8 A SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2017
people during the summer, ees. Although, because of limited
Workforce from 6A finding
due largely in part to the fact he hours, I can’t give them everything
He bought the restaurant in June
2015. Not wanting to miss the sum-
mer season, he planned on opening
July 4.
“For the fourth, we just had hot
dogs and grilled cheese, and we were
pumping them out,” he said. “It was
very encouraging to sell $1,500 in
grilled cheese and hot dogs a day.”
His expectations were high, but
hot dogs and grilled cheese weren’t
really his thing. He had a grander
vision for his restaurant, which the
community wasn’t really excited
about.
“I was raised health conscious,” he
said. “Comfort food was like tofu
tacos. I always thought the general
population wanted a healthier option,
things you can’t find here. And the
people pretty much spoke what they
wanted.”
They wanted burgers and fries, so
he put in a fryer and business was
booming again.
“We were pumping,” he said. “Oh
lord, we had fresh cut fries, we had
burger patties. We had people saying,
‘This is the best thing I’ve ever had.’”
But one of the thing’s the cus-
tomers didn’t ask for was the smoke
from the fryers. He didn’t realize how
bad it was until he received a nega-
tive Yelp review.
“It said, ‘Look, you’re filling the
place with oil vapor,’” Khufu
recalled. “‘It stinks. We’re choking.’”
Being new to the business and
without training, he thought that an
electric fryer wouldn’t create much
smoke. That might have been true if
he had a ventilation hood, which he
didn’t. He was forced to ditch the
fryer, which meant he got rid of the
fries.
“The profit on French fries is phe-
nomenal,” he said. “You can buy a
40-pound bag of potatoes for $10. So,
you sell 8 or 9 ounces for 8 bucks,
you can’t beat that.”
But after the loss of the fries, sales
dropped 40 percent.
At the same time, Khufu was hav-
ing difficulty with his staff. Unlike
Fred Meyer, Khufu had no troubles
couldn’t afford background checks
and drug tests.
“You don’t have a hard time find-
ing people,” he said. “You have a
hard time finding people that have a
work ethic that aren’t alcoholics or
drug addicts. It is unbelievable. We’re
talking hard drugs.”
A few had illegal drug problems
like meth and heroin. Others had
alcoholism issues.
“Everything seems to be fine, then
two to three weeks later, bam!” he
said. “All the nasty stuff starts com-
ing out. You confront them and they
go, ‘Oh, no, I’m getting better.’ No,
this is a pattern. This can’t happen
again. But it does. So, you fire them.”
Other employees who didn’t have
drug issues seemed to get discour-
aged as summer began to wane. They
lost interest in the job. As to why,
Khufu said he really didn’t know.
“It’s a very poignant question,” he
said. “Why is it so difficult to have
people that are stable? I think it’s a
behavior thing. Maybe they never
found the joy or the fulfillment of
working steady and making ends
meet.”
As Florence Chamber of
Commerce Board President, Bobby
Jensen has seen issues with demoral-
ization and addiction problems in
Florence as well, some of it caused by
the very boom and bust nature of the
tourist economy.
“If I got left out and I have no
work to do, what am I going to turn
to?” he said. “You’re going to turn to
different things.”
Employees find steady jobs during
the summer, but get laid off during
the winter. Repeat ad nauseum. The
stress can be unbearable.
“We have the most challenged
people in the country, and we have
some of the most giving, prosperous
people in Florence,” Jensen said.
“We’re really both sides. It could be
worse, but it could be better. What we
need to do is balance it out.”
And like those extremes, Khufu
has plenty of positive experiences
with employees.
“Oh yes, you find great employ-
BUD’S UPHOLSTERY
that they deserve. I tell them, ‘I love
you. You’re awesome. But there’s
going to come a time when you want
more hours. You can ask, but I can’t
guarantee. If you find something bet-
ter, just tell me. It’s going to be okay.
Just be honest and up front about it.
Just don’t quit that day. Give me a
heads up.’ I let them go. Once you
leave the cage open, some birds will
return.”
He says he tries to give his
employees whatever benefits he can,
paying them a full wage and giving
them all the tips, including the ones
he receives. But as the fall comes, the
hours get cut back. By winter, he can
only do one thing.
