What is the Worst (hardest?/most unpleasant?) part of Opening a Restaurant?

As for the most challenging part I have decided that it is finding the right people...both in who to do business with and who to have work for me. I mostly picked well with contractors and with who to buy from but it was a lot of work to figure it out, and less well with hiring. Of the 6 people I hired at start up ( not counting my kid and his friend) only 2 remain (and one of the replacements I will fire next week), and of the 4 who are gone one I caught stealing and one walked out in the middle of our first rush (he seems to have not believed me when I said that we will eventually get busy and need to work hard). We are getting a good crew, but it has been torture getting there.

I think all service businesses find this a challenge. Very few people want to grow up to become waiters, hosts/hostesses, bar tenders, or cashiers. It's usually a transitional job at best and you might find someone good who is working their way to someplace else, but in the meantime you have them. Worst is when you find someone really good and you pay them the best you can and try to make them happy, but they leave because they can make a few pennies more some place else or are offered a benefit you can't afford to provide. I had a fantastic designer working with me a few years ago, but he had an on-going illness that required some expensive medication. He now works for a Big Box store as a warehouse clerk just for the insurance. Such a shame. So has business been good? What type of restaurant did you go with?

This story is "How Tom Found the Wrong People."

This was in Tulsa, twenty years ago.
This guy overheard me in a bar talking about taking the bicycle club out for a forty mile ride to Jennings, Oklahoma just to eat some of the cinnamon rolls from this cafe on Main Street. He interrupted, said he was going to open a breakfast restaurant in Tulsa and would I mind coming by and trying out the food and service before the opening day? I said I'd be glad to and hoped he had a really good cinnamon roll.

So, on the appropriate Sunday morning, early, my then wife and I showed to up to breakfast. We had been riding bicycles in Oklahoma by then about a dozen years and had had many many breakfasts in many many little town cafes. We were experts on "two eggs over easy with biscuits and gravy, a side order short stack and coffee. Lots of coffee. Oh, and a cinnamon roll first."

Tom met us at the door. He'd invited about thirty other people to eat and, smart guy, asked if we could go in in separate groups, spaced out over the next half hour or so. We did and it went well. The orders were taken efficiently, the coffee brought without delay, the food arrived hot, but was nothing special. There was special dish on the menu which was Tom's attempt at a signature dish : picture hot cereal with a dollop of Bananas Foster over it. Yummy, but even for a cinnamon roll aficionado, too sweet.

We wrote up our thoughts on the little pads Tom gave us.

"What did you think of the waitresses?" Tom asked me as we were leaving.
It was then I noticed that all of the waitresses were, if not middle-aged, not youngsters. All of them were over thirty, some over that, well over that.
"I wanted to hire experienced help, so I only hired waitresses with at 10 years of work in restaurants." "Uh-huh", I said. "Interesting", I said. "Well, good luck, and we'll be back in couple of weeks. We're thinking about starting a bike ride from here, kind of a Pancakes and Waffle Tour. I'll let you know."

~~
Three weeks went by before we could get our **** together for the ride and I went by the cafe to let Tom know he would have an extra twenty-five or so people the next Sunday about seven AM. I walked in and was immediately struck by the sight of five or six really young waitresses and a couple of young waiters.
Tom was at the counter and I went over and sat on a stool. "What happened to the experienced waitresses?" I asked after putting an order for a hot cinnamon roll.
"They're gone." said Tom, "I found out something."
"What's that?"
"I found out that, if someone has been a waitress for ten to fifteen years, you can't tell them anything about being a waitress."
"How about that."
"Yeah, can't tell them how you want the dishes stacked because they already KNOW how they want the dishes to be stacked. You can't tell how you want the orders called in to the cooks because they've 'been calling in orders since before you were in the fifth grade.' which IS true, but you'd think they'd want to hear out the BOSS about how he'd like to run HIS restaurant. No. They didn't. Oh, and they didn't like my Sweet Home Al-banana cereal, so they refused to mention it when describing the specials."
"Whoa."
"Yep," Tom said, "I learned that 'experienced' sometimes means
'untrain-able'."

