The Fifteen Group

THE F I FTEEN GROUP because the first five restaurants I consulted for had horrible books and I’m a very numbers- oriented person. For me, in terms of how we help restaurants make more money, books are a key part of it. I’m a big believer in budgets; I’m a big believer in monthly P&Ls that are accurate; and being able to have measurements in terms of where variances are and how the management team can work to improve those.” The next evolution of the company came about five years later. “We started getting involved in helping people open their restaurants,” Hopkins explains. “That was kind of by default, too, because we kept getting phone calls from people asking us to open restaurants for them. At that time, I’d been involved in opening 12 or 14 restaurants over my career, and my consultants had been involved in opening restaurants. We had a chef come onboard, as well, so we decided that we should get involved in that. Originally, it was just helping people who just needed guidance; we were holding people’s hands through the process because we’d done it many times, and most people that had come to us had not done it before, at all. So, that was our third revenue stream, and that’s grown in terms of what we offer.” Two more offerings sprouted up in the ensuing years: the company started getting involved in concept development, branding, and graphic design. “And it’s to the point where we’ll do almost anything that’s required. And, in some instances, people will hire us to develop and launch a concept on their behalf. And that’s become a huge part of our business.” To date, the company has helped to develop and launch over 80 new restaurant concepts. Then came managing restaurants for their owners. “We don’t actually manage the day-to- day operations, but we oversee the business for them,” Hopkins states. “So the general manager, or the chef, reports to us and we run that client’s business as if it’s our own. They realized that we could make a lot more profit; we could do a better job of ensuring customer experience - all the things that are important. So, it became a really great opportunity where we could go run their