What it takes to run a regional pub in Oz

The transcription discusses an interview with Steve Brown, who recently took over the Yinnar Hotel in Gippsland. Steve talks about his reasons for buying the pub, the challenges he faced, and his vision for the business. He highlights the importance of understanding the local community, building relationships, and dealing with unexpected costs like equipment repairs. Despite facing challenges like fluctuating fuel prices affecting business, Steve remains optimistic about the future of the pub. The conversation also touches on the love for country pubs, the welcoming atmosphere, and the community connections that Steve and his family have developed since taking over the Yinnar Hotel. Welcome to the Business Huddle. I'm your host Melanie Cahani and this is your weekly passport into Gippsland's most inspiring businesses. We're having real conversations, real challenges, real local legends. Let's look at the game plan and let's get started. Welcome back and thank you for joining me on the Business Huddle today. Every town has a heartbeat and in Yinnar that heartbeat has been a beer on tap and a pool table in the corner. The Yinnar Hotel has been part of the local community for generations and eight months ago it actually got a new chapter. My guest today is Steve Brown who took over the pub, rolled up his sleeves and set about making it his own while honouring I guess everything that the locals really loved about it. He's also just signed on as a footy sponsor with us here at Gippsland FM so it felt like the right moment to sort of pull up a stool and have a proper conversation with Steve. I'm Melanie Kahane, this is the Business Huddle and today we're heading to Yinnar in the beautiful outskirts of the Latrobe Valley to discuss all things about what it takes to run a regional pub. But first, to get us in the mood, let's start with a bit of a pub anthem. This is The Nips Are Getting Bigger by Mental As Anything. You're listening to The Business Huddle. We've got Steve Brown here from the hotel today. Steve, welcome to The Huddle. Thanks for having me. Steve, before we get into it, for listeners who haven't made the trip to Yinnar yet, I can't imagine there would be many who haven't, can you paint a picture of the Yinnar Hotel, what kind of place it is, and what made you want to take it on? Well, it's a very warm and welcoming place, I think. We moved to the area about seven years ago. I was from Gippsland originally, moved to Melbourne, but you always come back to the country. Basically, the reason why we bought it is because we have always loved going to the country pubs, we've always loved eating at them. Me, my wife and my child, we've got a five-year-old boy. Yeah, me too. Not the five-year-old boy, but I love eating at country pubs. Yeah, so we've always travelled around, and we still do, not as much as we used to because of time and everything. That's just something we've always enjoyed, and Yinnar quickly became one of our favourites because we love the Parma night. And just the atmosphere, the staff are amazing. They make you feel very welcoming there. And it's just basically a great atmosphere, great food. Why Yinnar though? I feel like Bellara might have been up for sale or lease or something as well, is that not? Did that cross your mind? It actually wasn't at the time. Yeah. And it definitely did cross our minds, but basically what it was, was we have been a customer of Yinnar for a lot of years, and they were one of our favourite pubs. So we sort of started off joking about it while we were eating our dinners. We saw it was for sale, and then my work situation sort of changed, and I thought one thing led to another, and so we said, stop it, let's buy a pub. There you go. Yeah. If there was ever any reason to buy a pub, it's the food and the atmosphere. And I think it might be like a dream of most people, like everywhere my partner and I go, we love the pub, but he's got a dream of owning a pub. He's like, we could buy this one day. I'm like, no, we're definitely not doing that. Fair enough. So take us back to day one. I guess when you picked up the keys, if that's what happens when you buy a pub, what did your vision look like, and how close to that vision are you sitting? Is it eight months in that you've had the hotel now? Yeah, seven, eight months, that sort of thing. Yeah. We went in without much expectation. We were very green. I've never done hospitality management before. Yeah. I came from logistics, so a completely different field altogether. Yeah. There's some synergies there though, right? Yeah. Getting the grog in, the grog out. Yeah, there's definitely some transferable skills, that's for sure. Yeah. As far as that, we were sort of green, we didn't know what to expect. What I like to do is get the lay of the land, learn everything the way it is, because it was already running quite well. Yeah. We already had great staff, we already had great food, so the plan was we'd go in and learn. I'm doing some studies in the same area. In hospitality management. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly, doing a course in that at the same time, and I thought that's the plan, to sort of build it up, try and build up a little capital, maybe invest back into the business. Yeah. We always wanted to explore live music. We love that sort of atmosphere of live music. Who doesn't? Yeah. Yeah. We've had some successes and some failures in that area. Yeah. But we're definitely still the direction we're very, very keen on heading. So the vision was just come in, learn, I guess, be curious, not really change anything. I mean, you know, hotel is my local, and I can't really see, like there's been no massive changes, would you say that's sort of part of the vision, like get to know the pub, it's clientele first, and maybe just keep it the way that people want it? Exactly, exactly, and there's nothing worse than someone coming in and changing a bunch of things before they understand the lay of the land. So we've been getting to know the locals a lot, made a lot of friends. Yeah. We're building a lot of great relationships, actually. It's one of the best things about the job, the people we meet, the conversations we have. Yeah. My wife is a very social person. She gets into it, and my little boy is an only child, so he's running around talking to the punters, and it's been good for him, and people love him. Yeah. Running around and chatting them up. Yeah, he's part of the furniture there now too, isn't he? Yeah, he is. Oh, that's awesome. I think, yeah, just having that, you know, that sense of community there already, and maybe when you come into a local area, I mean, you weren't really from out of town. Maybe if you were, you know, from Melbourne, there might have been a little bit more skepticism maybe with the locals, but I think you and Marianne have just sort of come in there, and it's almost like it was never anybody else's now, sort of eight months on, so well done. So what's the thing that maybe nobody tells you about taking over a regional pub? Sort of what caught you off guard maybe in those first couple of months? Yeah, there was a couple of things. One of the main ones, and it's sort of a business thing because we've never owned a business before, you've got the money to buy the business, you know, and then you need the money for stock, starting stock, you need the money for starting capital. Cash flow, yeah. And what we didn't sort of account on is an emergency fund. Yeah. In the first few months we had maybe $30,000 of kitchen equipment blow up or need repair. Yeah. And just one thing after another. Yeah. And if we didn't have a really strong first couple of months we might have been in a lot of trouble. So if anyone else is getting into this sort of thing I'd definitely recommend when you're doing your business planning at the start make sure you've got a little extra there if you get unlucky and some things go wrong right off the bat before you've had a chance to. For those unseen things, because I guess when you're buying the business you weren't to know that this equipment was going to be needing replacement or anything like that. So maybe a contingency plan. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I think from a business point of view can you really plan for that? All you can do is try and plan a contingency and just hope that nothing blows up or goes wrong. But I think the pub has had pretty solid clientele for a couple of years. So hopefully that sort of tides you over. And how are things now? No more massive disasters? No, things have been settled. Settled? Yeah, things have been smooth for the last little while. Fuel prices have hit us pretty hard. Yeah. We've had a lot of business drop off over the last few weeks but it's just picking up again. Is that because a lot of the clients are sort of a bit more rural and spend petrol to get in there and come and have a meal? And maybe it's that cost of living thing that we're all experiencing at the moment, not having that disposable income to come down and have a meal at the pub. It's more of a treat now than a weekly. Yeah, exactly. I think that's exactly what you said. It's disposable income. When you're doing a weekly budget and you've got hundreds paying $100 more in fuel, one of the first things to go is luxuries like that. And we get it. We're a family as well. So we completely understand it. It's just one of those things you have to sort of ride out and it's just part of being in business. I think there's highs, there's lows. Yeah. The petrol price in Yinnar is actually out of control at the moment too. One petrol station, I kind of drive past there every day and go, God, that's like 20 cents more expensive than anywhere that's 10 minutes away. So yeah, it's rough. Yeah, it is. It's coming down. It's just come down again. But yeah, I understand too. They're a business as well and it must be very difficult for those guys as well. Definitely. And we've had the bakery had a bit of a... It wasn't an accident but I guess a bit of a tragedy. It's sort of taken a little bit out of the town as well, hasn't it? Absolutely. It's