot of difference when you can talk with your accounting. They have this understanding.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

The restaurant industry is very unique. Beast.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

And you need specialists. So you were. Maria, you were a restaurateur before starting. And you are. I think I hear an accent. Is that safe to say? Is there any. So you're. When did you come to America?

[Maria De Gaine]

I came to us well, my first.

Time in US was in 2005. I worked in T Valley, Idaho, where I met my husband, who's a chef.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Maria De Gaine]

And then we came here to Houston in 2016.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Maria De Gaine]

And we opened our first restaurant. He now has four restaurants. And I'm 100% here in Cerboni. It's today manage hundreds of location across US Canada and some islands in the Caribbean.

[Eric]

Okay. And it was. Was it Brazil that.

[Maria De Gaine]

I'm from Brazil.

[Eric]

And you had restaurants in Brazil. So you're an accomplished restaurateur yourself. You sold your businesses.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

So you're very well versed in the world of restaurants.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

So, so what lane would you say you're in here at Sir Boni? Like, what's your focus?

[Maria De Gaine]

So my focus is I'm director of business development.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Maria De Gaine]

So I work a lot with our restaurant operators in regards, you know, the technologies that we're going to implement to streamline process.

Work hand in hand with our CFO team. Right. For me, it's very important.

Bring visibility to our clients. Right. Because a lot of times the restaurant owners and.

Restaurant team is very busy during the operation. And with the amount of data and information that comes to the operators. How can we simplify. Right. How can we translate this data in order to take financial decisions in Operational decisions. So that's what's. That's my role here. More the operational science.

[Eric]

And in 2016, you discovered Joshua and it was to do your taxes, correct?

[Maria De Gaine]

That's right.

[Eric]

And you had a former accountant that kind of messed up your taxes, is that correct?

[Maria De Gaine]

That's right.

[Eric]

And Joshua came and saved the day. And that's kind of the first impression Joshua made. I got a little bit of the backstory before.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah. So that's right.

[Eric]

What was it about Joshua originally that, like, made you think, I want to partner with this guy?

[Maria De Gaine]

You know, Joshua is.

The knowledge, I think, is something we talk a lot. Right. With our team, with our clients. The knowledge makes a lot of difference. Right. So when we. Joshua came and worked together on my tax return, I said, look, I think I told my husband said, you know what? I think I'm going to leave you with the restaurants, and I'm gonna go visit Josh and see if we can open something specialized for the restaurant industry.

[Eric]

So was it your. Whose vision was it. Was it a shared vision or who. Who pitched who on starting Cerebroni Services?

[Joshua Santana]

Oh, Maria.

[Eric]

So you're the. The. The cree.

[Joshua Santana]

The.

[Eric]

The entrepreneurial visionary. Is that. Is that safe to say? Okay, cool. So same question. When Maria pitched you and said, let's join forces, what was it about Maria that. That said that made you feel like I should totally join this lady as a business partner?

[Joshua Santana]

I would say the confidence. The confidence, definitely. As well as, you know, her background as being an operator, I think it gives an upside on knowing the industry in specific, since she's been. Her hands got dirty in the restaurant industry. She knows the. The lingo as well. It's something that's a benefit, which I think throughout Sir Boni's growth has been tremendous, and not only in our success, but as well as to be able to provide that niche service. Yeah.

[Eric]

Before Maria approached you for. To be her accountant and to partner, like, were you gravitating towards the restaurant industry? Was this an area, a niche that you carved out for yourself?

[Joshua Santana]

So it was an area that I'm. I dabbled in.

[Eric]

Okay.

[Joshua Santana]

I did have restaurant clients. I did know credits. I know the. The workaround in the restaurant industry. But I would say it flooded more opportunity when I partner with Maria because she had.

More of the. More accessibility. She had more of the lingo. She had more of the.

I'd say, back of the house knowledge.

[Eric]

Got it. And where is Sir Boni today in terms of the. The clients you have, like, the big picture. Like what. What Sir Bonia has grown into. And like this, I guess, your reach. You're nationwide, right?

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes. Today we manage around 800 locations.

[Eric]

Wow.

[Maria De Gaine]

We manage, you know, we have clients with one location. We have clients multi units. So. Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Cool.

[Maria De Gaine]

We are very.

[Eric]

Blessed. Lucky. Yeah. For sure. And so I want to give a little context, and now that we know how you two found each other and how Sibonian started.

I discovered you organically through Jason Carrier, founder of Mama Betty's, just opened his second. Mama Betty's just opened a pizza place. Just opened a. A cocktail bar. This guy's a madman. He's. I don't know how he does it all, but during that conversation, like, right out of the gates, he just gave Sir Bony this incredible testimonial. So he went from 1.5 million his first year in revenue, and you helped him go to. I mean, I don't know how you help him get 6.5. I'm sure a lot of that was just him improving. Maybe it was the strategic advisory with your CFO operation, Jody, who I want to talk to later this week. You helped bring his prime cost to 71% to 57%, and you helped him bring his profit up to 25% on $6.5 million. Those are really great numbers. So when he was. And this is the thing that I love, he said that you helped him save $7,000 per quarter by just moving a decimal point one way, which is just one example of what happens when you go to the experts. Like, we're not all meant to be accountants. We're not all meant to know the intricacies of tax. And all these, like, one little change can make a huge difference. And when you get those specialists, you.

[Joshua Santana]

You.

[Eric]

It's like some people will say, like, I can't afford that. But it pays for itself. You can't afford not to do it is my argument. So I want to be clear. I reached out to Sir Boni. I wanted to learn more about Zapone. I came to you and I said, I want to learn more. And this is what I want. Restaurant unstoppable to be going forward is boots on the ground, talking to operators, finding these incredible stories, and then figuring out, how did you do this? And a big part of Jason's success was I went to Sir Boni. So that's why I'm here right now. And I can't wait to dive in deeper. So today we're going to cover the seven reasons to outsource your financial operations. What is the. I'll just say the first reason we wrote down is to get your access to a team of specialists. So what specialists does Sir Boni bring to the table?

