Any restaurant owners here or anyone.

[Eric King]

Any restaurant owners here or anyone who could give advice.
I would like to open a restaurant I have a good concept. I have been reading bplans.But where sould my starting point be. thanks

[Hockey4Life]

For some reason when I was younger I was under the assumption that restaurants were cash cows and everybody who owned one was rich. Well I grew up a little and I've worked in 3 restaurants in my life. It's not as profitable as one might think. There is a lot of start up money required and you have to put in a lot of time, you cannot simply pass it off on somebody else because nobody has taken the risk you are taking.

The first restaurant I worked in was a popular one on the water. It has great bar business and decent lunch and dinner business. The owner is still there everyday doing accounting and other odds and ends. The second restaurant went belly up because the owner was never there and people were constantly stealing money, nothing was monitored around there. Now I work in a one year old restaurant that has been pretty well-established and is doing solid business. The owner is never there but... the guy is loaded. He has hired accountants and paid a lot of money to people he thinks he cant trust. He doesn't have much risk involved so he doesn't have to be there much. If anything, he's breaking even on the place, I don't think he's making much.

Trust me, owning your own restaurant actually isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you are dedicated and always aim to please your patrons then you MIGHT be successful.

I am sorry if I sound like I am trying to dissuade you from the idea, just offering my experience in the restaurant biz.

[criniit]

Hey man,

I have a culinary degree, been in and around restaurants all my life. Opening one will probably be the most time consuming, hardest thing you'll ever do but it can be worth it. PM, with specific questions and I would be glad to help ya out.

[Eric King]

thanks everyone.