a terrible thing what happened to them. The town's had a bit of a rough trot for the last couple of months but with the bounce back it's a strong community and everyone's getting behind them and they're selling their bread in the servo now. In the servo station, yeah. Great. And their eggs too. Yeah. So go down and buy some bread. Definitely. And then stop in at the pub and grab a beer. That's right. You're listening to The Business Huddle and today we are talking what it really takes to run a regional pub with Steve Brown from the Yinnar Hotel who's been running the pub for about seven or eight months now, taking it over from the legendary Trevor out there. Steve, staffing, regional hospitality, you just mentioned that you're studying more, I guess, hospitality management. Regional hospitality staffing is genuinely tough. So how have you approached building a team, keeping your team, I guess, and what's worked and maybe what hasn't? All right. So for a start we were lucky enough to inherit one hell of a team. The kitchen staff are amazing. They've got a reputation for food for a reason. Yes. The wait and bar staff are great. They get along really well. They're actually very close friends. So they sort of joke around with each other a lot and have a great time. They're always smiling and laughing and that's sort of infectious to the other staff and to the customers. Right. And when we hire new staff, personality, I guess, is the most important thing. Most other things can be taught. But in hospitality in particular, you really need to have sort of the friendly attitude and they're willing to have some banter and muck around a little bit, maybe not too much. So that's the main sort of driving force behind our recruiting. And for retention conversations on learning, I've made some mistakes along the way. Yes. I've led teams before but I've never managed before in this way. Yes. It's a very personal environment too, I guess that pub sort of environment and maybe the types of personalities are different to what you're normally used to running. These guys are friendly and outgoing and like to have a bit of a joke around. You can't sort of come in there like you've just run a law office and tell everybody to sit down and be quiet. Definitely. And that's one of the things we actually love about the job. We love just the interactions with the staff and all that sort of stuff. And if there's any issues, we need to communicate about it in the right way, sit down calmly and have a discussion. Yes. And most things we've been able to write out, or pretty much everything we've been able to sort of, any little issues that have come up along the way, we have a chat and we resolve it. Yes. Speak to them on the same level and that's usually the way forward I think. I think that's really good for building team culture as well. I mean in any business or organization sort of having a culture around the team, making them feel safe, letting them have a little bit of fun like it just makes going to work, which we all don't really like to do, so much easier, doesn't it? That's right. Unfortunately, no one's going to pay us to sit on a beach drinking beer. Wouldn't that be the dream? It would. So Steve, running a pub isn't just a business. There are community expectations I guess that come with that territory. People have their regular spots. They have feelings about the menu. How do you navigate that? Luckily, we're already pretty community minded. We love getting amongst it. The menu, we change it every three months to keep it fresh, something like that, and people do have very strong feelings about the menu and when we should have parma nights and all this sort of stuff. But what I've learned is you can't please everyone. Our feedback is overwhelmingly positive. So that's where I sort of take it. Well, we do take negative criticism. We do take it on board. We see what we can improve from it, but at the end of the day, we can't please everyone. We sort of started off trying to, taking every bit of feedback as sort of- Part of that learning curve. Yeah, exactly. Starting, yeah, that curiosity. What do people think? Did you get sort of any feedback around how it was run, what they think, how they thought that you would run it? I guess especially knowing that you were green and maybe to the industry, is that sort of, you know, do people come in and say, well, I've been running pubs and I think you should do this, this and this? Yeah, yeah, not too much, but a little bit of that for sure, especially around the menu and what they think should be on it, more of this, less of this. But as long as we sort of, we keep it fresh. We try to accommodate everyone. We've got vegetarian, vegan options, gluten-free options, that sort of stuff. Thank God, yes. And as long as we sort of keep that, we listen to feedback, we try to adapt to feedback. Yeah. That's all we can really do. And then just let the chefs have their creativity and run with it, run with the rest of it. Have you changed the menu or how the weeknights are sort of run in regards to the menu? I know