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[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, for sure. Tax, tax specialist, payroll, also accounting, the fractional cfo. We also have inventory. I would say those would be our main specialties that we have in house that we're able to alleviate from the operator and bring in to us. Right. And in specific, what we can do in tax. Right. I think tax is always a headache, not only with IRS notices, but as well as finding that great credits, the necessary credits that we're able to apply for, I think is also.

Important. Right. Payroll in itself is a huge headache that we notice. That's always an operator's spending hours on. How can we streamline this process so that we not spending as much time in order to pay people.

[Eric]

Right, right.

[Joshua Santana]

Because you have to get these individuals paid.

[Eric]

Well, one thing I'm curious about.

Let'S just say like a two to three unit operator, right. How much money would they spend, do you think, if they went out and they had, they went to an individual specialist in all these areas, Tax, payroll, accounting, hiring a cfo, like what would the annual expense of that be? Like ballpark, you know better than I do.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah. So just CFO itself, right. If you, you didn't do a fraction, CFO would cost around.

Anywhere between.

2,500 to $6,000 per month, depending on the size of operation. What we can do here, it's because of the accessibility of data, right. Because we manage different concepts.

Different size of companies we can benchmark so we have the data, right. We can meet with the client and say, look, in our region, you're spending 3% in utilities, electricity bills, it seems too high. And this is something that we need to negotiate. Right. Your cost of goods sold is too high.

Can be several.

Things that make your cost of goods sold too high. Rights can be waste, can be inventory in cost of goods sold itself. Right. Prices going up. So we can see how much, you know, another pizza concept is paying the cheese close to you and how much you are paying and say, look, I think we have margin here to negotiate. So that is the beauty, right? To have a group of team that can work towards your success.

[Eric]

So it's not just the savings on, you know, having individual transactions with all these specialists, like when you put it, when you consolidate and bring it to one or under one roof, you're going to save. But on top of that, having these specialists paying attention to all of the different touch points of the restaurant industry, they're not Siloed. They're all together under one roof. They're talking. And they also have multiple clients where they can see and like, you know, what are the benchmarks? Like, like, like we know if you're, if this costs are high, we, we can advocate, we can see the big picture. So is, am I hearing that correctly?

[Maria De Gaine]

That's 100. Correct. And another thing also often you're gonna see, you know, situations that the clients, they have a bookkeeping company and they have another companies find cpa. CPA fighting the tax return. Right.

[Eric]

Does a CFO do CPA work too? Or is a CFO more just strategy looking to the future?

[Joshua Santana]

It's more of strategy looking into the future. And then we bring in our tax department to also have that conversation on strategies on how to save tax structure.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

I think it's also important how you grow is also creating a good foundation to build upon it. Right. It's not. I'm just going to one day open an LLC and hope for the best.

[Eric]

Yeah. I was just talking to who's. He's not a client of yours, but he was very impressive with his, his knowledge of playing the taxes, working the taxes, Jimmy hollers from tailgaters. And just to have somebody on your team with a breadth of knowledge, a wide swath of knowledge on how to play the taxes, what he would do, he would take advantage of whoever was in office and he would intentionally scale. He would spend as much money as possible. When you get certain tax credit, like, like, I guess like depending on whose office and the current regulations that are out there, either you get, you can, you know, all the money that you get on equipment or buying new locations can be deducted in one year. Or depending on the laws in any given time, you might have to spread that out over years.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah. Depreciation.

[Eric]

Yes.

[Joshua Santana]

So and just to add depreciation is great as long as we know what we're purchasing and how we strategize. You know, there's the 179. Do I need a business vehicle? But it's not just a business vehicle that we're going to utilize. Does it weigh more than £6,000? So that I'm able to get this depreciation expense now versus having to do it over a five year period.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

It's nice to get this deduction all now so that I save this money so that I can spend in other equipment or.

[Eric]

Exactly.

[Joshua Santana]

Invest into my employees or update my, my chairs. I'm able to utilize this for the restaurant.

[Eric]

Yeah. But knowing what the current Regulations are whatever policies are in place at any given time and how to leverage those policies. He just made some really incredible points and that just popped into my head. So having he. He happens to be a restaurateur who really understands that world, but most restaurateurs don't.

[Joshua Santana]

Yes.

[Eric]

Yeah. So, okay. Anything else to add relative to number one of the seven reasons to outsource your financial operations? To get access to a team of specialists. Anything else you want to share?

[Joshua Santana]

So I, I think, you know, I touched upon the payroll part. I think also having those letters because a lot of times IRS or the state in itself sends you letters. Oh, you owe a balance due because of back taxes on specifically payroll or even unemployment, that, that just becomes burdensome. You know, it's time consuming, it needs to get done. And spending that time elsewhere, you know, maybe not necessarily buried in all that paperwork, can save a lot of money and time as well. I think that's also super important.

[Eric]

And I'm tempted to ask like, but I know you guys are case by case, not all two clients are exactly the same. You really customize the services, the solutions to match where the client is. It's kind of like toast, where toast, like you don't have to use all the features of toast, but you can turn on features as you need them, as you scale.

[Maria De Gaine]

So but the beauty also you always got to have a corporate office. So even if, if we don't process payroll for that client and they receive a letter from, you know, 941 that was filed incorrectly, we, they have somebody to support. Right. Can be an add on service, but they, they have a team that can support even if they, we don't provide the service on a monthly basis.

[Eric]

Got it. Anything to add, Joshua?

