GREENFIELD — It's become a more common phrase recently "you don't need to go to college" or "college isn't for everyone". And that's exactly how one teenager felt. So he decided to take a different path. Now, he owns his own restaurant.
Joshua Bizub, 19, is the owner of Goldcoast Subs in Greenfield.
“It was a good opportunity, and I had a way to try and make the opportunity work. I felt like I would have been wrong for not trying," he said.
The teenager has been working at the sub shop for the past five years. During that time, he started to think that he might like to own the shop one day. We first met him in 2022 when he was a second-semester senior in high school.
"I'm not even sure scared would be the right word. Am I little worried? Maybe a little. But I've been doing it for so long, it's something. In a sense, it doesn't even phase me anymore," he said in 2022.
He officially took over on Jan. 1, 2024, and he couldn't be happier.
"It feels good," Bizub said.
It wasn’t easy to become the owner, though. No banks wanted to give him a loan.
“So I went to probably every bank in the state of Wisconsin and I was not getting very far," Bizub said.
He believes he was denied a loan because banks didn't want to finance someone who was taking over a restaurant. Many restaurants closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Bizub suspects banks were weary of him.
So, he got a second and third job as a Door Dasher and worked for a moving company.
He never got a loan, but he had savings and a dream. So he spent every single penny he had.
"I cashed out."
He has zero regrets.
“You know, I now put my money in something that’s making money already instead of paying to go to college to get a job to make money to pay back the bank loan," he said.
While his peers are simulating business projections in class with fake money, he’s making decisions to solve real-world problems like getting more people to pay in cash so he can reduce credit card processing fees.
“This was a way to get thrown straight into it and you figure it out," he said.
Owning just one shop isn't good enough for Bizub. He has big plans for the Goldcoast Subs brand.
“I'd say within the next 10 or 15 years I'd like to see maybe four or five of these going again."
At its peak, there were four locations across Southeastern Wisconsin. Bizub hopes he can repeat that same success. He's got the shop, has the know-how, and can make a delicious sandwich. Now, it's all up to Bizub to put it all together to grow the Goldcoast Subs shop.
