Let’s be honest: entrepreneurship gets a lot of hype for the glamorous stuff- the big wins, the branding, the scaling. But what happens when the wheels completely fall off?

In this episode, we are pulling back the curtain on the gritty, unglamorous, and absolutely essential world of operational preparedness. Think of it as building a "prepper pantry" for your business: a metaphorical stash of tools, strategy, and community connections ready to deploy before the crisis hits.

We’re breaking down why knowing your numbers isn’t enough anymore. You need to know your blind spots, your neighborhood, and who you can actually count on when things go sideways. From sharing our own "you can't make this up" personal horror stories to mapping out real, proactive risk management, this episode is your ultimate guide to building a business that doesn't just survive adversity, but bounces back stronger.

Key Takeaways: What You’ll Learn

• The Operational Prepper Pantry: What it actually means to build a repository of emergency strategies and resources before you desperately need them.
• Beyond the Balance Sheet: Why deep-diving into your true operational gaps and numbers is your best defense against chaos.
• Leveraging Your Village: How understanding your immediate community and building a solid local network acts as your ultimate safety net.
• Proactive vs. Reactive: Turning unpredictable business curveballs into manageable speed bumps by shifting your mindset now.

This Week’s Challenge

Don't just listen and nod along! This week, we challenge you to sit down, look squarely at your business operations, and identify your single biggest gap. Once you find it, write down three tangible, actionable steps to patch it up before the next storm rolls in.

Links & Resources

• Connect with us and find more resources at bossyco.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Use promo code Lunchador for 15% off your order! https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

Lunchador Podcast Network

Check out all of the shows on the Lunchador Network at lunchador.org!

Foreign.

Welcome back to another episode of Getting Real with Bossy, the podcast where we talk about what it's actually like to be a business owner.

We are your hosts, Kelly Bush and Kelly Metras, and we are so excited to have you here.

Today, we are going to talk.

No filters, no jargon, no fluff.

Today we need to talk about something that is not something sexy.

It doesn't look good on Instagram.

It's not.

Definitely not the kind of stuff you dream up when you're in your visionary phase.

We are talking about doomsday prep.

Doomsday.

The real, the raw, the honest, unfiltered.

And not the doomsday prep that gets my husband all in a tizzy.

I mean, kind of.

I hope we all have a pantry in the basement.

This is a prepper pantry, but not in the basement.

This can be on your laptop or in your file cabinet.

Exactly.

We talk all the time about knowing your numbers, knowing your archetype.

Today we're going to talk a little bit more about knowing your community and knowing your risks.

And we will leave today knowing our gaps, because that's incredibly important.

Everybody loves to talk about scaling, branding, big growth culture.

Today we're going to talk about your operational prepper pantry.

We are moving past the abstract big ideas and dropping straight into the gritty mechanics of managing resources, mapping out ugly risks, and surviving a genuine code red crisis.

Because, Kelly, what is that person?

A model you always use.

Ooh.

Hope for the best, but expect the worst.

It's my favorite.

You gotta be hopeful.

And every day I'm like, yay, today's the best day ever.

But the 87 million things that could go wrong float in the back of my ADD mind.

And I have reactions for all of them.

Ready?

And you don't have to be as insane as I am, but you should know your top.

You should know your top.

Your top.

And if I get loopy today, I just want to warn everybody, I gave up coffee this morning.

It's not going well.

Okay, so you've given me a heads up on that.

Sorry.

That's okay.

Yeah, I have a little caffeinated bubble water I got from Aldi's, but.

Yeah, so why not talk about depressing things?

Because my whole body hurts from caffeine depletion.

All right, perfect.

I'm so glad we chose such a.

Such a great topic for today and we could have postponed this.

Geez.

So I think we all.

If you've been in business for over six years, we could all allude to an event that certainly you know, knocked us off of our.

Off of our feet.

But let's think of some other ones, Callie, that have, you know, really put us into crisis mode that we were in no way in.

Prepared.

No way prepared for.

So, one, I. I talk a lot about the big things that have happened.

