Opening a restaurant! (I'm 17)

[ZCP]

Beauty of owning a successful restaurant lies in the fact that once you go famous, you can hire people to do the hard work for you.

Please explain your thinking behind this statement.

 

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[Scot]

Please explain your thinking behind this statement.

I'm assuming he thinks celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsey and Emeril don't actually work...

 

[ZCP]

It's the 'once you go famous...' line that gets me.

 

[Scot]

It's the 'once you go famous...' line that gets me.

Regardless, it's irrelevant to the thread. @Tomekmeister has a lot of work and thinking ahead of him. It's a textbook case of putting the cart before the horse.

I'd genuinely like him to succeed, as I previously mentioned, if it weren't saturated here, it is a business I would have been interested in. I just hope he decides to start smart and not assume he'll get handed a turnkey business on a silver platter.

 

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[458]

Not really sure which is worse, buying a boat or starting a restaurant.

 

[Scot]

Not really sure which is worse, buying a boat or starting a restaurant.

Restaurant. At least you convince some other weekend warrior to buy your boat.

 

[Eric10x10]

Please explain your thinking behind this statement.

Go ask the owner(s) of Burger King, Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza, KFC, and McDonald's if their highly-successful restaurants are doing the opposite of separating time and money.

Be sure you are getting lied to if they say so.

Obviously, those are very much popular restaurants and franchises, but the idea is the same: open a restaurant, work your butt off for a while, go famous, and hire people to do the hard work for you.

 

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[ZCP]

Go ask the owner(s) of Burger King, Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza, KFC, and McDonald's if their highly-successful restaurants are doing the opposite of separating time and money.
Be sure you are getting lied to if they say so.
Obviously, those are very much popular restaurants and franchises, but the idea is the same: open a restaurant, work your butt off for a while, go famous, and hire people to do the hard work for you.

Ok. It is the 'go famous' that I am asking about. Please explain. You continue to say this as if it is inevitable or simply a switch that is easily flipped.

Your statements and line of thinking seem similar to a lottery mentality. Just buy the ticket, and EVENT you get money.

You have defended opening a restaurant (with no experience) as a fastlane thing to do because all you have to do is 'go famous' and then hire people to do the work for you. Talk this through with me. How do you create the PROCESS to 'go famous'? Is it only for restaurants?

What you have said would seem to work for any industry and any business if the EVENT was all that mattered. Am trying to get a feel for how you easily get to separate time from money in a restaurant business. What is the PROCESS?

 

[DaRK9]

Beauty of owning a successful restaurant lies in the fact that once you go famous, you can hire people to do the hard work for you.

 

[ZCP]

Can you see the Ebooks popping up for this one?
'Go Famous in 90 days or less'
'Top 10 secrets to Go Famous'
'The fastlane business shortcut no one will tell you about..... Go Famous.'

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

Can you see the Ebooks popping up for this one?
'Go Famous in 90 days or less'
'Top 10 secrets to Go Famous'
'The fastlane business shortcut no one will tell you about..... Go Famous.'

'Think and Go Famous: The Ultimate No B.S., No Holds Barred Guide for Choosing Your Lambo-Color'

@Tomekmeister has a lot of work and thinking ahead of him

This^^^^

nEcst.

 

[Eric10x10]

It is the 'go famous' that I am asking about. Please explain.

How do you create the PROCESS to 'go famous'?

What is the PROCESS?

The process? Get these 2 right:

1) Location. Location. Location. And again, location.

2) Food that simply tastes good.

Open a restaurant at a busy and highly-visited location, and get the recipe right: feed your customers addictively delicious food.

You do that, and your chances of swimming in a pool of dollar bills are WAY higher than those of winning the lottery.

 

[458]

The process? Get these 2 right:

1) Location. Location. Location. And again, location.

2) Food that simply tastes good.

Open a restaurant at a busy and highly-visited location, and get the recipe right: feed your customers addictively delicious food.

You do that, and your chances of swimming in a pool of dollar bills are WAY higher than those of winning the lottery.

20k for lease deposit and 100k build out on a triple net, you got that brah?

 

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[Scot]

The process? Get these 2 right:

1) Location. Location. Location. And again, location.

2) Food that simply tastes good.

Open a restaurant at a busy and highly-visited location, and get the recipe right: feed your customers addictively delicious food.

You do that, and your chances of swimming in a pool of dollar bills are WAY higher than those of winning the lottery.

At this point I think you're just trolling to get a rise out of the others who picked up on your bait.

Either you have absolutely no idea how running a restaurant works or more likely, you're being a troll.

I recommend just not feeding the trolls.

 

[Jon L]

The process? Get these 2 right:

1) Location. Location. Location. And again, location.

2) Food that simply tastes good.

Open a restaurant at a busy and highly-visited location, and get the recipe right: feed your customers addictively delicious food.