[Joshua Santana]

No, I think she hit the nail on the head. You know, it's something that we're going to be able to resolve and I think that's the end game solutions. How can I resolve or get the solution to this problem? And we have the solution.

[Eric]

Yeah. Yep. So number one, to get access to a team of specialists. So you, how do we start today's conversation so you can go further together? What was the, the quote? Do you remember it?

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

By yourself you can go fast. Right. But together you can go far.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

So. And that is really what Cerboni about. And I think that is the beauty. Right. You can grow.

Fast and go much farther if you have specialists working towards your growth. Right in here, you're gonna have the, the bookkeeper, the accounting team doing your books. You're gonna have the inventory team taking care.

Usage, cost. Right. Making sure that everything is correct. That unit of measures is. Is correct. All of that make the difference. Right. When we close the books, the numbers tell a story.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

And our numbers need to be correct.

[Eric]

Yeah. I think we can move on to number two. What do you say?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

So number two of our seven reasons to outsource your financial operations is to eliminate turnover. What do you mean by that?

[Maria De Gaine]

So with the restaurant industry, right. We know that the turnover is a topic, Right. So especially when the client starts to use some platforms like Restaurant365.

Margin Edge, Extra chef inventory systems. Right. You train the personnel to be able to use those platforms. And when you, when this person leave now you have a database that is. Can be easily messy because you have more people touching, you know. And.

That is eliminated when we work with a company like Sir Bony because you have a team here that can manage your database. Right. And there is no vacation.

[Eric]

Right.

[Maria De Gaine]

There is no.

[Eric]

Sir Bony is not quitting anytime soon.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes, we are not quitting. Exactly. And your system works. Works, right?

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

Joshua.

[Joshua Santana]

So I, I just to add on, it's more of if someone leaves your office or someone leaves the restaurant, you have someone here to be able to fill in those shoes as rapid as possible versus having somebody in house, they leave, you're stuck. Maybe you don't know the procedure, you don't know what needs to be done. And bringing someone on additional or bringing someone new is going to bring a new idea on how to use that system or how to categorize a certain expense or an asset versus having everything seamless. Uniform is always going to be consistent.

[Eric]

Yeah.

That was the word that was in my mind was the inconsistencies of having different people pull the strings on the tools.

[Maria De Gaine]

Right.

[Eric]

And that inconsistency in data, like you're, you're seamless.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah. You want to be able to see a financial. From last period to this period and know, know that I'm looking at office expense. It's the same being categorized the same as last period to this period. We've seen where a new in, you know, in the restaurant industry, somebody comes in, they categorize office expense, and then the next period they do office supplies.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

So when I'm comparing, I don't have actual comparisons.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Or from last year to this year, I'm not seeing the same percentage. Right. So then it creates, doesn't create clarity.

[Eric]

Right. And you know that that's where my, my mind went. I think you're Absolutely right. Maria, too, with saying, you know, there's a. A time and energy amount of resource that goes into training somebody, and there's high turnover in the restaurant industry. So you're constantly just having to bring people up to pace to teach them the systems. And I think it's worth pointing out that, yeah, we have these amazing tools today, the technological tools, and if you know how to use those tools, they can be extremely powerful. They can give you data that you would have never otherwise had access to, a scorecard to be able to know how your efforts are manifesting on the back end. But if you don't know how to use those tools correctly or if you are inheriting this, somebody, you know, somebody that came before you into or you know, onboarded that tool, whether it be a Restaurant365 or a Restaurant systems pro, that's a lot of work. You have that process, that learning curve to get everything into the system and then to learn the system. The likelihood that somebody else comes in and under. I mean, I think if you implement it, you have a better idea of how it works because you built it. Like you, you went in and you put everything in place. It's kind of like if you're a dishwasher and you get hired, you get there and like, you got to put the things away and you're like, I don't know where this stuff goes. And it's the same with our software in the back end. Like, you don't know where things belong or how to enter things. So not only is a whole new system that you have to learn, but you don't understand what the. What the other person who built it was thinking. So that's when. To your point, Joshua, that's when things start to really get messed up because there's inconsistencies. So just outsourcing this from day one and knowing that that team, that entity that you outsource to, isn't going anywhere.

And you never have to put the time and energy into training and you.

Have to worry about the inconsistencies.

That's huge.

[Maria De Gaine]

It is, yes.

[Eric]

Like, massively huge. And I don't think this is all new to the restaurant industry. These are new problems, right?

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I. And I. You put. You touch up something very important also when you say, when you build that database. Right. And somebody else take over even the facts of building the database. Because a lot of times when the clients sign up for a database like Restaurant 365. Right. Is giving a chef.

An accounting software to set up and it's like giving me all the piece of the Ferrari to build. Right. You probably not be, I'll probably not be able to build that car. And it's the same thing. Right. The setup also is very important. Then after the setup, the maintenance of that database is very important. Right. And I think having a team here that's going to create protocols and maintain the database.

You know, based on your concepts, based on your.

Business, make a lot of difference because then you gain visibility, not just data that makes, doesn't make sense.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

I mean, my mind is going, I think we're going to unpackage some stuff. I don't want to get too far ahead, but I have more points to, to, to, to make. I'm just going to sit on them for now. Anything else to add relative to our second point to eliminate turnover?

[Joshua Santana]

No, I think we, we, we covered it.

[Maria De Gaine]

Cool.

[Eric]

So so far, seven reasons to outsource your financial operations. Reason number one, to get access to a team of specialists. Reason number two, to eliminate turnover. And now reason number three, because you don't know what you don't know. What do you mean by that?