~~
yeah.
Joe(the cinnamon rolls were unchanged and good)Nation

Im sure that, with yor loving view of all others , people will cpme streaming to your aid.

You have never been a manager have you....the best people do not sign on to a job looking for love, they are looking to be a part of something good, they are looking to work with and for other people who know what the **** they are doing. My problem has been finding good people, not keeping them and motivating them once they come through the door. I thought that the bad economy had made this easier, but it appears to not be the case.

Used to be, but there are not that many good "career" jobs around. We did hire 2 like that....university students, one has worked out the other did not.



There have been some studies recently that show that money does not work as a motivator a lot of the time, and none of those who quit me left over money. With tips my people are already making $11-12 a hour, and it will get better, plus as I expand I will book looking for managers down the line and I have told everyone that I will hire from with-in if possible.

Not up to projections, but not that far away either...the trend line and the buzz are perfect however.

I am not getting into that, there are to many people at A2K who take debate personally, and who have decided that I am a bad guy based upon the issues I debate and the sides that I take. Given IdiotBill's demand that I identify myself so that he can come kick my ass, and what happened to Agrote, I have no confidence that my business web presence would not be spammed out of hate should I identify it.

EDIT: Farmerman being at +2 popularity for his snark above also gives me pause.

I agree you can't wave money in front of people and that will make them work harder, but in the service field people are making little enough (and I consider $11-$15 little) that they will move on for a bit more cash. I've always had the loyalty of my best employees, but sometimes temptation wins.

I didn't mean for you to identify the actual restaurant. I was just wondering if you are doing a cafe, bar, diner, breakfast/bakery or the genre of food.

Sorry re your fantastic designer needed to get the insurance paying job. How disheartening, for both of you. Terrific designers don't happen every day..

I should be able to get people up to $13-14 and because most will not claim tips on their taxes the equivalent is really $14-15...not bad for a set schedule with no early mornings and no late lights. I know that the pay is not great but I offer an opportunity to be a part of something great, with opportunity for advancement, and a pay/work schedule package that people can build a life around. I for instance refuse to do split shifts even though labor cost wise I probably should...because I want to treat my people as well as I can.

In this industry finding bosses who are both decent to the employees and who know what they are doing is not that easy to do. I am building loyalty fast. In truth I am a better manager than I am a chef, and I am a damn good chef.

Yeah, I lost a really great employe and he's now bored and frustrated with a job that requires little creative input. We all lose. He even makes less now if you don't factor in the health insurance. It's not even good insurance, but it cut his pharmacy bill by 75%.

Realizing that there are at most 10 people at A2K who wish me well, let me say this:...... after several months in business, and after being profitable with-in 60 days including taking my draw, let me say this.....the hardest part has been finding employees who have the capacity to work as well as the willingness to work. I have a good crew finally, but of the 7 I hired other than my kid only 2 remain, and several positions are on there third hire. I am shocked and dismayed at how hard it is it find Americans who are not allergic to work. Coming up with the idea and putting together the restaurant was the easy part. Managing the restaurant is more difficult but is easily doable, finding Americans to do restaurant work (Making on average $12 an hour) is much more of a problem.

My faith in America and Americans has been badly shaken by this experience.

Is the hours you give them though? Not enough, so they go find a job with more?

Just asking:)

Or that they can't speak chinese...(just kidding)...

listening.

I started not giving anyone more than 27 hours a week, with most at 20 hours, but i picked either college kids or those who had been unemployed for a long while. I though they would be grateful for the chance to work. I was wrong. I will never hire another college kid. I will think twice about hiring anyone who has not worked in the last 3 months.

