Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
My wife has experience and we are tag teaming it (assuming it actually happens). I have experience a long time ago with running a kitchen.
And yeah, the seller is going to lead us for 2 weeks (we made it a condition). Also, his accountant (who we are going to retain) is going to keep her office at our place, so we will be seeing a lot of each other. Not that he would want to be involved, but he is a smart guy to bounce things off.
The part about spoilage and waste is something that I thought of and it does concern me. That, and making sure you keep up with food prices and pricing things correctly. I expect to probably update menus at least 4 times a year. This is currently an issue he is having, because as I mentioned, he owns and operates 2 other places so he can't spend enough time at this establishment. His bar manager sucks at upselling and his heart is with his other two establishments now. He has noticed after opening his 3rd place, there are diminishing returns with the other 2, hence why he is selling one. The increased labour and stress isn't worth it. It has been making money, but not as much as it could. Some of the staff there apparently do not even know who he is, because that is how hands off he has been over the past year.
I know it comes with risk, as all ventures do. I hope I never gave the impression that I thought there was nothing to it.
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The economy is also in bad shape right now and there is less disposable income so make sure you take into account the location you are in, what your target market is, and if there is potential for growth or if will just be neighborhood regulars.
Keep it a traditional pub? Or try to go for something new and more hip to create some buzz?
If it's afloat right now while the owner is almost totally hands off, is there a general manager or staff with experience that you will get along with purchasing it? Figure out what the total overhead is and if you can maintain that profit margin. The most killer things are rent, staff, and inventory costs.