You do that, and your chances of swimming in a pool of dollar bills are WAY higher than those of winning the lottery.

I don't want to pile on TOO much, but what you just said is a bit like saying:

Here's a process for creating a company that is insanely profitable. Follow this, and you'll be a billionaire:

1) create a brand-new product that is insanely desirable and patent it
2) make sure it is something that needs to be purchased at least monthly
3) sell one to every man, woman and child in the US by the end of the month
4) make sure that you make at least $20 for every unit you sell
5) you'll profit $6B/month and retire richer than Bill Gates within a year.

 

[ZCP]

Glad I managed to hang in there long enough to get the 2 step process for 'go famous'!

@Vigilante This one got enough for 'Gold'??

 

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[Vigilante]

When I am eating one of the Kebabs made by his franchise after it works it's way from Poland to the United States and he sends me a signed copy of the cookbook in his name he didn't write, I will move it to GOLD.

 

[mrarcher]

Well we might all be getting ahead of ourselves here, maybe the OP is dead set on this and just hasn't "ironed out the kinks yet". But this is a perfect opportunity for some advice for anyone looking to open a restaurant.
First things first start smaller, Get some work in the industry and find out how it all works. This will teach you some valuable lessons and also allow you to get some money together to start. You will not get an investor. How ever much you think you'll need - Double it! Many problems can arise and possibly even unforeseen expenses you want to meet. You cant get away from learning how to cook your product either. What if your staff is off sick? Are you just going to close? Or do you plan on hiring a cook and someone to cover for them full time? $$$
Step Two Validation
You think you have a great idea and are able to sell great food to the masses? Great! But don't jump the gun here. There is no need to open up 100s of restaurants when you don't even know one works yet. Even starbucks didn't start with 100 coffee shops. So that leaves us with 2 options:
1) Buy or rent a place -
So you get yourself a shiny new restaurant. That's great but you also get yourself -
Property tax,
Council tax,
Water, electricity, gas bills,
Insurance,
Rent or mortgage
To name but a few, and this is not including expenses you need for both options (stock, machine maintenance, gas safe certs etc.)
2) My personal favourite MOBILE CATERING UNIT!
Here's why - No rent, no taxes, basically it drills down some of the big expenses to fuel for generator and gas for cooking (again not including expenses you need for both options) But we have managed to drastically reduce running costs and as we all know cash is king in this business if not every business.
You get a validation if it will work in a certain location, if it doesn't you can move somewhere else to test out there. (Wont be moving a building any time soon)
If you fail (I know, I know but it happens to the best of us sometimes), It is much MUCH easier to sell a catering unit than a failed building. You can also recoup some investment, you cant if you are renting.
Lower start up costs. (A deep fat fryer in a restaurant will set you back some $60,0000 and will cost you somewhere in the region of $100 per hour to run!), And that's only one piece of kit.

Once you have validated THEN and only then can you think about what step three should be.
Good luck!

 

[Tomekmeister]

Well we might all be getting ahead of ourselves here, maybe the OP is dead set on this and just hasn't "ironed out the kinks yet". But this is a perfect opportunity for some advice for anyone looking to open a restaurant.
First things first start smaller, Get some work in the industry and find out how it all works. This will teach you some valuable lessons and also allow you to get some money together to start. You will not get an investor. How ever much you think you'll need - Double it! Many problems can arise and possibly even unforeseen expenses you want to meet. You cant get away from learning how to cook your product either. What if your staff is off sick? Are you just going to close? Or do you plan on hiring a cook and someone to cover for them full time? $$$
Step Two Validation
You think you have a great idea and are able to sell great food to the masses? Great! But don't jump the gun here. There is no need to open up 100s of restaurants when you don't even know one works yet. Even starbucks didn't start with 100 coffee shops. So that leaves us with 2 options:
1) Buy or rent a place -
So you get yourself a shiny new restaurant. That's great but you also get yourself -
Property tax,
Council tax,
Water, electricity, gas bills,
Insurance,
Rent or mortgage
To name but a few, and this is not including expenses you need for both options (stock, machine maintenance, gas safe certs etc.)
2) My personal favourite MOBILE CATERING UNIT!
Here's why - No rent, no taxes, basically it drills down some of the big expenses to fuel for generator and gas for cooking (again not including expenses you need for both options) But we have managed to drastically reduce running costs and as we all know cash is king in this business if not every business.
You get a validation if it will work in a certain location, if it doesn't you can move somewhere else to test out there. (Wont be moving a building any time soon)
If you fail (I know, I know but it happens to the best of us sometimes), It is much MUCH easier to sell a catering unit than a failed building. You can also recoup some investment, you cant if you are renting.
Lower start up costs. (A deep fat fryer in a restaurant will set you back some $60,0000 and will cost you somewhere in the region of $100 per hour to run!), And that's only one piece of kit.