“Cry,” he said. “You cut down on
as much cost as you can. I have one
person work.”
The one person is his cook. The
rest of the staff? Just Khufu.
“We’re open seven days a week. I
can’t work if I’m sick. So, I have to
close. But I’m sitting at home going,
‘God, I could just be making a little
bit of money today.’ But in the back
of my mind, I know I have to stay
healthy,” he said.
And then there’s the fact that
there’s no capital coming in.
“How do you survive? There’s
business owners I’ve been friends
with who say, ‘You are going to end
up taking out a loan. Believe you me,
you’re gonna have to borrow money
in this town come winter.’ That was
very helpful, because otherwise I
wouldn’t have stayed open.”
It took a lot of advice from small
business owners. Khufu, who is in his
early 40s, found the help of other
young entrepreneurs vital.
“When I started up my business,
Old Town Barber Shop had just
opened up. La Bu La just started up.
Spice was just bought and started up
again. It was this core group of young
entrepreneurs, and we were all root-
ing for each other and coming to see
each other,” he said.
They would teach each other tricks
of the town and give pointers on how
to actually do tasks like payroll.
Using this network of advice,
Khufu has remodeled the restaurant
twice. It took him a while to figure
out how to get the proper flow of his
establishment — putting tables in the
right place, removing the pool table
that was taking up space. While he
had to take out another loan to do
that, he’s confident he’ll pay it back
within two years.
Siuslaw Riverside has hired two
new cooks since then, whom he cred-
its for saving the restaurant after the
French fry debacle.
Riverside went back to its roots,
serving healthy food but doing so in a
way that would attract a more tradi-
tional clientele. They have staples
that will always remain, like the gyro
and his Blast sandwich, but they’re
always mixing up their specials, try-
ing new things.
According to the Bureaus of Labor
Statistics, almost 20 percent of new
businesses fail after their first year.
Khufu has beaten the odds so far. And
he plans on continuing to do that.
“The future is always uncertain.
However, I remain hopeful,” he said.
As a restauranteur, Khufu is some-
what regulated to the boom and bust
of the tourism industry, but other industry is solid, and it’s great that
businesses are trying to break out of we have that.”
the mold. They’re doing so by target-
But the tourism industry can be
ing key markets.
difficult for employers.
“Boat owners forget they even
“Boats and fancy cars”
own a boat in the off season,” he
“In order to have a stable founda- said.
tion, you really need to have three
Because of that, he has had to lay
legs to a stool, as opposed to two,” off employees when winter comes.
“I hate the idea of laying people
Florence City Manager Erin
Reynolds said about the Florence off and trying to rehire,” he said.
“That’s just not acceptable.”
economy.
To offset his winter losses, Jensen
Reynolds, along with Mayor Joe
Henry, the Florence City Council, is looking toward manufacturing a
and the city’s small but dedicated device he’s developed while fixing
staff, have been working on building boats.
“It’s called a transducer shield,”
an economic development plan for
he said. “It mounts to the back of a
the past few years.
“It’s very hard to sit on a stool boat, kind of a technical thing, but
with two legs,” she said. “While it’s highly needed on 40 percent of the
been an incredibly positive experi- boats on the market in the world.”
The product combines transducer
ence in Florence to have tourism and
the retirement community as our blocks and spray shields together to
base, we realized very early on in protect sensitive electrical equipment
these efforts that we needed a third from the spray of the water.
He has a provisional patent on the
leg to that stool. Not taking away the
important tourism and retirees, but device, and Jensen hopes he can pro-
recognizing that we need more diver- duce it year-round — boat repair dur-
ing the busy summer months, and
sity in our portfolio.”
The Siuslaw region’s “third leg” global manufacturer the rest of the
may come from businesses like time.
One of Jensen’s inspirations for
Breen Marine, owned by Jensen. The
boat repair company touches both of his fabrication business model is
Florence business Top Hydraulics, a
Florence’s main industries.
“Everybody who retires here small manufacturer that ships its
eventually buys a boat at some goods throughout the world, with
point,” Jensen said. “Most of our
customers are retired. The retirement
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