Poll of the Day > should I open a restaurant?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well, maybe not a restaurant... more like a roach coach. I like cookin
---

something like 2/3rds of restaurants fail in their first year.

Go for it
---

Ogurisama posted...

something like 2/3rds of restaurants fail in their first year.

Go for it

awesome, i hate commitments.
---

Lots of folks I went to school with ended up trying to open up their own restaurants. Im not aware of a single one of them that didnt end up regretting it.

Theres just so much you have to manage to succeed and even then just bad luck can sink the whole thing. Its not just about making good food.

Youve got to have a good location. You gotta know how to plan an attractive menu. Nowadays you really need to have a strong understanding of how to promote on social media. You gotta make sure everything is up to code with the local government which is a full time job just in itself. Youve gotta find vendors you can trust which isnt easy if you dont have connections and its the only way to keep your food cost percentages low enough to make a profit. Youve gotta find people to work for you who wont steal from you, which is especially rampant in the food and beverage industry.

If you can manage all that, find decent folks to work for you, and put in 60+ hours most weeks, you just might get lucky and dig yourself out of the debt you took on to get the place up and running within 4-5 years.
---

Mead posted...

Lots of folks I went to school with ended up trying to open up their own restaurants. Im not aware of a single one of them that didnt end up regretting it.

Theres just so much you have to manage to succeed and even then just bad luck can sink the whole thing. Its not just about making good food.

Youve got to have a good location. You gotta know how to plan an attractive menu. Nowadays you really need to have a strong understanding of how to promote on social media. You gotta make sure everything is up to code with the local government which is a full time job just in itself. Youve gotta find vendors you can trust which isnt easy if you dont have connections and its the only way to keep your food cost percentages low enough to make a profit. Youve gotta find people to work for you who wont steal from you, which is especially rampant in the food and beverage industry.

If you can manage all that, find decent folks to work for you, and put in 60+ hours most weeks, you just might get lucky and dig yourself out of the debt you took on to get the place up and running within 4-5 years.

well, i wasn't thinkin about a building - more like a trailer or something
---

Food trucks are popular nowadays that might be worth looking into
---

Mead posted...

Food trucks are popular nowadays that might be worth looking into

But still an investment. Location, marketing (social media), vendor(s) for food, accounting, staff, etc.

Keeping a food truck up to code is much easier than a restaurant. Your menu will be smaller also, another bonus.

The biggest issue is location and customers. You'll also want to promote yourself to places that hire food trucks for events. It's very common here for a brewery to hire a different food truck for every day of the week.
---

Try working at one first.