Own a Restaurant without Experience

You don't need years of experience to own a successful restaurant. You don't need to learn every lesson the hard way. It is far better to learn from the mistakes of others, including the author.

What you do need is a practical, no-nonsense guide that walks you through how to do it; whether you're buying an existing restaurant or starting from scratch, from the perspectives of an investor, owner-operator, or absentee owner.

The book covers the pleasures and problems of absentee ownership, choosing the location, understanding the restaurant lease, the restaurant profit and loss statement, financial red flags, due diligence, controls and systems, choosing and retaining management, and restaurant liabilities. All in a conversational, content-rich format.

You don't need years of experience to own a successful restaurant. You don't need to learn every lesson the hard way. It is far better to learn from the mistakes of others, including the author.

What you do need is a practical, no-nonsense guide that walks you through how to do it; whether you're buying an existing restaurant or starting from scratch, from the perspectives of an investor, owner-operator, or absentee owner.

The book covers the pleasures and problems of absentee ownership, owner-operators, and investors, choosing the location, understanding the restaurant lease, the restaurant profit and loss statement, financial red flags, due diligence, controls and systems, choosing and retaining management, and restaurant liabilities. All in a conversational, content-rich format.

Owning a restaurant is completely different from managing one. Managers walk in with an operating system, location, concept along with the menu, pricing, staffing, and systems are all already in place. And somehow, all of it still has to produce a profit. 

Start-ups have none of those. 

Most first-time owners have little experience making those decisions. Even experienced managers often have no experience. For people entering the business from entirely different careers, the learning curve can be brutal. 

Why do some restaurants fail while others succeed? That question became the foundation for this book. 

This was written with one purpose: to help you avoid the mistakes that destroy most restaurants and give you the best possible chance of building one that survives, grows, and succeeds.