My MIL worked in a restaurant for 10 years. She told me once that they only made baked potatoes every two or three days. When someone ordered one, they reheated it.

At the risk of understating, there's a LOT to running a restaurant.

Part of it is about the food, what it is and how it's prepped. The bigger part of it is something else. Many something elses. There are a gazillion examples of people who thought they made good food (and probably did) but failed in the business.

It's been said that this is the hardest industry to succeed in, that it has the greatest number of failures. That's primarily because it engages more people who think they can run a restaurant buiness because they make a good meatloaf.

I've cheffed in four restaurants. They're all different and the restaurants I've visited were all different. All different in the way they did things, all different in the way they treated their customers, all different in the way they developed their menus. And more differences.

I STRONGLY suggest you take at least a few culinary courses. You don't need to go to the big culinary arts academies. Many small, community colleges have outstanding cooking and restaurant management programs. I STRONGLY suggest you take a part time job at a restaurant that does the kind of thing you think you want to do. There's also a handful of very good books on professional restaurant cooking and management.

And then I strongly suggest you consider that that is maybe half the battle and start thinking about your focus, your identity and your goals and how you plan to reach them.

Also, I think GardenWeb has a Professional Chefs forum. Or maybe it's somewhere else on the web. I used to be a member.

Joe

I worked in a restaurant back in the mid to late 1970s in San Francisco, and I was a pastry chef. I worked graveyard (11:00 pm to 7:00 am), and so I did not observe most of what happened in the restaurant, but it was a very crazy place run by a commune of hippies, and so I doubt it was something you would want to emulate. My instructions were to make as much as I could of whatever I wanted with whatever ingredients I could find. That was a bit too much whatever for me, but it allowed/forced me to be creative. I hated the hours, however, and quit as soon as I could. The dishes I made were mainly served for breakfast and included a lot of coffee cakes, brownies, pies, and similar items. Occasionally I would I would make cinnamon rolls, and those would get devoured by the staff before customers got a chance to try them.

The restaurant was finally closed amid a huge scandal which fortuntely happened some time after I had quit. It was all over the local newspapers.

Lars

interesting responses! I can't imagine serving baked potatoes days later..eww! i wonder if anyone ever got botulism.
I hsould have probably elaborated.. part of my dietetics degree is in hotel restaurant management...i have taken culinary courses..i have also done catering, cooked for 10 years in this facility as head cook, and also have baked professionally... I am a licensed food manager/Haccp and all that..so i have a good background except that all my experience like i said is healthcare and not restaurant. What i am thinking of doing is taking over my little small town cafe..not a big restaurant or anything like that...

Rule of thumb here is that a new restaurant/cafe won't break even for about three years. Be sure you have the funding to cover your expenses for at least that long.

You need a focus. That small town cafe is for sale because business is down, whether it's because the owners have lost interest or because they're just losing money or for some other unknown reason.

Do you want to be known as the local Country Buffet or the best place in town and for miles around to get a grilled cheese sandwich to die for. Do you want to focus on baked goods and the breakfast lunch crowd or do you want to be the place families bring their kids or the place to go for that romantic dinner out.

Once you decide where your focus will be, you can develop your menus and once you have that set up, you should research, research, research costs, budgets, staff requirements, food management, time management etc. Only then can you decide if there is a niche for you to fill and if it will be worth your while

I worked for a local tea shop. They originally opened up selling only assorted teas and specialized in telling customers how to brew tea to perfection. One day I was in the store and mentioned good ol' BRITISH scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and the owner just about swooned as she recalled her times buying tea in England. I was hired on the spot to bake scones and make fresh strawberry preserves and lemon curd. I used my recipes for the scones but hers for the jam and curd. I made a batch of jam and curd every weekend - worked out to about 1 liter of jam and 1/2 liter of curd a week. Scones were baked fresh the night before and delivered at 6 am. She opened a small tea room where she served a real "English tea" with the scones and she also made fresh to order cucumber sandwiches. As the demand grew, we slowly added more baked goods to the menu. It got to the point a few years ago where I couldn't meet her demand - I'm a SAHM and didn't want to go back to work fulltime. She moved to a small house in an historic district with a kitchen, hired a pastry chef and now specializes not only in tea but in bridal and baby showers and is booked up months out.

Sorry for the ramble but I wanted to stress how important it is to have a vision and then to make that vision work with what the community wants and needs. Personally I would not want to eat cafateria food out at a small local cafe. I'd expect mom and pop, homemade from scratch food and to die for pies.

One of my favorite restaurants of all time was a small mom-and-pop that served four or five homemade-from-scratch entrees per day and three pies. The menu was whatever was available fresh that day and suited the cook's fancy, things like chicken and dumplings, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, hamburgers in mushroom gravy, potroast. You never knew what Mrs. M was going to serve, and it was fun to find out what the day's offerings were.

Most entrees had three things on the plate - meat, starch and vegetable. They always greeted you with a small salad-of-the-day, too, when the waitress came to take your order. The pies were scrumptious, and occasionally she made Schaum Tortes. Oh, my goodness, how I miss that place.

If you lived near me, I'd love to be your pie baker!

You're getting the cart before the horse.

