Our expert: Justin Butler
Company: Eva’s Original Chimneys
Position: Owner
Toronto’s food scene has exploded in recent years with the help of social media. No one knows this better than Justin Butler, the owner of Eva’s Original Chimneys. This Toronto-based dessert company showcases their signature desserts to over 24 thousand Instagram followers on an on-going basis, attracting lots of media attention and business. Named after his grandmother, Eva’s offers a variety of Chimneys, traditional Hungarian pastries named for their hollow and cylindrical shape. These crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside donut cones are filled with ice cream and then topped with a mouthwatering selection of homemade toppings. Since their inception where they originally sold cones out of a food truck, Eva’s has taken the city by storm. Now operating out of multiple outlets, Eva’s is a story about family tradition turning into a modern success. We caught up with Justin to ask a few questions about his business. He gave us his insights on why he chose to lease equipment for his business, how social media has helped his business grow, and his philosophy on dealing with bad publicity.
Why lease equipment?
The reason I chose to lease is that you have tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. So when you’re trying to grow and expand tying up cash flow in equipment- that resource can be better used to help finance a build. I like leasing because it’s a 100 percent write-off for our business which goes against our income which is good when you’re you know you’re growing and making money. And Econolease allowed us to buy the asset at next to nothing once the lease was over so the way that this deal is structured, it makes sense business-wise going to lease the equipment.
How do you avoid any type of bad publicity?
Bad news travels just as quickly if not faster than good news, so that’s why we really focus on customer service, quality and the products that we’re putting out and it’s I think that’s what’s allowed us to be successful.
Why is social media important?
Social media has levelled the playing field for small business to compete with big businesses. We don’t have the marketing budgets that they have to spend on on reach. You have these social influencers who have ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred thousand people that are following them that when they take a picture of your product and send it out to their people you now are in front of fifty thousand eyes that you would have never been able to reach for the for the amount of your traditional marketing budget.
