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- [00:07]
Ben Walter
On this show, we talk about the trials of small business owners, their struggles, their obstacles. But for every moment of crisis, there's a moment of pure bliss. For Cory Ng and his Chinatown restaurant potluck club. That moment came recently on the rooftop of Radio City Music hall in New York City.
- [00:26]
Cory Ng
We did one of the best, most awesome gigs we've ever been called to do was me and Chef Zan. We catered and cooked a dinner for the NBA. People loved it. I'm having one of those moments where, like, yo, we have been working so hard and it's really paying off.
- [00:47]
Ben Walter
For a restaurateur, the work never stops. After this catering event, he hopped in a car to go back to the restaurant. He's got his windows down, wind in his hair, and he's savoring. In a moment of quiet, I get.
- [01:00]
Cory Ng
A call from the restaurant.
- [01:03]
Ben Walter
Moments over.
- [01:05]
Cory Ng
Yo, I don't know how to make it stop. F, f, F, F. He's just cursing his head. I'm like, what, man? It was just like water gushing from the ceiling, like, full blast.
- [01:20]
Ben Walter
And that water is gushing from the ceiling. At Cory's restaurant during dinner service, when the water is unstoppable, in come the Unshakeables. Welcome to the Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business. On the Unshakables, we are sharing the daring moments of small business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories of how they got through it. As you heard at the top today, we're talking to Corey Ng of the Potluck Club. I also have a guest joining us, a new voice. I'm pleased to welcome to the show for the very first time, my colleague Jessica Young, who's head of product for our payments team. Jessica, welcome to the Unshakeables.
- [02:05]
Jessica Young
Ben, it's an honor to be here. I have so enjoyed listening to the podcast. I've religiously followed every episode of the season, and I've been so inspired by the stories of these brave small business owners. And I just love the diversity of clients you've had on the show as well, from the fashion small business owners to the battery storage to now a restaurant.
- [02:27]
Ben Walter
Now I'm lucky. I live in New York City and I've eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world. But when it comes to how restaurants really work, the inner workings and what it takes to run one efficiently, well, I knew it would be a good idea to have Jessica join us.
- [02:41]
Jessica Young
I just Loved hearing Corey's story, and I can't wait to actually dine at the Potluck Club later tonight.
- [02:47]
Ben Walter
I bet the food's gonna be good.
- [02:48]
Jessica Young
It sure will be delicious.
- [02:50]
Ben Walter
I'm very lucky to have Jessica on my broader team, because in Chase for Business, we try to bring the best of what we have to small businesses, and payments can be a big part of that. So, Jessica, it's great to have you on the show. On today's episode, Potluck Club from Chinatown, right here in New York City. Other than crises, we spend a lot of time on this show talking about the qualities of an entrepreneur. I think a lot of what a person needs to be a successful business owner are inherent in someone's personality. They just need to be cultivated over time. Corey and his friends are proof of that. Potluck Club is just the latest venture for them.
- [03:32]
Cory Ng
Potluck Club is a restaurant on 132 Christie street in Manhattan's Chinatown. I've started with four of my other friends. We've been friends since we were kids, 12, 13 years old, all born and raised in Chinatown. This isn't our first endeavor. I started when I was young, 14, 15, doing small things that, of course, didn't make money, but you're just doing things creative and you think you're going somewhere. We're just trying to hustle and do something for ourselves. What started as we were printing T shirts. We would sell them at school. We did that. We had a bike shop, we had a bike company, and after that, we went into ice cream shops. We had no idea what we were doing, but we felt great about it. You know what I'm saying? It was the idea of creating something from nothing.
- [04:15]
Ben Walter
Cory and his friends all grew up in Chinatown, and if you haven't been, it's culturally and energetically unique, even for New York City. It's a neighborhood with a strong sense of community and work ethic. As adults, Cory and his friends wanted to stay connected to Chinatown.
- [04:31]
Cory Ng
We wanted to build a space in Chinatown in our community that raised us, that celebrates our culture but brings it to the future. Our parents came in the 60s and the 70s, and we're witnessing Chinatown, especially in Manhattan, shrink at a very rapid pace every single day. This is lower Manhattan. All the money is there. So gentrification, real estate development is happening every single day.
- [04:51]
Ben Walter
When starting their businesses, Corey and his friends mostly followed their instincts and impulses, chasing the ideas that felt good to them. In 2017, they opened up an ice cream shop called Milk and Cream, which got them into the food and beverage industry. After seven years, they decided to shut it down. How did you know it was time to move on?
