Gary Bardine had already tackled and conquered an entrepreneur’s first challenge in starting his business. But the popular Crabtree, Westmoreland County meat processor soon realized he had a new issue – how to expand.

When Bardine first started what was to become Bardine’s Country Smokehouse, he was working at three jobs: operating tools in a machine shop; growing hay and tending livestock at his family’s farm; and processing meat at night, a skill he had learned by working at his grandfather’s slaughterhouse. He cut and sold farm-raised pork and beef, cured sausage in a small smoker, and processed deer for local hunters.

Bardine left his day job in 1998, and plunged into his business full-time with, as he says, “only a meat grinder, hack saw, and walk-in cooler.” Opening his doors just before deer season, he started with one employee, a co-worker in the machine shop who is still with him.

Five years later, thanks to the crucial assistance of the Saint Vincent College Small Business Development Center, Bardine was able to open the retail store of his dreams and add six employees to his staff.

In the beginning, Bardine took over the machinery shed in his father’s barn and installed a German smoker that can process 500 pounds of meat at a time. Bardine participated in professional associations of meat growers and processors and picked up recipes during his training at various programs. A consistent awards winner with his kielbasa (one newspaper referred to him as the King of Kielbasa), Bardine soon had a loyal following and growing business.

Squeezed into two rooms carved out of his father’s barn, with no display area for his products, he was looking for a new site and needed financing to fund the purchase of land and construction of retail space. He didn’t know it then, but he stood at the threshold of an arduous education as well as at the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with the Saint Vincent SBDC.

Like many small business owners, Bardine was skilled at his craft, but ill-prepared to support his case for a business loan. SBDC consultant, Peter Tulk, introduced Bardine to the concept of a business plan, and over the next few years worked with him to improve bookkeeping, costs tracking and inventory control.

“When you know someone has worked hard to build a dream, you want to make sure that dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare,” says Tulk.

Increased cash flow and sales growth followed.

To help Bardine with his quest for a new location, an SBDC environmental consultant was called in to assess the site he had been considering. The site, which had once been an auto junkyard, proved unworkable. Bardine then got a break with a gift of land from his father, which reduced his cash outlay, averted zoning problems and kept the Smokehouse in its popular location. To strengthen Bardine’s case to potential lenders, SBDC information specialists provided demographic and market data.

“We constructed a detailed business plan that let me go to commercial lenders to get a loan,” says Bardine. “By the time we gathered all the information and finished the plan, it became a no-brainer for the bank.” A commercial loan for $350,000 was approved and construction got underway. Bardine’s Country Smokehouse opened its new 5,000 square feet facility in November 2005.

Gary Bardine is still dreaming – this time about enhancing his site with farm animals to attract children and their families. With the solid business foundation gained in the past five years, he now knows his business as well as he knows his craft. “All my hard work and the SBDC’s business knowledge helped me succeed,” he says. “It’s been a team effort.”

“All my hard work and the SBDC’s business knowledge helped me succeed. It’s been a team effort.”

– Gary Bardine
Bardine’s Country Smokehouse

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