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Bought a restaurant with family in hopes of staving off then-impending tech burnout - nothing fancy, so it's been a fun and mildly profitable side project. Was

Bought a restaurant with family in hopes of staving off then-impending tech burnout - nothing fancy, so it's been a fun and mildly profitable side project. Was just about to hop on the med school path but I got pregnant at the worst time. Thinking I'll take a year to parent and maybe do some contracting while thinking about what to do for the future. Tech definitely pays well but I lost much of my interest in the past few years, so it's a bit of a dilemma. I am partially waiting it out and doing other things in hopes that taking a break will make me feel better about going back.

wocg 10y ago
How do you run a restaurant as a side project? I'd heard that this business requires a huge amount of time.
- silencio 10y ago
  It does, even for a quick serve restaurant. I share the load with my mom. She plays a day-to-day managerial role so she isn't bored while "retired" and more than covers her needs with what she takes home. I do stuff from afar (from ordering food to payroll) plus I go in person 1-2 times/week (maintenance/repairs, one-off shopping trips, playing bad cop). If my parents didn't want to work there any more then we'd have to hire a manager type full-time and I'd have to go over there half the week at least. It's still profitable enough to live okay in the Bay Area though, so I can't complain! If it wasn't a QSR I'd definitely have to sink more time into it. Most places need a lot more labor or specialized labor (especially something like sushi or finer dining) and the labor costs end up being so large that restaurants doing 2x my volume make the same profit for the owner while being more stressful... silly. I'd rather run two restaurants of what I already have than to run a bigger, fancier place. Working on paying off the last of the loans and replacing/remodeling this one before I look for a second, though.

wocg 10y ago

How do you run a restaurant as a side project? I'd heard that this business requires a huge amount of time.

silencio 10y ago
It does, even for a quick serve restaurant. I share the load with my mom. She plays a day-to-day managerial role so she isn't bored while "retired" and more than covers her needs with what she takes home. I do stuff from afar (from ordering food to payroll) plus I go in person 1-2 times/week (maintenance/repairs, one-off shopping trips, playing bad cop). If my parents didn't want to work there any more then we'd have to hire a manager type full-time and I'd have to go over there half the week at least. It's still profitable enough to live okay in the Bay Area though, so I can't complain! If it wasn't a QSR I'd definitely have to sink more time into it. Most places need a lot more labor or specialized labor (especially something like sushi or finer dining) and the labor costs end up being so large that restaurants doing 2x my volume make the same profit for the owner while being more stressful... silly. I'd rather run two restaurants of what I already have than to run a bigger, fancier place. Working on paying off the last of the loans and replacing/remodeling this one before I look for a second, though.