- [05:11]
Cory Ng
Sales started to change. It started to decline a little bit. We started thinking about the seasonality of it more, and it wasn't the best during the winter. And then during that downtime of that business Was the initial birth and idea of what we do now. Potluck club.
- [05:27]
Ben Walter
Just like all their other ventures, this friend group was at the center of the idea.
- [05:33]
Cory Ng
Zhan Chen, who's the chef of both restaurants. I've known him since 13, 14 years old. During the pandemic, everyone was stuck at home. He actually lived with our other partner and best friend, ricky.
- [05:44]
Ben Walter
And with restaurants closed, Xan just cooked at home. Ricky saw the potential right away.
- [05:50]
Cory Ng
We always knew he could cook because he was a chef. He worked for other people. But that's when Ricky was like, yo, he can really cook.
- [05:58]
Ben Walter
At the same time, Corey's mom was getting ready to retire from her business, A produce and sausage distribution company Corey's family owned the building she worked out of. It was the perfect place to put a restaurant, but it also came with a sense of history that Corey just couldn't shake.
- [06:14]
Cory Ng
That's how I grew up in that business. That was my summer camp. I grew up in that exact space. My friends, of course, they understand the pressure, but for me, it was a lot.
- [06:23]
Ben Walter
Corey and his friends knew it would be challenging, but they knew they could do it.
- [06:28]
Cory Ng
We are just five group of friends that want to do things, and we just got each other's back. And we just like every chance we get or whatever opportunity comes along within our life, we just kind of make the best of it, and we put our all into it.
- [06:41]
Ben Walter
And potluck club, the space and the concept reflect that sense of community. It's built into the core of the restaurant itself. Describe potluck club. Clearly, it was your way of contributing to your neighborhood and to Chinatown, which means so much to you. But the restaurant itself, what's the concept?
- [07:01]
Cory Ng
Oh, man. It's a love letter to our community. So we are Cantonese American kids born in the 80s and 90s of New York. We're not from Hong Kong. We're not from Asia. We have deep roots of it. We watch all the Jackie Chan movies growing up, Stephen Chow movies growing up. That's our culture. We are Cantonese kids Born and raised in New York during the millennium. You got the Internet, you got trl, you got pop culture. So it's a mix of both worlds, and that's what we want it to feel like, especially if you are that person, you are a Chinese kid born in the millennium. You come and you go. I get this immediately. We want to celebrate our culture, be unapologetic about it, and just show people, hey, this is what we're about. So that's what it is for us. We want to do it in a cool, fun way and also bring Chinatown into the future. There isn't a lot of young millennial entrepreneurs building in Chinatown nowadays. No one expects a place like this in Manhattan's Chinatown right now because the rest of it is still run by the old guard and they ran it out of necessity.
- [08:03]
Ben Walter
What a great story, Jessica. I say that every time, and it's easy to say that, but Corey is just a bundle of energy.
- [08:09]
Jessica Young
Absolutely. His whole vibe. I loved everything about it. You could just hear the passion in his voice.
- [08:16]
Ben Walter
Corey has an energy and an aura that he puts off that is pretty contagious.
- [08:20]
Jessica Young
Absolutely.
- [08:21]
Ben Walter
Now, this story, it's about Potluck Club, yes. But it's also about a group of friends. They were entrepreneurial and had successful ventures together, but it seems like they were mostly operating on vibes to begin with. And vibes might be fine to start with, but then you need actual real information to make something happen. One of the things that we have been focused on on Chase, but certainly not just us, is helping small businesses get access to the right kind of intelligence and data. So can you talk to us a little bit about how small businesses are using data to make good decisions?
