Meet Andrew Martin | Founder, Six Figure Dinners

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

Hi Andrew, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I always wanted to run a business. My family encouraged me to be creative, take responsibility, create value for other people, and solve problems. When I was about 7, I started selling rocks. I dug interesting looking rocks out of the ground, polished them, and sold at a booth on the roadside, which looked like a lemonade stand. When I was 16, I got a seller’s permit and began selling sports cards that I had collected when I was younger. I went to sports card shows and flea markets, and listed my cards online to sell. Selling collectibles taught me that “an item is worth what someone will pay for it”, as my Dad said. When I was in college, I launched a calendar business. In this, I learned about the challenges of publishing and working with photographers, printing presses, and publishing companies. My first professional job was working at Trex, a building products company, with which I led a sales territory in Southern Idaho. I learned more about products manufacturing and how business-to-business sales worked, because Trex sold through regional wholesalers. In other words, my customer was not the end consumer. Trex sold to wholesalers, wholesalers sold to retailers, retailers sold to contractors, and contractors sold to homeowners and commercial property managers. After four years at Trex, I got an MBA from UCLA, which gave me more technical frameworks for how to understand business. My first major business venture was launching 12 Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt locations in Houston. Even though I had two business degrees and had run small-time businesses, I thought that joining a franchise sounded like a more fail-safe idea. I do think Menchie’s was helpful in getting me started, but the cost and restrictions of a franchise are high.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I lead a peer advisory group called Sx Figure Dinners, in which eight Houston business owners from diverse industries lean in together to help solve business problems and support each other through business and personal challenges. We have a three-hour “board meeting” each month where each member shares for 30 minutes about a strategic issue or problem that he or she would like to discuss with the group. The main purpose of the board meeting is to ask good questions. No one brings simple problems, so oftentimes it takes 2-3 meetings to get to a place where we are discussing potential solutions. Our program format is different than most small business assistance programs in that we don’t have an ordered curriculum. We work with member-generated content. As such, the conversations are more relevant and dynamic than I lot of other group formats.

In between monthly board meetings, we are following up on each person’s business through group chat, meeting 1-on-1s, and having consultant panels, in which three business consultants with a subject matter expertise come in for a 90 minute Q&A with the group. The goal of the group is for every member of the group to achieve their sales, costs, funding, or efficiency goals over a 12-month period. I started this business, because I love helping people succeed. Six Figure Dinners program works, so I expect to see all eight members reach their goals. My job is to help their business succeed in any way possible. If that means going to a venture capital pitch on their behalf, I go. If it means showing up at their manufacturing facility, I do that. I have learned the skill of administering high-quality groups in which all members are given a chance to shine. The group isn’t about me. We are all equal at the table.

I struggled to make my Menchie’s locations cash-flow positive for the first 18 months. We had strong customer traffic, so everyone assumed that I was making a lot of money, but I didn’t know how to run the business, so I struggled. We had lots of equipment problems ($300 per mechanic visit), employee turnover (average employee worked 45 days, cost $500 to hire and train each team member), employee and customer theft (robbed more than 40 times), and marketing dollars misspent (probably $500K in poor advertising choices). Joining a “mastermind”-style group of franchisees was helpful to me in being able to better understand the real problems and think through how to attack them. Bringing in a foodservice consultant was a game-changer in terms of teaching me the Xs and Os of how to control costs. My business went from cash-flow negative to cash-flow positive in a year because of that group and individual support.

I decided to lead groups because I wanted to help people in the ways I had been helped. I have been leading various formats of groups for about seven years, and it is so rewarding to see other people grow, become more confident, and become more of who they are meant to be. For me, Six Figure Dinners is basically what I wish I had 12 years ago. I do expect to make money leading Six Figure Dinners, as this is a paid membership program, but I do this with a passion to help business owners, who can at times feel like the most isolated people in the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I actually love Houston! The trees are beautiful, the road system manages traffic really well, the food is great, and most people are friendly. Plus, it is an economic powerhouse, which is why so many people move to Houston. Memorial Park was recently renovated, and it is a beautiful park within the city limits that is second in size to only Central Park in New York City. That is one of my favorite places to hike, play golf, and play tennis. The museums in Houston are definitely more of a crowd-pleaser than European-style museums in that they are more modern and interactive. In particular, the Houston Museum of Natural Science was a great place to take my five-year old daughter. If you enjoy sports, the downtown professional sports scene is cool, given that there are three major stadiums downtown, within walking distance of restaurants, parks, and apartments. The Astros are in the middle of a dynasty, so Astros tickets are becoming more expensive but worth it. Sailing is another fun activity in Houston as the closest dock is about 30 minutes from downtown. I have taken a sailboat out into Trinity Bay, which on a windy day was really fun. If you are more of a beach person, there are some great spots in Galveston Island (about an hour from downtown Houston). The theater community is Houston is growing. One of my favorite musicals in Houston was a recent production of Wicked, that I thought was every bit as good as Broadway. As the most diverse city ethnically in the US, Houston has all kinds of cultural experiences and unique food. Yesterday, a business associate invited me to the best Pakistani restaurant I have ever been to. There are many more things to do, so it would depend on the interests of my guest, but Houston has a lot to offer. Houston gets a bad rap compared to most other major US cities. I moved to Houston 12 years ago after having grown up on the San Francisco peninsula, lived in Los Angeles (CA), Winchester (VA), and Boise (ID), so I feel like I am able to see both the good and bad of Houston, which will soon be the third largest city in the US.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Both of my parents helped me develop core life skills and a deep sense of “I can do this!” which has helped me engage any complexity that business throws at me. Jay Stringer, an author and therapist helped me better understand myself, my story, and how I show up in the world. His book and personal work with me was invaluable. My business coach, Danielle Smith, has helped me come alive in my career in a way I never expected possible. My business partner, Andy Brantner, is the best business partner I could imagine, because he is smart, motivated, hard-working, insightful, and supportive. My longtime mentor, Dan Gannon, has been a consistent source of listening, quality time, fun, and advice for me over the past 25 years.

Website: sixfiguredinners.com

Instagram: instagram.com/sixfiguredinners

Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/sixfiguredinners

Facebook: facebook.com/SixFigureDinners

Youtube: youtube.com/@sixfiguredinners