If you're an avid listener, you know, all of the crises we' gone through in my businesses.

But my favorite story that I don't think I've shared yet is my trademark story.

Yeah, tell us about that.

I actually just stumbled across the image of it the other day, so this is kind of perfect.

So I was away with my husband.

My family and I were on our.

I think it was like our April family with my whole, like, 27 million family members that go on vacation together.

And I'm walking down the street, and I get a text from my general manager at the time, and I look down, and it's just an image of our logo, but there's pizza slices sitting on top of the jalapenos that are in the A's.

Yummy.

And I was.

I just stopped and I was like, what?

What?

Like, what is this?

And she was the best.

She.

Everybody has their own neuroses.

And hers was.

She would look up, you know, different review sites and, like, had the Google alerts for the name and, you know, all of the things.

And she was just Googling Selena's one day.

And, I mean, this was long enough ago.

Reviews weren't as prevalent and often as they are now.

She found that somebody had stolen our logo and opened Selena's Pizzeria.

When we bought the business, like, it was already copyrighted or trademarked or whatever it was.

And I should probably know the correct term.

I believe it is the trademark that we own, but it expired, and we didn't realize it.

So first thing we found out was that it had expired and really didn't have a whole lot to go on because we didn't have the paperwork filled out.

And they had opened up the pizzeria in Canada, which, you know, added a whole nother level of things.

And I'll tell you the whole story someday.

But it's when I realized I didn't have my shit in order, and I had to fight a trademark attorney and fast because I had to make sure, you know, that any negativity.

Negativity on the Internet about that Salinas wasn't going to showcase on my Salinas.

So yay.

Finding out the hard way, that's so crazy.

And I think you bring up many, many good points.

And I think one of them is.

So many people think that you.

I've got a.

You got a lawyer?

I got a lawyer.

I got a lawyer that you.

You sometimes need more than one lawyer.

Like, you need lots of different lawyers.

You need lots of different lawyers.

They specialize in very specific things.

And just a business lawyer doesn't do all the business things.

And having a well rounded, you know, good business attorney is.

Is great.

But make sure you know one who's got a.

A decent network because, well.

And honestly, you never know when you're going to need a trademark lawyer.

My saving grace is I went to Bossy and I was like, oh, my God, who has a trademark lawyer?

And I had two different Bossy members tell me the same name.

And because I trusted them and I trust the group and none of us have the time or energy to refer things that we don't believe in.

I just called that person.

It was the most amazing experience of my life.

And I love her and I now recommend her to anyone that needs a trademark attorney.

And she actually just.

It was ten years ago.

Oh, my God.

Because I just re upped it.

I just got the bill in the mail.

Right.

Re upping my trademark.

So, yeah, 10 years ago I found out I didn't have a trademark and a pizzeria opened under my name.

I remember anyone sent that to me.

Exactly.

I gotta put the picture up on the Internet when we share this episode because it is the.

They didn't even pretend to change the logo.

No.

They just literally put pizza slices over it.

Right.

And I mean, if it wasn't for her, you'd never would have found that.

I mean, no, it's totally different country, different, different type of food.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think for me, the biggest, one of the biggest things.

And I don't even remember exactly what happened, but there was a huge power outage right before St. Patrick's Day.

And, you know, it's.

It's parade day is one of our biggest.

It is our biggest moneymaker day.

It's.

It's your Cinco, you know, and it's coming off of two horrible months in our industry.

You know, January and February are horrible.

And we, we save up, you know, we, we, we save up.

We're smart in, in November and December to plan for those months, but sales tax is due in March and we usually can make what we need for sales tax just on that day.

Um, and we, we plan, we can plan for the cold weather.

You know, we, we've got a lot of plans for how we Combat really cold.

Y.

Because March, you know, it's always the parade day is the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day.

And sometimes it's cold and rainy.

Sometimes it's snowing, sometimes it's a blizzard, sometimes it's 70 degrees.

You never know.

We're in Rochester.

You never know.

But this was a power outage, and that was something nobody could plan for.

And it was terrible.

We had places, and we were very fortunate.