I now have one pretty 21 YO girl who lives 30 minutes away in a small town with no jobs, one 23 year old cute musician female who is great once she gets in to work but is in her last chance re being dependable for showing up, one 20 YO guy who is pretty dumb but who can over time learn, my high school kid, his best fiend who has little work ethic but who is getting better under the constant threat of peer pressure , and a full time 26 yo Mexican in the kitchen. Other than my kid the mexican has been the best person I have hired. The 21 yo is the only person other than my kid and his best friend who remains of my first hires, and I was pissed that my wife hired her because she lives so far away (and she has many tattoos and piercings and a propensity to flash her thong).....everyone says she is sweet, which is true, but what gets me is that when we are busy she always has a higher gear and gets the work done.

lols, maybe your wife liked the thong exposure.

IDK, that's crazy... Correct me if I am wrong but they don't get much financial support or any, from the Government over there? So the money should be highly important and the hours suit a college person, enough time to study.

I know you will mentor the guy..

I know also that you are the Chef so you can't be on the floor at the same time, edging them on, making them feel important, climbing the ladder is there anyone else that can take that role?

By the way congratulations for getting it off the ground.

They are mostly rolling up debt to get through school, but also feel entitled to the easy life without work. I am a demanding boss but fair, and I work more hours and harder than I expect any of my employees to work, but all of my college pukes came to the conclusion that I am an asshole who expects too much work.


Thanks....if I knew before hand how few new restaurants make it post great recession I might never have gone for it. My banker and those in the industry whom I have talked too say that I am the only start-up in in this town in the last year who has shown a profit. But I am also only the second restaurant my banker has lent to in the last 7 years, the other being for the second store of a local legend who now has 5 stores. I am the ONLY start up restaurant whom he has ever lent to, and it was because I had a great Idea as well as a business plan that was so long and so solid that he said "how can I say no to this?".



That is my wife. She was known as the asshole in the army, and I was supposed to be the good cop at the restaurant , but it quickly became clear that I was going to have to be the demanding asshole so she had to become the good cop. I notice everything though, so when ever anything is not right I tend to notice and start corrective action, even when the problem is in the front of the house. I cant explain it, I have always been very perceptive to things that are not right, do not fit....my radar goes off and I look to identify the problem and the the solution to that problem. This is a skill that has served me well as a manager, and now does as an owner.

Unless they see it as a career you are screwed hense my comment of making them feel they can climb.

This happened to me with National Business Network, a business I created.. When bankers see passion and passion and passion they tend to think they are on a winner and you have passion, heeps of it.

I think hawkeye you know you are on a winning thing and so you want to ensure your belief, passion does succeed so you have intuition which is more so of a womans thing than a man, but I call it survival in a business. This is your dream..

I am not asking you to lie to those college kids but give them a dream make them see you as their mentor.. Is my thoughts on this.

Mentorship only works on those who already have a drive and a willingness to work. My ability to motivate is not lacking, it is my ability to pick those who are ready to be motivated.

My musician is still with me because her life is nowhere and she wants to run my food truck which I plan to start next year, the mexican is because he is trying to start his own life with his new wife away from his family in Seattle and he knows that my operation is a hot idea that will go places, my kid because he does not want to disappoint me, his friend because he does not want to disappoint my kid, the 21 yo because this is the best job she has ever had by far and she wants to get out of her mom's house in her dead little town, and the boy because he loves the work and this is the best job he has ever had. A college kid living on loans and some fantasy about how being "well educated" means they are in demand and thus can write their own ticket?? Them I cant work with, the reality of my business and this economy does not match their expectations, all I can do is disappoint them.

Hawkeye re-read what you wrote.

I understand it's hard to find those with drive, willingness is nothing, it IS belief, drive, OMG this guy is going somewhere so am I..

Don't employ anyone that doesn't have it.

I know it's like a needle in a haysack, been there.. But, find those that have passion in life.

They have to believe in your dream they are listening to the economy if your bankers believed in you, you can get workers to as well.

Can and have, but it is far more difficult than I figured. I am the guy who for two decades has railed against tolerating illegals and the high number of work visas because I though that the work should go to Americans, that the problem was employers not being willing to pay a decent wage out of greed. I might have been wrong about that....