As a banker, I can tell you from long time experience with restaurants that the first step is a business plan. That business plan should include, at minimum, 3 years operating expenses stashed away that can be easily tapped. Also, don't expect any salary for those first 3 years. So, included in those 3 years operating expenses needs to be sufficient cash for your personal needs.

Restaurants rarely fail because the food is bad. They fail due to insufficient funding combined with poor financial management.

There are some businesses that lenders won't touch...daycare centers, dry-cleaners, & restaurants top that list.

The SBA website can get you started on that business plan. It will take time & cost you some money. You'll need consultations with both accountants & attorneys. Purchasing a cafe, on a whim because it's for sale, without a professional business plan is a 'recipe' for disappointment, failure of the business, & quite possibly great personal financial loss.

Please be careful & do not jump into something without proper due diligence.

/tricia

polarprincess, I owned and ran a bar and grille for years, although it was a million years ago in another life. Weekends were the bar business but it was the food that got us through the week.

We made some things to order, like steaks, burgers, the infamous grilled cheese, omelettes and breakfast items. Other things got made daily, I baked bread and pies in the morning and our "specials" got made depending on what was cheap, in season and available. I never made more than enough for that day, whether it was meatloaf or swiss steak or pork roast with dressing or spaghetti. I usually split the special into two "batches" so we'd have fresh stuff at supper. Potatoes got baked daily, any leftovers were used the next morning for American Fries at breakfast or tossed into a pot of vegetable soup. Pasta was cooked, drained and tossed with a bit of vegetable oil so it didn't stick together into an unusuable lump, then quickly reheated by a dunk in boiling water. The only pasta I made from scratch was egg noodles for the chicken noodle soup.

Soups were also made daily but if there was any left at the end of the day we'd add it to the next day's menu and you'd have a choice of soup, LOL. Chili got made only in the fall and winter, and it got made every other day. Another seasonal favorite was a "cold plate" with slices of deli type ham and turkey, some cold potato salad, a creamy macaroni salad and slices of cheese, served with homemade bread. That was summer food, of course.

In the fall, when the smelt ran, we often had batter dipped and deep fried smelt by the basketful as bar snacks, in the summer it was hard boiled eggs, our menu was extremely seasonal and always subject to change, depending on my mood. (grin) No one seemed to mind.

We opened at 7 a.m., the ex would cook the breakfasts while I made bread and pies, baked the biscuits for breakfast and started the soup and the daily special. By "lunch time" which was about 11 a.m., the soup was ready, the bread was baked and the pie was nearly gone. LOL The rest of the day was spent on the cooked to order items and the supper "special" was finished and ready to serve at 5 p.m.

During the week we opened at 7 a.m. and closed at midnight. On weekends we opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 2:30 a.m. And yes, I was there cooked and baking every single day. If it's your place and you're going to make money, you can't sit back and depend on other people, overhead is too high. That's the great thing about owning the business, you get to choose the 80 or 100 hours per week you want to work!

Annie

Not to hijack the thread, but, Annie, you are such a renaissance woman! I'm so impressed.

Thanks, Kathleen, I just always figured I was a little crazy, LOL.

Actually it was a small neighborhood business in a very rural area. I just cooked for customers the same way I cooked for family, except I couldn't remind customers that they had to eat their vegetables before they got dessert. (grin) Oh, and the Health Department gave me a black mark every time they found a jar of my homemade jam because I couldn't prove that I made it "on site" instead of at home in my own kitchen!

Annie

Well, Ive learned that when someone asks about opening a food business, they are usually looking more for a thumbs up than reality-based information, but what the heck.

I started working in restaurants at 16 and worked both front and back of house, eventually going into management many years later. I've worked for low and high end chains, mom & pop cafes, hotel restaurants, a salad bar buffet, QSR, campus foodservice, and IÂm sure IÂm forgetting a couple.

Almost as a rule, the restaurants that were profitable and popular, regardless of whether they were QSR or full-service, made the majority of the menu items in-house from high quality ingredients and mostly to order. (The buffet is the obvious exception, while we baked three times a day, and made sandwiches to order, soups and salad bar items were made in the morning and never kept more than 36 hours. ) However, great food is no guarantee of profitability. The failure rate is still very high.

Tricia is on the mark about the finances. Personally, I think three years is a conservative estimate. In this economy, IÂd expand that to five. Tricia can confirm this, but the last I heard, it was next to impossible to get a SBA or bank loan to purchase a restaurant without putting up half the amount from your own pocket AND having a substantial amount of liquid assets or strong collateral. ANY restaurant, regardless of its previous history.

As to the minute details you mentioned:
Pasta is often cooked ahead and reheated in all but the best restaurants, but seldom held more than a day ahead. if carefully handled, individual portions reheats quite well. But even the low ends chains I worked at cooked burgers, steaks, etc. to order. Starches might be held for a shift, sometimes two. Veggies were cooked to order always.

More and more restaurants are moving to pre-prepped items. There are plusses and minuses. You lose uniqueness. Pre-prepped food seldom tastes as fresh as freshly prepped. If a prep person cuts five pounds of carrots wrong, it's not that big a deal. If 50 pounds arrive that aren't what you ordered, you've got a problem. Factory-prepped foods are more expensive and that may or may not be money you save on labor.