We were able to get power back on very quickly and be open.

But there were places that were down for.

For like three, four days, they couldn't open and had this corned beef that they had been cooking for a long time going bad.

And it was just such a tragedy.

And this might have been about 10 years ago as well.

It was so bad.

And like, oh, that is something I never planned for.

Like, what do I do?

What do I do when that happens?

Do I really need a generator?

Because this could happen on the busiest day of our year.

It could.

And it's one of those things.

And we're going to get down to it, you know, what's the probability?

What's the probability someone's going to steal my liquor logo?

What's the probability you're going to have a power outage?

I'm the busiest.

Well, because it's the busiest day of the year, it's probably higher.

But it makes us look at things quickly, differently, and in a terrified manner, which we always talk about is not the best time.

And we know from experience that fight or flight mode is not the best time to be making decisions about your business.

And having thought about these things in the past just gives you a leg up, right?

So if you can acknowledge where your gaps are, make steps towards meeting the right people, having the right connections, being in the right groups.

When shit hits the fan, you have people to reach out to, even if they aren't the direct person that you need, right?

Because shit will hit the fan.

It always does.

So we've created a chart for you.

We did.

We made a free download on the website.

We talk about knowing your numbers, we talk about knowing your archetype.

We've drowned you guys in both.

And now we're going to talk about knowing your resources.

So you need to know what you have and what you don't have and how you're going to get it.

So pause right now, Go to the website, download the chart, or listen through first and then do it after.

Rewind us.

We're, you know, you can play it over and over and over again.

If you want to hear our voices while you're doing it, so don't.

Don't just try to memorize it.

Listen to it once and go on.

Foreign.

Welcome back.

Welcome back from downloading your resource map, your resource chart.

All right, so we're doing this real.

We're exposing you.

Let's go.

I'm going to fill mine out right now.

All right, so we'll do it together as a group.

So your first resource is going to be human.

So what are some examples?

You're asking me?

I'm sorry.

It's okay.

Thinking.

Who are your best human connections?

You.

You and Aaron.

You've got Amy certifications, right?

You're in our industry having your health code certification.

Yep.

Need to have your serve safe.

My accountant.

Actually, not even so much my accountant.

My accountant's right hand gal, Paige.

Shout out to Paige.

Somebody that knows your business and your numbers and when you need the money the most.

Because it's one thing to know how to look at numbers.

It's another thing to know the cash flow, the ups and downs, when it's gonna hit the hardest and what you need to do to get through it.

Right.

I have a wonderful accountant.

He's amazing.

But I need to know.

I can't always reach him.

Obviously, he's a partner in his firm.

But I need.

I know who in his firm I can go to for certain things.

I just had a horrific situation with a online accounting program that I utilize.

I won't say the name.

And it's getting better, which is wonderful.

You probably should have started with.

They should have.

Yeah, maybe we'll.

Maybe we'll edit this later.

I'm gonna head to the list when it's not so raw.

But I lost 16 years worth of data that is now back in my.

In my account.

Oh, you got it.

I got it back.

But for about five very, very long days, they thought it might not come back due to a security breach, and I just about lost my mind.

But I needed somebody who really understood my business and my industry to know what is most important.

What do we need to prioritize?

Because somebody who just knows business in general and not hospitality would be setting things up in a way different way, and it would be wasting my time.

And I needed things to happen very quickly.

And she was able to jump right in and make me put me at ease.

So knowing who.

Not not only do I need my accountant, I need the right person in that office.

I need to know who that person is.

If you're googling bookkeeper or accountant because you lost your file.

That's not the time that you need to be making that relationship.

Right.

You also want somebody that's compassionate towards you, that knows you already.

And they probably won't, you know, overcharge you for being an asshole for waiting till the last minute.

Right.

So lots of different reasons to be prepared.

You need like an IT or web specialist.

Like when you have those crashes and the Internet goes down or the web goes down.

Yeah.

And it doesn't mean you need a professional company necessarily.

Google, go on your Facebook, on your friends list and see who's out there.

And start that way.