- [08:52]
Jessica Young
Yeah, I think data is critical for making fact based decisions. Small business owners like Corey, he really qualitatively understands his target customer segment, but also quantitatively understanding your customers is really valuable as well. So, for example, understanding simple things like what zip codes are your customers coming from, are you attracting primarily repeat customers or mostly new customers to your business? And getting a sense for the demographic profile of your customers as well, which likely changes over time. As Corey mentioned, Chinatown's demographics have changed over time. And so getting some of that quantitative data around who your customers are can help you make better decisions when it comes to simple things like where to invest in your ad budget. If you're trying to attract customers from other geographies that you might not be attracting today. And we and other organizations offer that ability to see not just your data, but how others in the industry, your peers, so to speak, are performing as well. So that can give you some interesting insights of, oh, this other restaurant near me is really attracting this other demographic that I'm under penetrated in that could be an opportunity for expansion. There's also insights around payments. So just understanding busiest time of day, day of week, and those types of data insights can help business owners make staffing decisions that can also help to reduce overall operating expenses. And I know Corey talked a lot about feeling like you have to put out a different fire every day when you're running a business and running a restaurant in particular. And I think one thing that's great is there's been so much innovation in software, and inventory management's a great example where it can help you to prevent the avoidable fires.
- [10:37]
Ben Walter
Let's talk a little bit about that. Because when you ask people what's your favorite small business, they always answer their favorite restaurant around the corner or bar or something that they go to a lot. But we haven't had a lot. We haven't had any restaurants on the show yet. And the statistics around restaurants are pretty sobering. So it's one of the most common types of businesses that get started. But 60% fail within the first year and 80% fail within the first five years. What are some of the differences between the ones that succeed and the ones that don't? I mean, obviously if you make good food, you have better odds, but it's a lot more than that.
- [11:06]
Jessica Young
Yeah, I think to your point, good food is perhaps the baseline ingredient to make a restaurant fun there. But you have to build upon that. You have to ultimately be able to run the restaurant effectively. So as a consumer or customer myself at a restaurant, it's not just about the food itself, but the overall experience. And I think the good news for restaurants is that there's been a lot of verticalization of software. And in particular for the restaurant industry, there are great point of sale offerings out there that are specialized for some of those unique challenges and needs that can help restaurant owners. And that seamlessness of restaurant software can then result in an end dining experience where you're avoiding some of those potential pitfalls.
- [11:53]
Ben Walter
Well, if you're going to have a dining experience, you have to have a restaurant. And in Corey's story, he's not quite there yet. Let's hear more about how that all came together. And so what did it take to get it started? I mean, you had to build the place out, right? It was a sausage factory.
- [12:08]
Cory Ng
Yes, it was actually very, very tough. Building potluck was probably one of the hardest feats we've ever had to overcome. You're building during a pandemic where no one's moving and already New York Is tough to do businesses. You need to have insane amount of permits. You need to clear every single step with the dob, which I respect. I respect, because things got to be up to code, things got to be safe. But a dob is a system where you can submit something to the te and they don't have to get back to you. If you don't get an answer back, you ain't getting approval, you ain't doing it. And if you do things in between without that approval, and someone catches wind of it, they will stop work, order you. So you're losing money every step of the way. And sometimes when they tell you something's wrong, if you submit a plan, they just say it's wrong. You figure it out. I'm just trying to open a business, man.
- [13:00]
Ben Walter
Opening a business is hard enough. And Corey's right. New York City itself presents some unique pressures on that. But Corey also felt pressure from his community, the legacy of Chinatown that he wanted to uphold.
- [13:13]
Cory Ng
I had to deliver because this is something that was a legacy for my Entire family for 40 years. And I had to be able to know that I can come to play and come to deliver for my family as well.
- [13:24]
Ben Walter
Corey had a child of his own at home and would be raising the next generation on the same spot his mother and grandfather had raised him. So if they were going to open a restaurant, they had to do this right right away. The build out was challenging. They asked for recommendations in their Chinatown network and found a contractor who would convert the kitchen to do all the.
- [13:46]
Cory Ng
Ducting and all the exhaust for the kitchens and stuff. We pay him a good amount of money, and every week it just still looks like rocks and rubble. And they're like, oh, I gotta get the duct up. I'm like, okay, this looks like you're doing it. And he's going, yo, I need to file the paperwork. And I understand that, all right? Paperwork takes time, and you're dealing with the city. But then there's just nothing absolutely happening. So by the time we caught up to be like, yo, what the heck is going on? He was in cahoots with the engineer, who had a official engineer stamp who put stuff in the dob, and it was a full con. They literally took, like, $50,000 of our money. We were left in very, very bad shape.
- [14:23]
Ben Walter
Did he just make off with the money? You never saw him again?
