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‘Coach’ has more
than a winning game plan
Donations a big part of Joe Crosby’s business
By
Ross Norton
 At
first, the imposing form of Joe Crosby is the only thing that seems
coach-like, and even that is offset by friendly eyes and an easy
smile.
His office in Seneca looks like that of any
successful businessman, with family pictures and rich wood,
memorabilia and product samples. Some of the items scattered about
are sports-oriented, but even those come from this second life of
his, that of the restaurateur/entrepreneur in the starched white
shirt.
Joe “Coach” Crosby was a football coach. Now he is
the namesake, developer and CEO of a fast-growing brand: Coach’s Low
Country Brands. When he talks about shepherding his company along,
it soon becomes obvious that Crosby hasn’t left coaching behind.
“It’s the same thing,” Crosby says of coaching and
entrepreneurship.
If that is so, Crosby is one fine coach.
His last gridiron job was at Morris Brown College.
Crosby retired from the Atlanta school in 2001 and he and wife
Kristina decided to move into his rental house on Lake Hartwell,
near Fair Play, where he would pursue a career in real estate. But
’01 was a low-water year for Hartwell and the real estate market was
off.
However, Crosby saw a need and opportunity on the
Tugaloo arm of Hartwell.
“You had to get over to the Anderson side to find a
restaurant with a dock,” Crosby says.
So in 2003, he opened the T-60 Grill, named for the
nearest channel marker. His original menu was a simple one of steaks
and sandwiches. A few months into it, he offered Lowcountry boil:
that South Carolina coastal classic of sausage, corn, potatoes,
shrimp and crab, all cooked together in one pot – a pot in need of a
little spice.
 The
seasoning was Crosby’s own concoction, which he dubbed Coach’s Low
Country Boil. It was so popular that he started selling packages at
the restaurant. In April 2006 the seasoning made its way on the
shelves at five Bi-Lo stores and by September he had it in five
Wal-Mart locations. While the restaurant grew – expanded five times
since opening and now serving 600-800 customers on summer weekends –
the spice business grew, too.
He dedicated 2007 to expanding the brand. Shoppers in
Oconee and Pickens counties may have seen the growth. Coach’s Low
Country Brand peanuts and pork skins hit the shelves. Marinade,
barbecue sauce, iced tea, potato chips … now barbecue pork, hot dogs
and chicken tenders fill out the growing list of branded products.
There are more than 50 Coach’s Low Country Brands products out there
now, with more on the horizon. The brand employs about 40 people
while the restaurant provides jobs for some 30 more.
Coach’s products can be found far beyond Oconee
County’s border, despite the fact that he was told – many times, he
says – that it would never sell outside the county. His friends
feared that people were buying the product mostly because they liked
him. But Coach’s Low Country Brand is popping up across the country
now. It is widespread in grocery stores and on the menu in
hospitals. It is served during NASCAR races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway
and shipped monthly to a Marine Corps officers club in Okinawa,
Japan.
If Walt Disney built an empire with a little mouse,
Crosby may do it with a bottle of spice. Joe and Kristina Crosby’s
mission from the beginning, however, has been more than restaurant
service and brand expansion.
From the earliest days, the Crosbys made giving part
of their mission. Not just “giving back,” either, but giving, he
points out, because “we made giving a part of our business, not just
something we do with what’s left over.”
In his first year in business, Crosby sponsored three
college scholarships “before we ever made any money.” This fall he
anticipates scholarships for 33 college students.
That’s right, 33 scholarships.
The Joe and Kristina Crosby Education Foundation
supports public education for elementary students, the ProStart
Program for budding high school culinary artists, and tuition
assistance at the collegiate level. The foundation also offers
opportunities for students pursing culinary or hospitality careers.
Special bottles of Coach’s Low Country Boil carry the
logo of some 20 colleges and universities. Buy one and the
foundation donates $2 to that college, the money split between
academic and athletic programs. They support causes on a national
and regional level, but the real giving takes place locally. This
year the giving included 5,000 backpacks to every Oconee County
child in grades K-5. A golf tournament in August will raise money
for the foundation.
“You’ve got to focus on your community. You’ve got to
take care of home first,” Crosby says. “People ask what’s the angle,
but there’s no angle. Marketing and giving are two different things.
If you know where it’s coming from, there’s no angle.”
It may seem from the outside that it’s been easy for
Crosby, his restaurant and the brand, but it’s not always.
“The restaurant business is hard,” he says. “It
usually takes five years to turn a profit, but people think you’re
rolling in it.” And it‘s the same with the brand; people see the
product on store shelves and think he’s already made it, but the
workday remains long and hard.
While Coach’s Low Country Brands may not yet be where
Crosby wants it to go, things are headed in the right direction.
Crosby is moving forward with confidence, one eye on doing well, the
other on doing good. He wants people to know that those two things
don’t happen by accident.
He credits hard work and faith – and the courage to
seize his blessings.
“I went from nothing to where I am today. I’m
intelligent, I’m educated, but that’s not why I’m here. If you make
it and you think you made it because you’re smarter than everyone
else, you’re a fool,” he says. “I work hard, don’t get me wrong. But
I ain’t ashamed to say I’m blessed. When you’re successful, it’s a
blessing to you.”
Crosby is spinning those blessings into help for
others. This year it’s 5,000 book bags for school children. But he’s
thinking bigger. He’s thinking more people could be buying Coach’s
Low Country Boil, and he never mentions the money it would make him.
What he talks about – with passion – is the money he could give
away.
What if the seasoning bottles could be sold in
massive quantities, with two bucks from each sale going to
education?
“You can change a life with a bottle of spice,” he
says.
The coach/entrepreneur/restaurateur has already
thought of ways to make it happen. He’s way ahead of you on this
one. It’s when you realize his company slogan, “Its Only Limitation
is Your Imagination,” is about so much more than how to use a bottle
of spice. |
