An
Interview with Laurene Joy
Hynson, the Owner of the Sweet
Maple Café
The morning just started, and
the tables are already filled at
the Sweet Maple Café on Taylor
Street. Waitresses are tending
to hungry customers for their
orders of hearty breakfasts. For
8:30 a.m. on a Thursday, the
atmosphere is pretty lively.
Laurene Joy Hynson, the owner of
this 8-year-old breakfast brunch
restaurant hasn’t a thing to
worry about, as the place
continues to draw endless crowds
daily. I sit with her over a cup
of fresh coffee and chat about
her entrepreneurial experience.
Catiah Li:
Give us a little history of the
restaurant, how did this become
Sweet Maple Café?
Laurene Joy
Hynson: Well, I was looking for
investment property, my realtor
showed me this space, and asked
if I was interested. I liked it,
and I made the decision on that
day, and gave him 500 bucks to
hold it. If he never asked me I
would have never opened this
place. Historically it was a
restaurant, ran by someone who
had failed in the space.
Apparently one day, he just
skipped out on the lease, walked
out and never came back.
CL: Well,
now there’s always a crowd
outside of your door. I’ve never
passed by this place on a Sunday
and not seen a group of people
out there. Your hours are so
short! (from 7am-2pm)
LJH: I
built the business around my
kids. They get out of school, I
go home. We only close 6 days a
year. Our covers on Sundays are
around 350-400 people. It works
for me.
CL: How
much money does this place
generate annually?
LJH: Well I
won’t go into the details, but
lets just say I haven’t broke a
million yet. (laugh)
CL: Did you
know you’d eventually own a
restaurant?
LJH: No, it
was out of the blue. I was born
in Chicago, and went to public
schools. My family had wanted me
to be a lawyer and join my uncle
in practice. All my life I was
planning for this, and two days
before I was admitted into
Standoford University, my uncle
passed away. It threw me off. I
asked myself what did I really
want to do. Well I attended
Stanford and majored in
Economics. After college, I had
a position in sales, marking,
and operations at AT&T. I
married and had two kids, and
after my daughter was born, I
left the company to be a full
time mom. I fell into this
business literally.
CL: Was it
hard to transition from working
for someone else into an
entrepreneur?
LJH: No, I
always enjoyed cooking and
entertaining since I was a
little girl. I don’t work in the
kitchen here, it’s too much hard
work. I was able to find good
people who knew how to do all
that. I do write all the
recipes, and they execute them.
I think my strong background in
management helped. I enjoy
interacting with my customers,
running the front of the house
was never a problem.
CL: This
obviously was a success, what
kind of skills did you find
yourself utilizing?
LJH: You’d
have to have the ability to
recognize talent in other
people. If you want to have a
business and not a job that is.
You must identify other’s
talents so they can do the jobs
you can’t do or don’t have time
to do. If you ever end up having
a business partner, you must ask
yourself whether it’s absolutely
necessary, is his/her ideas in
sync with yours. If it’s not, it
can’t work.
CL: What
are some of the things involved
in operating a place like this?
What hardships should
prospecting restaurant owners
expect?
LJH: A lot
of people get into trouble not
paying their monthly taxes.
They’ll take it out of the
register and spend the money
they owe to the state. It’s a
bill you must pay depending on
how much you collect. For a
business, you file income tax
quarterly, and sales tax
monthly. The state doesn't want
to give you the opportunity to
take their money, (laugh).
Managing your finance is
necessary for succeeding. This
business is like running a
household without bedrooms. I
have to be ready for company
every day. They come, we serve,
we are nice to everyone. That’s
what women like to do, plan, and
organize, when you have kids you
need to be able to do all that
stuff. What you ordinarily do
gets expanded on a different
stage and scale in this
business.
CL: What
about location, isn’t location a
very key point of success for
restaurants?
LJH: Yes,
this neighborhood, the
demographics changed over the
years. They tore down the
projects, but people who come in
here are the same customers. My
restaurant in this neighborhood
is a destination during the day.
This area is the second largest
center of employment in Illinois
outside of downtown. Tens and
thousands of people come into
this community everyday. In
other communities, people leave
and go elsewhere. This is a
strategic location, it’s off two
major expressways. I always have
steady traffic.