- [14:25]
Cory Ng
Yeah, yeah, he disappeared. And this made it even worse because one, he went off with the money. He filed the paperwork halfway through. You don't know what he's into. So we have to find someone who is going to replace him. And we talked to every single person we knew. Everyone said no immediately. They're like, you can't pay me enough to come in the middle of a tornado. And we had nothing to show for it. It was still complete rubble and wires and nothing. Like, not a lick of paint, no color. We were like, yo, this place is not opening. And mind you, we were a couple hundred thousand dollars in.
- [15:03]
Ben Walter
Eventually, they found a contractor willing to take the project on.
- [15:07]
Cory Ng
He was at the bottom of our list, but he was the only guy that said yes. It was a tough job, and he explained to us how tough it was, but he was willing to seek it through. We turned the Titanic around. We did not hit the iceberg. We were very, very close, and it took so much time, so much effort, so much money to turn it around. It was really the coldest winter of our life, but we all believed in it. We all felt like we had to keep going. So the power of not giving up is real, y'all. We never give up on each other. We just continue going and going on with a smile and try our hardest. And of course, we've gotten older, wiser, smarter, better, faster throughout the years, and hopefully we can continue to do that.
- [15:55]
Ben Walter
Potluck Club finally opened in June 2022. Zan and his younger brother were in the kitchen. The rest of the group was running.
- [16:03]
Cory Ng
Around up front, doing all the front of house management, learning that on the fly. We were running full skeleton crew because we were still. They're going to kill me for saying this, but, like, when we opened, there was probably, like, 2 to 3 grand of working capital. Runway in the bank.
- [16:22]
Ben Walter
That's not unusual for a restaurant.
- [16:24]
Cory Ng
Like, I'll be like, you guys are crazy. But, yo, listen. We just kept our head down, worked seven days a week, up, down, everything, did it and crawled away out of it, crawled out of it, crawled out of it.
- [16:35]
Ben Walter
Getting from idea to opening was a major hurdle. But as any small business owner knows, the problems never really stop. You just have to keep going.
- [16:45]
Cory Ng
Every day you're putting out fires. Business school can't teach you the things that will happen to you daily. That's what I learned the most.
- [16:52]
Ben Walter
The things that happen are good and bad, and they often go hand in hand, as you heard at the top of the episode. Corey recently had a gig that took him to the top of Radio City Music Hall. He and Chef Zan were catering a dinner for the NBA.
- [17:08]
Cory Ng
We're like, lugging all the food. I was like, yo, this is crazy, right? So we're doing that. Did it hit it off. People loved it. I had to go back to the restaurant to go host someone. So I got in a car and headed down to fdr. I'm having one of those moments where like, yo, we have been working so hard and it's really paying off. I roll in the window, I'm looking at the city, I'm having my Carrie Bradshaw moment. Yo, I'm serious. I'm so serious, right? Five minutes into that ride, I get a call from the restaurant.
- [17:40]
Ben Walter
You know what happened next? Water gushing from the ceiling. Imagine a waterfall pooling water into the kitchen and still having tickets come in because it's dinner service. So to give you a taste of it, just think about the most stressful thing that's ever happened to you at work. And then think about your phone and email notifications going off every few seconds at the same time. And then there's also a waterfall in your office and it's pooling everywhere, but you're still working, I'd imagine. It kind of felt like that it.
- [18:07]
Cory Ng
Was out of our control. It wasn't even from us. But it's as if the NBA thing never even happened. Like it completely erased out of my brain. I'm going straight back to the restaurant and I get there as soon as I open the door and this is happening and it's like, you gotta deal with it.
- [18:23]
Ben Walter
How did you fix it? Did you shut off the water to the place?
- [18:25]
Cory Ng
Yeah, we called the super.
- [18:27]
Ben Walter
So you finished the night?
- [18:28]
Cory Ng
Yeah, of course we did not close. And yeah, guests did not know, but we knew internally, we knew.
- [18:34]
Ben Walter
That is amazing.
- [18:35]
Cory Ng
No, seriously, moments like that, the man up top will always humble you.
- [18:39]
Ben Walter
Oh, and speaking of divine retribution, the contractor who had scammed them, he finally got caught.
- [18:46]
Cory Ng
He was on the 10 o'clock news mugshot. This guy has been doing this type of stuff all over the city. Not all contractors are bad. It was just this guy.
- [18:57]
D
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- [20:03]
Ben Walter
Really had the perseverance gene. I mean they stuck through an awful lot unfortunately. I wish I could tell you that that story of the pipes bursting was unusual, but I mean we've heard from just about every business owner on here that that happens between the two of us. We have hundreds of thousands and millions of clients who do this every day. What's the difference maker in someone who gets through those things and someone who doesn't?
