He Runs His Café From 1,700km Away: Cam Henderson on Building The Winey Cow

Cam Henderson and his wife Jill opened The Winey Cow in Mornington, Victoria in 2014.For nearly a decade it became one of the Mornington Peninsula's most loved cafés — Cafe of the Year, Best Breakfast Restaurant Victoria, the lot.Then COVID happened. Three years of opening, closing, opening, closing. By the end of it, Cam was mentally beat up. So he turned to Jill and said: "I think we need to move."Two weeks of quarantine in Cairns later, they landed on the Gold Coast — into a house they'd never seen, a school they'd never visited, with Mornington still running 1,700km behind them.Eighteen months after that, they opened a second venue in Main Beach. Brought their long-time staff members in as co-owners. And nearly broke themselves doing it.In this episode, Cam sits down with Tim to talk through what it actually takes to run a café from another state — the systems, the weekly rhythms, the team culture that holds it all together, and the hard lessons from a second venue that nearly took them out.This is the conversation for anyone wondering if you can actually step back from your business without losing it.You'll hear:00:00 – How to move interstate without losing your café09:30 – How to run a café remotely (the systems that hold it together)21:30 – How to track the right numbers across multiple cafés28:00 – How to recover when a second venue is losing money40:00 – How to step back from your business without burning it downKey takeaways:- You can run a venue from anywhere — but only if the systems, the culture, and the weekly rhythm are non-negotiable- Always have a strong 2IC ready to step up. It's the difference between a hiccup and a disaster.- Your regulars don't only stay loyal to you — they become loyal to the team you build- Standards drift the moment you stop showing up for them. Weekly meetings are how you hold the line.- A new venue is not a copy-paste of the last one. Arrogance in expansion is what nearly took Cam out.- The best way to keep your best people is to invite them in as ownersIf you're ready to build a business you can actually step back from — without losing what you built — book a free Profit Finding Session with the Foodie Coaches team at https://discover.foodiecoaches.com/bacFollow Cam and The Winey Cow:@thewineycowFollow along:@[email protected] episodes every Wednesday