Somebody has to be making money, right?

Restaurants have a high failure rate to start.

Make money? Sure I make money but I can also tell you that I don't consider a lot of it work as it just has to be done because I own a business. But lets say for a minute that I sold you my business today for $1 and from now on you pay me $10 per hour for everything that I do and I work for you and totally run the business. This time next year I 'd have more money than I do now and you'd be broke LOL All jokes aside I'm trying to get to a place you are describing but the more time that goes by I don't see it happening without a major investment and huge risk in a business where 9 of 10 fail. I guess it's all about the dream!

Its hard to turn profits in the restaurant business. Over 11 years running a family store (part of a franchise). You can live off the cash flow, but at the end of the month you are at a calculator crunching numbers. Good operators don't suck company dry just to buy this year's model BMW.

I am working on starting a new restaurant and yes making money is the goal. Want to make a good living....have 1 store with some catering and close 1 or 2 days a week. Want to make even more....make your restaurant easy to scale (reproduce and add locations). Make even more build a brand (famous D, sonny's, big Bob G, apple city, ect.)

Keys to success for large scale:
Location, location, location
Of course you have to have good quality, but we all have been to restaurants and had a bad meal....but they are so packed we caulk it up to a bad night.

Small scale success:
Be the best dang hole in the wall joint around. Location still is a huge factor, but quality will buy you a loyal fan following.

Sorry for long post. Just my 2 cents

All I do right now is sell my bbq at events and had some really big days. What makes the bbq business hard for me is you don't know how much bbq to make. If you start running low its not that easy to smoke more meat that quick. And when you make a lot of bbq hoping for a big day it sucks to have a ton of leftovers. Its hard to judge. I know some of the bbq chain places around here have warmers and keep their bbq overnight if needed. I was trying to always have fresh bbq. 2015 I hope to start catering and I will not have to guess how much bbq to make. Ill know what Im getting paid before I even start. Thats my goal

It surely isn't easy in any restaurant business. Most that really make money, do it on beverage. Second is promotion, you need to be out there, building your brand, and that brand is you. The places that do the best in this area, all have liquor licenses, and full licenses if at all possible. And the owners are out there, all the time, selling the dream.

we've made money from day one. it's a business, not a hobby, and needs to be treated as such. Proper mark ups on everything, everyone pays, even your family. People will shake you down in the beginning for "chinese auctions" "church fundraisers" tell them all no. They'll still become customers. You really need to research your area, and make sure there's enough traffic. If you've got a partner, you're going to need to do about 400k a year in sales to see any type of decent income from it. Things break, they're expensive. But if you know how to run a business, you can run a restaurant. Problem is, most people who think they can cook, have no business being in the restaurant business, because they've had no prior business experience.

landarc said:

It surely isn't easy in any restaurant business. Most that really make money, do it on beverage. Second is promotion, you need to be out there, building your brand, and that brand is you. The places that do the best in this area, all have liquor licenses, and full licenses if at all possible. And the owners are out there, all the time, selling the dream.

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I have been knocking around a new business name for our BBQ biz........"BBQ, BOOZE & AMMO"!!!! The BBQ would be a "loss leader" and we make big margins on the other two items. I think I might have something there.

(nothing could go wrong with this biz venture could it?)

:becky:

early mornin' smokin' said:

we've made money from day one. it's a business, not a hobby, and needs to be treated as such. Proper mark ups on everything, everyone pays, even your family. People will shake you down in the beginning for "chinese auctions" "church fundraisers" tell them all no. They'll still become customers. You really need to research your area, and make sure there's enough traffic. If you've got a partner, you're going to need to do about 400k a year in sales to see any type of decent income from it. Things break, they're expensive. But if you know how to run a business, you can run a restaurant. Problem is, most people who think they can cook, have no business being in the restaurant business, because they've had no prior business experience.

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One of my favorite shows is Restaurant Imposable and I see many that have no clue but they had the dream and you got to try. Many good stories on that show.

early mornin' smokin' said:

If you've got a partner, you're going to need to do about 400k a year in sales to see any type of decent income from it.

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And that right there sums it all up in a nut shell, my area would be a little less for partners full time, Maybe $250-$300k but still a ton of sammiches

early mornin' smokin' said:

we've made money from day one. it's a business, not a hobby, and needs to be treated as such. Proper mark ups on everything, everyone pays, even your family. People will shake you down in the beginning for "chinese auctions" "church fundraisers" tell them all no. They'll still become customers. You really need to research your area, and make sure there's enough traffic. If you've got a partner, you're going to need to do about 400k a year in sales to see any type of decent income from it. Things break, they're expensive. But if you know how to run a business, you can run a restaurant. Problem is, most people who think they can cook, have no business being in the restaurant business, because they've had no prior business experience.

Click to expand...

We were the same way, when we opened the doors at 4 pm they were lined out the door in 45 minutes and we were LOST. I wish I had a video of the first few days we were in the restaurant, it had to be funny. We had ran a trailer on main street for a year and a half and had a big following and we opened a 1030 sq. foot restaurant with 22 seats. From the first day we made a profit, we opened at 11 am and that first 2 weeks we would do $1000 by 1 pm. Like you said you have to know how to run a business, I am partners with my 2 sons and daughter, my oldest has a masters degree in business management and marketing. We are not getting rich but we are all paying our bills so after 10 months in the small restaurant we are opening a new one March 2nd that seats 176 and the kitchen is bigger than our current restaurant. You can make it in the restaurant business but you need to be ready for stuff like the pork skyrocketing like it did last summer. We don't sell alcohol so all of our sales are food and lots of it, we average about $ 17,000 a week.
Jeff Therrell
Sweetfire BBQ