The biggest issue with pre-made items is that your product is exactly like everyone else's who might use that item, so why should someone come spend their hard-earned money for something really no better (and in many cases the exact same thing under a different label) than they can get in the freezer case at the grocery?

At risk of seeming tactless, institutional food service is a completely different game than consumer-based foodservice. About the only thing they have in common is sanitation procedures, equipment and that both produce food. The method of that production, the cost factors, labor issues, profit margins, liabilities, consumer motivation, and skills are different. Most of all the consumer expectations for quality, uniqueness, value perception, service and experience are entirely different.

And being the owner-manager is nothing like managing something someone else owns. You eat, sleep, and breathe the business 24/7. There is no time clock or true day off for a small business owner in foodservice. The stresses and headaches  and heartaches  are nothing like being a manager. Being a manager was a walk in the park compared to being a co-owner. You have to an iron will, and unshakeable faith in yourself and your product, and a passion for what you are doing that will carry you through times when you literally do not know how you are going to get through the day. You have to want to own and run that business more than you want to do anything else for at least three to five years. You have to love what youÂre doing whether what youÂre doing is making customers feel welcome or unstopping an overflowing grease trap or chopping 20 pounds of onions by hand because the processor motor died and dinner rush is in an hour. All of that  and more  will be the new "normal."

It's the rare institutional dining venue where people eat there because they WANT to rather than because they have few other options. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's often true because the food is nothing special. It may be nutritious, hot and (sometimes) cheap, but "delicious" and "unique" are not two words often used to describe institutional food. (Unless you work at someplace like Cisco or Sun in Silicone Valley. They actually do a pretty good job.)

hi, wow! Lots of great posts..thank you!! I especially like the idea of the 4 different entrees a day and pie... anyway... ok here is the deal: this cafe i am looking into is in a tiny town...the owner is thinking of retiring and that is why she wants out. The city actually owns the cafe and the owner runs it rent free. This is common in our area because the towns feel they need a cafe to keep the city alive. The owner runs it herself with very little help which tells you the customer base is manageable, and when she wants a day off or goes on vacation she simply closes it. She actually closed the cafe for this whole winter because she needed a break. Her hours are from 7-2 m-f and until until 1 on sat and that is it. The menu has the typical items like burgers, grilled cheese, blt etc.. and she has one special a day.. I don't imagine she makes alot of money, but because this cafe is very near a major highway and summer lake resort, the potential is there with advertising, longer hours, and great food.. I am not looking to make a huge profit...i just would like to do what i love.. and hopefully people would love it...if i didn't, since i don't buy or rent the place, i really am not out anything....so it would be kind of a good deal...

I think it sounds pretty interesting, and certainly a great way to get into it. I started cooking in the early 70's in San Franciso [squints at Lars, you do look familiar] at a place that had one vegetarian and one meat entre special per day. Since then I've tried to include that in places where I worked and had it as the basis for my own little restaurant in New Orleans. So, I'd say don't forget the vegetarians, especially since there are more and more, even in small towns and certainly anywhere tourists might frequent.

A good one or two soups per day and fresh bread go a long way. Do offer soup and a basket of bread as a meal. You'll be surprised how many go for that. Salads with baskets of homemade bread go over well too. Soups can be done with leftover veggies from the day before and the carcasses of your turkey for sandwiches. You might want to use turkey breasts for your sandwiches. Bake them off, take the meat off the bone, slice and refridgerate. Make your gravy and then you can keep that warm and just heat the turkey to order. I don't like keeping the meat in broth during service. It doesn't take long to heat in the gravy. At the end of lunch you can make the meat into turkey salad for the next day or a pot pie special, depending on season.

Pasta. I cook it until just before done. That point when you taste it and say it needs another minute. Then I quickly rinse with cold water. Plenty of cold water. You want it cooled off but also that way it won't stick together. I don't like using oil on the pasta. Then you reheat in boiling water and finish and it comes out perfect. Don't forget to salt the water enough.

One of the dishes that was always popular for breakfast as well as lunch is quiche. Easily done vegetarian too. Mushroom quiche & brocoli quiches were favorties. This is something you can make quite a few of and freeze, then take out in the morning without losing quality. Fritatta is also very popular and easy and can use potatoes and veggies from previous meal.

Bread, I'd strongly suggest you do the no knead breads and make the dough one day and bake it off the next. The NY Times recipe would probably work out great for you. Won't need fridge space, prepped super fast and can be made into all kinds of things, like rolls, loaves, cinnamon buns, etc. You could make several types at once, white, whole wheat, etc.

