When plans to open a restaurant in Galax didn’t pan out for chefs Justin and Meagan Hitt, Crossroads SBDC Director Mandy Archer helped them consider other ideas and start a catering business. Even after landing their first opportunity – catering a friend’s wedding – the husband-wife culinary team learned the road to building a catering company was anything but a piece of cake.

“Financially, we realized a restaurant wasn’t going to happen,” Meagan relates. “We decided to try catering instead but needed someone to explain business details. Mandy explained an LLC and showed me how to apply for SWaM certification.”

Funded by Justin’s 401K, Beyond Catering opened for business in 2020 and acquired its first steady customer: the Volvo Truck Customer Center in Dublin. That has since turned into a thrice-a-week culinary affair that Beyond still serves today.

However, even with the steady customer base, the couple wanted a commercial kitchen closer to home. When a business incubator kitchen in the Crossroads Institute became available, Beyond Catering moved in. An added bonus was the SBDC office across the hall.

“I popped in there a lot as our company grew,” Meagan says. “We’ve added two full-time and four part-time employees and 20 on-call servers.”

Beyond Catering’s sales have also exceeded $250,000 annually, and recently won the Gemini Award from The Carroll News in 2022 and was named Best Caterer by the publication in 2023. Meagan and Justin are paying forward the lessons they’ve learned through a podcast they started, titled “Business Bites,” which offers hard-earned advice to other food entrepreneurs.

As Meagan and Justin look beyond catering to their ultimate goal of opening a restaurant, they’ll continue to depend on the SBDC for advice.

“Mandy’s been a great support,” Meagan concludes. “I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t want to have the SBDC in your back pocket.”