[Joshua Santana]

So I think on, on multiple levels. So for a tax side, it's if you don't know about credit that you're missing or not taking advantage of, you're not going to know that you should be taking advantage of it. You're going to be missing out on tip credit, work opportunity credit, research and development credit. And it's all relied upon on who's doing the return, who's doing the work, the, the books. It's something if you don't know, you're not going to know.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

And maybe you do some research here or there and you, you find out, oh, oh, maybe I should be taking advantage of, but wouldn't have been nice to been taking advantage of it years ago, you know, from the bit from the very beginning so that you're not paying more taxes than what you should be. Right. I think as well on the accounting side, going into depth, seeing the financials or making sure that everything is aligned. However we were discussing prior doing that comparison saying am I comparing apples to apples or is it more oranges to apples? I think it's also something if you don't know.

[Eric]

Can you give me an example of that? Like a comparison of knowing what to compare? Like in the world of restaurants?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, I would say one, cogs labor is super important. But I've also seen where maybe in cogs is not being labeled correctly. You know, they Put it under.

An unknown expense and it should have been labeled into cogs. So then when I see cogs and it's. It's off. Right. I think that that's huge.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

I want to be able to know my food cost.

[Eric]

What are some things you often see label as unknown that people miss? Give me an example.

[Joshua Santana]

I would say things that they're unfamiliar with or maybe a new item that maybe on the accounting team doesn't know.

[Eric]

Got it.

[Joshua Santana]

And for us, it's something that we're used to. We're going to be able to know each line item and making sure that it is labeled correctly.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah. And I think House talking about label labor. Correct. The consistency again. Right. So I always give this example of supplies in janitorial. Right. We have. Majority of our clients love to see gloves part of supplies a lot. Some clients like to see janitorial. So. Right and wrong in this case. Right. It depends on how you're gonna budget your. That. That's line item of your P L. But the most important thing is that every time that you buy the globs, in this case, it should be categorized in the same way. So when I look my. My P L, you know, it makes sense. I mean, compare apples to apples. I'm not seeing. I'm giving the example of the globs this month as a janitorial, next month as a supply.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

Kitchen supply or something.

[Joshua Santana]

Right.

[Eric]

Because you're on the line with it.

[Maria De Gaine]

Exactly. So you cannot take, you know, operational decisions. So that is, I think for us, it's the financial P and L should not be used in the end of the year to file a tax return. You know, the P L and the balance sheets should be used to take operational decisions. Right. Define budgets, define profitability targets and how we can achieve the final goal. And.

In the categorization, another one that is very important is sometimes that item doesn't need to be expense. We can record as an asset and we can depreciate that asset. Right. So it's very important to understand how to allocate the item to best tell the story. Right.

[Eric]

Right. The game of restaurants. It's a. It's. It's not a game of dollars. It's a game of pennies. Right. But it can be a game of dollars if you know what to look for. For example, you help Jason Carrier save $7,000 a quarter because you knew what to look for. You found a discrepancy that he couldn't pick up on his own. Would you remember what that was?

[Maria De Gaine]

What the example was so with a, you know, there are a lot of things that we can help the clients to.

Identify opportunities. Right. And sometimes go above than P and L. Sometimes the client is not doing the tips we're holding. Right. Which is the merchant fee that.

You'Re being charged when you process the. The tips. Right. Okay. With a client with a huge volume, that's we are talking about thousands of dollars. Right. This goes above and beyond. And just do the bookkeeping and accounting. Right. So the team will analyze not just the, the P and L, the balance sheet, but we can analyze voided payments. Right. Voided orders, discounts. We're gonna define what. How much percentage wise should be your. What is acceptable for discount, what is acceptable for void payments. Why this specific, specific person is avoiding more cash payments than credit card payments. What's going on here? Right. So.

The savings in the bottom line goes above just the P L in regards the P L in regards the, you know, the, the savings on the net profits. Inventory is a big and huge.

Tool that should be used in order to increase profitability. Right?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

Jason, he's an awesome operator. And in. When you understand your goal, you are able to work to achieve this goal beyond purpose.

[Eric]

Show up with intention every day.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah, exactly.

[Eric]

And that kind of reminds me of something, I think, you know, number one, again, to highlight what we've discussed so far. Number one was to get access to the team of specialists. Number two was to eliminate turnover. And now, now we're talking about. Because you don't know what you don't know, and I don't think this came out in the first one, that the team of specialists, you're also getting access to a cfo, a chief financial officer. That's something that you offer here who can help you develop a strategy. And I think a lot of times, to your point, Maria, we operate blindly. We don't have goals, we don't have a strategy, we don't have a plan. We're just in survival mode. We're not working towards something. And having a cfo, they say an accountant looks to your past, a CFO looks to your future. And based off your past, like this is what. Here's the opportunity, here's the strategy. And you don't really have. When you don't have a person to mastermind with, to belt to develop a strategy, you don't, you don't know you're. You're going blind. What are your thoughts on that?

[Maria De Gaine]

You know, we always talk about being proactive. Right.

And manage. There's a Big difference between manage, then operate, you know, and when we operate, we are open the business. We do whatever needs to be done in order to move forward. When we manage, we. We planify.

[Eric]

Say that again. We what?

[Maria De Gaine]

Planify. Yeah, yeah. We have a strategy. Right. We have a plane in front of us so we can again have the goals and work towards to achieve that goals. So I think the cfo, it's a lot about that, right. How we are operating today and what do we need to do tomorrow, what do we need to do next month and what we need to do, you know, next year in order for us to grow from one location to 10 locations to 15 locations.

[Eric]

What's our target in five years? Okay, well, what do you have to do in the next year to get to be on track for that target? What do we have to do in the next quarter to be on track for that target? What do you have to do this week to be on track for that next Sir Boni quarterly conversation. We don't want to let Sir Boni down. We have. We have goals in place.

[Maria De Gaine]

Absolutely.

[Eric]

And you show up intentionally. One more thing, Joshua. Do you want to. To add anything to that?

