Money in, Pizza Out
January 19th, 2010Simplicity
I know I’m crazy, but I can’t help myself. I started looking at pizzerias for sale on Craigslist.
My problem is, I know nothing about running a business. That’s what scares me. But I know what kills most pizzerias. Bad food, bad locations, unrealistic prices, stupid hours, and bad service.
It’s surprising how little money gets you in the door. I figured it would be like $100K, minimum, but it looks like a lot of places are ready to sell out for much less. You could equip a small place, from scratch, for maybe $30K.
I think a smart person would go to each of these places and try the food. If the food is good, the location is good, and the prices are okay, it’s a bad buy, because they’re doing things right, and they’re still not making money. If the location is good and everything else stinks, it’s an open door. They’re doing something wrong, and you can fix it.
We have a place called Cozzoli’s, in South Miami. It’s the worst. Bad sauce. Weak crust. Cheese that tastes artificial (I don’t think it’s real cheese). They should make money hand over fist, because the location is fantastic. But over and over and over, the place gets bought by people who just can’t cook. People will eat mediocre pizza, but when it gets downright bad, they’re going to stay away. I could take that place and make money, if Cozzoli’s would go away. The key would be to get rid of their disgusting food, which you probably have to buy in order to be a franchisee. The problem is not hard to spot, but it’s impossible to fix, unless you have a talent for cooking. And very few people have that.
Pizza is the hardest thing there is to cook well. I tried for years and got nowhere. There are lots of pizzerias near me, and I only know two within ten miles that I think of as worth visiting. None come close to the pizza I make. I beat them all; no contest. Not even close. Only a tiny percentage of restaurants have recipes developed by people who know (and care) what tastes good. They think desire and service and hard work are all it takes, but if the food isn’t right, no one will miss you when you close. If the food is exceptional and you don’t have any other serious liabilities, you should make money.
For someone like me, the key would be simplicity. Sharply limited menu, with extremely good food. As few seats as possible. Minimal staff. I could manage to make pizzas and sell them to people. But overseeing a wait staff? Looking after a big parking lot and dining area? I could see myself making a real mess there. In order for me to get anywhere, I would have to start out with a place that, for all intents and purposes, was a vending machine with ovens. Like a Domino’s with two or three seats. Keep it clean, cook the food, and keep the books. No live music. No bar. No kiddie area with a big bin full of slobbery plastic balls.
All I have to do is convince Mike to abandon his life and move a thousand miles. That should be easy.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:32 PM
My suggestion would be to find a serial restraunt guy and partner up with him.
Alternatively you could get a job in a pizza place, keeping your mouth shut (;-), for a few months to learn the business.
If you’ve never run a business, let me suggest that the non-cooking overhead will be 40+ hours/week for quite a while. Plus employees. Yuck.
OTOH, you could open from 4;30pm – 9pm every night and just live your life otherwise.
-XC
January 19th, 2010 at 2:39 PM
You know I have always told my mother that we should open our own restaurant, but that we would never be able to find a competent staff to meet our perfectionist standards. People just don’t take pride in working for honest wages anymore and try to do their best.
Everyone I have ever known who owns their own restaurant, has NO LIFE. They rarely even get to go to church. 20 hour days are a minimum. Vacations-what’s that?
You will work yourself to death and barely scrape by. And as for Mike being your lifelong friend-you can just go ahead and part ways now, because the stress will drive you apart and possibly make you want to kill each other.
OTOH-if you could hire through your church and find Godly caring people, the whole scheme just might work! Oh yeah and YOU’VE GOT TO MAKE HOMEMADE MOZZERELLA!!;-)
January 19th, 2010 at 2:41 PM
You have to be insane to open a restaurant. That was the whole theme of this post. I’m talking about a store.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:31 PM
I can suggest a pizza place if you’d like to approach them. I have no idea whether they’re interested, but since you’re committed to the idea of pizza, they might. Feel free to email me if you want the name of the place.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:17 PM
I was thinking along Heather’s lines. Work with some folks from your church. You don’t want to commit the hours they may be glad to. Be a silent partner. Bless them and get it out of your system.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:35 PM
“For someone like me, the key would be simplicity. Sharply limited menu, with extremely good food.”
.
I watch the British version of “Kitchen Nightmares,” and this is the same formula Gordon Ramsay uses for nearly every restaurant he tries to save. The menus are, 9 times out of 10, too complicated or extensive, so the first thing he does is propose a limited menu of a few simple dishes that are easy to prepare and take pressure off the kitchen during rushes. This helps prevent the “waterfall” effect that occurs when food starts coming back from customers or is held up in the kitchen.
.
The true essence of genius is being able to understand the basics better than anyone else and then executing the basics better than anyone else. A really good pizza, as you have shown, is not hard to make, but bad pizza places are ubiquitous because people don’t pay attention to the basics.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:40 PM
One thing I’ve seen with (many) people who cook well and “always wanted to have a restaurant” – that really does them in – is that their cooking style/recipies/repetoire don’t translate well to the sort of speed, mass production volume and variety necessary to operate as a restraunteer (particularly with other people doing the preparation and cooking).
January 19th, 2010 at 8:16 PM
My dad had a friend like that. They wanted to open a restaurant, and then the friend pointed out that they could only seat eight people.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:41 AM
Give any thought to a Gut Wagon type specialized Pizza Truck?
Mounting a useable Pizza Oven might be the only problem,,,
Instead of kids running down the street shouting ‘Ice Cream Man! Ice Cream Man!’ you would have adults running after you yelling ‘Pizza Guy! Pizza Guy!’ 🙂
January 20th, 2010 at 7:56 AM
“You have to be insane to open a restaurant.”
.
I see you have a good hold on sanity.