CUSTOMER STORIES
How Oceanside Commercial Kitchen spends more time on the business than in it.
Talking with Holli Vanderslice, the Kitchen Owner at Oceanside
From Caterer to Kitchen Owner
Holli Vanderslice started out as a caterer back in the early 2000s. Realizing she had underutilized time in her catering kitchen, she rented out space to fellow entrepreneurs. Seeing the need for access to commercial kitchen space in Oceanside California, Holli pulled the trigger in April 2016 and shifted her space into a for-profit shared-use kitchen.
Today, Oceanside Commerical Kitchen serves over 50 food entrepreneurs with an array of client needs, including one of the best sunset views around. While Oceanside is just 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, starting a shared-use commercial kitchen wasn’t just piña coladas and long walks on the beach.
The Pains of Manually Handling Scheduling & Billing
In the beginning, Oceanside rented space to around 20 food businesses. Holli spent a large portion of her time manually scheduling each businesses’ time in the kitchen. “I used Google Calendar for each station in the kitchen, but still had to do most of the scheduling myself.”
“Someone would tell me ‘Hey I want to book this time,’ and I would update the schedule, and then have to communicate back. It was a very cumbersome system, and it took a lot of my time to manually make these changes.”
Holli Vanderslice
Oceanside Commercial Kitchen, Owner
But unexpectedly, getting paid was a bigger hassle. “I spent so much of my time collecting money. It sounds crazy, but it was a ton of chasing people to make sure everyone paid what they were supposed to each month.”
The Changes at Oceanside
Oceanside Commercial Kitchen started using The Food Corridor in July 2017, a year after they opened. Since then, Oceanside dramatically increased overall kitchen utilization and more than doubled their clientele. They went from 20 to a consistent 50 clients and their revenue increased 133%. Holli attributes this growth to their kitchen’s cleanliness, how they better utilize their space now, and the gains provided by The Food Corridor. “The software’s abilities have been a large factor in taking a load of work off of me (as an owner and operator). It allowed my clients to be more ‘in charge’ of their affairs with the kitchen (online booking, invoicing, payments, documentation).”
More Time to Spend on Growing Her Business
The Food Corridor takes several tasks off of Holli’s plate. Coordinating their calendar and collecting rent has become almost entirely automated. The software empowers her clients to handle their own scheduling and payments.
“It’s allowed me to be more hands-off with scheduling and billing. I still manage my kitchen, but I have more time to spend on growth - including adding a new facility.”
Holli Vanderslice
Oceanside Commercial Kitchen, Owner
Holli can see what’s going on in each station, fit people in at the last minute, and no longer be the “bad guy” always trying to collect rent from her clients. She loves how she doesn’t “have to worry about getting paid every month”.
The self-sufficiency brought on by The Food Corridor was a game changer. Spending a third of the time on scheduling and collecting payments while also managing over twice as many clients, Holli can commit more hours towards working on the business versus in the business! With that extra time and insight into her kitchen operations, Holli has already made impactful changes to her kitchen that take her business to the next level.
Insights Into Her Kitchen
With the help of the calendars and reporting tools in The Food Corridor, Holli is more conscious of the needs of her members. Having more information available, she realized an opportunity to rearrange the kitchen and even add a fourth unit for members to book. This improved the utilization of the space – increasing the number of food businesses they could support. Their current members also gained more slots available for booking time in the kitchen. It was a big win for everyone!
“I love being able to see all of the different versions of the schedule. I love the reports! It’s easy to pull reports and see exactly where I am at.”
Holli Vanderslice
Oceanside Commercial Kitchen, Owner
Schedule a Demo
Spend less time on scheduling and collecting money and more time on growing your business! Set up a demo and learn what the impact could be on your kitchen.