Yes, you [the staff] have to come in early to prep. If you are going to get anything delivered the deliveries tend to come early anyway. For breakfast you need to get that bacon and sausage started. Personally at first I'd start out keeping her hours since people know them and then go to dinner if you think it warrants it. Always keep in mind how you can use the food you cook today for dishes tomorrow. Rice for a vegetarian dish of roasted or steamed veggies over rice, becomes rice pudding or fried rice tomorrow. Just know when to throw stuff away. You want your food tasting fresh and good quality. If you keep things well refridgerated until use instead of in a steam table you can use for dishes for the next day or just like we would at home, pop them in the freezer for a dish some other time.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but I've yammered on enough for now.

keep these great ideas coming..love to hear them!! Thanks.. i just wanted to also mention..even though my current work place is considered institutional food...and i agree you typically wouldn't think of it as anything special..we do hear comments all the time that we have the best beef stroganoff,chicken dumpling soup, spaghetti with meat sauce, chili, wraps, salads, taco bar, and indian tacos that anyone has ever tried.(We serve with a homemade meat seasoning and a white sauce) Also we are famous for our lefse and our cookies.. all the different varieties liks sugar, pbutter, gingersnap etc.. are better than the local bakeries, and we make them huge and keep them warm during meal service.. When we have bake sales we will sell 150 in 1/2 hour at $1.00 a piece. Our recipes come from the original cooks and bakers being old ladies and they are their family recipes... to die for.. our pie baker is known for miles around for her pies and at silent auctions they go for $30 a piece, and she said she would make my pies...and i would bring many of these recipes with me..(not in the same town as the cafe) so i guess that is why i kind of feel excited about it..but who knows..she may decide not to retire, i may be too afraid to tie down my life because i know i would never want to close on days i want off because of losing money.. it would come down to whether or not i could find good help...
I also thought since this is a lake town with no grocery store and the closest big town at least 1/2 hour away that we could sell desserts/salads/bars/cookies/buns etc to go..but like i said who knows??

I did mean to say that I was hospitalized a bit over a year ago and the hospital prides itself on good food with a number of items made to order. The food was really quite good. For instance at breakfast I would order a mushroom omelette with swiss and cheddar. My particular choice of fillings with the omelette done soft. Smiles. Our hospital wasn't on a par with what you're describing but it was good and when you're in the hospital and a food lover, it sure helped that they made the effort.

Yes, help is usually a problem. Less hours, rather than more seems to work best. Better them wanting more hours than making up reasons not to come in because they can't fit their life around work. Like your friend that might retire, hiring retired people part time has worked well for me in the past.

My family had a 150 seater for 40 years; The CookBook Restaurant. I watched my mother's nervous system short circuit from the pressure and for the 6 or 7 years that I ran the place, I felt her pain. I finally had to get out. My sister tryed it for a few years but then as a family, we decided to end the era and sold it to an Eagles Club for their purposes.

There are parts of the business that brings sheer joy; menu planning, cooking fabulous soups and sauces, having opportunity to perfect recipes- after 1 or 2 whole turkeys a day for 40 years, one gets the hang of it.

Ours was a family style, from scratch American comfort food place for the most part. Chicken and Dumplings, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Pot Roast, a cream based and a broth based soup every day, burgers, etc etc, ... and the best hash browns in town for 40 years. 1 or 2 of us prepped from scratch every day, while 1 or two handled breakfast on the grill. Everything was timed; Meats came out at 11:30 for lunch as did the soups, sides, etc. It all happened again by 4:30 for dinner. Mashed potatoes and bakers were cooked several times a day as needed- no soggy baked or waterey mashed at our place... Over the years we tried other things; bringing in hotel style chefs for the ritzy fare, adding bits of ethnic touches for variety but in our northwest town, it's the comfort American fare that hit the spot.

When I was young, mom got into the place with the help of another restaurant owner who appreciated her work ethic while she worked for him and wanted to help her out. She practically lived there in the early years and had a cot in a storage area to nap between shifts. She didn't have a vacation until her 12th year in the business. In the 60's and 70's she took a lot of flak being a woman in charge. During a newspaper interview on our last day of business,she spoke of her main regret; the years that she "neglected" her kids. In fact she was a fantastic mom that raised 4 kids on her own through that restaurant.

I went to commercial baking school to learn breads, desserts and pastries and after a couple years of school and working bakeries for experience, I returned to the CookBook. Prior to that, I had worked in a vegie place in Oregon, another vegie place in new York City and then under a name brand chef in the experimental gourmet kitchens of Dean and Deluca, in the early eighties.

When I took over the family business, I knew what I was getting into... hard work and barely controlled chaos.

There are plusses in owning a restaurant but unless you have lots of money, enough to insulate yourself from the rigors of the biz, it takes a toll on you that is hard to describe unless you've been there. It's nice if you can afford a manager for the floor or the kitchen but finding one with the passion and dedication of an owner is unlikely and the place will probably slide.

The hardest part for my clan was managing the staff over the years. We had fantastic people but in every restaurant that I've been associated with, there have been 1 or 2 positions that were rotating doors. Dishwashers, line cooks, and janitors can find a job next door on any given day and therefore, can and do, walk out without notice- and guess who fills in with one hand, while going through the stack of applications, making phone calls and fixing the ice machine with the other hand. And then there's the Aunt Bea from Mayberry waitress that is the sweetest lady on earth but steals a hundred or more dollars a day from the till.

I don't regret my years in the business and for mom it was financially sucessful, but it's harder now. The profit margins aren't there anymore because of the cost of supplies. If you're small enough to enjoy the work, the money is maybe a little above break even (if you're lucky), and if you're big enough or popular enough to make money due to volume, you can probably kiss your nervous system goodbye- or compromise your standards by hiring managers to do the muscle work.

