Help w/my career? (restaurant) ... long

Unless you have A LOT OF MONEY, I would stay away from the food industry! My girlfriend is a caterer (Large scale, about $1.0M / Yr). The food business sucks! Here's some reasons:

1) You have idiots working for you that will look for ways to sue you and help drain workers comp.

2) You will work insane hours.

3) Insurance, taxes and workers comp payments will eat you alive.

4) You will have idiots working for you.

5) The menu prices can not vary with monthly cost increases such as power, maintenance expenses, etc.

6) Your competitors have done it before. You have not.

7) Everybody that works for you and sells to you will make more money than you will.

8) You will have idiots working for you.

Learn a trade in which you can make $20-$40/Hr. You will be farther ahead without the grief!

 

#2 if I enjoy the work there shouldn't be a problem w/the hours

OK....Frustration in the food business will give you plenty of grey hairs!

#3 don't most business owner's have these expenses, including my
competition

Yes they do. The difference is the fact that seasoned restauranture's know the tricks to manage their money. You will have to talk to a few owners on this topic.

#5 that is a good point

#6 i was hoping that my idea was uniqe, have you seen it before?

No I have not. You can marque the fact that the restaurant specializes in Filet's, but you have to have other items on the menu.

#7 what? my employees will make more money than me, the owner?

If you do well, plan on being VERY poor for a few years. You will be putting every dime into yor business while you fund everything.

The best thing to do is to meet with several restaurant owners in your area. Get their spin on life under the Ansel. Ask them point blank questions on the dollars it takes to start it all up and to keep it going. The best time to see owners is in the early AM. Call and ask for appointments. Most owners should be pleased to make the time for you. If you want to move forward, I would contact your local SCORE office and see if their may be a retired person that has this experiance. They can assist in your drafting of a business plan.

Here's one story:

My girlfriend had a lawsuit by an employee in which the employee stated she slipped in the fridge walk-in (on water). There was never EVER any water on that floor, but nobody was around to see it at the time. The employee sued for Willful Neglect, which is BAD! the employee (Which in my opinion is a MOTH#$^&( FU%$^%* piece of dog SH^! ) settled out of court for about $60K and gets gov bennies the rest of her life with her 'back injuries'. My girlfriend spent about $20K of money she did not have to fight this one and also got her w.comp fees raised about 20%.

I gripe about employees being idiots. If you are in a large community, you can get a decent working pool of good people that are going to college. If you are in a smaller town, people (employees) get in to food service because they do not have general skills that can get them a better paying job.

Sorry, I'm just very tainted on the food business!

 

PeterS has good advice.

I owned restaurants for years and I would never go back to that business. ANY business is cut-throat, don't let that scare you, but don't go into this blind either. If I were in your shoes I would work in the industry and see if the idea seems as palatable a year later.

Another option is to find a professional chef and PROVEN operator who has the passion and desire, but not the finances. It's better to partner with someone who knows what they are doing if you do not.

I seriously would suggest working in the industry first. It's always better to learn the ropes and make mistakes on someone else's dime.

FYI, the hours involved do get insane. You will find yourself at the establishment open to close every day because you cannot hire anyone who will care as much as you.

 

FYI, the hours involved do get insane. You will find yourself at the establishment open to close every day because you cannot hire anyone who will care as much as you.[/QUOTE]

AMEN to that comment!

 

A lot of people in my family started out in the restaurant/catering business. The general consensus is that they HATED it. You might think the hours are not a problem; however, when you are working 12pm - 3am constantly for a few years, you might change your mind. All these people in my family have now branched out into other industries and are much happier. If you have the choice, I'd say go for something else besides the food industry.

 

"I'm about to graduate" ... Would this be college?
And if so, what was your degree in?