Tuesday night was always a massive Palmer night. Yep, yep, Tuesday night, Wednesday nights are our Palmer nights. And yeah, we haven't changed anything there. We've added specials and everything like that. I mean, we haven't changed the menu and some sort of, some things around it, but the overall structure remains the same and that's one of the things we, it was already running quite well, people already love it. We've got too much interest in Palmer nights, have just one, that's why we have two. Yeah. And I don't see any reason to change that. We've got some ideas around different things, events that we're going to start on in the next few months to try and build up business on quieter nights or have a bit more fun with quieter nights. Yeah. But overall, the structure sort of remains the same and it will be, at least for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I had the owner of Nelson's Kitchen and Little Prince on last year and he was saying like in those quieter times, like I don't think they opened on Tuesdays. He's like, you know, we could open and we'll just do a steak night on a Tuesday and now they're just bulging every Tuesday. So, you know, on those sort of quieter nights, are there nights that you don't serve food? I mean, I guess everyone's got to have some time off too, don't they? Yeah, Sunday, Mondays we don't have any kitchen staff on. That's the chef's weekend. Perfect. And our senior staff's weekend. Yeah. So, they're the days I'll just go in for a few hours, open the bar. Yeah. Toasted Sangers is something we've put on just so if people do come in and they're hungry, we can give them something to eat. Yeah. But besides that, yeah, we'll just stay off for the kitchen staff, they need it. Yeah. And the Tuesday, Wednesday nights, parma nights, they're always big, yeah? People love their parmas, their pub parmas especially and I know you now have a bit of a reputation for doing a good one. Yeah, absolutely. As I said to you, we were customers of, especially of parma night for a long time before we bought the place, before we even thought of it. Yeah. And, yeah, I love them. Yeah. People actually go halves in their parmas because they're so big. Yeah, they do. Or lunch the next day, they air fry up really well. Yeah. So, I'm always doing that. Yeah. You've got plenty of takeaway dog boxes, they call them. That's right. For everybody to come home with. That's right. That's good. So, what do you think, Steve, has landed well that you maybe didn't expect when you took on this venture? Like a decision that you made that really has paid off in the last seven or eight months? Okay. One thing that sort of springs to mind is generosity in a way. An example would be Melbourne Cup weekend. Yes. We were arming and arming about whether we were going to open and then it got closer to Melbourne Cup weekend. We hadn't quite worked it out yet. We had a million things going on and a week before I said, let's open up, we won't put any chefs on, I'm just going to buy a bunch of food and fry it up myself and just put it out for free. Yeah. And it was a little bit of a risk but basically the feedback we got was incredible. Yeah. And people loved it. People came in for a bit of a feed. They had a drink. They had some fun. Yeah. And it just added to the vibe of it. It was a great day and we still get people telling us how good of a day they had that day. Yeah. And we've sort of kept doing that. If we ever don't want to put chefs on but we want to have food on, I'll often just cook up a barbecue. I'll go to a local butcher and buy some sausages, great meat from there. Yeah. We'll go to the local baker, buy some bread and then I'll just sit there for the afternoon on the barbecue, cooking it up, having a good time just talking to the people who come up and the feedback is always great. What we do is we put a donation box for a local or a good cause and people can put a few dollars in if they want to. Otherwise, just grab a snag and sometimes they'll buy a beer while they're there or sometimes they won't and that's fine. Yeah. We don't do it with any expectations. But yeah, basically every time we've done that, it's paid off. We've actually done quite well for the day. Unexpectedly but it's just if you look after the community, they look after you it seems. Definitely. How are you getting the word out about this sort of stuff? Sorry, I'm asking from a marketing point of view now because this is what I do. So when you're having these events, are you just popping it up on your Facebook page and saying come down and grab a snag or are you telling people beforehand or is it just a morning off like, you know what, I'm going to roll the barbie out today and get out there and put my apron on. There's definitely been a bit of both of those things. We try to plan it in advance but sometimes in the morning I think, you know what, I'll go get some sausages and we'll put a barbie on and that's happened. But marketing is something we need to improve. Yeah. We're getting better at it. We're learning a lot as we go. Yeah. We've never done this