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Per Lesson 3. Opening a Restaurant. I've spent 4 years in the restaurant business. I did not own a restaurant but I did pretty much everything else. I would
by larrydag 12y ago
Per Lesson 3. Opening a Restaurant. I've spent 4 years in the restaurant business. I did not own a restaurant but I did pretty much everything else. I would highly caution anyone going into the restaurant business. The profit margins are very low and requires a lot of manual labor (even if you are a manager).
If you want to be successful in food I would offer this advice
1) Understand your food niche so that you can market it effectively. There is so much competition. Know what your customers will want.
2) Minimize labor impact. I really like the family-owned model as all your labor is family members. They will have the best interest of the restaurant at heart too.
3) Have a sound business plan. Estimate costs, revenues, and food inventories. Plan for short term and long term. Setup goals and when you don't reach those goals make changes. Always continuously improve your brand.
- cblock811 12y agoAfter working in F&B I think my greatest fear is my parents opening a restaurant. Why? Because they will build a restaurant/bar THEY want, not what the market wants. For this reason, when the writer asks if you are selling something that actually helps a business, that strikes home to me.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoWould you suggest doing a brewery or food truck instead? Food truck seems like much less capital at risk, and a brewery has much, much higher margins.
- larrydag 12y agoFood truck is interesting because you can move to your customers. Yet costs still apply. So I would say its the same thing. I don't have experience with a brewery. I would treat a brewery the same way I would treat developing a retail product.
- zheshishei 12y agoI would suggest reading through these articles. Brewing and Food trucks each have their pros and cons, but there's a lot more to both of them than you may think. Brewery: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7375043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7375043 Food Truck: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5376402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5376402