Today we’d like to introduce you to Efrim Borders.
Efrim, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Well the whole brand idea came from a conversation around the grill at my friends house back in 2021. We both barbecued pretty good all our life and just thought it would be cool to try and sell our food. So we just took a leap of faith and started out selling barbecue out of a tent in our hometown of Shelby, NC. We started getting popular, selling out, doing some catering as well. One thing led to another and now we have food truck coming up on our 1st year anniversary in January.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely NOT been a smooth road. The biggest hurdle is that I had no prior kitchen or restaurant experience. My high school jobs were all mechanical or janitorial in nature. So I had to teach myself the science of selling food and making it profitable. Simultaneously, I had to create more recipes. If you are just a one trick pony your popularity will fizzle out, so I wanted to be able to cook everything from beef and pork to vegan dishes if necessary. Another struggle we faced was trying to figure out how to break in to the Raleigh market. Raleigh is a huge city, however, that doesn’t mean you can just set up shop anywhere and sell food. We needed to find the right place for us where we can sell our food but also partner with the local businesses as well in good faith. Microbreweries work out pretty good for us but it took maybe 3-4 months to find the right locations for us. Another challenge was understanding the market analytics of this area. There are some spots where more people are inclined to buy brisket over pork and vice versa. So we had to figure out how to tailor our operations to best fit our customers at various locations.
Nothing worth having is going to be easy to attain though. I still love facing new challenges everyday and becoming adaptable.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Close Fire BBQ?
Outside of owning a food truck, I am a technical recruiter. I work for a global digital education company. I specialize in technical recruiting positions across the North and Central America.
However, I am most proud of following my dream of creating a bbq brand.
How do you define success?
I define success by continually evolving — improving skills, deepening understanding, and becoming a better version of myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.closefirebbq.com