sort of thing before so I'd love to pick the brain of a marketing expert like myself and get some pointers on it. But for the moment it's just Facebook. We try and put it up as early as we can. I try to tell all the punters as they come in, especially ones that sort of have interest in whatever sort of event we're doing. Yeah. And usually word of mouth is our best ally there. Definitely. I feel like maybe early on when you guys took over there was some competitions like to win a Palmer at Palmy Night. Those sorts of things were all sort of out there as well. So I don't think you're doing anything that you shouldn't be doing. Like when you're in a very small local community and for some people that are coming out from in town it's a bit of a drive for them to come out. So I guess you've got to make it worth it and I think the food menu probably speaks volumes. I'm not an expert in pubs and marketing pubs but I think the food is a really big draw for people. If you've got good food they will come. Absolutely. We've got people coming from a long way away for our dinners. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You're listening to the Business Huddle on Gippsland FM. I've got Steve Brown with me today from the Yanar Hotel. We're going to call him the new publican but you're probably not so new anymore. Part of the furniture. Steve, we are going to take a break and go to the news and we will be back right after this. Steve, regional businesses I guess live and die on reputation. How do you think about what people are saying about the pub online versus what they're saying over the bar? I haven't noticed any discrepancy between the two. Most of their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I think in the entire time I've had hundreds and hundreds of compliments about the food and the way things are going and I've had one complaint in the entire time. So I haven't really noticed much difference. What do you do in those times when you get a complaint? I used to take it to heart. We still try to action it if there's anything actionable we can do but sometimes people are just having a bad day or something and we just have to sort of roll on with it. Yeah. I had a lady called Elise Borsley from Thrive and they deal with like online reputation a lot and she was saying just that one bad review unfortunately is probably if you've got 100 great reviews and you get one bad review that's the one that people will sort of really zero in on. So I think when it comes to complaints or something like that just addressing them and making them feel like especially if they're coming from an online environment as well Google reviews are huge and that's what people are going to if no one's ever been to your pub before they're going to have a look online, what's the food like. It could be one person there that says our service was terrible and we got ignored but then if the owner of the business pops in and says I'm so sorry that this has happened to you come on back down and let's make it better and then nine times out of ten they'll then repost another review that says okay, sorry, was wrong about the first one. That was amazing. They dealt with us really well. So I think that's probably just from a business point of view for anybody out there who's experienced a bad review. Like you say, you can have hundreds of positive reviews and just one bad one can really just put you down but I think from a business point of view you're going to have to expect that. Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, replying to them is very important and addressing their concerns and then sometimes we'll offer them a complimentary meal or something like that to make it up to them and say give us another go at it. Yeah. And you're right, usually they do reply back to them. Things are good now. Yeah. I have noticed since you guys have been at the pub you've been sort of introducing maybe local, more local liquors to the mix. Like I said, whiskies or vodkas, are they sort of more local around the area? Was that a strategic plan for yourself or did you really just like the local vodkas? It was an accident actually. The chef said get me the cheapest whisky you can find because he's cooking with it right so it doesn't need to be good whisky. Yeah. And I got this whisky and I happened to try it and I thought that's actually delicious. And then I was asking around to our suppliers and they said actually everyone who's tried it is loving it and starting to stock it and building it up, it's flying off our shelves. It's Risky Whisky Raven Vodka, it's by High Country Hooch. Yeah. They do an amazing product and it's very affordable. Yeah, great. Yeah, so we've had them in hosting trivia nights for us, the distillers, it's a lovely husband and wife team and we've got their advertising everywhere. We even wear their shirts, the staff shirts when we run low on those. Yeah. They're not paying us to promote them, they're just an excellent local product, tastes really good and it fits with our brand of just local supporting locals. High Country Hooch, what a