How a young McDonald's worker quit the fast food giant and opened his own burger restaurant at just 23 - and he's selling 1,000 burgers a WEEK
- Zaynn Bird, 23, owns Stax Burger Co in Mount Gambier, South Australia
- Store opened in November 2018 but spent six months struggling to stay afloat
- It now sells 1000 burgers a week and is planning to extend to a store in Adelaide
- Mr Bird says his dream is to have a store in every capital city by the age of 25
A teenager who was once flipping burgers at McDonald's has transformed his love for food into his own burger empire at just 23 years old.
Zaynn Bird opened Stax Burger Co in Mount Gambier, South Australia in November 2018.
But after building the restaurant from scratch, the business 'fell flat on its face' for the first six months.
Due to perseverance and the help from his staff which he sees as his 'family', Mr Bird was able to bring the business back from the edge selling 1,000 burgers every week.
Zaynn Bird (pictured), the 23-year-old mastermind behind the business said he never gave up despite experiencing six months of 'failure'
Stax Burger Co in Mount Gambier in south-eastern South Australia in November 2018
Mr Bird told Daily Mail Australia food was always a part of his life
'I was cooking full meals from the age of ten. Food started with me and my dad, he wasn't a chef but he showed me how to appreciate food,' he said.
Mr Bird worked at McDonald's when he was 14 and at 15 ate a burger that changed his life.
'It made me go 'I can do this',' he said
'It was very simple. It had good sauce, good quality ingredients and inspired me to do it myself.'
Mr Bird said there wasn't any burger stores in Mount Gambier at the time so he would make them himself for his friends and family.
'When I get an idea, I just go. My friends told me the burgers were really good and I should do something with it,' he said.
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The then 18-year-old wrote up a menu and posted it online for people to order.
Despite not having council certification, Mr Bird was flooded with requests.
Over three nights, he made up to 25 burgers a night and delivered them himself all for $10.
'Some people ordered my burgers three nights in a row. Everyone was telling me I need to do more,' he said.
'The customers I had over those few nights, I still have now.
'I always knew I wanted to do something in business. I hate working for people and the longest job I've ever held was for nine months.'
His next journey was running a kitchen from a local football club that his mother coached at.
Pictured is one of the burgers Stax and Burger Co used to make when they first started out
The burgers have transformed a lot since the business first started in November, 2018
'I organised to rent the space of the canteen for seven weeks,' he said.
'On the first day I started a Facebook page. We got 49 5-star reviews.'
After the canteen fell through, Mr Bird tried to launch a business similar to Uber Eats.
With just a week to launch and several restaurants signed up already, he walked past a space for lease in his local shopping centre and Stax Burger Co was born.
'I negotiated most of the lease myself. I managed to snag a deal where they were gonna give me money to get in and start,' he said.
'I had $3,000 from savings and $4,000 from parents.
'I never painted a wall in my life but I painted the whole shop. I fitted most of it out myself.
'It was a long process, it should have taken 2 weeks but it took 2 months. For the majority I was there by myself.'
Mr Bird was helped by a close friend Brad who was working as much as 80 hours a week to help him get the business off the ground.
'We had only made ten burgers (in the restaurant) and within the first week of opening we made 1,100 with just me, Brad and one other,' he said.
Mr Bird basically created his restaurant from scratch which took around two months
But due to not knowing how to use the grill properly, the team were unknowingly sending out buns that were nearly raw for five weeks.
'One only person said anything but from our first week to our second, sales had halved,' Mr Bird said.
'We had our big first week and then it went down for five months straight. We failed for six months, we fell flat our on face.'
After culling some staff, changing the way they made the burgers and sheer perseverance, Stax Burger Co managed to revive itself and now works as a team of nine.
The store's use of social media and reliance on giveaways, as well as their delivery app has also helped them amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
'We are like a family. I've yelled at one staff members once over 16 months. I want them to want to come to work,' he said.
'I'm the boss I've always wanted to be.'
A store in Adelaide, four hours from Mount Gambier, is currently in the works with Mr Bird saying his staff are happy to pack up and leave.
But he's dreaming even bigger.
'My personal goal is to hit Australia very hard. I wanna make it nearly impossible for one of the big players to stay like KFC or Hungry Jacks,' he said.
'By the time I'm 25 I've always wanted a store in every capital city, so I've got two years.
'We are learning and changing everyday but for me staff always comes first.'
Mr Bird is hoping to have a store in every capital city by the time he's 25 - two years away