My thoughts...
I put myself through college for a while by managing restaurants early on, and have kept up with the industry as a hobby for some time...
To blindly start a restaurant, or any business without first doing the proper research would be very foolish, and I'm sure your Father would agree.
Ask yourself a few questions...
What does everyone need?
Food does come to mind, so a restaurant might not be a bad business as you state.
So if everyone needs to eat, but I only offer Beef on the menu
then I have just cut my customer list from everyone,
to Beef eaters only.
And by only offering 1 cut of beef, prepared in different fashions,
I have just cut my customer list even further, to only include people that are in the mood for filet mignon.
...by the way, you do realize that there are more flavorful cuts of beef than filet mignon...
And then you limit the amount of money you make
by having a membership only lounge, instead of taking everybody's money.
And to top it all off you want to offer "ridiculous service"...
One of the biggest problems with restaurants is having a wait staff that offers too little attention, or at the other end, offers too much attention, when I'm having a nice meal, i don't want some jack leg hovering over my ass.
The Attention has to be perfect, not ridiculous.
If it were me, in business to make money.
I would consider taking money from everyone, much more profitable, than limiting my income to filet eaters with a membership card on a given night.
But the biggest question you should ask yourself about starting a restaurant should be.... Am I prepared to own a restaurant?
And by asking this question earlier...
"Is there a life span on filet?"
I would say no! You are not ready to own a restaurant.
I'm sure that your Father has become a successful businessman by knowing all aspects of his operations, and by hiring competent personal to fill these positions.
If it were me, I would ask my Father for advice.
Sit down with him, put together a plan of attack.
Do a little research, get a little more training.
I'm sure that with the guidance of a successful businessman like your Father, You will have the same success if you follow his example.

 

Tough racket. These guys validate/verify the point that if you do as I did & talk to restaurant owners, they'll say the same. Need to move a lot of product & be there all the time - restaurant management skills are a must. You make your money from the masses, not the few. You can have Filet Mignon as the only cut of solid beef if you go to Persian or Armenian restaurants. I miss Shamshiri in Los Feliz - closed shop & is now an Italian joint. Won't go there, though - I'm a Palermo's devotee, as are a lot of other people.

 

Just to add to my previous comment:

If you really think you'll enjoy owning a restaurant and want to make money, I would consider opening a restaurant that caters to the masses, not only the select few. Not that I know what I am talking about; however, from what I see, the restaurants that make the most money are those that provide food that everyone can afford and everyone wants to go to. If you look at steak houses, the ones that are the biggest seem to be Ruth Chris, Outback, etc. What is more important to you: making money or the prestige that comes with owning an extremely exclusive establishment. On the flip side, there are a number of restaurants in New York where the owners are making millions; however, these restaurants have been established for many years with famous chefs as owners.

If I were going to open some sort of food establishment, I'd have cheap food on the menu and give people A LOT of food for the money. I'd make it gimmicky and family style. Hopefully it will take off so I could turn it into a chain.

 

Where do I start? Back when I was a real CPA (which, of course, begs the question as to what I am now), I used to keep a gun in my desk so that when a client came in and said that he or she was going to open a restaurant, I could hand them the gun and tell them, "Go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot right now. This will be cheaper and less painful than opening a restaurant."

The real bad news -- I have never seen a business where EVERYBODY steals from you. This includes your customers, your employees, your vendors, and, yes, even your government. (Anyone who has been through a sales tax audit knows what I'm talking about) Just to survive, you must become one of the meanest SOBs that ever walked the earth. Trust nobody! One client caught his cook walking out the door with a ham between her legs.

Also you must become an expert in grease. Ah yes, the dirty BIG secret of the restaurant bidness, what to do with all that gease...

On the positive side, if you get a system down (and yes running a successful restaurant has more to do with process management than cooking), a restaurant can be slot machine. Can you say, "No accounts receivables?" Cash flow is king.

The trick is to get from here to there. My suggestion for you is the one that I always used to give my clients, "Pick up the newspaper. You will find a jillion ads for 'Asst. Restaurant Manager.' Go clean out grease traps for a month, put up with employees on crack, vendors who short your orders and double bill you, slime in the ice machine, and female dog customers for six months. If you make it through that and still want to open a restaurant, God bless you."

Good Luck, DrTax

 

While I did something different and went the grad school route instead of finding something to do with my life, if I were in your shoes I would look into starting a factory in a niche industry associated with a larger one...

For example, I read Worth Magazine's 100 Richest People in 100 Cities in America, which picked out the one richest man/woman/family in the largest 100 US cities - the shocking thing was how many people were worth $30-300 million owning a local plant that made things like double-pane glass, several made different valves/precision machined parts, special chemicals, one had a factory making rubber window linings for the big three (if I recall correctly)... the vast majority were in manufacturing, many engineer founders. Some tech, a few medical instrument inventor/mfrs, a few food (Mars family, Wrigley family, Simplot (potatoes)). Very, very few MBA's, JD's, MD's or PhD's.

