Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Brown.
Hi Marcus, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The foodservice industry is something that I have been around pretty much since birth. When I became old enough to walk and talk, all I knew was the restaurant that my mom worked at since she was 13 years old. “T&T Carryout Located on 1505 Eastern Avenue, Capital Heights Maryland, 20743 The telephone number was 301-772-5522” She had a lot of 16-18 hour days, sometimes more, so rightfully so, as her son I spent a lot of time in the restaurant as well. I gained an huge appreciation for culinary arts, customer service and entrepreneurship. It was also awesome to me as a young black man that we had a family business. All I wanted to do was make it better anyway I could. While in middle school, I eventually told myself that would go to college, get my business degree/MBA and come back to help my parents with the restaurant. I had a vision, I wanted to turn the carryout into a fine dining establishment, where you could sit down, listen to music, dance, and much more. As time went on, the business side of owning a restaurant had really started to rear its ugly head. That is the part that me even in my high school years, I couldn’t fully understand. So we had to close the restaurant; financially it was too much to hold on to. My vision was crushed and gone! I’m thankful for my athletic ability, I was able to strengthen my passion in that and gain a few scholarships to college.
Fast forward 14 years later, I am sitting in my apartment in Daytona Beach after a track meet looking at my bills and I’m telling myself that I need to start producing a second stream of income, but I really did not have a desire to do much of anything other than what I was doing which was coaching college track and field at Bethune-Cookman University. (Coaching is a huge passion of mine as well) That is when It hit me, I loved to cook but I never really thought of doing it for money. People always told me my food was good. I created my LLC, registered my articles of incorporation with the state of Florida and went to work. I told my parents initially but they didn’t take me serious, lol. The one person that did was my brother Manuel Brown, he is also my partner in the company. He’s been behind me 100% ever since!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a fun road but nowhere near smooth, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way! Experience is your best teacher, though. So I am thankful for every second of the ride. The biggest struggle initially was developing a client base. I would go months without any type of catering job, and mentally that’s tough, I had to stay the course and eventually, things started to open up for me. Also knowing my worth and perfecting my prices. Realizing that I can’t do everything by myself, lately, I’ve learned to start asking for help and have assistance at my different jobs. Also, establishing an identity, I ask myself everyday, “Do I want to open up a restaurant?” “Do I want to start a food truck?” or “Do I want to continue to be a private chef?”. Ideas are come to me on the daily. To me that just means “Skies the limit.”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about T&T Soul Cuisine Catering?
We are a catering company based in Daytona Beach Florida. We specialize in Southern Cuisine and Maryland style seafood, but we can do much more. We also travel anywhere if requested. Whether it’s a private dinner of two or a large event of 100 people, we are here for all of your catering needs. We truly aim to please the customer by providing an amazing meal and experience. We truly put our heart into every event, so you will get the best of us!
How do you define success?
For me, I think success is defined through overall growth. I tend to do a self-analysis of my business every four months and I do an assessment based on a few different areas. Overall amount of events booked, amount of profits made, and social media presence. If I can actually document an upswing in all those areas, then I know the business has grown, which means there was some long-term success.
At the same time, I also judge myself based off of each individual event which is more of the short term; Was the meal ready on time? Did I display professionalism through the entire process? Did my food taste the same as it did the on the job before? Did I use great interpersonal skills? Was the presentation of the meal clean and pleasing to the eye. Being an athlete, I was once told by a coach that you are only as good as your last competition; what you did before doesn’t matter. So I feel as though that no matter how good the food I’ve prepared before may have been, it’s all about the current of last meal I’ve prepared.
Contact Info:
- Email: tntsoulfoodcuisine@gmail.com
- Instagram: tntsoulcuisine
- Facebook: TNTSoulFoodCuisineLLC
