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What is the process to become a restaurant owner?
Becoming a restaurant owner has been a long time dream of mine. I would like to know the process of becoming and effectively owning a restaurant in Atlanta.
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John’s Answer
Elijah
Lofty goal, simple answer. Financing.
You can prove yourself with years of experience and then create a business plan and go to the bank or SBA(Small Business Administration) and apply for a loan.
The other way would be to prove yourself in the industry and find a financial backer/partner to fulfill your goals.
For me personally, when I opened my restaurants/bars, I self funded the near million dollar investment with a 50% business partner. With no banks or other loans we quickly recouped our investment within a 2 year period and started making a profit. Do lots and lots of research, but not just what type of restaurant you want to have, also the location and the local staffing pool. And remember about 75% of all privately owned restaurants fail in the first year or so. The easiest way to tell if you may succeed is to know your product inside and out, then know exactly what your daily overhead expenses are. Labor, rent, taxes, product, equipment etc.
If your selling pizza for example, you have to know exactly how many pizzas you have to sell to break even. Check out the competition how many are they selling a day? How much of their business can be yours? Does the location have a large walk-by potential like a mall or busy corner. Or does the location is more a destination location? So sometimes finding a million dollars to open the restaurant is the easy part. Keeping it open is the challenge. How much of your capital investment is set aside for marketing? Remember it's your dream no one else's, so the people walking by may not share your vision or goal. How are you going to win them over?? Just good food doesn't always work, just fair pricing doesn't always work, the perfect location doesn't always work. And remember also, to open your own restaurant basically means you are marrying the business. For many months to come, whenever the business is open your are there. It's hard to trust anyone immediately to watch over your investment. You probably won't see an actual profit for a while. You probably won't see much of your family either unless they also are working at your restaurant
Hope this helped. Not trying to sound negative, but you really have to dig deep into your soul to examine the true reason you are doing it. Good luck
Lofty goal, simple answer. Financing.
You can prove yourself with years of experience and then create a business plan and go to the bank or SBA(Small Business Administration) and apply for a loan.
The other way would be to prove yourself in the industry and find a financial backer/partner to fulfill your goals.
For me personally, when I opened my restaurants/bars, I self funded the near million dollar investment with a 50% business partner. With no banks or other loans we quickly recouped our investment within a 2 year period and started making a profit. Do lots and lots of research, but not just what type of restaurant you want to have, also the location and the local staffing pool. And remember about 75% of all privately owned restaurants fail in the first year or so. The easiest way to tell if you may succeed is to know your product inside and out, then know exactly what your daily overhead expenses are. Labor, rent, taxes, product, equipment etc.
If your selling pizza for example, you have to know exactly how many pizzas you have to sell to break even. Check out the competition how many are they selling a day? How much of their business can be yours? Does the location have a large walk-by potential like a mall or busy corner. Or does the location is more a destination location? So sometimes finding a million dollars to open the restaurant is the easy part. Keeping it open is the challenge. How much of your capital investment is set aside for marketing? Remember it's your dream no one else's, so the people walking by may not share your vision or goal. How are you going to win them over?? Just good food doesn't always work, just fair pricing doesn't always work, the perfect location doesn't always work. And remember also, to open your own restaurant basically means you are marrying the business. For many months to come, whenever the business is open your are there. It's hard to trust anyone immediately to watch over your investment. You probably won't see an actual profit for a while. You probably won't see much of your family either unless they also are working at your restaurant
Hope this helped. Not trying to sound negative, but you really have to dig deep into your soul to examine the true reason you are doing it. Good luck
Thank you so much for the advice.
Updated
Patrick’s Answer
John M’s answer is excellent. I would encourage you to start working in restaurants both front and back of house- learn about food cost, purchasing (food & liquor), menu “engineering”, serving, bartending etc and then move into management and learn the books, hiring, managing people. This process will take at least 5 years- don’t worry, they go by fast.
There are two types of restaurant owners- asset owners and owner/operators. Unless you have a rich uncle with one foot in the grave I presume you will fall into the latter category of an owner/operator, meaning you want to both own and be the General Manager of a restaurant. This will require a huge commitment and accumulation of experience & knowledge over many years, and also the ability to approach a lender or financier and secure enough capital to purchase or build a restaurant. This is a big, painful, time consuming & fun road you are thinking about walking down- take a few steps now and make sure it’s the road you want to be on!
There are two types of restaurant owners- asset owners and owner/operators. Unless you have a rich uncle with one foot in the grave I presume you will fall into the latter category of an owner/operator, meaning you want to both own and be the General Manager of a restaurant. This will require a huge commitment and accumulation of experience & knowledge over many years, and also the ability to approach a lender or financier and secure enough capital to purchase or build a restaurant. This is a big, painful, time consuming & fun road you are thinking about walking down- take a few steps now and make sure it’s the road you want to be on!