There have been some fantastic observations on this thread so far. Read them and let some of those thoughts settle in before getting too deep. Your situation sounds pretty nice on the cover but read the book before you invest too much time and energy. Obviously, many restaurants make it and yours may be one of them. The sad truth is that many more fail within about two years.

Michael P

Here's a link to the article I mentioned above...

michaelp

Great story, Michael. Thanks for posting.

It seems like the kind of ideal life a lot of us would like to have - Parent at the helm, kids helping in the background, everyone knowing everyone else in town. I'm sure it wasn't always, but a lot of the time, anyway. It says something that you went to school and then went back to the restaurant.

"It's nice if you can afford a manager for the floor or the kitchen but finding one with the passion and dedication of an owner is unlikely and the place will probably slide."

Michael: I don't want to dismiss your wonderfully personal and insightful story but I know that there is the other side of the coin.

The biggest dilemma that mom and pop business owners face starts with their ego. Virtually every mom and popper gets into their own business because they firmly believe that they can do it all on their own, that they don't need to work for the other guy, that they are better.

And then they have a hard time delegating.

They firmly believe that no one out there has their "passion". It's not true simply from the standpoint that the mom and pop's passion is all about the vision. The employee's passion may be about the bookkeeping or the baking or the house management or some other part of the business; and that needs to be cultivated. I've had my own businesses and I've never had a problem finding people with "passion" -- even the young people I hired to put little seeds in little packets and nothing else had it.

Mom and poppers are notorious for believing in the old -- and very destructive -- philosophy of "if you want something done right, do it yourself". And these are the ones who do the 24 hours a day, seven days a week cliche. Any wonder?

They have a tendency to hire people below them in skill or knowledge or experience; subconsciously sometimes and even consciously sometimes. A new phrase came out of the 90's from the HR gurus: "Hire up". Unfortunately, this new practice is still rare; most mom and pops don't take enough time finding the right workers, don't look for the right skills and the right level of knowledge/skills.

Mom and pops don't give enough time nor the right kind of time for "training" and don't give enough patience to employees that make mistakes. Again, it falls back on "I don't have enough time to train them and it's easier and quicker to do it myself". A nasty cycle that leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And mom and pops make the biggest mistake of not paying workers enough, in their quest to be as cheap as the next guy down the block, to compete with the big guys who somehow sell their sandwiches at a lesser price. And we're surprised when the dishwasher goes to the next employer who is willing to give the extra 25 cents an hour!

Mom and pops think they can't afford managers to be the buffer, the liaison between them and the employees. The fact is, they can't afford not to. Turnover is one of the top killers in any business. More importantly, mom and pops have to focus on the vision of the business -- NOT the day to day.

Mom and pops get into their own business with a certain passion -- whether it's the actual baking or the customer contact or the building of one particular product. What they commonly end up doing is, well, EVERYTHING. Then they burn out, they become disgruntled, they physically struggle and then they become the cliches who say, "See -- having your own business is hard work and maybe it'll kill ya".

The profit margins are pretty much anything you want them to be. There's more than break-even money in small business. It's especially NOT about volume (that, in itself, is a death-nail to mom and pops). Business is not about compromise -- it's about creating a vision and ALLOWING good people to help you implement that vision.

Am I being a Pollyanna? Nope. I've spent the last 9 years researching a book on small business management and philosophy: "Beyond Mom and Pop -- Nine Big Steps for Small Companies with Heart and Soul". I've interviewed hundreds of small companies, finding out why they simply limp along as the cliches so many of you have stated here. And I've found the success stories, as well. Yep, there's good and positive news.

Sure, there are plenty of stories of failures. It's those small businesses that live these cliches.

The good news is, you don't have to.

Joe

Michael, what a great story about your Mom! It brought back memories of my childhood days at my parents' small restaurant. I learned to read from the menu signs and played house in the wooden delivery crates in the yard behind the building. I learned a lot about human nature, too, from our customers. I can't give any advice to the original poster, but I wanted to say that this thread has been a fascinating glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes. PolarPrincess, with your background and experience, and with the rent subsidy, I think you will be successful. Your idea of selling desserts and other take-out items is a terrific idea, too. Good luck!

Sue

I should mention that what finally drove us to sell the business was not anything that had to do with employees or hours, it was insurance. Because we were a bar, liquor liability insurance went up to $18,000 per year. As a small local business, miles from anything and not on a main road or even in a small town, we couldn't get the volume that business "in town" got. We were located in one of those "wide spots in the road", it was us, a gas station, a post office and a guy that sold "kits" for log cabins, LOL. There were days in the winter when our total sales were $50 or less, so summer had to carry us through winter. Plus, we owned the building so the taxes, the premises insurance, all utilities were our own. We did have waitresses and cooks that worked for us for years but our total employee base was the ex and I, four waitresses and two cooks. Eight employees total, I sure didn't need to hire a manager. We did have a book keeper, but it was a local guy who did books for several businesses.

The rent subsidy is definitely a bonus for you and I still feel that your success is going to depend on how hard you want to work.