business name. Yeah, it's great. So when you have been getting the word out, especially to people outside of Yinnar who might not know what's changed, has your approach to marketing the pub evolved since you started? Have you thought about it very much? We think about it a lot. Yeah. We have changed, we are trying different things. As I've said, we are very green to this. Yeah. Especially the marketing side of it. Yeah. So we are trying different things and learning as we go. We've actually shortened our Facebook post, for example, and that's increased engagement. Yeah. The girls, of course, we sent some of the staff and my wife off to a TikTok convention. Oh, wow. Yeah, just for a bit of fun, really. Yeah. I'm too old for that sort of stuff. They love it and there's a way of the future, that sort of stuff. So they went and had a good time and they learnt quite a bit about how to, you know, drive traffic through silly videos. Yeah. I wouldn't describe it as. But yeah, yeah, just that sort of thing and we will learn more as we go. We do want to branch out at a different time. So radio advertising, we've just reached out. Yes. With Give Plan FM, you guys are sponsoring the footy. Yeah, yeah. So that's exciting. Yes. And yeah, we will be trying other avenues of advertising as well, papers as well and that sort of stuff as we get sort of some more cash flow. Yeah. So you've got it all covered. You've got print, you've got radio, you've got social media. Have you guys got a TikTok account? We do. Yeah. Our staff are having a heck of a lot of fun with it. Oh, I can imagine. I'll have to start following. See what shenanigans you guys are getting up to behind the scenes. So far I've managed to hide from all the videos but they're determined to get me in one. Do you know what? That's the worst thing that you can do, Steve. Don't try and hide. You become number one target. Oh, yeah. Just embrace it. I can see my wife giggling away there. Oh, that's awesome. We are talking to Steve Brown from the Yinnar Hotel today about all things buying and running a regional country pub. I think, you know, in Gippsland there's probably a few options that have sort of come up over, well, I guess recently there's one out at, is it Cows was up for sale? There's plenty of talk online about that. Maybe Boollara sort of changed hands as well recently. So I think there's certainly an appetite for people to get into the public industry and, yeah, it's probably more of a dream for most people but you guys are making it actually a reality. So can you tell me, Steve, about a moment maybe in the last eight months that made you think, yes, this is exactly why I did this? That was the other day, actually. I mean, it's happened. There's been a few moments. I mean, sometimes it's just listening to people laughing and having fun. Like if you're a room full of laughter and lively chat and you think, you know, it gives you a warm feeling that you're somehow facilitating this or you're a small part of them all having heaps of fun. Yeah. Live music's my favourite part of it. Yes. So when we have a successful live band and I'm listening to some great tunes and there's everyone smiling and, you know, interacting with us and, you know, a bit of mucking around and that sort of stuff. And the other day I was in that situation. I looked at my wife and said, this is why we bought this place. This is exactly what I was hoping it would be. Yeah. And there are definitely challenges as well, but they're the upside. They're the things that make it all worthwhile. Yeah. Do you think maybe your social life has just skyrocketed since then? You probably know more people than most people now. Yeah, we've met some great people along the way. We're making a lot of friends and, yeah, it's been really good for us, actually. Yeah. Where are you having the live music? I haven't been up there. You've been out the back when you've had some music out the back, but inside I guess it's getting cooler now. So I noticed that the pool table now has wheels. Yes, it's on a trolley and so we move it out of the way. So sometimes we have it for Friday, Saturday night. Yeah. Especially if it's a noisier band. Yeah. We'll have them in the bar. Yeah. After the dinner service. And then sometimes we have a big event, like the Hippocates came to play all the show and we have the string busters in. We have them in the bistro at dinner and a show type thing. Yeah. We change the layout of the table so that everyone can sort of have a view of the stage. In the bistro area, yeah. Yeah, exactly. They're always quite popular. The Strzelecki String Busters are a bit of an institution and so very much connected to the Yinnar Hotel. Do you know anything about the history of how that started? Yes, I do. They've talked to me about it quite a lot. Yeah. They actually started in the Yinnar Hotel in the function room. There you go. It was a little jam club and a few amateur musicians got together, some of the more experienced ones. Some experienced musicians, some amateurs. They got together and played some songs together and just