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Entrepreneur Creates A Market For His Design                          By Connie Staton Smith ANDERSON, Ind. - When Billy Penny found himself out of work shortly before the birth of his third child, he came up with a business idea so hot it smoked. And that smoke dragged Anderson residents by their noses to the service window of Penny's hand-crafted, portable smokehouse where they found prime beef smoked slowly over cured hickory and a taste only Texans could create. From the first day of business, Anderson residents lined up to eat and many stayed to talk about the design of the smokehouse, knowing from the first bite that Billy Penny, in his mid-thirties, had found a bonanza on wheels. Penny's Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q became one of the most inspiring business success stories in the small Indiana town he and his wife, Kathy, and their three children now call home. The native Texan designed his Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q Log Cabin Trailers to take advantage of a fast-growing taste trend without investing in a full-scale restaurant operation. The portable smokehouse is equipped with a Texas-style smoker on the small rear platform of the trailer. Since the first Log Cabin Trailer, Penny has improved the design. His standard log cabin restaurant trailer includes a refrigerator, hot and cold water, hot and cold wells, full rotisserie unit. The trailers are insulated to be used year-round and use 100-amp electrical service. They also feature countertops, shelving and plenty of storage space. Many custom features are available. Log Cabin Trailers including the smoker start out at $29,995 and Portable Smokers ready to tow start out at $3,000. Penny's great business idea was born of adversity. He moved his family to Indiana in 1999, accepting a job as a facilities manager in a Marion manufacturing plant. By the next spring, he faced a layoff as the company downsized. With the family's third child on the way, Penny couldn't spend even one idle moment wringing his hands. As the fair and festival season approached, it didn't take Penny long to realize that the Midwest lacked Real Southern Barbecue. In Indiana, he had discovered, any cooked beef, pork or chicken covered with a tomato-based sauce was considered barbecue. Texas style barbecue called for slow smoking meat to perfection with a variety of sauces that could be added later by the customer's choice. His first act was to secure a Texas-style smoker to replicate the authentic flavor of Texas barbecue. To travel from fair to festival, Penny would need a portable smoke house from which to serve the tasty stuff he intended to prepare. It so happened he had been building a log cabin playhouse for his young daughter. If only he could attach the log cabin atmosphere, the aromatic smoker, and some sort of serving window to a trailer, he could begin to conduct business. He sold his wife's SUV to obtain the funds to purchase a smoker and trailer base. Penny created the plans, specifications and a name for this Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q Log Cabin Trailer. He found someone to do the construction and he began booking fairs and festivals. While waiting for the summer months to arrive, Penny decided to start cooking. He rented a one-acre lot along a busy street in Anderson, a town about 40 minutes north of Indianapolis. He placed the smokehouse, bought $300 worth of beef, chicken and pork and fired up the smoker. He put out a sign, advertising Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q, and let the aroma do his advertising. Within four hours he was out of product and he had earned back his investment in meat. His profit was even more than expected. The next day, Penny increased his meat purchase by another couple 100 lbs. He sold out again within hours and he knew he was on to something with great entrepreneurial possibilities. Business was so good at the “temporary” location; he never made it to a fair or festival that summer. Smiling, Penny recalls the day he had 51 people in line, salivating for their share of Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q. “That day the line was constant,” he recalled. “I knew a lot of people could get in a one-acre lot.” By winter, Penny had moved Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q to a permanent location, and he believed the time was right to capitalize on his tremendously successful experience with the portable log cabin restaurant. He knew there were millions of Americans who had never experienced the palatable joy of Real Southern Barbecue. One man couldn't reach them all, but others could — perhaps an infinite number of others — providing they had a portable facility from which to smoke and serve the barbecue. Penny briefly considered franchising his Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q restaurant, but rejected the idea as expensive and not easily accomplished. He realized he could nurture the love and understanding of Real Barbecue and make money more easily if he constructed and sold Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q Log Cabin Trailers. Utilizing the valuable lessons he had learned from his first log cabin restaurant, Penny developed a basic plan for a barbecue log cabin restaurant trailer with a rustic exterior that visually broadcast tasty barbecue and an interior that was flexible enough to meet the individual requirements of any purchaser. The portable units are ideal for catering services, selling product at fairs, festivals or sporting events, or as add-ons to existing restaurants. As Penny knows well, to keep overhead low for new proprietors, they may be placed in any vacant spot for immediate commencement of sales. Based upon his experience, Penny believes purchasers can quickly recoup the $29,995 base cost of the units. With the portable smokehouse comes training in how to smoke meat the way Texans made famous. Penny believes the log cabin restaurant trailers, combined with the aroma of smoking beef, pork, or chicken provide an opportunity for success in two ways: the trailer allows the restaurateur to follow the crowds while the smoked barbecue bouquet attracts a crowd. “I had one lady stop in,” recalls Penny. “She said she could smell the barbecue from six blocks away and just had to come in for a taste.” And profits are just a matter of multiplication: “If all you sold was a $4 sandwich, figure out how many you would need to sell to pay for the unit. You're only limited by the volume of people,” he said. Penny's advice to other entrepreneurs: research your idea well. He invested two months in learning about his targeted business. “I'm the only one building this type of product,” he said. “No other concession offers a product completely set up for barbecue.” And if all else fails, Penny resorts to his most practical philosophy of life, perfectly described by his restaurant's motto: “Eat Here or We'll Both Starve!”