Annie

A suggestion for another side to your cafe: I have an office caterer that sells casseroles, appetizers, snacks, and sweets to the public as well as catering events and my business lunches. I think she has only been open less than a year, but just about everytime I go there she has several customers filling up bags with chilled or frozen casseroles to take home.

If I ever had my own cafe/restaurant I would do my best to only be open at certain hours, i.e. 7am to 2pm or 11am to 4pm - not all hours. I believe in the adage that you shouldn't try to be all things to all people.
Teresa

Hurray...

Teresa has hit on another key to being a market leader: choosing a focus ("you can't be all things to all people").

I learned that one the really hard way when I opened up my nursery in Wisconsin. I encouraged my customers to tell me what they wanted in my store. It wasn't long before I had a store full of products that only one or two people wanted.

Some business consultants, some years ago, did a survey of international corporations that were leaders in there industry. They found that the most successful businesses were the ones that chose a "value discipline", a "focus".

And they found that there were three types of value disciplines and, correspondingly, three types of customers by need.

There were leaders who had the discipline of "best value" down pat. They counted beans and offered the customer the smallest prices. WalMart and McDonald's come to mind. Lots of customers who want this (and maybe only this).

There were leaders who offered "customer intimacy". Everything they did was geared to the customers. Lots of "custom". Lots of customer reps. That cost money, of course, buy they built it into their pricing. Nordstrom's and great restaurants come to mind. We all like to be pampered and allowed to feel that we are getting something truly special.

Then there are the "innovative" companies. Mostly electronic companies who are ALWAYS offering the lates, greatest, newest, bestest, hottest, most horns-and-whistles kind of stuff. Takes a lot of white coats, who get paid well, to produce innovation. How many of you need to have this kind of stuff?

When the companies FOCUSED on their value discipline and put everything into it toward the ONE kind of customer who appreciated it, everyone won.

Of course, whatever the chosen and focused discipline, the companies had to give at least "threshold" attention to the other two disciplines.

Joe
(I think I'll get down now, thank you)

Michael, great story about the Cookbook & your Mom. Thanks for posting the article.

Joe, again coming at this as a banker, you have touched on many salient truths to running a small business. Growth management of the Mom/Pop business is often the tripping point.

Restaurant owners seem to be especially vunerable to the "Nobody makes the pies, breads (whatever) as well as I do!" trap. IMO, after watching it for decades, is that this type of person self-identifies too much with the product. Their self-worth is wrapped up in the food & NOT the business.

Wearing blinders, they insist on control of minutiae & fail to see the broader (and more important) picture. A business plan is a living document yet so many small business owners think of it as only a bothersome detail required to get started. Once the doors open, they file that business plan away & never look at it again.

My father owned four large waste-management companies. My sister owned & operated the largest wood pressure-treating company west of the Mississippi. Building a successful business is life-consuming, no doubt. But learning to delegate is vital to that success. Dad could handle the company on his own for the first couple years when he was running 6 trucks. But his very success meant that he would have to learn to give up control. As the fruits of his labors began to pay off & the number of trucks grew to 12 & then to over 100 managing the business plan took a 60 hour week. It was necessary for him to hire managers, supervisors, & administrators to run the day-to-day operations. Same with my sister. She could keep up when the business was just producing grape stakes for the valley. But, when they won the contract to provide all highway guardrails for the State of CA...her days of direct hands-on supervision were over.

I have sat across the desk from dozens of small restauranteurs pouring out their stories of employees robbing them blind to such small details as cutting the soup vegetables differently than they would. They didn't understand that their job, as owner, was to manage the big picture. Proper business practices would drive down employee theft to a manageable level & it didn't matter how the veggies were cut. The only question was whether customers liked the soup.

Personally, I've come to believe that it's mostly people who have a need for control that gravitate towards becoming small business owners. And, frankly (don't mean this to offend) those who believe, "I can do this better than anybody else!" The "my way or the highway" syndrome hinders their ability to manage the business on its entirety. When asked about restaurants I always told my customers, "I've never seen a restaurant fail because the food was bad. They fail for lack of capital & financial acumen." Yet, over & over they walked out of my office, back to the restaurant, & started harping at the waitress..."No, no, that's not THE way to set the table!" Ahem. It's very ugly, as a banker, to have to walk in the door of somebody's life-long dream & say, "I'm very sorry but I'm here to shut you down." And even more heart wrenching to hear them say in response, "But I make the best bread in town!" They just don't get it & I felt like a failure also because one of my jobs was to guide them to success.

To all of those out there dreaming of owning their own restaurants, bakeries, cafes, sandwich shops, etc. my advise is this: OK, so you're confident you can cook. Put that on the back 'burner' & get thyself enrolled in the nearest Business 101, Accounting 101, Marketing 101, Statistics, & Finance 101. Read every business management book you can get your hands on. Yes, management books are for small business owners too. Not just big Fortune 500 companies. Then, if these subjects bore you to tears...give up your dream because those are the subjects that will dictate your success, or failure. Restaurants are no different than, say, a hardware store. They are both businesses requiring the same basic skill sets. That's why a good manager can change jobs & go from managing one business to something completely different. His/her skills are not "type" dependant.

Your job, as owner of a small restaurant, is not cooking. It's business management. Following & further developing your business plan. If that's not your dream...it's much better to do what you love (cooking) & let somebody else own & manage the business.