I think most will tell you anything restaurant and/or retail is not where you want to be. Production and wholesale is the place to be on the chain. It's certainly not glamorous, but it's something you notice when you drive through industrial areas of big cities and there's always one shiny Benz or 7-series outside the factory. I'm sure many of the F-chatters here have that flashy car outside the plant!

 

Having been on the working side of this buis in my life more than a couple of times I have to tell you this. There are some successful chains out there (TGIFRIDAYS. Brinker group and others) who have the system nailed. Go do the assistant management job at one of thier shops. Ask questions and notice how "the Dead have Risen"

There are a lot of successful people out there with diners and other things (Brittany, Justin, Ashton) and some of them have Lost VAST amounts of money setting up their little dream.

The Dining Room bid is tough and much of the time it is a Fad that catches on and then dies. Look around where you live and go back 5 years How many have come and gone, what caught on, and where are they now. sometimes these things seem like a good idea. other than the big chains like Brinker and Carlson or Red Lobster the only ones that seem to really work are the ones where the owner is on site 24-7 to keep his money from walking out the door on him. It is a tough life but if it truely is a dream take a couple of steps and Like Dr Tax said go work for 3 months and see if it can be a reality for you...

 

Have to agree with all the comments thus far.
Other thoughts. There are very few restaurants an niteclubs that are both equally succesfull. If you were to pursue this focus on just one or the other. Having 9 seperate dining rooms in your restaurant as a "style" will be an operations nightmare. What you or the managers, host, captains cant see, simply makes life harder.
If you are opening this in Dubai some of the advice here from other posters will be more or less true. Its hard to give "exact" advice where the laws an customs are diffrent. Perhaps your labor will be cheaper than here in the U.S but food costs higher??
Im a corporate trainer an multi-store owner for the worlds largest quick service franchise. Its always difficult to give good exacting advice on some specifics to people out of the U.S.
If after all of this discussion you are still interested in going further.
Get a job as others suggested at a well run restaurant in your market place. After if still interested i would recommend going the franchise route. Just be sure to go with the biggest an best franchise in your category thats local to you.
Its tough being the first franchisee in a new market even if the brand is popular elsewhere. You will be the pioneer for the company all the while paying them royalties while they learn from you.

 

My thoughts about you doing anything:

1. Always start from the dead bottom position and work up. For example if you are interested in opening up your steak restaurant, work first as a waiter somewhere. Then hopefully get a position managing a restaurant. Then open up one yourself. You need to understand every aspect of a business before you try and venture in alone.

2. Since you are still very young (I assume in the 20's), you may want to reconsider the restaurant business. The busiest nights will probably be on Friday and Saturday. A person in their 20's wants to spend their weekends in a restaurant? I do not think so. I would think that you would want to go out with friends to clubs and lounges. Aren't I right?

3. Make sure you have connections in the business you are doing. OR at least know someone who is in the business that can give you advice. Otherwise you will have many costly ($$$$) mistakes that you will learn from on the way to conquer your project.

 

TT Wrote:

"my main inspiration was walking around my own restaurant and being a good host"

You will be running keeping up with all the crap that goes wrong. When your dishwasher calls in sick, guess what? You are the new dishwasher! When the walk-in freezes over, who gets to stay until 2:00AM while it gets fixed by an A/C guy that is on tripple OT because you got him out of bed to save $4K worth of food. Then you are the bad guy when all of your friends come in and expect free food, cocktails or a discount.

You should take six months and find a restaurant owner that will take you under his wings and show you what this life is about! I have lived it for six years+. I love Melodie to tears, but if she dropped dead tomorrow, I would never again get involved with anyone in the food biz.

 

TT.
Ah to be young... Boring is not so bad if it makes you money! Plus then you can devote time to another money making project.
The best biz to be in takes the least effort for the most profit.
Biggest challenge for all biz owners is being able to walk away with minimal negative consequences.
This is why im a fan of franchising. They give you most of the systems allready you need to replicate success over an over again.

 

TT.
Ah to be young... Boring is not so bad if it makes you money! Plus then you can devote time to another money making project.
The best biz to be in takes the least effort for the most profit.
Biggest challenge for all biz owners is being able to walk away with minimal negative consequences.
This is why im a fan of franchising. They give you most of the systems allready you need to replicate success over an over again.