CL: What
would you say to young people of
today interested in becoming
entrepreneurs?
LJH: I
encourage young people to just
go do it. I tell my kids to not
get a job and figure out what
they can do on their own. I was
encouraged to just get a job
when I was young, but I could be
out of a job also. You have far
more control over your own
destiny if you work for
yourself. Young people today
should develop skills however
they can through school. Get
involved in clubs, take on
leadership positions, or
managing your personal finances
affectively and appropriately.
You can’t run yourself to the
ground in debt prior to running
a business.
CL: What
about people who aren’t
privileged? Education is
extremely expensive these days.
LJH: That
is true. Education is so
prohibitively expensive. But,
there’s a lot of financial aid
out there, to the point where
it’s getting a segment of the
population to understand how
important it is to have an
education. More then 50% of
public school students drop out
of school. What options do they
have after that? They can’t even
go into the army because they
require a high school diploma or
GED. Young people would rather
put energy into illegal
activities instead of getting an
education is beyond me. They are
missing a great opportunity. Why
are they so hopeless, and what
are they thinking? The internet
is incredible! You can find
anything through Google. If
something is happening in Africa
that you don’t understand, you
can search for it, it’s right
there.
CL: I
agree, maybe it has something to
do with the media and the
output. What sources of news do
you rely on?
LJH: I
look at everything, internet,
BBC, network news. Foreign news
tends to have a different angel
on things. I used to read the
French Lamont, and not just what
Associate Press would put out.
We have a situation where we are
distracted. Why do I know
anything about Anna Nicole
Smith, or why Lindsay Lohan got
out of rehab, and how
uncomfortable her ankle monitor
is while ten thousand people got
slaughtered somewhere in sub
Sahara Africa. The average
person has to distinguish what's
important and what’s not. They
can’t do that when the media
puts equal weight to both. It’s
a shame that we as a nation
allow that.
CL:
Economically speaking, have you
seen a shift in society within
the past 8 years?
LJH: I can
say it’s different in the
distribution of revenue. For
example, all my sales are in
credit cards now. That suggests
to me, that people don’t have
ready cash. It is not a happy
time economically, we are
stretched. Everyone is in debt.
Nationally, it seems that we are
diverting funds that could be
used productively towards our
own development. There are
societal needs that we are not
addressing. Hopefully that’ll
change.
CL: Before
we go, what were some of your
inspirations?
LJH:
Well, I read all the time. I
guess when I was young, my
pediatrician from Cuba. She had
this huge practice and she was
the only woman I knew at the
time who had a profession. I
really admired her. My kids
inspire me, there are things I
want to show them. I want them
to know that with little
experience, they can get out
there, and do something
successful, and it doesn’t have
to consume their lives. My
mother Dorothy Hunter is a great
inspiration. Also, when I was 9,
I read a book called Jenny and
the Cooking Contest. I was home
sick when I read it, about a
girl who won the contest by
making chicken soup soufflé. It
inspired me to learn how to
cook. That was how it started.
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By Vera
Demaine
If
you were to come to Uptown a few
years ago, you might see a less
than sterling scene. Today, it’s
no longer in the run down,
dilapidated state it was in. A
huge upswing in construction
took over, and the neighborhood
put on a new face.
Boarded by
Ashland on the west, Foster on
the north, and Irving Park to
the south, Uptown is a great new
location to invest in
properties. The values have been
soaring, and business life is
booming. It has recaptured us
again just like back in the 19th
century when development was
largely geared towards the
affluent summer vacationers.
The
CTA red and Purple lines run
through the middle of the
neighborhood with stops at
Argyle, Lawrence, Wilson, and
Sheridan. Some of the grand
attractions include the Ballroom
Riviera Theatre, Uptown Theatre,
and Al Capone’s favorite martini
spot, the Green Mill Jazz Club.
The area not only provides
theatre and jazz entertainment,
but also a strip of culture on
Argyle known as Little Saigon.
Here, itemize businesses line up
the street with tasty eats and
ethnic grocery stores.
