Meet Ben Cline | Owner of Ben’s Backyard Boils

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ben Cline and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ben, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I honestly just have a passion for cooking and making people happy. So as I watched the Crawfish culture grow in the Houston community it just made perfect sense that it was time for me to venture out and start doing catering and bringing smiles to people’s faces. It was definitely scary at first, but at the same time my wife had recently went back to school to be a nurse so I had a driving force to create additional income to help support our family.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
So for me, I got into Banking at a very young age pretty much right out of high school. I very quickly learned how to manage money, how to talk with business professionals, and just general have in depth customer service interaction with people. I did that for 13 years and then ended up leaving to go work with AHM Furniture service which is where I still work now doing outside sales for commercial furniture repair. While at the bank, I really learned that I love talking to the business owners and kind of hearing their story and understanding what it takes to own a business. So I am able to carry that over to my current job and additionally AHM gives me the freedom to still be able to pursue my Crawfish goals and dreams and become a business owner myself. I really look back often and think about many of those conversations I had in the Banking world as I do believe they gave me the entrepreneurship mentality. It made me believe that if some of these people could do it, I could as well. And of course, in the banking industry, you see the good and the bad of people‘s bank accounts and financial struggles. So I knew if some of them were as successful as people thought that they were, but they were still struggling and still found the way to make it that I didn’t have to have stacks of money to start a business. I could start from the ground up, build it, and if I had to struggle as well I would but still make a very successful business grow until the financial struggle just becomes a different kind of business struggle.

You know, something we didn’t mention yet was our brand actually started during Covid. As a country we couldn’t go out and get crawfish with big groups at a restaurant, but you could invite your friends and family over to your house hence the name Ben’s Backyard Boils. Of course this has grown over time to now we have done large caterings for car shows, oil companies, and celebrities, etc. but at heart we’re just a little Backyard Boil Company.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh man, this is a great question so if I had a friend visit, I would definitely show them the culinary scene that’s in Houston. The amount of restaurants of different varieties that are really top notch in the United States is amazing. We live in The Woodlands and we have some of the best restaurants in my opinion in Houston, but of course we want to show them the Bellaire areas some of the cool little mom and pop places in Midtown and stuff like that.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
You know, you always have to shout out your wife! When I brought the idea to her, she was hesitant, but knew I saw the vision of what it could become. While very scared to take the steps with me due to the unknown all it took was to let the first event happen. After that she was hooked, and it was full steam ahead. It really helped us become more of a “power couple.” She is definitely my rock! And this year when we decided to take on a large venue it was kind of the same as four years ago when we started the business. We both had the concerns, but going through the business pains years ago we knew together we could make it happen along with our amazing family and staff.

Website: https://linktr.ee/BensBackyardBoils

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bensbackyardboils?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr

Other: https://linktr.ee/BensBackyardBoils

Image Credits
N/A all self taken.