We had the good fortune of connecting with Allyn Robinson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Allyn, what is the most important factor behind your success?
In the beginning we let our product drive our growth. No promotions or advertising. Word of mouth from customers and satisfied guests at events we served. Now we advertise and promote our brand to protect what we have built, to protect and grow our brand for the betterment of the company and the employees that make it happen.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We live in a very remote and rural part of Colorado. There are approximately 65,000 population within a 65 mile radius of or town. We had low expectations when we opened a dining room 2 years after we bought the building. My only hope was to generate enough revenue to hire one full time person. Immediately, we had 3 full time employees. 2 cooks and a counter person. We have steadily grown year after year relying on our product and taking care of our employees. We try to keep everything simple and consistent, We keep our BBQ meats fresh and honest and all our recipes are ours. We have kept our hours of operation the same for 6 years. We survived 2020 with a full crew and still had a modest growth. 2021 to present has its own challenges with employee retention increase costs across the board has cut our profits however we have grown our gross sales yet again. The hardest thing to do during these times is plan to grow with all the unknowns. Today we have work, so we work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For a small town (2500 population), we have a wide variety of restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, quilting store, 3 hotel/motels. The primary industry is production agriculture, corn wheat, sugar beets, cattle and swine production. Recreationally we have a nice 9 hole golf course in town, sporting clay shooting course and a top 50 world class links private golf course along with a 5 star restaurant with accommodations. We also have a lot of wildlife habitat to support White tail and Mule deer, Rio Grande Turkey species, Pheasant, Quail and prairie chickens. Also, we are in the middle of the mid American migratory bird fly way for Dove, Canadian geese, Snow geese, Cranes of all species and swans. So whether you are a hunter or an observer this area has a lot to offer for people who enjoy the outdoors. And most of my friends are hunters and golfers so that’s what we do.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife, Sheila, who has put up with my late nights, early mornings and helping me build our catering business in spite of the her having her own full time career and volunteer work. All in light of me having no direction or expectation of the catering to ever become a significant part of our income. We did the hard work, on top of everything else, for 6 years before we bought a building for the catering.

Website: www.HappyJacksBBQ.com

Instagram: happyjacksbarbeque

Facebook: HAPPY JACKS Barbeque

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