[Joshua Santana]

No, just I would say the goal is to prevent fires, not put out fires. I think that's super important. And also looking at the details, I think that's also part of the fractional CFOs that we provide. It's. We're going to go into depth. It's something where we're going to let you know, oh, this doesn't make sense. Or how Marie was mentioning, you know, on. On the Voids is. Are my. My servers doing this appropriately? Are they. They looking in the right places? I think we also like to say we specialize in this industry, but it's also like a doctor who specializes in certain areas. Yeah, right. We're gonna know where to look versus having someone who's a general accountant or a general CFO won't necessarily know. They'll be learning as they go. We know. Yeah, I think it's super.

[Maria De Gaine]

And I would say also to add to the cfo. And I know that's the conversation can evolve into there, but again, it's having access of a team of professionals. Because on the cfo, we're not gonna just talk again about P, L in balance sheets. We're gonna talk about P and L balance sheets because that is, you know, that is our bible. Right. We needed to look the numbers and see where we are at.

[Eric]

Scorecard.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

But we're gonna talk about Operation in the, the, in the positive. But also you're going to have a team with you on the tax side that's going to talk about tax strategy and go again above. Then what. How this entity is doing. If I'm. If you are profitable, how we gonna, you know, strategize to pay less tax? Yeah, the team will understand, you know, even personal.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, personal strategies. Strategies for sure.

[Maria De Gaine]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

So we've covered this the first three of our. Or do we get to number four? No, we're about to go to number four. The first three. So of the seven reasons to outsource your financial operations, number one was to get access to a team of specialists. Number two, to eliminate turnover. Number three, because you don't know what you don't know in time for number four, because it's the fastest way to scale. Why is that true?

[Maria De Gaine]

Because he.

Fast, fast way to grow and how you're gonna go farther much quickly. Right, right. Again.

It always involves about the team that you're gonna have, you know, supporting your growth. Right. What is the plane here and how it's. It's not having g. Just somebody, you know, you know, a GM that is entering the invoice or, you know, a team that is busy with other things and it's doing your books or like Joshua mentioned, a general accounting team that is just plugging numbers. It's about strategy. With the strategy, we grow fast.

[Eric]

Yeah, you're growing with a plan you have. Like, you're, you're, you're. It kind of reminds me a little bit of eos. Are you familiar with eos, the entrepreneurial operating system? The whole idea of EOS is to help you develop routine and rituals to be able to scale. Right. So you scale with intention. You show up every day working towards a goal, so you'll scale faster, you know, and you can have teams to help you set those goals. But showing up with intention, not just being reactive, but proactive, is the way you scale. I have something else in mind, but I want to hear what you have to say first, Joshua.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, I would say it's when you have. I think it goes to our quote, you know, in the beginning of the, of the podcast. We're able to grow faster if you have a team. Right. Especially if you have a team with the knowledge. If you have a team that is, that doesn't have the knowledge, that doesn't know the restaurant industry, then it's not going to be growth. It's going to be more of a stagnant, and then it'll Grow as it goes. I think for us, growth is an opportunity made lead. When you have good operators, when you know your numbers, when you know the financials, you're taking a look at the balance sheet and the P L and you're able to make really good smart decisions to be able to make that next step. And when having the conversation with us, we're going to take a look at all that and we're going to be able to strategize and say, oh, your balance sheet is looking great, your financials, well, we need to make these necessary changes in order to get, get there. Right. Especially with banks. I think banks now is asking for an arm and a leg. Right. They're asking for everything. And it's really important to have those numbers concrete so that when you do give to a financial institution, you're going to be having the upper hand. You're going to have strength to be able to get that loan or get the financial backing.

[Eric]

Yeah. So a lot of the folks I spoke to are in the one to two unit range like they have. They're showing a lot of promise for scale. Right. So Mama Betty's right now is a, I guess three or four unit operator. And I spoke with Relish tuned. Two unit operator, right? Yes, two unit operator. I know that.

Weinberger is looking to expand real soon as well. And one thing that we talk about on the show often is you have to build the house before you move in it. And there tends to be like roadblocks. Obviously the first roadblock on your, your journey as a restaurant tour is just getting open. It's zero to one, because that's hard. And then you figure it out, you start cruising and you get to like two or three. And then you hit another roadblock. Because you need to grow your team. You need to, you know, build your team before you. You want to get to the point where you have all the people, all the players. You need to go real fast from 3 to 10, right. And you can do that in house, you can build this team in house or you can flip a switch and get instant access to that team right now. That will help you focus on the other things, the four walls, things like the day to day, the stuff that you love, the creativity, the relationships, all that stuff, the operations. So I think just being able to.

Hit a switch and to get instant.

Access to those specialists to help you go from 3 to 10, that's super invaluable. Like to me that is, that is the way if you want to be an independent operator and Scale quick. You have to outsource because I don't think we can afford to do it in house.

[Maria De Gaine]

Exactly.

[Eric]

I don't want to get too far down because I don't want to get too far ahead of our list. But any thoughts on that?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah. So I, I think a lot of times.

When restaurant tours open, they're building the plane and flying it at the same time, you know, and trying to manage that, trying to navigate that is very difficult. Having an outsourced sir bony to be able to have that hand, that steady hand and say, hey, this is the plan of attack that needs to be taken here. The, the routes, here's the, the journey that needs to be.

To get to where we want to have the end goal. Right. I think it's super helpful and I.

[Maria De Gaine]

Think also the peace of mind. Right. Because operates our restaurants. I always say that we are in this business because.

We love. Yeah, right. Because really, truly, I mean.

There are other industries. That's when you say, well, we are aiming for 15, 20%. They will say, are you crazy? To work for 15, 20%. And how many operators that is looking for the 10% and how many.

