Online Restaurant Academy coaches local restaurant owners

FORT COLLINS — When the pandemic hit, two Fort Collins restaurant owners wondered how they’d survive the forced shutdowns and figured they weren’t alone in the questions they had.

Lauren Storeby and Tiffany Helton created the Online Restaurant Academy as a short-term project that they’ve since continued, realizing they have a formula to help restaurants find success.

“This business is difficult and challenging, so when you can figure it out, when you know the secret sauce, you’re going to be successful sooner than later,” said Storeby, cofounder of the Online Restaurant Academy and owner and founder of Happy Trails Coffee Co. and co-owner of Snack Attack Specialty Sandwiches & Brews with her husband, Shawn, both of which are in Fort Collins. “Let’s get people on the road sooner than later (so that they) avoid mistakes and are more confident.”

Storeby and Helton, co-founder and co-owner of Stuft Burger Bar, also in Fort Collins, founded Online Restaurant Academy in 2020 as a community platform to share resources that evolved into an online coaching program that, so far, has helped 50 to 100 local restaurants in Colorado, California, Illinois and Texas. The two have seen servers, bartenders and chefs open restaurants but not know how to run a business, so they wanted to offer up their knowledge and experience, while being their advocates.

The Online Restaurant Academy provides mentorship, educational materials and in-person meetups for startup and established restaurant owners, as well as custom educational materials for governmental entities and private corporations. 

“Lauren and I, as local restaurant owners, we have a mission to provide our employees and our community with awesome food and great service like we always have,” Helton said. “Through the Online Restaurant Academy, our mission is to help other restaurant owners survive this. … We’re here to help in any way we can.”

So far, Helton and Storeby partnered with the city of Fort Collins and the town of Windsor to create educational materials that the entities then can distribute to restaurant owners, such as how to survive the pandemic (Fort Collins) and how to thrive during temporary road closures (Windsor). They also partner with Small Business Development Centers, like the one for Larimer County, to create custom courses for restaurant entrepreneurs and are consultants for the Larimer SBDC. Another of their offerings is quarterly community roundtables for Northern Colorado restaurant owners that are focused on new legislation and regulations and any changes or updates in the industry.

“Our industry, the restaurant industry, is really unique. It really has a unique set of challenges unlike any other business,” Helton said. 

Some of those challenges in 2024 include high labor and operational costs coupled with reduced disposable income and fewer customers going out for a meal, coffee or a beer. 

“Everything is higher than it has been, utilities, marketing, food and beverage costs, overhead, such as rent and property taxes. Everything we need to operate a business is higher than it’s been,” Storeby said. “There’s not enough revenue, and expenses are really high.”

In general, the average local restaurant has a 5-8% profit margin, and in 2024 local restaurants are facing a potential decrease in that profitability range, Helton said.

“The question becomes, how do restaurants survive when that gets slimmer? The answer is, we have to get creative,” Helton said. “Keeping an eye on your expenses is definitely necessary.”

Some approaches include creative marketing, special offerings and partnering with other businesses, plus keeping on top of operations, Helton said. 

“Sometimes you’re trying new things to see what works,” Storeby said. “It really is about thinking outside the box, trying new strategies and doing things you’ve never done before, or continue to increase prices, which is not always the best solution.”

Restaurants don’t want to be known as the most expensive in town and will lose customers as a result, Storeby said, adding that post-pandemic closure rates continue to remain high. 

“The way we operated business 13 years ago is different now,” Helton said. “Costs are so much higher. We have to be really tight on expenses (and) pay attention to the little and big expenses.”

So far, the restaurant industry has had a “horrible start to 2024,” Storeby said.

“I’m not going to say things are great because they’re not,” Storeby said. “It’s survival of the fittest. … You have to make sure you’re functioning efficiently and effectively and with profitability.” 

Though Storeby is expecting to see an increase in restaurant closures this year, she’s also expecting new businesses to open and new concepts to come into the market, she said.

“It’s the market doing its thing and opportunity presenting itself,” Storeby said. “I’m sad to see businesses close and excited to see new businesses come in to share their dreams.”

Restaurants face additional challenges that other retail and service outlets don’t, since there are several mini operations within one, Storeby said. With retail, merchandise is shelf stable, while what’s sold in a restaurant has to meet food safety regulations and be cooked and stored properly and executed in a short amount of time, especially when multiple customers come in at once, she said. There’s lots of machinery and equipment that have to be operated properly to avoid the dangers of working with hot and sharp objects, she said. There’s also the science of cooking and mixing, making sure things are cooked properly, she said.

“It’s very price sensitive,” Storeby said. “It’s a timing thing. … Our profitability, like with grocery stores, is really, really low. If anything is out of whack, it can go into the profit margin.”

Through the Online Restaurant Academy, Storeby and Helton created partnerships with other restaurants and strengthened the local hospitality sector, while also becoming better business owners.

“It allowed our industry to come together to share information and resources,” Storeby said. “The industry is in transformation and still the industry is hurting, and it’s so important to support your local restaurant industry right now. It’s people’s livelihoods, families, and dreams and traditions. If we lose them, we lose part of the community.”

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