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Bambu YYC is a cafe that serves healthy and authentic Chè dessert drinks, boba milk teas, signature Vietnamese coffees, smoothies, juices, and many more. It was originally founded by four wonderful sisters in San Jose California. The amazing flavours of the drinks and desserts resulted in over 70 branches of Bambu shops between the United States and Canada.
We were given the opportunity to interview Vincent and Donald, two of the five owners of Bambu YYC, and they were excited to share experiences from the moment the idea came up, how they are operating it during the pandemic, and the biggest lessons they've learned about starting and running a small business.
Similar to The ME Project, their goal for Bambu in Calgary was to create a space where people could connect, and a place that enables the owners to help mentor people in the community. They've started this within their employees, as most of them are young and either starting their careers or still in school. The owners try to mentor them and make sure that they stay on the right path.
What's the story behind Bambu?
Vincent's cousin took him to one of his favourite places in Houston, which was Bambu. His first thought was "Calgary needs one like this." Then, the next thought in his brain was "I should bring it to Calgary!"
It was originally started by four sisters that were all ethnically Vietnamese. The first shop was in California, and it's grown and evolved from there because California has ethnicities of all different types from around the world, so they were able to take the best flavours from different cultures and incorporated them into the menu.
What was your journey like before opening the store?
Location
It was kind of like a roller coaster - you can find the perfect location, but things go up and down the whole time. Some locations couldn't give us enough electricity, some couldn't give us proper venting, so right from the start, it was a bit of a challenge.
"In order to be the ideal shop and produce the ideal products that you want, you have to keep your standards very high."
Timeline
The planning stages took about 3 years, as it took around 18 months from Vincent's trip to Houston in 2017, to finding the perfect team. On top of that, they had to make multiple trips to the bank, talk to the franchisor, get all the equipment, and make sure that they had the right contractors while getting all the designs and permits handled. The two described their journey as a "really intricate, and sometimes unfortunate puzzle."
What's it like running Bambu with your team? How are you able to balance your full-time jobs while running a business?
Running a business was always Donald's dream, but he's never had the courage to do it on his own. When the opportunity came up after Vincent proposed the idea of opening Bambu, that was one step towards chasing his dream.
All five owners have different roles - from operations, payroll, accounting, and marketing, so they couldn't picture running the business without all five. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, which help them work well to complement each other. As a team, they all do the best they can in their own areas, and help each other in different areas.
When they first opened, the whole team had to be there seven days a week for six months straight, since they were all learning how to run a business and perfect the recipes. They thought that things would be easier since Bambu is a franchise, but they quickly learned that it wouldn't be easy. As Donald recalled, "those seven days of making Pandan jelly day in and day out were so taxing; I don't think we could do it without each other."
Balancing between full-time jobs and running a business
They're constantly thinking about the store and how to make it better; after their day jobs, they head down to the shop to help out. Although sometimes it might feel like they're working 24/7, the whole team is motivated and they think running Bambu is a whole lot of fun.
"We're all really young and have a lot of energy, and we all love what we do. When you love what you're doing, it doesn't feel like work."
What were some of the biggest challenges that you had to face while running Bambu during the pandemic?
Due to the pandemic, the team was forced to make a lot of tough decisions, but this is all part of owning a business. It may seem like they're joyful most of the time, but a big part of it is having to make hard decisions. As part of the impact of COVID-19, they've had to let go of some employees. If the business goes under there will be no jobs for anybody, and so in order to make sure that they're able to sustain long-term, they've had to make the tough move of letting people go.
One of the hardest decisions they've had to make was to close down the shop for months due to COVID, which is something that they don't take lightly, especially in the early stages of opening their business. Anytime a business is closed, they're eating all their fixed costs every single day, and that is not easy at all.
What advice can you give to our readers who would want to start their own business?
When you own a business, you have to make business decisions. Sometimes, that's not the easy thing to do, but it's the right thing to do for the business.
"No matter what, businesses are still businesses."
Not every franchise will give you the time of day - you're gonna get your hits and your misses. A lot of people would love to open a McDonald's or a Tim Hortons, but they will most likely never get back to you or they won't even bat an eyelash at you. It's all about taking your hits as they come; staying positive and keeping your head high is the way to go.
We hope to do more of these interviews in the future and talk to a lot more business owners, and entrepreneurs so we can learn some insider tips and tricks. It's been a pleasure to talk to Vincent and Donald about their business venture. We have learned so much from them and they definitely gave us the inspiration to start our own business in the future.
Please let us know what you think of the interview, and comment down below on who you would like us to talk to next. Thanks for taking the time to read our article, we really appreciate each and every single one of you.
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