Quote:
Originally Posted by UncleWede
IF you are opening a restaurant, you better take your last vacation now....
My BILIL was a reasonably successful lawyer, then got a loan from his parents to take over a long-standing mom-pop Italian place. The whole family ended up "helping" Thurs-Sun nights working for dinner, and they STILL had to get out and he went back to his practice. After 4+ years of that struggle, he took us all on a cruise as his first vacation.
I felt bad for the people who bought it, because they didn't have as large a family to help out. Now that space is for lease, after changing thru 2 different other food types.
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THIS!!! I had mine from 2003 thru 2007. I didn't even realize I had been working straight for 365 days (10am - 10pm) that my wife knocked on the door one morning and when I opened the door and asked why she wasn't at work, she replied: "I'm giving you your first day off on your birthday. Go play golf". I was profitable right off the 1st year (I had saved enough that I didn't have a single loan building out the restaurant). The income was enough for my family of 6, but the wife still needed to work for us to have medical/dental/vision insurance.
I had brought in the idea of "Cicis" to the greater L.A. area. For not being a known-brand, it is difficult to get it off the ground. I have heard that around 92-94% of first time owners do not make it. I guess I'm one of the lucky 8%. I eventually sold it to someone who had 2 Baskin Robbins and 3 ToGo's sandwich shop. He liked my concept and he wanted to try his hands in pizza. Let me tell you, I was out of there like a bat out of hell. My only gripe was the hours you will invest in it as a start-up. I regret the soccer/softball/baseball/taekwondo events that I missed. Those you can never get back.