/tricia

I can't add anything to what people here are saying. We have to operate in today's world, not the romantic vision of the past. It takes cash.

Thirty years ago, my brothers and I opened a small furniture store that failed in five years. We were undercapitalized in the first place and we could never get past that point. Passion, a good eye for detail, marketing, sixty hour weeks, nothing could get us past the need for cash.

But, Polarprincess, I want your restaurant to succeed. Maybe, just maybe, we are in a new economic climate in this country that will reward you in whatever ways (financial? emotional?) that you need. And I still want to be your baker! Good luck.

Sherry

...And you'll still need C A S H and a business plan, even if we work for free ! ! !

Joe,

A lot of your points are good, but whether intended or not, the basic tenor of your writing, to me, is a bit haughty and uninformed.

It is not accurate to lump a restaurant in with a corner store, a gift shop, or a bank. If I buy a product from a store that is defective, or get treated rudely at a bank; I might get upset, ask for a replacement, or write a complaint; but I'll almost assuredly return. If I order breakfast and get soggy potatoes, that place will never see me again. To take the requirement of minutiae control away from each and every plate that leaves the kitchen, to focus on the big picture and the business plan, that restaurant takes the fast road to closure. To chock that up to ego or not letting go is ridiculous.

Here's the day to day operation of a restaurant in a nut shell. For each 8 hour shift of operation, one spends 3/4 of it preparing for 1/4 of explosive reaction to the demands of the public; Prepping, cleaning, organizing, filling containers, inventory, ordering. And then for a two hour period, every bit of that preparation focus shifts to all-out barely controlled chaos. Afterwards, you clean up and do it all over again. You get one chance to respond correctly in that 2 hour period. If you blow it, any new customer will probably never return. Current customers will tolerate it to an extent but continue the trend and they're gone as well.

In our example, we employed 25-30 people. To keep that level of quality control with that many employees you better have passion. That kind of passion in the restaurant business is damn hard to buy. 9 years of research on small businesses falls short of 40 dedicated years in one business, when it comes to analyzing the demands.

We paid our employess more than any other restaurant in our town of over 100,000. We've had many managers. A great manager is eventually going to move on in this career path because greatness inevitably desires to expand and conquer. Anything less than true grit and passion loses customers to sliding quality and inconsistency. There aren't many small businesses that "enjoy" an arena this competitive. When a new place opens up three blocks away, you lose a portion of your business while they go check it out. This cycle is painful and difficult to deal with; employee count, inventory, under preparation of food or waste. Our product has a one day shelf life.

When one bad employee steals, it hurts. When the manager spends 2 crucial hours washing dishes because someone just walked, the whole operation suffers- the scrutiny of perfection is lowered but the public expectations haven't changed a bit. When a spurious law suit can be leveled against the business by a crook but still costs 12,000 in legal expenses to WIN in court, above the high cost of liability insurance- trust me- one feels that pain in more than the wallet. To label this level of dedication to survive in a difficult environment, ego, as I said before, is absurd.

I could go on and on, but at least felt compelled to speak from the perspective of the trenches of a real working restaurant. I know this came across a little pissy but my arm hairs bristled. Sorry...

michael p

michael:

I knew I would hit a nerve. That's one reason why I said it all.

I still stand by it -- there's a great deal of ego in ANY mom and pop business. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

If you think that the restaurant business is somehow more intense than every or even any business out there, that's uninformed on your part. And I do say that nicely.

You spent 40 dedicated years doing it your way. I've spent many years in my own businesses doing it MY way. But that's exactly why I spent 9 years doing the heavy research (plus another many years doing the "light" research) by talking to others who were in many kinds of business. My way isn't the end-all-be-all and I'm sure you'll agree that your story isn't typical or representative of how to do -- or not do -- things.

I am sorry you have had your share of hard times. We all have. Believe me. I've been in the "trenches" (in great restaurants and bad restaurants) and I've been through the worst of it with my own businesses.

I am sorry that you felt compelled to insult me, though. We all need to be open to everyone's thoughts.

"haughty"? -- I don't know exactly what that means or at least not as how you mean it. "uninformed"? -- hardly.

More than anything, we need to be positive here. polarprincess has a wonderful idea. It's one thing to show her where not to go wrong. It's another thing to perpetuate the ways that can be prevented, avoided, sidestepped, controlled, improved or at least minimized. And they ALL can. And we should tell her how to do exactly that. Even "turn-over" (great managers leaving for whatever reason) can and should be part of the big plan.

The truth is, as you say, many businesses will fail. But NOT because they're simply a mom and pop. Nor because of "the economy". Nor because of the "big guys". It's because we think we make the best pie, we think we know it all and can do it all. And because we don't figure out ways to make a better margin and expand our business.

I do admire and appreciate the passion in your writing.

Tell polarprincess what things worked.

Joe

I'm sorry if I ruffled your feathers, Michael, but my post is accurate. It's the reason that so many fail & why banks hate making restaurant loans. Individual stories are unique. But, bank numbers support my comments including that restaurants are not different from other businesses. It's the reason that some places serving medicore food & providing even more medicore service survive. They have, at the helm, skilled business/marketing managers & sufficient capital reserves to support the business through a rough patch.

