If you are contemplating, or anywhere along the road to, opening a restaurant, this guide will prove invaluable.
The author, in middle age, with no prior restaurant experience and not much capital, embarked on a career as a restaurateur. In a span of four years he opened three original, iconic, and quirky restaurants, each of which has become a thriving success.
In this book he draws upon his experiences as a restaurateur, as well as nearly 30 years spent negotiating commercial real estate leases and sales, and a decade teaching real estate investment analysis and critical decision making to show you how to:
•Accurately estimate the amount of capital required for your first restaurant (probably less than you think) and how to raise it. •Select your restaurant’s ideal location and negotiate the optimal real estate leases or purchase for it.•Develop a creative, winning restaurant concept that is a natural extension of yourself and a perfect match for your customers. •Market (particularly using low-cost and guerilla-style techniques), staff, source supplies for, continually refine, and grow, your first restaurant. •Identify all the things that could doom your restaurant and avoid them.However, this book is not for everyone. It completely lacks fluff, hype, and unconditional, “just believe in yourself”, rah-rah encouragement. If that is what you are looking for you will be disappointed.
What this book does offer is a solid framework for beginning with perhaps a vague idea and proceeding, step-by-step, to research, plan, evaluate, open, operate, refine, and grow a very successful first restaurant. If you are serious about opening your restaurant, this is the book for you.
Thinking of opening a restaurant? Read this book first. It may dramatically improve the odds of your success and save you tens of thousands of dollars.
Your First Restaurant - An Essential Guide