[Eric]

That's not possible right now, but looking for 5%.

[Maria De Gaine]

How many, Jason?

[Eric]

25%.

[Maria De Gaine]

Exactly. So how many, how many is. You know, is looking for break even. Right. So why you are in this industry is because of. We always say here that it's a restaurant is about passion and pennies. Right. Because it's really. You, you love. Majority of our clients, they are in this industry because they love love. So having a team that can take care about this part, you know, the back office, the, the corporate office for them allows them to operate and do what they do the best. Right. The hospitality, the, the service, the, the food. And.

It'S just as much to surround yourself of good professionals, right?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah. In any areas, in any departments, in any type of business.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

Anything to add to that, Joshua?

[Joshua Santana]

No, I would just say it's to add on to what Maria said. It's a different animal, you know, to. In the restaurant industry. It's something you have to really love. Right. We. We always kid around and it's.

You can never, you can never leave the restaurant run.

[Maria De Gaine]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

It'll always bring you back in.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

And we, we always, we laugh about that because it's so true. Right. It's even if you want to leave, you can't.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

Because it's a calling. It's something that you're going to be passionate about and enjoy.

[Eric]

Right. One, one more thing came to my mind relative to this fourth talking point because it's the fastest way to scale. And it was a conversation I had with Sean Lyons, a member of our community, past guest on the show. When you're implementing new technology.

You know what? This is a teaser for the next one because I think it might apply to this next one. So we've covered number one to get access to team of specialists, number two to eliminate turnover, number three because you don't know what you don't know we just did number four because it's the fastest way to scale and number five you can avoid the technological nightmare this.

Episode is made possible by Sir Boni Siboney is your all in one bookkeeping and financial solution referred to me organically in episode 1200 by Mama Betty's founder Jason Carrier. You gotta hear what Jason had to say about Sir Boni.

Anything that comes remotely close to your.

Financials, Sir Boni has your back. Reliable tax preparation and business incorporation, seamless payroll and compliance reports, Strategic CF FO services that drive business growth, detailed customer reporting for complete financial clarity and dedicated support for restaurants and multi location businesses. Did I mention they do bookkeeping? They do it all. This is an end to end financial management solution all under one roof. Let Sir Bony handle the numbers so you can focus on the vision. Call Sir Bony today at 281-888-2413 to.

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What do we mean by that?

[Maria De Gaine]

Today we have so many options out there, right? So many options of POS, of inventory softwares, of payroll platforms, of.

Accounting software. QuickBooks, Restaurant365.

You know, Sage. So what is the best for you? Right. Sometimes what is the best for this group is not necessarily what's the best for you. Right, Right.

[Eric]

I mean, and you get this, this constant barrage online of people trying to say that they have the secret that this is the, like we're always marketing, we're always trying to sell something and you don't know what is actually the best for you. And to your point, there are no two restaurants that are, are exactly the same. So, so having a partner who knows where you are and what you need, the bare minimum, and then can help make suggestions as you scale to take that stress of knowing what to invest in off the table. So you can just do what you love. I mean, I know you guys are a financial.

You know, all in one service, but today finances is operation and the technology, the, the, the technological solutions, while they're operational solutions, they're tied to your financial performance. So you know that world really well. You're an expert in restaurant technology.

By. What's the word? Just by default.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes, yes. So here the, the clients will have a team that will define this technology suite. Right. And I think that is also, also very important because it's important that your accounting team understands your inventory software, understands, your scheduling software understands, you know, our accounting software. So it makes, you know, everything start to make sense.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

What are you thinking?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, just the puzzle is always going to be, it's, it's always a puzzle. It's going to be all scrambled. How do we put this puzzle together? Together? What softwares do we need to build upon?

[Eric]

How do we avoid redundancy?

[Joshua Santana]

How do we avoid redundancy? Because I, we, we noticed that there's, you know, tons of software. As Maria mentioned, a lot of it's good software, but a lot of, at the same time, maybe you don't necessarily need, at that point in time.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

You know, maybe you don't.

[Eric]

Maybe there's a better solution, a cheaper, more affordable.

[Joshua Santana]

Exactly. Yes.

[Eric]

Yeah.

You don't know.

This could go back to what we said earlier. You don't know what you don't know. Especially there's a little bit of, of, you know, like we're, there's a little overlap here. So I brought up before Sean Lyons and one thing that he brought up that, you know, when you are a restaurateur and you're, you're pushing to scale, you're pushing to grow, you're pushing to do the next thing to take you to the next level, you have to get team buy in. And it takes a lot of energy and a lot of getting people excited for the future. And when, if you adopt, say a restaurant365 or a restaurant Systems Pro and you get your team bought in on this future, all the hard work we're about to do to. It's going to be a lot of work to get that thing onboarded. The new habits and routines and skills we're all going to have to learn. It's kind of a pain in the butt to do all this extra work, do it right.

If you don't do it right the first time, good luck getting your team to buy in the second time because they're going to know how that ends. So if you can, can take people who are technology specialists and do it right the first time and then your team instantly gets the benefits of the, the, the effort of the investment. So now you can get access to this data and you can play the game of business because now you have a scorecard and that's exciting. It is hard to get people to buy in twice. And that, that was what I was sitting on. That's, that, that's what came to my mind when we're also talking about it's the fastest way to scale because you can't, you can't start and go, start, go.

[Maria De Gaine]

Exactly. I think it comes into the builds that we were talking before, right? You want to go in, buy your Ferrari and drive your Ferrari. You don't want to build your car. And a lot of times.

We, a lot of clients come to us.

For number one service is cleanup of database, right? So it's much harder to clean up your database than set up your database correct correctly and have, you know, a team that can build the database for you, right? So I think that is also super important if you, if you're not using those, those softwares yet, right. Strategize what is the best software and set up the software correctly from day one is the best, best thing to do, right? If you already have, you're already using those softwares in, in for some reason and if the database is messy, clean up the database as soon as possible. Always is also is very important Because a mass database is equal expense.