Michael, I have to say that I strongly disagree with you on passion. If no restaurant could survive without the passionate handling of minutiae by its owner, as you suggest, we would not have the success of McDonald's. McDonald's owner is, of course, long dead. The restaurant is run by a corporate board room. Yet, they continue to grow & thrive. You are not the first restaurant owner I have insulted by suggesting more attention be given the business plan over the biscuits though. You're also not the only restaurant owner who's told me they are "different" from other businesses. Pouring over thousands of financial statements, from darn near every type business you can think of, would also have me in disagreement. Those financial statements taught me that how successful an owner is in following the business plan will reflect in the balance sheet quicker than how well they adher to the making of hash browns.

I never said nor do I believe it's "ego" that drives people to start a food business. I believe it's "self identity" to the product...the belief THEY have a better product & that the product will drive success. The conversation hits a personal nerve with restaurant owners not seen nearly as frequently with owners of other businesses (except daycare centers). All I'm saying is that internal bank statistics clearly say that concept is inaccurate & that restaurant owners look at me like a deer in the headlights when I steer conversation from new recipes & ask about the business plan.

/tricia

Ok Ok, I cry uncle.

I wrote from work. I'm a technical analyst at a giant airplane manufacturer thats starts with the letter B. Another stress factory. Rule number 1- don't write a passionate letter from work. Rule number 2- don't read critiques of a passionate letter from work.

I do have a small point to make that ties elements of what Joe, Tricia and I have all said. McDonalds HAS very much dealt with the minutiae issue but they did it with money; portioned controlled frozen food from the mothership, timed appliances that lift the fries and flip the patties. When the actual quality of food is no longer the main issue, the whole process can be dumbed down to the point of 90 percent business management and managers that can toe the line following procedures without worrying about producing stand-out food. I still beg to differ about a scratch restaurant being compared to a vending machine food type establishment as if the businesses were similar.

I've owned businesses all of my life; I'm 54, and just last week accepted my first real full time gig in a company. Small business, consulting and contract work has been my source of income for nearly 30 years with only a few short stints to learn on-the job to apply in my business endeavors. Nothing has really come close to the special needs of a cook-from-raw-ingredients restaurant. How many restaurants do you know of that have survived 40 years under the same owner- this is a rare achievement to say the least. A case must be made to support some kind of business savvy.

The intent of my posts was to illustrate one perspective of the business- it's hard. I know numerous people that have ventured here only to be defeated; sometimes because of the lack of backing or sustaining funds but more often the immensity of the task. My words to polarprincess were to read the book, not just the cover. That's the same advice I'd give to anyone wanting their own business.

Sorry if you felt insulted... at least you know how I felt when I read your answer to my comments.

Anyway, I've completed my rant. Strong exchanges like this often come with strong opinions. This is one reason that I've limited the vast majority of my few years at the Cooking Forum to coffee comments.

Love ya

michaelp

I guess if "ego" is what drives people to do the best they can, that's what drove me.

We bought into the family business, it had been owned by the ex's grandparents for 20 years before I came along. The ex had been working there since he was 16, and there wasn't really a choice for me, we were "in the business", for better or for worse.

As I tend to do, I jumped in with both feet. I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to do the very best I could. We were, kind of, all things to all people, because we were the only game in town. Our place wasn't just a bar or a restaurant, we had baby showers, pool leagues, we let the Lion's Club use it for Bingo and the local church used it more than a couple of times when the church was hit by lightning and they needed a place to hold services. Yup, Sunday morning services in the local bar, LOL.

We didn't go under, the business was still profitable when we sold it, just much less profitable due to the insurance bills and a much bigger headache. The new owners are also still in business. We sold the bar and started a health food store, also successful. My ex still runs that, he got it in the divorce. The only business I've ever had that I didn't make money on is the farm, and of course, that's the one that I love.

We also didn't have a business plan. I called the local bank president. Not one of the "million dollar bonus" guys, our local bank president lives here, knows everyone by first name and is familiar with local possibilities. The same guy that I called when Dad passed away and I needed money to pay the farm mortgage and keep Stepmom from losing the place, last fall when no one was getting loaned any money for any purpose. As always he said he'd find me the money and he did and each time he called me at home to tell me personally because that's how HE does business.

So, does doing my very best, providing a product I'm proud of to people I know personally while trying to serve a community need equate to "ego"? If it does, that's what drove me and continues to drive me in nearly everything I do.

So, was I amazingly lucky in that I managed to be successful in spite of my lack of prior experience and no business plan? I don't think it was luck, I still think it depended on how hard I was willing to work while providing a quality product and my absolute inability to expect anything less from myself than my best.

Annie

Annie, you sound like my mom ;-)

michaelp

Thank you, Michael, I'll consider that a compliment, even if I AM "only" 53, LOL.

Annie

wow lots to think about. I was also throwing around the thought today that if i did not dod the cafe thing maybe i would do the local farmers markets and country fairs and have food stands... that way i would still have the potential for making really good money and not be committed 24/7..like i said we will see..i am currently going through chemo and so far everything is looking very positive, but before making any future plans... i need to concentrate on getting healthy again...