A book by Niki Vu & Oscar Gutierrez Morales

713

A Bakery Business Plan Built on Hospitality, Dignity, and Hope

Part personal story and part practical business plan, 713 shares a dream while it is still becoming real.

Cover of 713: A Bakery Business Plan Built on Hospitality, Dignity, and Hope
Shared in the hope that others may build something better.

Begin before you buy

Step inside the story.

Read why Niki and Oscar chose to share the plan, discover the meaning behind 713, and enjoy the complete first chapter.

Download the free preview

What if a bakery could nourish
more than its customers?

01 — The beginning

A dream shaped by two lives in hospitality.

713 did not begin with a building, an investor or a perfect plan. It began with two people asking a simple question: What if we built the kind of place we always wished existed?

For Niki Vu and Oscar Gutierrez Morales, food has never been only about what arrives on the plate. It is about the welcome at the door, the people working behind the scenes, the stories carried from one country to another and the feeling that makes someone want to return.

Their journey has passed through professional kitchens, restaurants, classrooms and businesses across different cities and cultures.

Along the way, they experienced both the beauty of hospitality and its difficult realities: long hours, exhausted teams, narrow margins and workplaces where people are too often treated as replaceable.

713 grew from the belief that something better can be built.

02 — The book

The business plan became the beginning of the story.

Before there was a bakery to visit, there was a plan.

Niki and Oscar began documenting the real decisions behind 713: its purpose, menu, operations, financial responsibilities, workplace culture and relationship with the community. Eventually, they realized the plan could become more than a private roadmap. It could become a book.

713 shares the dream while it is still unfinished. It does not pretend that opening a business is easy, nor does it offer a perfect formula for success. Instead, it invites readers into the questions, values, calculations and deeply personal choices involved in trying to build something meaningful.

Part business plan. Part personal story. Part declaration of what hospitality can become.

03 — Why 713?

Some dreams deserve to be shared before they are complete.

Most business stories are told after success arrives. This one is being shared while the outcome is still unknown.

01A business can care for its customers without neglecting its workers.

02Ambition and kindness can exist in the same room.

03Food can carry memory, culture and connection.

04An unfinished dream can encourage someone else to begin.

Not a formula to copy. An invitation to imagine what you could build differently.

Food is only the beginning.

The book brings together personal history and practical thinking about what it takes to build a bakery with purpose.

01

Vision & identity

Turning years of experience, place and memory into a clear business idea.

02

Menu & operations

Designing food, workflow and daily systems that can work in the real world.

03

Financial responsibility

Building discipline into the dream so that purpose has a foundation.

04

Work with dignity

Making fair pay, training, rest and respect part of the business model.

05

Community

Looking beyond the counter toward kindness, education and opportunity.

06

The unfinished journey

Sharing the process honestly, before the bakery doors are open.

The spirit of 713

“Not a formula to copy.
An invitation to imagine what you could build differently.”

Notes from the unfinished journey

The story continues beyond the book.

Small reflections from the road toward 713: the choices, places and people shaping what we hope to build.

01 October 2026Why we shared the plan before the bakery opened

Most business stories are told after the difficult parts have been edited away. We chose to share 713 earlier—while it is still a plan, a promise and a question—because the process matters as much as the finished room.

The book holds what we have learned, what we believe and what we are still trying to understand. If it helps another person begin more thoughtfully, then the unfinished story already has value.

02 October 2026Hospitality begins behind the kitchen door

A guest can feel when a team is cared for. It appears in the patience of the welcome, the attention given to a plate and the calm confidence of people who know their work matters.

For us, dignity is not a statement added after the business is designed. Fairness, teaching, rest and respect must be part of the plan from the beginning—or they will disappear when the pressure arrives.

03 October 2026From Houston to Torino, carrying home with us

713 is a Houston number, but its meaning has travelled. Every kitchen, city and culture we have known has changed the way we think about food, work and belonging.

Now Torino gives the dream a new landscape. The goal is not to copy one place inside another. It is to create something honest from everything we carry: memory, experience, curiosity and the desire to make people feel at home.

Illustrated portrait of 713 founders Oscar Gutierrez Morales and Niki Vu

Two lives in hospitality.
One shared plan.

Niki Vu and Oscar Gutierrez Morales are chefs, hospitality professionals and the founders of 713.

Niki Vu

A chef, pastry professional, educator and hospitality leader with more than three decades of experience across kitchens, restaurants, classrooms and independent ventures around the world. Her career brings together culinary knowledge, practical business leadership, teaching and a deeply personal belief in the power of hospitality to make people feel genuinely welcomed.

Oscar Gutierrez Morales

A self-taught chef and kitchen leader who worked his way from cook to executive chef through demanding professional kitchens. His career has been built on the savory side of the kitchen, hands-on leadership, team development and the discipline required to deliver quality consistently.

Read the plan. See the dream.

713

A Bakery Business Plan Built on Hospitality, Dignity, and Hope

Print edition

Paperback

$32.00

Order securely through Lulu. Printing and shipping are handled directly by Lulu, with delivery costs shown at checkout.

Buy the print book Not ready yet? Read the free sample
Digital edition

Ebook

$19.99

Read 713 in digital format. Purchase and download the EPUB edition through Lulu.

Buy the ebook