It could just be a friend leading you to somebody that can help with things.

We kept losing our Internet.

And with the POS system, obviously that was difficult.

This was years ago.

And I kept calling the company, calling the company and yelling at the like, you need to fix this.

They could not figure out what was wrong.

We're in a really old building.

They refused to replace the lines.

I was like, obviously the lines need to go.

Like, I keep losing the Internet.

And my cousin came for dinner and had known about me complaining about this and is in that industry and brought some kind of weird reader thing.

I don't even know what it was.

And sat through dinner.

And at the end of dinner, he came up to me and he's like, I figured out what your problem is.

I was like, I'm sorry, what?

And he goes, well, I bought this thing.

Cause he didn't tell me.

He's like, I brought this thing to read your WI fi routes, whatever.

And my printer had a WI fi setting we didn't know about.

And the Internet was rerouting itself through the printer, which was jamming it up so it wasn't going out to the POS system.

Who would ever guess that?

What the hell?

Smart people who know it.

That's who would have guessed it.

So.

Because I was talking to him and it's not like that was his job.

It's just that he's in that industry.

So we had an idea of how these things worked and had access to this piece of equipment and just was kind enough to come in and fix it for me.

I'd still be yelling at them right until the printer broke anyways.

Yeah.

I still call the IT person from Hillside.

Cause he ended up becoming a friend of mine.

I knew him outside of work and I utilize him for questions.

So I think your network doesn't have to necessarily be a very expensive company that you have to call.

Yeah.

Or if you just know Somebody that knows somebody.

So, hey, Kelly, I need an IT person.

Do you know anybody?

Right.

That's the most important connection you can have, I think.

And you know, that's, that's what we talk about.

Community.

The resources that you have and need are in your community and you need to have that built.

Right?

Which leads us to our second, second row, social.

So community capital.

My boss, C group, trade organizations, professional memberships, chambers of commerce.

We have the Visitor Industry Council here in Rochester.

Chamber of commerce, we have town chambers.

So many groups you can, you can belong to.

There's women's organizations, there's leadership organizations, there's national women's organizations.

Small, not you, right?

But finding your group you need to have.

And having more than one, right?

You shouldn't just be with us, you should be with lots of different people so you can get different perspectives and different connections.

Right?

And people in your industry, right.

Like we're in the restaurant association group because we're restaurant owners.

So whatever the group is for your industry, you need to be in it and be a part of it.

So that if there's industry specific questions you need addressed, you have people to turn to.

All right, write down your haves, write down your needs.

The third column, I don't know if we've touched on this yet, is your action item.

So if you need a office manager under your human right, you need to put out an ad.

If you realize you don't have an attorney, you need to not necessarily hire an attorney today, but get a list of attorneys.

Find people who recommend attorneys so you have them in your back pocket if you do need them.

In the future, if you aren't a part of any organizations, find something.

Join us.

You can join for free, it's okay.

Or ask us too, and ask around.

I think trade organizations are so important too.

If you don't know if one exists, you know, reach out to us, we can start asking around too.

I think knowing people who are doing thing the same thing as you is really helpful, especially when things go wrong.

You know, I think there's a lot of things that are important to get that support in the day to day.

That's why things like bossy exist.

But when those moments happen, like a crisis and you need something specific thinking, like to the pandemic when everything was so industry specific, I don't know what I would have done without the restaurant association to know what was very specific for my industry.

So.

And if you just find that that doesn't exist, consider starting one.

Even if it's Just online.

Start that community.

It doesn't cost anything.

No.

And you're organizational.

That's you and your, what you have inside of your business, right.

So that's the culture that you built.

That's your operations, your systems, your reputation, you know, press that you've gotten, those are connections.

When something happens and you need some good press, those are the people to reach out to, awards.

So when something breaks down, like we talked about in the past, some of my experiences, we were rebuilt because of customer loyalty.

So having those things in place, somebody.

Doesn't have that, what would their action item look like?

Well, getting press, right.

So you need to think about your marketing.

You need to think about how and why you're getting customers to return reviews.

Right.

