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New Resurant Advice

FM Former Member
Don't know this goes here, but not much action in the professional forum.


I live in a what use to be a small town west of Birmingham. I am thinking of opening a BBQ place, I do have some Exp. This town has BOOMED in the last 2 yrs, we have a new shopping center that has a 2400Sqft space available. and a huge fairly new subdivision right behind it that has probably 1000-1500 homes in it. There has been an Avg of over 1500 houses a yr built and sold Avg price of 250K over the last 2-3 Yrs and they are still building. Other than fast food McDonalds and Subway there is only 1 Mexican place and it is not good at all but it stays PACKED everynight, couse it is the only place around. Rent on the 2400SgFt bldg is 4500.00 a month. I guess what I need is some things to think about from you all. Can it make it with that kind of rent? What kind of overhead am I looking at? How many people will I need per day/week? I will be running the place myself so I will not have a manager. I will be doing homemade Lasagna on Tue night and Ribeye's on Sat night. There are alot of churches around here that I can get in with as well as 3 car dealerships and an industrial park. Thanks
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FM Former Member
Since no one has responded yet, I'll throw my thoughts out there. I am not in the restaurant business, so please take this with a grain of salt.

The location sounds like you'd have plenty of people to draw from.

The rent would scare me. Between the start up cost, rent, insurance, utilities, employee's, food costs, licenses, etc., you'd need to do a very substantial daily business.

By the general questions you are asking, I sense that this isn't your area of expertise. If that's the case, I think most people would tell you it's probably not worth the financial risk.
There are much safer ways to invest your money.

Good luck with your decision.

Matt
wheelzwheelzSmmmmoooookin'!
Ditto with Matt, I am not in the business.

I think the first thing I would do is take my plan to an accountant & financial planner that knows the area. They can give you some good advice and IMO it would be $$$ well spent. They know the price of property, rent, income, businesses that have come and gone and ones that were/are successful. They possess a lot of wisdom when it comes to area demographics.

Just my $0.02 Good luck!
FM Former Member
analysis, analyze, reanalysis, reanalyze !

What was the prior use of the building? cars per hour traffic ? what are the other food vendors paying for rent ? are your margins as good as the margins on what they serve ?

A good commercial realtor should be able to help you assess your situation. also, call S.C.O.R.E. (Service core of retired executives) in your area. They can provide some good counsel for folks wanting to start a new business.
FM Former Member
Why not start in a parking lot with a catering trailer? This keeps your initial investment much lower while some of the variables in this equation are worked out.

There's a local BBQ joint here that started out as a trailer. He had a sign on the back that said something like, "When I grow up I want to be a restaurant".

Good luck.

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