Once you have validated THEN and only then can you think about what step three should be.
Good luck!

Thank you for great advice. Of course I wouldn't start with a chain, that's more of a future goal (if everything goes well).

 

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[mayana]

Just 'F*ck it' is probably why 9/10 restaurants fail in their first year.

Lol. THIS! Omg so this. There are too many people who just love the romantic idea of having a cafe/bar/restaurant.

OP, you will be married to this place. Just wanted to let you know up front.

The advice that I can provide:

1. Run the numbers and allow for waste/loss. It is going to happen, no matter how tight of a ship you run.
2. Think about systems. Systems for serving the food. Systems for food safety. Systems for food storage/food prep. Systems for cooking. You have to work through it in your head. Since you've never done this before, you have to spend extra time studying & watching how this all happens in a good restaurant if you want to deliver a good experience to your customer (and for them to come back).
3. Decide before hand how you are going to deal with any employees. Can they eat for free or for a discount, and if so, how often? Employees will eat/drink you out of house and home. And so will family members/friends. Just know your policy about this up front.

But my real recommendation is that you don't do this. Get a job at a restaurant for a year (in the kitchen) and watch how the owners and managers are (and observe their quality of life) and if you still want to do it, then you'll have a better shot and know more of what you are getting in to.

I think your money is better spent on another opportunity, IMO.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

 

[Tomekmeister]

I'd like to thank everyone for advice as well as constructive criticism. It really did help me a lot.

I've decided not to completely quit on the idea, but as you guys suggested - start small. Getting some experience in less risky and smaller business is definitely something that I need.

pick a horse that's less likely to throw you, so that you can get more experience as a jockey

I will probably find a job in a similar place to see how it's done, but also ask people who own restaurants (I know a few).

I've listed every single contradiction you guys named of why I won't succeed and I will do my best to eliminate them one by one.

Thank you!

 

[biophase]

Damn, I want to start a thread with "Go Famous" in the title. I like that line!

 

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[ddzc]

Damn, I want to start a thread with "Go Famous" in the title. I like that line!

Don't need many steps either.

Step 1. Mind blowing idea
Step 2. Convince others to give a teenager 10s/100s of thousands of dollars with 0 experience (* in Poland)
Step 3. Profit
Step 4. Become famous and have awesome memes

* edited by Vigilante

 

[ddzc]

On a side note though, I'm glad the OP took the advice given in this thread. I'm happy for him, good stuff.

 

[ZCP]

Damn, I want to start a thread with "Go Famous" in the title. I like that line!

BS..... I found it! We are putting together t-shirts right now!

 

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[Leo Hendrix]

Haven't read the whole thread but from what I have read, I think you should start small, test your idea/concept first before rushing into anything.

Find your target customers and test your concept somehow on a smaller scale and adjust as THEY direct you.

 

[ZF Lee]

Have you worked at a restaurant before? Have you watched Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey? Any food service business has thin margins and are one of the harder businesses to keep open. You sound like you're doing your homework but still. I would suggest finding a couple episodes of Kitchen NIghtmares on Netflix, Hulu, or Youtube and watching them. Its not only entertaining but you learn a lot. You mentioned kebabs-- do you know how you are going to store your meat and other products? Have you learned how the food inspection process works in your County yet?

I'm not saying it can't be done but any food service business (restaurant, bar, catering) tend to be the least passive you can get.

Kitchen Nightmares, eh?

COOK ACTUAL FOOD. Damn, one episode was when the idiots mirowaved EVERYTHING. The only thing not microwaved was the salad....and of course you can't microwave greens.

STICK TO THE MODEL. My brother used to help out at a school fair. People were serving hot dogs not according to the set recipe. Sausages not cut according to plan, even sold separately without the bun. The poor guy had to work all day to make sure they didn't screw up any further. Cook the food as if you are doing McDonald's or KFC, like a standard franchise. Closely regimented and fixed.

HAVE A THICK FACE. You'll get some pretty crappy customers. No choice of ours. In Hell's kitchen some idiot ordered a fried egg. Ramsay was not amused. A fried egg at a high-tier restaurant? The idiot was a comedian by profession but I didn't laugh at that. I was aghast.

 

[ZF Lee]

The first day that I worked for the gelato place the old boss pulled me aside. He said "You know I am a drug dealer, right?" I said I didn't lol. He replied "Ya I sell drugs - sugar and coffee. And I make drug dealer profits". The guy had a mansion of a house and made bank selling coffee, desserts and ice-cream. He hated selling sandwiches and only had them on the menu cause they are needed to get people in the door.

Done all the time. McDonalds have burgers, but they put along french fries. Big apple have donuts, but they sure have coffee on the side. A good excuse to jack up profits for the set menus.

 

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