[Eric]

Right.

[Maria De Gaine]

It's not an investment.

[Eric]

Honestly, I would recommend what Jason Carrier did. And don't even try to do it on your own.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah.

[Eric]

Because if that's not that, that is not time well spent for you.

[Maria De Gaine]

Absolutely.

[Eric]

Don't. You will not do it right the first time.

[Maria De Gaine]

Time. Absolutely.

[Eric]

If you do do it right the first time, you should be an accountant. You're in the long. You're in the wrong line of business. Right. Because it.

We're just.

I don't know, it. It's just. Just outsource it.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes, that.

[Eric]

That's. I truly believe that and that's one of the lessons I learned and I'll share more on that. Joshua, any thoughts on.

[Joshua Santana]

As well, you know, if you don't use software to its full extent. I bought the bells and whistles and. But I'm not using it right then as Maria mentioned, I see it all the time.

[Maria De Gaine]

Time.

[Joshua Santana]

It's an expense.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

I'm not utilizing to the full extent that I'm. That I bought it for the purpose for. So it's more of how can we just use what we need? And as we grow or as we need, we build upon that.

[Eric]

Right.

And I see all the time where people will invest in the technology thinking that, oh, if I pay my monthly bill, my problems are solved. No, that's just getting access to the tool to be able to do it. Right. But you still have to leverage the tool the way it was in intended to be leveraged.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

And that's not easy to execute if you don't. If you're not. There's a learning curve there, you know.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Joshua Santana]

It's a tool, like you mentioned. I think it's super important to mention that because it's not magic, you know, everything still needs a human with knowledge. It's not going to do everything for you.

[Maria De Gaine]

You will not replace the service.

[Eric]

Right.

[Maria De Gaine]

You're gonna have the tool, but you need to, you know, be able to manage.

[Eric]

Should we move on to number six?

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah.

[Eric]

So number one, to get access to a team of specialists. Number two, to eliminate turnover. Number three, because you don't know what you don't know. Number four, because it's the fastest way to scale. Number five, you can avoid the technological nightmare. And then number six, it's less expensive than doing it in house.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes.

[Eric]

I mean, it's pretty obvious. We've been alluding to it the entire time. I think a lot of people, they think to themselves, I can't afford an all in one financial Solution that includes bookkeeping, taxes, CFO like who can afford that? But why is that not the case? Why can't more people afford it than we realize?

[Maria De Gaine]

Because a solution like that should not be a cost, should be an investment. Y in a solution like that. We, this is our mindset here at Siboney. We don't want to be a cost. We don't want to decrease your profitability, your bottom line line. We want your bottom line to, we want to make an impact into our bottom line. Right. You can invest in a team of professional that's going to be working with you towards your success.

And now if, if you are paying for, for the services, it's not just, you know, another cost, it's opportunity. Opportunity on how we gonna increase profitability. So it becomes an investment.

[Eric]

Right. And I think people see the line item and they think I, I, I can't see. You can't afford not to do it. And you, you have to trust that by making the investment you'll make up the difference on the back end. Joshua?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, I would say if it is, you have something in house, you know, alleviating from payroll, the benefits, the taxes that you, the unemployment that may occur. It's, I think that's something where also we take into consideration on the cost. Right. Versus having it outsourced. You don't have to worry about that. Right. You don't have to worry about the benefits, unemployment, the taxes on the employee. It's savings.

[Eric]

Right?

Right. I think that one's pretty straightforward. Should we move to number seven?

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eric]

All right. I'm gonna read through them again. Like I want to really drive them home. Number one, to get access to a team of specialists. Number two, to eliminate turnover. Number three, because you don't know what you don't know. Number four, because it's the fastest way to scale. Number five, you can avoid the technological nightmare. Number six, less expensive than doing it in house. And then lastly, to get more time back doing what you love, more time and money back. Why is that the case?

[Joshua Santana]

I would say more time, more money in the aspect of you're going to be doing what you love. Right. You don't have to do the busy work, the paperwork, dealing with the invoicing, dealing with the software.

[Eric]

Sitting behind a computer.

[Joshua Santana]

Sitting behind the computer.

[Eric]

Right.

[Joshua Santana]

You didn't do or you didn't open or create the business to be doing that.

[Eric]

Yeah, we usually, we usually leave the desk like the world of like I can't, like people in the restaurant industry cannot sit down behind a Computer, They. They need to be going, they need to be moving, they need to be engaging with people.

[Maria De Gaine]

Definitely, yeah. For a lot of our clients, we are their corporate office. Right. So. So for a lot of our clients, we have groups that.

Work with us that it's growing and they don't need to hire somebody else to be in the office. Right. They upload the invoice into the system, we take from there, we pay the vendors, we map that invoice, we record the daily sales summary, we reconcile their banks, we provide the financials, the inventory team, we will work with their team on a weekly basis and a period base. The CFO team going to define strategies. So you have a whole team here thinking about, you know, your administrative portion of the business for you, allowing you have more time for you, and allowing also define rooms of opportunity to increase profitability.

[Eric]

Yeah. So when I asked some of your clients this week, why, sir Boni, what is siboney to you in one sentence or one word some people use? Freedom was one. Peace of mind is the other. And again, I don't think restaurant owners get into the restaurant business to sit behind a computer and to crunch numbers and to play with technology. They want to be serving their. Their team. They want to be developing opportunity for people, making people become better, better versions of themselves, serving their community. That we love, that human interaction. We love making things better. Right. Communities better. And when you can just delegate, outsource the monotony of financials and technology and tax season and like, all this stuff that we just cringe. I'm one of those people that cringes with this stuff, and I think that I. I'm a common avatar of your typical rest the of restaurant owner. If I could just hit a button and say, you guys take care of this, I would 100 do that. So, I mean, I don't think I could survive without a service like Siboney, if I'm being honest. Somebody like me, which is most restaurant owners.

