A lot of restaurants fail because they are stupid

i started and ran a restaurant for 10 years. just recently sold it.

There is a ton of overhead in restaurants and not easy to keep decent workers around.

If you don't own the land your restaurant is on you are paying a lot of money for a decent location.

I was one of the owners who made not much more than my employees. In some cases my servers would make more money than me. Especially in our first couple years open. I worked every day, i think i took one day off in the first two years we opened.
Eventually word got out and we had enough customers to where we made a profit. But it took us two years, my brother and i working everyday and paying ourselves less than we paid our cooks to get it up and running.

I think a lot of restaurants fail because the owners have no clue how much time and effort they are going to have to put into their business in order to start seeing actual money coming in.

Eventually after about 7 years business was consistent enough to where i only had to work about 2 days a week ordering food and scheduling and managerial duties. We never hired a manager. It was my brother and i the whole time working our asses off.
I think a lot of restaurants fail in the first year because the owners are very rich to begin with and expecting to be able to hire people to work for them but eventually realize that the expenses add up real quick. And yeah a lot of terrible mistakes, treating employees terrible, bad work ethics, and the ability to just say # it and throw in the towel.
I never had the option to say # it all im done with it. I would be homeless if i had done that. So we never gave up and eventually it worked out.
I sold it recently because holy # the kids we have to hire now are completely retarded. It got way too frustrating and I was losing my mind dealing with such stupid, i want to say kids, but i was hiring some people that were 15, 20 years older than me, with kids to take care of, expecting a living wage. Like, dude, this is a job for high school and college students, not a single parent of 3 kids, and you suck at your job anyway.

I would never open a restaurant again, don't get me wrong, i had a great time and loved being my own boss, and learned a lot, but yeah never again. Waaaay too much work and wayyyy to frustrating.

I think a lot of it is stupidity, or very bad decision making at the very least. But in times of financial turmoil discretionary spending is always the first to go. If you don't need it - don't buy it. This makes a trip to a restaurant a real treat once in a while where it may have been more mundane under normal circumstances. If its going to be a luxury it should be done right. Full service, great food, ambiance, the whole nine yards. A restaurant that can provide proper service will thrive. A restaurant that thinks it can squeak by with the bare minimum will be dirt diving sooner or later, probably sooner.

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a reply to: booyakasha

Yea i don't think people realize how much owners have to be involved and have a strategy for success. You cant just hire some gm and employees and hope they pull through for you.

Im glad your restaraunt was successful. I can't imagine the stress of running a restaurant or bar day to day.

I think alot of people (who fail) buy bars/restaraunts as a way to retire. Like a semi-passive income.

a reply to: booyakasha

I would never open a restaurant again, don't get me wrong, i had a great time and loved being my own boss, and learned a lot, but yeah never again. Waaaay too much work and wayyyy to frustrating.

My family was pressuring me to be a cook/baker and I sincerely thought about opening up a restaurant.
The risk/reward wasn’t great enough for me. I also put too much love into what I make and don’t want it going to just anyone.

We are talking about restaurants, but really this discussion is about any small business.

news.yahoo.com...

Before the pandemic, Maid to Sparkle made around $750,000 a year in gross profit, Bergstein said. "Now we'll be lucky if we gross maybe $300,000," he said.

At Maid to Sparkle, a residential cleaning service in Richmond, Virginia, the workforce has fallen by roughly half, according to owner Jonathan Bergstein.

I’ve personally know someone in this industry. They basically want to work you to death, and give you a little above average pay and the owner rakes in the money. Yes it’s ok for owners to make a profit, but how much is too much? I think we are seeing now! Any kind of service industry like that, why work for someone else when you can work for yourself.