Close to
the vicinity, one can stroll up
to Sheridan Road right off
Broadway and Clark where you can
find anything from pet stores to
sushi, to Treasure Island, the
only large European food
collection in Chicago. Uptown
is a place of rich architectural
styles and unique history-rich
landmarks. Beautiful new
renovations are starting to
appear everywhere and going
fast.
Chicago’s New Plan to Prevent
Foreclosures
Across
the nation, foreclosure rates
have been steadily rising. Last
year, more than 1.2 million
foreclosures were filed in the
United States. Chicago was
responsible for 29,000 of them,
a 36 percent increase over the
previous year. Home foreclosures
depress property values and can
be devastating to the community.
Public school systems largely
depend on property tax to fund
for their education, and that
fund will decrease if more
foreclosures happen within the
area.
The City’s Housing Preservation
Initiative’s Program (HOPI) is a
program set up to offer
assistance to families who find
themselves in financial trouble.
Since 2003, the program has
educated nearly 5,400 citizens
of Chicago and prevented more
than 1,500 foreclosures.
Homeowners who are experiencing
trouble with their mortgage
payments can now call 311 and be
put into touch with a financial
counselor. If the foreclosure
cannot be avoided, then the HOPI
will turn the homes over to
not-for-profit agencies. This
will ensure a fast sell for the
property that will not damage
the property value of the
community.
Anyone who is considering a home
purchase or who owns a home
that’s not been paid for in full
should take the following steps
to help lower the risk of
falling into default, let alone
losing their house to
foreclosure:
“Many
people fall into the category of
having too much month at the end
of the money.”
Create a
budget. Live by the budget.
Prioritize your spending on what
is really important. Missing a
few medical bills or credit card
debts is not as bad as missing
one or two home mortgage
payments. Do not put yourself in
danger of losing the home.
Save for Emergencies
Plan at
least a 6 month savings cushion.
Build some padding into your
budget for those rainy days. If
you put away a certain amount
monthly, and it ends up more
than 6 month’s worth, you can
pay the extra principle on your
mortgage payment.
Think WHY Before you BUY,
Check the Numbers
Think,
“will the property appreciate in
value fast enough to offset the
amount paid in interest? Is 100%
financing really a good idea?
That system only works in a hot
market. However, currently
across the board, there’s too
much inventory and little
buying. It will not appreciate
quickly enough.
Investigate and Shop Around
for the Best
Check with
different mortgage companies to
see what they offer you.The
right loan can save you tens of
thousands of dollars over the
long term. You do not
necessarily need to pay points
to a mortgage broker in order to
get a lower interest rate. That
is a game the real estate
business plays with an ignorant
buyer.
* If You are Missing Your
Mortgage Payments
Get legal
advice immediately. Call the
HOPI, or search for a bar
association panel of pro bono
attorneys. A competent attorney
can determine whether there are
legal defenses to a foreclosure.
Negotiate a
temporary delay in payments with
your lenders as early as
possible. You can work out a
temporary delay, or a period of
reduced payments. Lenders are
better off keeping the consumer
in the home making whatever
payments the household can
afford.
Negotiate a
permanent loan restructuring.
Some families might need to keep
the house and have a lower
mortgage payment for as long as
the mortgage has to run.
Permanently receiving less
interest may be a better
solution for lenders than
foreclosing on the home all
together. Foreclosure sale price
is generally less than the
mortgage.
Refinance
the home debt. Back in the 80’s,
the interest rates were one of
the highest. Finance at a lower
interest rate and/or with a
longer payment period can reduce
monthly payments. Keep in mind,
many refinancing schemes are
frauds. Many finance companies
and mortgage companies do not
make residential loans at
reasonable rates and terms.
If
threatened for foreclosures,
appraise the home and list the
home for sale immediately. You
can get a sense of how much the
marketability is without
necessary obligation to sell.
Selling might be a better
solution than letting the bank
sell the house.
Consider
filing bankruptcy using an
attorney who specializes in the
field. Filing a petition in
bankruptcy might stop the
foreclosure process and allow
you time to regroup and try to
work out a plan to keep the
home. It might help cure past
defaults and making future
payments.
*Dial:
1-888-995-4673 for foreclosure
help from a counselor!