- [20:25]
Jessica Young
I think part of it is having that personal resilience. So the small business owner themselves also right. Team and support system around them, the fellow business owners and partners. I know Corey is running this business with his close friends and then also just again back to sort of that innovation and tools at the business owner's disposal. Like someone who's made that investment and has the stability of their operations running smoothly can navigate some of those rougher waters a bit more seamlessly. But I know you've encountered many small business owners as well. What's sort of your take on that?
- [21:02]
Ben Walter
My take is the people who get through it. Yes, clearly they are wired in a certain way, but I think it comes back to the passion and the why behind the business. So for Corey and his team, failure wasn't an option because it's their community's success or failure. I love the story and the passion that he has for his immigrant family and the generations and how they've continued to improve on their own well being. It's classic American Dream kind of stuff when the why is really strong and the reason for the business's existence is deeper than I need to make a living. So I'm going to run a business you tend to grit through a little bit better.
- [21:36]
Jessica Young
Yeah. And you could really hear the emotion in his story and that greater purpose to your point and how passionate he was about wanting to make his family proud and to do the honor of this legacy that he's been given.
- [21:52]
Ben Walter
Yeah, that's a really good point. I asked Corey about legacy during our conversation and what the future holds for Potluck Club. I know that part of why you started it was obviously to build a business with your friends, but part of it was community. Right? Tell us how you give back to the community.
- [22:06]
Cory Ng
Oh, yeah. So it's funny, I don't think we had our heart set on it in the beginning because we had to really make it work first. Like you're trying to build a business. Business is to make money, take care of yourself, honest living. But we always had the intentions of, yeah, we want to continue celebrating our community, give back to our community and be flag bearers for Chinatown. So, yeah, now every month we feed around 250 to 300 seniors. We partner with our good friends, more than a meal, who fight food insecurity in the city. So they don't only do it in Chinatown, they do it in all five boroughs. But every third Thursday of the month, we open our doors to all the seniors of our community. They get groceries, produce, essentials, grocery bags, stuff that we can get for the month. And then we also open our doors for them to sit and eat inside.
- [22:51]
Ben Walter
Wow.
- [22:52]
Cory Ng
This started during the pandemic when Chinatown was a little bit shaky. People did not like Chinatown because, you know, they were just being ignorant. No one knew they had to blame someone, so they literally thought we were of the virus so no one was coming. And then who gets hurt the most? The senior citizens. Because one, the senior citizens are scared to come out into the streets now to get sick. But on top of that, they were stories, multiple stories of elderly women getting beat into a coma because they were getting blamed for being sick.
- [23:24]
Ben Walter
Strong communities look out for each other. We hear this in all our episodes about small businesses helping each other. But individuals rallying around their neighbors also keep communities vibrant. During the pandemic, while Potluck Club was growing into existence, the community was busy rallying around the senior citizens who really make up the people still living in the neighborhood.
- [23:44]
Cory Ng
They started to microorganize and help the seniors get food, whether it's hot meals delivered straight to their doorstep or. What some people did also was they would escort seniors to go out and buy groceries with them, help them hold their bags and walk them to the grocery store and help them and bring it home. So that's what we used to do during the darker times. Now it's not so much that now it's a place of happiness. It's not about scarcity anymore. We open our doors to just be happy with the community. Seniors come in, they love their kind of free grocery bags and stuff like that, but they also like to come in and just have a good time. Some of them go on dates, some of them are just meet up with their friends. And it's just two, three hours where they have a communal space to get to hang out. And hopefully we can continue to do that. We hope to do bigger, more community work, build within Chinatown. That's always going to be a priority for us. I hope to do bigger things too, like with the Potluck brand. Bigger collaborations, like you said, like, cool, fun stuff that people don't expect.
- [24:45]
Ben Walter
You've partnered with some streetwear brands, right? Oh, yeah, tell me about that.
- [24:49]
Cory Ng
That's my favorite part of the job. It's never about this one single product. It's about how do you grow relationships to build yourself and build your brand. We're not restaurant people. The only person that ever worked in a restaurant is the chef, Zan. So we think differently. We think like a brand. Our most recent collaboration we worked with, which was such an honor. We were collaborating with Billionaires Boys Club, Pharrell Williams company, which was super great. We made a T shirt and we tied it back into the community.