sort of grow and grow until they became this force. Yeah. They're absolutely, as you said, an institution in the area. Definitely. I know when I go past there, I'm usually at a meeting on a Wednesday night, the last Wednesday night of the month. I haven't actually been in to see them play because I've always got this meeting. It's always still pumping at like 10 o'clock on a Wednesday night. Yeah, it's a good one. It usually goes until about 11 and it's just a really good atmosphere. Is it hard for people to get a table on those nights? We usually book out in advance the last couple of months, not so much since the economy sort of took a bit of a downturn. Yeah. We notice a little bit less seating than normal. Yeah. But we're pretty close to full up in the last couple of months. If you book in the first couple of weeks after a string of buses, early in the month, then you're very likely to get a seat. If you wait until the last week, then we're often booked out. It's actually a good night out for a midweek outing. Yes, it is. And the live music, I think, keeps that going. We need more of that and that's coming from a radio station. We love our music here. Steve, you've just signed on. We just mentioned it recently as a foodie sponsor with us here at Gippsland FM. We're covering the Mid-Gippie Football Netball League. That's a pretty big community statement, I guess. What's the thinking behind that and how does it fit into, I guess, the bigger picture of where you want the hotel to go? Well, local footy is the absolute centre of the town. Everything's sort of built around it. Everyone's involved in it. It's where you get most of your community from. Yeah. So it's really important to us to get behind it. They've got a strong history with the pub, the local footy teams. We sponsor Yinnar and Boollara footy teams as well as the radio show. Yeah. And, yeah, it just makes sense. In a place like that, I remember when we first moved to Yinnar, I remember thinking there was a lot of Collingwood supporters out there. There was a lot of black and white happening and then I realised that, you know, it's actually black and white. Yeah, I had the same thought. I thought, shit, we moved to the wrong town. Get out, get out. No, but, yeah, that is their local team, the Magpies. Yeah. They're a great team too. They've got a good chance this year. They certainly do. I don't follow it too much, but I know they're always sort of right up there and they've got a beautiful ground down there as well. Yeah, they do. We haven't had a chance to see much of it because we've got a young kid and Miriam works full time. We're both working at the pub a lot, but this year we've put some things into place where we can go and see a couple of games during the Saturdays and get behind them a bit more, so that's definitely part of the plan. I think you've just sort of mentioned something there, like, you know, you and your wife Miriam, like, you are running a business but also working outside of that business as well. How are you making everything work? I imagine you're probably pulling the long hours there, Steve, in the pub while you're pulling pints and Miriam's out working another job and then coming in to help. How is that sort of impacting, I guess, family? Is it stressful? Do you just take it all in your stride? It has been very challenging, I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Anyone going into business needs to be very aware of that. Yeah. Everyone told me at the start, I was well aware that there'd be long hours and it'd be a lot of challenges until you get sort of everything running the way you want it to and then things can, you can get more family life balance back. Yeah. But it's something we've been very sort of, had to be very careful about trying to carve some time out just to spend with the family. Miriam works a full-time job and then she comes and works at the pub a lot of the times and then often when we get home after everything, we're still working and doing finances and stuff, you know, contracts and that sort of stuff. There's a million little things to be done. Yeah. And I guess once we get the hang of it, it'll be a lot smoother. Yeah. That's just the reality of running a business and starting a business. Yeah. It's definitely not all smooth sailing and, you know, you've just sort of walked in and found your lotto ticket. There's a lot of hard work that goes behind it and what sort of keeps you motivated to keep going like this, knowing that, you know, there will be a break one day? Yeah. We're sort of, we're doing it for each other and for the family and for our son's future. Yeah. And also what keeps us motivated is just, is the people we're dealing with every day. Yeah. Like if I don't go into work one day, then, you know, the two o'clock boys that we get in, we've got some regulars come in and, you know, they'll be sitting at the front, you know, with nowhere to go. It's no good. You've just got to get into it. Yeah. Yeah. You've just got to commit to it and go hard and then... The reward should follow. Yeah. Most of the