[Maria De Gaine]

And as an operator, your time is more valuable operating a restaurant than being the office behind the computer. You're gonna make more money growing our business than behind of the computer, you know, plugging numbers. Now. Now you need the visibility, right. To take the financial decisions, the operation decisions, and that is what the time can be allocated. Right?

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Yeah.

[Eric]

This has been a lot of fun. Any final thoughts before we wrap it up?

[Joshua Santana]

No, I don't. I think we covered it all with our seven.

[Eric]

Yeah, we covered a lot. And I just want to say, you know, I started this podcast to be A student, students. Because I wanted to go out and I wanted to find patterns and I want to make an example of people doing good work and I'm trying to crack the code and you know, looking to the future, I'm worried for independent restaurant operators, it's getting harder and harder. Cost of goods going up, labor going up, rent going up, literally everything is going up and it's getting, I think it's the, we're, we're moving in a future where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. And I do think that a part of the solution for independence I want to see. My goal is to get more 10 to 20 unit operators in the world, less 100 unit operators. And I think this is a part of that puzzle, sir. Bonus services, all in one financial solutions are part of that puzzle. To help close the gap, to help give the independent hope to be able to have a chance. There's, we have to leverage technology and we have to lean on specialists and services like this, put the specialists in reach. And it also gets the, the, the, the roadblocks off the table for restaurant operators. I think it is a part of the solution going forward. So if you are an independent restaurant operator, you're trying to scale, you're trying to figure out what GM or a person, you know, director of operations, director of finance, director of marketing, like look to the world of fractionals, look to the world of all in one solutions. I do think it's part of the solution.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yes, yes, absolutely. I think having the fractional cfo, the fractional financial advisor really helps you to have visibility of your business. Right. And that is how successful operators can, can grow faster. Right. Knowing where their numbers at, where they are spending the money, where we have a possibility to.

Work and reduce costs. Like you mentioned, everything is going up and not necessarily we are able to increase menu items that, you know, in the same speeds. Right. So that it's important to strategize.

[Eric]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Joshua, I think a good way of saying is we want, we remove those financial blind spots. You know, as Maria mentioned, you know, there's going to be strategic things that we're going to be able to advise upon. You know, not, not everything would be able to increase the menu price even though the, the cost of meat is going up. Right. I think it's being able to strategize, to have a good solution, to be able to grow.

[Eric]

Right. You know, I, I, I'm always surprised. I see a lot of people spending thousands of dollars for and I don't want to say there's no place for the world of coaches and consultants. There's place for that. But if you can afford a thousand dollars, two thousand, some people pay as much as 50 or $100,000 for a coach or consultant.

I think there's better ways to spend our money. We can hire the experts and have them be a part of our team and get more than just information on how to do it right, but actually somebody to do it right. And I think that's how we have to think going forward. And we are in a partnership right now. Siboney Services is supporting this podcast. We have partnered. You are helping do what I do. You're helping make what the work I do possible. So I want to publicly say thank you for your support. Your support in just helping put gas in my tank and helping me connect with leaders in Houston and Dallas to get on the show. And if you are interested in Siboney Services, call this number, 281-888-2413, and get your free 30 minute consultation to discover more about Siboney and how they can streamline your operations. And if you call that number and mention Restaurant Unstoppable, you will get 20% off your first month of services. So thank you for supporting this mission. Thank you for the work you're doing to support your community here of restaurant owners in Houston and beyond. You are a national service. Want to make sure that's clear. Any final thoughts you want to.

[Maria De Gaine]

Before we say goodbye, we want to say thank you.

[Eric]

Yeah, of course. Thank you.

[Maria De Gaine]

Yeah.

[Joshua Santana]

Thank you, Eric, for. Yeah, it's been great.

[Eric]

All right, guys. Now I just want to say there is no questioning you are unstoppable. Cheers.

[Joshua Santana]

Thank you.

[Eric]

There's another episode wrapped up here at Restaurant Unstoppable. Special thanks to our guest today, Maria and Joshua, co founders of Sir Boni coming on. And I really do think that companies like Sir Boni, fractional executives, whether you're a fractional CFO like Zerboni or a fractional CMO or a fractional coo, I think the world of fractional executives is going to be part of the secret to cracking this, this puzzle that we're in right now, where cost of goods are going up, labor is going up, we need to outsource. We need to choose to go further together. And that's really going to be the slogan. The. The motto of, of Restaurant unstoppable network in 2026 is choose to go further together.

This podcast is about finding out who.

Those people are that you should be going with. So if you actually, if you want to meet Maria and Joshua, then they're going to be joining us live for coffee with Eric on January 5th at 11am Eastern. And if you head over to restaurantstoppable.com CW you can be a part of that conversation. And if you head over to restaurantstoppable.com live, you can join this and all future live events in Restaurant Unstoppable Network where we choose to go further together. And Joshua, I think, is going to be leading a tax workshop. So tax incentives, things that you didn't.

Realize, things that you can relay to.

Your accountant, whoever's doing your taxes, he's going to to give you the the leg up on on information. Tax season's right around the corner. So I want to do more work like this where I find these people and we collaborate and we crowdsource this wisdom into one place. That's what Restaurant Unstoppable Network's all about. We choose to go further together again, January 5, 10am Central Time, 11am Eastern. If you want to be a part of this conversation, head over to restaurantstoppable.com CWE we'll get you the link link and we'll see you there. And thanks for sticking around this long until next time.

Peace out.