- [25:14]
Ben Walter
Potluck Club made a T shirt with Billionaire Boys Club for Lunar New Year and it sold out quickly.
- [25:20]
Cory Ng
We took 100% of the proceeds and we donated it to Apex for Youth. Apex for Youth is a nonprofit organization based down in Chinatown, but they work in all five boroughs and they serve underprivileged kids, immigrant youth and low income families. So we donated a check to them. We also shut down our restaurant recently for these families to come and enjoy and have a good time. We want to continue doing stuff like that. A lot of people say, hey, what's next? What are you guys going to do? You gonna open another restaurant? I'm not gonna open another restaurant right now.
- [25:49]
Ben Walter
Corey says that, but he did in fact just open another restaurant. Six months ago, he and his friends opened Phoenix palace just three blocks away from Potluck Club.
- [25:59]
Cory Ng
Every other night I'm running a marathon back and forth. Phoenix palace is just a continuation. It's a little moodier, It's a little sexier there. A little bit of a deeper dive into like Cantonese banquet food, which is how we grew up. So Chef kind of wanted to explore that type of stuff, like stuff we used to eat at weddings and stuff like that. Chinatown is shrinking at such a rapid pace and there's less and less people building there. Chinatown, when we grew up, it was very vibrant, a lot more businesses. And you're talking about Chinatown was built on a lot of immigrants who believed in themselves all at the same time because they had no choice. We hope to be an institution in Chinatown, something people can look forward to and also hope to inspire more of it.
- [26:41]
Ben Walter
And have you thought about any sort of legacy or succession planning? I mean, you have a kid now, but there's five of you and you want it to stay in the community, I'm sure. So it's not that simple.
- [26:50]
Cory Ng
Oh, man. Listen, we don't get ahead of ourselves too far. We know things can change. Like, I think there's overbearing goals. We just want a long lasting business and something we can be proud of and something our parents hopefully can be proud of too. Asian parents are hard to impress.
- [27:05]
Ben Walter
I want to end with a question that I ask all of our guests, which is if you just had one piece of advice for an aspiring entrepreneur or business owner, what would it be?
- [27:15]
Cory Ng
Yo, try. Don't be too cool to try. Like, seriously, this is 20 years into our entrepreneurship. The early days is a little bs, little like you're trying to do your thing. It's never going to be as big as you want it to be in the beginning. But just try because this is 20 steps forward. But you have to start, you have to start somewhere. You have to fail fast. You have to fail forward. Everything that happens is another lesson. It's another stepping stone. So that's my biggest advice. Try early, as early as possible and keep going.
- [27:47]
Ben Walter
Well, Corey, this was a great story. We are super proud to serve you here at Chase for business. And I just want to say thanks for being on the show.
- [27:53]
Cory Ng
No such an honor. This is crazy. My life is a trip right now.
- [28:01]
Ben Walter
I'm really interested in legacy planning for businesses because it's something people don't really think about until something happens. And by then it's often a little too late. It's something we've been working a lot on here at Chase, so much so that we're working on a bonus segment about it. Keep an eye out for it on this show's feed. So, Jessica, I asked at the end about succession planning and Corey punted a bit, which is fair enough because the business is still very young. The average age of a business owner in America is 59. Wow. There's a silver tsunami coming in terms of retirements. And one of the things that we've been working hard on is our Programs to help people monetize their business and find a way to either pass it on a generation, if it's a family business, sell it. If it's saleable, wind it down in a responsible, profitable way, if that's what's required. And what we find is that most entrepreneurs, in fact, only about half have a plan. And 20% of businesses, successful businesses, just close.
- [28:57]
Jessica Young
Wow.
- [28:58]
Ben Walter
Right. The entrepreneur retires and the business closes. About 30% go to another generation, their family businesses, and the kids are interested. And the other half do sell in some form, but there's a pretty wide array. And we see a dramatic difference in the people who've been planning for the next step versus those who haven't. So the plan can be to sell. The plan can be to have your kids do it. The plan can be to close it, if that's what you want to do. But the difference in success outcomes between those who plan for it and those who don't is dramatic.
- [29:29]
Jessica Young
And I'm curious, do you think it's more or less complicated to do that type of succession planning when it's a group of friends versus more of a family business that you're passing down to your children?