Figuring out where your holes are.

If you're not getting those things, there's a reason why.

So figuring out where and how to get them so that you have that to lead on.

So that's really a building thing.

And you're not going to just show up with an organizational culture.

That's something that you have to build.

So if you don't have it, you can hire us and we will help you.

And then once you start getting it, have that all in one file.

So if you need it, if something goes wrong and you need to show, show your worth, show what you've accomplished, it's all there you can give it.

If you then maybe need to have a PR firm reach out, you can have all of those things available for you right at the, and hang em on the wall.

It's nice to remind ourselves, and the next two are a little bit more boring because you know, we're, we're big on the human, social and organizational aspects.

But you've got your physical, right, you've got whatever your four walls, your equipment, whatever it is to make your product, the building that it's in, pretty tangible, easy items.

But if you don't have the right equipment, you need to get it right.

If it breaks, what's your backup plan?

I have a room full of used equipment.

Yeah.

Every time we have closed a restaurant, we kept the equipment because we're going to need it someday.

You might not have that option.

But looking at the equipment that it is that you use, understanding what you need it for and then figuring out what the hell you're going to do if it breaks down, making sure you have people you can call to fix.

It and systems in place for when that breaks down.

When your POS goes down, if you have one that is causing you trouble and you're not in the financial position to upgrade that right now.

What is your plan?

We had a place that they lost Internet and for whatever their or their POS went down.

I'm not sure exactly what happened because we were hearing things from customers and they had a full place and everybody left because they had to close.

There are things that you can do if you have those systems in place.

What is your plan?

Does your staff know their plan?

Maybe there is a plan but the staff didn't know.

Maybe there wasn't management that could direct and lead.

What is your crisis response plan for when the POS goes down or the Internet goes down?

Well, yeah.

And that drives right into technical.

Right.

So when those things go down, what is it that you're going to do?

If you lose your entire customer database, what happens?

You get hacked.

What happens?

Making sure that you have the people that you can reach out to to get help and make sure that they're not something that is unnecessary.

Right.

Having to worry about things on this list that are not necessary to the success and well being of you and your business can also go.

I mean there are certain things we use and we do that we have to keep track of that may not matter, especially in the technology.

There's just so much tech.

Everything from, you know, managing social media and marketing and Google Drives and my head's just spinning right now on caffeinated but CRMs and email databases and multiple email data like whatever you can do to kind of streamline that into one.

So you're only managing one thing and then you only have to worry about fixing one thing.

Right.

And then our favorite.

Sure finances.

If this is as good, make sure you have lines of credit.

Yeah.

Open those things up.

They don't cost you anything if you don't use them.

I mean I.

Where's my phone?

I bet I've been offered four lines of credit since we started talking.

Well, preferably go through your bank and not a Tesla.

I'm just saying like if, if you are.

Even if you cannot qualify for a traditional line of credit for your bank, there are, there are, there is money out there.

I get, I get offers all the time.

I just, I think that.

Be mindful and you can all.

I, I just.

There's money, money to be had and then you can go to the bank and say these are the things that I am getting offered.

You don't want to go to the bank when you're in crisis because they're not going to give you the money.

So whether that's Your savings, your equity, whatever, make sure it's already open when things are good.

And you're also going to get a better interest rate when things are good.

So you might as well.

Right?

Very true.

All right, so hopefully you filled out.

If not, you have all the time in the world to fill it out.

But you only have today because I'm giving you an action item for today.

You are not allowed to go to bed tonight until you pick one item that you are missing on this list and create one action item to get you closer to having it.

Not saying you have to go hire somebody or open a line of credit.

Missing the item.

One action to get closer to it.

I like it.

Challenge accepted.

All right, well, this is the kind.

Of heavy one and I think we should keep it short and move on to the next heavy one next time we meet.

I agree.

So next time we're going to talk about risk management now that we have our resources.

So it's all about community and building up what we need to be successful personally and professionally.

Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

Please let us know what you think.

Download the form.

It's [email protected] b o s s y c o.com be bold, be brave, Be the boss.