Episode 18: How to keep thriving when you go down $1M in sales, with Rayme of Comida
Rayme Rosello is the owner and founder of Comida, a Denver-based taco truck turned brick and mortar. Combining Rayme’s favorite food (tacos) with her Alabama roots, Comida serves Mexican soul food made from the highest-quality ingredients.
Rayme began her career in New York City, waiting tables while trying to make a go of her acting career. When she moved to Boulder, she continued working in the restaurant industry before launching her own at age 28. Since then, Rayme experienced all the highs-and-lows of the always volatile restaurant industry: Launching two, multi-location brands; overseeing 80+ employees, and going down one million dollars in sales when new city planning interrupted her restaurant’s street with construction.
Discussed in this Episode:
Her first business: A pizza restaurant owned with her then-partner, which still exists today
How she started Comida: With a pink taco truck (which took double the start-up cost as opening her first pizza restaurant)
Her current project: Re-aligning her messaging from “Mexican street food” to “Mexican soul food”
How she responds to the high-turnover of the restaurant industry: “Change is inevitable; and the only thing I know for sure is I will always be here.”
Best thing about being a boss: Working with “really smart, strong women who really give a crap.”
What was so difficult about running a food truck: There’s no way for to park or for people to find you, make reservations, or sit down and eat at a table.
Biggest struggle in the history of her career: Going down $1 Million in sales from 2016 to 2017
How she escapes stress: She sleeps outside, 365 days a year
How she shapes company culture: Greeting every single employee when she walks through the door
How she collects feedback: Leaving a postcard with each customer with her personal cell phone number
Best advice to new entrepreneurs: Save money when you make money and pay your taxes
What wakes her up in the middle of the night: Financial stress
What being a woman means to her: “I can do anything.”
Find Rayme and Comida
View Comida’s Location and Menu