- [29:40]
Ben Walter
I think the dynamics are different with friends than it is with family in some ways, but in some ways they're the same. So even in families, you see like two brothers start a business or a husband and wife or two siblings, and eventually it's like, well, whose kids want to stay involved and whose don't. And with family, if you have a falling out over the business, it carries over into your personal life. Yeah, friends are your personal life, but friends shift. Family doesn't. But I always tell people that they need to be really thoughtful upfront about how they structure a business legally. But it's really important because five friends start a business, what if one of them gets married? The spouse gets a great corporate job somewhere, they decide it's a great opportunity to live somewhere else. We want to do that. Well, what happens?
- [30:19]
Jessica Young
Right.
- [30:20]
Ben Walter
Is there a way to buy them out? Do they remain a silent partner? Does that mean they get less equity because they're not working anymore? And so having those discussions earlier rather than later is typically a good idea.
- [30:30]
Jessica Young
Yeah. And likely with an advisor who's an expert in this space and can help navigate some of the complexities. There's Corey also talked a lot about giving back to the community and all of the great work he does in Chinatown. And I know that's been a common theme on the show that many small business Owners talk about giving back to the communities in which they serve and would love to get your take on why is that important? What's the importance of small business owners giving back to the communities that they're in?
- [30:58]
Ben Walter
So, first of all, the most important thing about small business is, and there's a range of what this means, but small business just is fundamentally local. I get questions all the time. How are small businesses doing across America? And that's kind of like asking how the economy is doing, because that has very little resonance to a local small business. They want to know how their local community is doing. So their customer base tends to be more local, their suppliers tend to be more local, their marketing tends to be more local. So everything about it is so local that they cannot exist successfully without being engaged with their community. Because their community is both their customers and their employees. In a different way than for a big company like you and I work for. I also think there's a different mindset between someone who works for someone else and someone who works for themselves. And I think there's a natural sort of want to succeed, but also want to give back mindset that goes with it. And he seems pretty attached to that community, which I understand you have an attachment to that community as well, right?
- [31:51]
Jessica Young
I do, I do. I was telling Corey that my husband is also first generation Chinese American. He was born in Chinatown on Mulberry street and he moved away when he was about five years old and his parents opened a Chinese restaurant in Florida. I have really enjoyed getting to know more about the Chinese culture. And food has been a key channel and conduit through which to learn about the culture. My mother in law speaks very little English and my Cantonese is quite rusty. But she communicates love through the dishes that she makes. So whenever I see her, that is her love language.
- [32:31]
Ben Walter
I bet your kids love eating at her house.
- [32:33]
Jessica Young
Oh, they love going to Grandma and Yaya's house and eating all of the traditional foods.
- [32:38]
Ben Walter
It was interesting also what he said about the changing fabric of the neighborhood. I remember going to chinatown in the 90s and feeling like Chinatown was eating Little Italy, which it kind of did for a while. Right. Because the Italian wave of immigration was earlier than the Chinese wave of immigration to New York. So they were a generation ahead. So they were wealthier. And now it's happening to Chinatown and there's other things moving in. You see this cycle repeat.
- [33:01]
Jessica Young
Yeah. And it's become such a tourist destination now. And there's the main drag in Canal Street. But I hope that people will take time to also explore some of the side streets and take in the food and the restaurants and really explore a little bit more of what life is like there.
- [33:16]
Ben Walter
Yeah. Chinatown in New York, that particular Chinatown is a special place. I'd encourage everyone who comes to New York to take some time and go there.
- [33:22]
Jessica Young
Absolutely.
- [33:23]
Ben Walter
Jessica, it has been a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you for coming to New York and thanks for joining us today.
- [33:28]
Jessica Young
Of course. Thank you so much. Ben, it was an honor.
- [33:33]
Ben Walter
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Unshakeables. If you liked this episode, please rate and review it now. I love all the episodes we do on this show, but next week's is really special. First, there's a flood that was so bad it even stressed out a restoration professional.
- [33:50]
Cory Ng
It washed all of our trailers, a.
- [33:52]
Ben Walter
Couple of pickup trucks, full size pickup.
- [33:53]
Cory Ng
Trucks, every one of those brand new vans.
- [33:55]
Ben Walter
It washed off the creek into the.
- [33:57]
Cory Ng
Creek and they were gone.
- [34:00]
Ben Walter
But we also have another special guest co host joining me and you won't want to miss it. I'm Ben Walter and this is the Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. We'll see you back here soon.