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Anyone ever thought about...
03-21-2010, 08:51 AM
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04-15-2010, 11:54 PM
I own a restaurant here in the States, and it's a real pain in the ***. Nightclubs and restaurants are awful. Too much cash and chances for people to give away free drinks.
Nightclubs and trendy restaurants at least here in the U.S. have a very short lifespan. Could be hot one year then dead. Restaurants are just a logistical nightmare. What if your chef just quits one day? How will you run? Keeping people satisfied, the health department, getting raped by vendors, electricians, refrigerator repairmen, etc.
Nightclub bartenders WILL give out free drinks to people, pocket cash. Don't forget bouncers, fights that will break out, etc
And you can't be there all the time. How will you be sure your staff and management aren't pocketing cash?
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04-16-2010, 01:24 PM
"The only type of restaurant / bar that I would ever consider is the warehouse style place with a ton of capacity."
The other type of place I have seen make money is the super low overhead crappy dive bar turned "hip".
Especially in a down economy.
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04-16-2010, 03:58 PM
The smartest way to get in the restaurant business is to own the real estate. McDonalds realized this a long time ago, and indeed it's the only way to go.
Work 1hr a month collecting rent, and let some chump work 100hrs/week to make you wealthy.
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04-22-2010, 01:32 AM
2 thoughts on this topic:
1) Glamorous Businesses are less profitable than un-glamorous businesses. Everyone wants to own a restaurant or bar. There is a certain glamor involved. And because of this extra competition you can expect less profit. I used to know a guy who owned a business that distributed lard. Now thats about as un-glamorous as it gets, but thats one of the reasons he made so much money
2) Not sure about bars, but anyone I've ever talked to who was in the restaurant business says its a horrible business. The rate of failure is high, and the return is poor for those who survive. I imagine its the same for bars.
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04-23-2010, 01:59 AM
I got friends in the bar industry. The thing is, the profit margins are astronomical, at least for places favored by the rich.
I got a friend who made some cash importing wines from Australia, buying for 12 bucks a bottle, with the retail price at the consumer end being 150+ a bottle.
Also, high end bars/clubs that can get to full capacity, even if only on weekends, make crazy gains. Even the smallest mark up at these places is 2-3X the normal prices, not counting wholesale.
That's how outdoor bars here in Xiamen can only open 6 months out of the year, and still afford their almost 10-20 grand a month rent.
Alcohol in most countries is dirt cheap. I get a bottle here for 50 cents, bars sell it for 4 bucks, clubs for 8, and with low cost of labor here (i hired part time bar staff for maybe 1-2 bucks an hour when i managed one), and even counting the occasional bribes, it doesn't take much to start rolling out of the red into the green. But that place was a shit hole to work in with 5 partners who were never around and crazy tight fisted when it came to anything.
The problem i would say is the rolling popularity of bars in a limited location. You need to offer something that that makes people want to come back. Bars fade in and out of "style" and you need to build a solid customer base to pay bills. And you wont make money for the first long while. Things like these spread by word of mouth. None of the normal advertising methods work. I had a plan set up for the bar i worked out of for using stealth marketing which was shot down by the owners for costs, but if you can get a good model for it, it would be crazy awesome.
TL DR:
You need to find a niche in the bar market to make any dent in an existing bar culture, or go somewhere where the demand outstrips the supply. Standard business rules, but bars and restaurants are already pretty much an over-saturated market anywhere.