Let's talk cash....

BBBQ,
My question to you is the 75K gross or net,net.
Get a business plan going,contact a VERY GOOD CPA and run it by him. Man if you can pull 75Knet net ,move over I'll be right up.
Papa Shaka

Well, yeah, I meant net,net. Living costs are higher here. I know people don't get into "q" for the money, mostly. But I still think we ( I ) could do that in this area with so little competition....

Great,then good business plan,GOOD CPA ,and listen to him,then make up your mind as to which way to jump.
Papa Shaka

bodacious, well let talk realistic. you want to put 75k in you pocket? hhmmm... that would be tough. i had a pizza retaurant for 7 years. gross sales of over 300k. profit was right at 75k.
but, out of that would come any extra unexpected cost such as a new piece of equipment. or major repairs..
ok. figure out how much q you would have to sell in order to profit 75k. probably around 4k a week. thats a whole lotta work for one person. think of how much cooking and prep and time that is required. i say, if you are doing it for money, you may be dissapointed. kinda gives new respect to the mom and pop places, huh. my wife and i have been running our q place for just over a year. finally, we are closed on mondays. before last week, we were open 7 days. yea, its a whole bunch of work. we had absolutely no time for any personal life. none. zero. i averaged 120 hours a week. all this, just to get up and running. and we are only half way to the goal you have set for yourself. just something to think about. btw... we have alot of family in your area. my wife grew up in west chester//

I also have a good paying full time job, and do the concession thing during the summer months which is only about 4 months long. I do the cooking and man the booth as time permits. My wife mans it the rest of the time. In the 4 months we grossed about 60K, with about 50% profit. Remember that you have medical with your job and if you leave you are responsible. For me medical is a huge decision maker. Let your family run the business and you just make sure it going good. Just my input, hope it helps with your decision.

Bodacious,

You might be surprised how many people in that area eat Q. Unfortunately, most of them have just not had an opportunity to eat GOOD Q.

75K is a lofty goal. Not saying it is unreachable, but it would take a lot of work and time. You would need to have a lot of traffic to reach this.

This string is a little old, so I may be trying to bring back a ghost here, but I too am starting to put a BBQ business on paper (i.e., buisness plan) so this string and a few others in the CS Forum have caught my attention.

So I've read through several of the stirngs here on the Forum, and am I to assume that everyone in the BBQ resturant and catering business are simply doing it for "the love of BBQ"? Is anyone making a good living doing what they love? I expect hard work to be part of any succesful business adventure (heck I work hard at my current full time job, and am successful... I think) so it's not the work that I find is a hinderence to starting a BBQ buisness, it's that it doesn't sound like anyone is really making a good living at it.

I've investigated franchises but would like to start my own business....and grow it. My heart sinks as I look through discussions like these.

Maybe I'm reading the comments and suggestions too literally, and since I can't hear your voices, maybe there is a lot more encouragement being expressed in the "non-written word". Someone, please, tell me that hard work and the right business plan (and location of course) can be profitable AND self satisfying. The last part IS very important to me too, because I do like making great BBQ.

I can tell there are a lot of smart and dedicated folks "making conversation" and great Q here on the Forum. I respect everyone's 2 cents (or more). I learn everytime I come here.

sorry, allen. i didnt mean to sound discouraging. its just that so many people see the glitter without realizing the work involved. sure, there are alot of negatives to having your own place, but i wouldnt trade it for the world!
when you work for someone else, it seems you always have someone controling your life in one way or another, making decisions that directly affect you and your family. that, is the factor that keeps us from being free. having your own place is like being truly free to run your own life! that is more valuable to me than the so-called paycheck and benefits. actually, i am finally making more money now than i did when i was working for corporate. plus, building a business is like buying a house instead of renting. if you decide to move on, you have something valuable to sell. speaking of which, we may consider doing soon, (as my wife wants to move to back to philly to be close to the grand baby). so if anyone wants to move to savannah....

We are just starting out scary-like! I have a full-time job as a radiologic technologist with good benefits. My husband is a professional chef who changed professions from construction engineering to food service at age 40. I have the philosophy that this will be no different from someone buying a really expensive hobby, for instance, fishing complete with the boat, etc. I want us to make a good enough living at this that we can retire with some money coming in and still have something we can both enjoy doing. We are starting out keeping our full time jobs using an IRA withdrawal for the purchase of our equipment, as we aren't at all comfortable putting a loan on our house. So, I guess it just comes down to are we willing to enjoy the benefits of what we've saved for retirement while we can maybe make it up while we still have a little energy? Or do we want to let it sit until we can afford a nice retirement home? Anyway, I don't expect to get rich, ($75,000 would be rich to me) but I hope to get a lot of good times from this and not jeopardize my family in the meantime. We also had the penalty and taxes withheld at the time of the IRA withdrawal so hopefully won't have a big surprise.

I read this post yesterday and I hesitated to respond until I could do so in a lucid manner.
The old school german chef that I trained under told me that if you do not have at least one years capitalization then you are a fool opening an operation. This capital includes not only rent and utilities but also wages taxes and salaries and to be obvious food costs.
to clear 75 k you will need at least 325k in income or to break it down further 3,250 covers at 10 bucks a cover or to break it down even more about 100 covers a day year round. Could that be done? if so then there's your 75k ez money.
jack

i read my post. sorry if it sounded harsh. i appolgize if it did. these realities i know, 75% of resturants close in the 1st year, of the survivors after 5 years only 10% are left. i am gambling with 65k of my ira money to clear 40k for rig and 2 cookshacks. do a gut check, buy business plan pro 2004 get a cpa and work it up. it isnt ez and certainly isnt fun but if it what you want to do go for it!!! failure is not an option at that point!!!!
for what it is worth i wish you all the success in the world
jack

latest update from me...
well, we are swamped! thats a good thing, right?
its crazy, the more i cook, the more i run out of.
last 2 days, i cooked 4 cases of ribs, 2 cases of butts, dozens of chickens, 150 pounds of taters, tons of sides, 4 gallons of sauce. and still today, i am late for getting stuff going. i try to stay a day ahead, now i am lucky to stay a shift ahead. food cost is great. its true, the more you sale, the lower the percentage of food cost, and the higher the bottom line profit percent. we hoped for 200 a day with 40 percent profit, to pay personal bills. now we are at 500+ a day, with a bottom line of 55 percent! pretty wild, huh! need some serious r and r. man, i can hardly walk, my feet hurt so bad. aint there some one younger out there who wants to buy me out? move to savannah?
life is great, and i hope great things for all of you.