Bizdom U 2009: Andrew Hwang

Like many entrepreneurs, Todd Stern began his first business at the age of eight years old raking leaves and shoveling snow in the neighborhood. He shared the story of him buying his grandmother lunch for the first time: “I was eating lunch with my grandmother and decided to pay for it. My grandmother asked me why I am paying because I was only eight, but I told her that I’m an entrepreneur.” As Todd got older, he started working in local restaurants because he knew that was the kind of business he would one day like to venture. It took years of dish washing, busing, and waitering until he developed the credentials to become the general manager of various high end restaurants.

Eventually, Todd decided to leave his comfortable lifestyle in order to take a risk- a Detroit based restaurant called Small Plates. For five years he took no salary and even found himself homeless for a few months. Luckily, he had his catering van that left him some room to lodge when money was tight. After five years of quality customer service and with only 2000 square feet and a seating capacity of seventy people, this Spanish tapas restaurant has been able to gross over $1.5 million dollars by 2006. Since its humble beginnings, there has even been national and international recognition about this one-of-a-kind restaurant in Detroit due to its friendly atmosphere and exquisite cuisine.

Furthermore, Todd plans to expand his restaurant to the suburbs of Detroit starting with Royal Oak and eventually to other major U.S. cities. This particular site will be in the former Mongolian BBQ location with the potential of producing four times the amount of revenue as the Detroit site. Todd’s greatest advice was perhaps this: “It’s about giving back. If you give back to your community, it will certainly give back to you.”