reward is in the work itself. Yeah. To me, I mean, it's just the people we interact with and the fun we have along the way. Definitely. Yeah. I think that's a perfect way to put it. So, Steve, for anyone out there who's thinking about taking on a regional business, whether it's a pub, maybe a cafe or a local institution, what's the one thing you'd tell them to do maybe before they sign anything? Just have a really hard think about it. I touched on it before that you really need to make sure you have all the finances in order. You need to have some emergency money in case something goes wrong at the start. Yeah. For example, if you start a business and then get, like, a COVID hits you all at once, you're going to have very low income for a while and you need to be able to ride that out. So a good solid business plan is a good idea. Yeah. You need to get advice. You don't have to listen to all the advice. You don't have to act on the advice, but try to speak to people who have been doing it for years. A lot of people are happy to share their knowledge with you. Yeah. And that's been invaluable to us, just being able to talk to people who have been in management or hospitality and pick their brains a little bit. Yeah. So you've got to get the right people behind you, go in with the right attitude. Attitude. You need to be ready to work hard. Yeah. It is hard work. Yes. Long hours. Don't begin to describe it. Yeah. And, yeah, you just have some fun with it, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's pretty solid advice there. Do you guys, like, talk to other pub owners now? Is there, like, an elite class of pub owners that stand around and talk to each other? Is there a convention, like a TikTok convention? No, no, no. I do know some people who have owned pubs in the past, and I speak to them regularly about, you know, just getting advice on different things or if there's anything they think I should improve in one area or the other, and I've leaned on them quite heavily for advice. It's been really good. Yeah, great. Thank you so much for joining me today, Steve. We've been talking all things regional pubs and what it actually takes to take on a regional pub in Victoria, I guess it could probably in Gippsland. It's food for thought, I think. One thing I didn't think about was those sort of long hours, it being a family business where, you know, maybe one person runs it and the other person goes to work making sure that there's always that sort of solid income, planning for the worst, hoping for the best, planning for the worst, and maybe some of those new ideas that you sort of bring to the table, you said you sort of came in very curious and willing to learn and maybe eight months in, you're starting to see now, you know, the live music and those sorts of things can really sort of lift a pub and getting behind community as well because the business really is a community business so you've got to prop up each other, I guess. If you support local community, chances are they're actually going to be behind you and support you too. Steve, people want to come out to the Unai Hotel now, hopefully. How can they reach you? What have you guys got coming up this month? Yeah, we've got, so you can contact us on 5163 1263 and book a table, speak to me on one of the other stuff. You can book on unaihotel.com.au. For events coming up, we've got Tuesday night is always, Tuesday and Wednesday are our partner nights. Partners. Yeah, you get a free beer with your meal or a free drink. Off the list. One of those Highland Hoochie drinks. Yes, that's on the list. That's a free one. Yeah, it is. We've just added it recently just to sort of cross promote a little bit. Steak night's a Thursday, so you also get a free drink with your steak. Nice. We have the string buses on the last Wednesday of the month. It's very good to book in a little advance. It's an absolutely cracking show. It's really good atmosphere. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Open mic is the first Saturday of the month. Are you talking open mic as in comedians or just come up there, have a song, or do you want to do stand-up? It's for anyone, but it's mostly musicians. It isn't a karaoke night, so some people get confused about that. It's musicians coming up to have a sing or a play. Yeah. We do have a comedian come and do some jokes every now and again. We've had a poet do a set. Pretty much anything, really, as long as it's a bit of fun. The mic's open. The mic's open. That's right. Pool comps are every Wednesday. We're doing sort of a knockout tournament. Just started that up recently. Nice. We have a regular band, so just check our website for events coming up and you'll see what bands we have playing on what days. Everything's all on the website, you know, hotel.com.au? That's right, yeah. Perfect. Steve, thank you so much for joining us today on the Business Huddle. I hope everyone got something out of our conversation, and if you're up in our way or even if you're not, stop in and say g'day to Steve. He'll be the one behind the bar pulling the pints.