353: The Story of Big Box Karaoke with Justin and Mailena Urso

Summary On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Jeff Amerine and Grace Gill sit down with Justin and Mailena Urso, founders and owners of Big Box Karaoke. Big Box Karaoke is a combination bar, restaurant, and karaoke hotspot located in the heart of downtown Fayetteville, Arkansas. Throughout the episode, Justin and Mailena discuss the importance of continuous growth, the entrepreneurial mindset, the struggles they faced through the Covid-19 pandemic, and their shared love for karaoke.   Show Notes (0:52) Introducing Justin and Mailena Urso and the Big Box Karaoke Origin Story (14:17) Finding the Right Location (17:49) The Pandemic’s Effects on Big Box Karaoke (25:18) Re-Opening after the Pandemic (28:17) Balancing Feedback (31:11) The Core Customer Base (34:12) Longterm Projections and Hopes (38:01) Advice to the Younger Self (40:48) Closing Thoughts   Links Jeff Amerine Grace Gill Justin Urso Mailena Urso Big Box Karaoke      Quotes “March 15th I think is the date everybody remembers. I always tell this story: On the Saturday before the shutdown, in an eight-hour timeframe, we did as much revenue as [we did] in the next six months combined. In eight hours. And it was one of our busiest nights ever, but it took six months to make that same amount of revenue that [had only taken] eight hours.” - Justin Urso, (19:23)  “We averaged fifty reservations a week before the pandemic, and then you go to zero. And 80% of our business was based on reservations, so the math just doesn’t add up.” - Justin Urso, (23:05) “Our business is expensive to build out. It’s not just opening a coffee shop or an ice cream parlor or something. There’s a lot of costs that go into building out those rooms and the technology involved. And so [expansion] is a little bit more difficult.” - Justin Urso, (27:25) “We were like, if we build it, they will come. That was our mindset. But we did do a lot of testing. We personally experienced this concept a lot and had a great time and took our takeaways from that…and there were other businesses in other markets like ours that were popping up. So it wasn’t like this was a brand new thing.” - Mailena Urso, (30:12) “The advice we would give to people in that situation is just believe in what you’re doing and have some backup for it. And if you can’t find the backup, then that’s maybe where you’re like, okay maybe let’s change it a little bit.” - Mailena Urso, (33:49)