> Restaurants and mom and pop grocery stores/convenience stores are very low margin, super long hours, and stressful.
Sorry to hijack off of your comment - none of what I say is meant as a negative about you or your parents.
I've seen two types of people start these:
1. People from low income backgrounds who don't have many other options and don't have the means to gain good knowledge. I sympathize with them.
2. People who are somewhat wealthier (have a good degree, work for an engineering company, etc) who complain about how poorly people are running restaurants and how poor the food is and know for certain that they can run a restaurant that makes the food really well and everyone will come to their restaurant and business will be good. Very common for this to be about ethnic restaurants but doesn't need to be.
I have little sympathy for this group. They really should know better. I've talked to them about it before they put a huge chunk of their savings into starting a restaurant. They typically do no background research. They don't ask other business owners. They have no idea about the margins (hint - the other restaurants who make food poorly do it for an economic reason - not because they can't find good chefs).
Recently one of them opened a restaurant near my home. And their food was great - I would put it in the top 2 of their category in the city. But their prices were too high. Normally I order this type of food once in a while when I don't want to cook or am busy. But the price was beyond that threshold. I went there only when special friends visited me in town and took them there.
And not many people went there. The reviews everywhere (Yelp, etc) were awesome. But people didn't go there. Partly because of prices, but partly because of the location. Why did they pick that location? Because there's a big company in the neighborhood. Surely there are plenty of well paid people there who would come for lunch? Yes there are and no they won't. Over the years living there I know this plaza well. It's a graveyard for restaurants - most of them likely relying on employees of that company eating there. All these guys had to do was spend time in the restaurants in that plaza prior to signing the lease to get an idea. "Ah, but they don't go to those restaurants because their food is crap!" Yes, the food is crap. No, that's not the reason.
And then there's the food. Great food they made. But they weren't making a profit. So did they revise their menu to focus on items that would give good margins? No. They raised the prices. Fewer people came. They raised the prices again. Even fewer people came. This spiraled out of control. Within a year they had shut down. One of the co-owners told me there wasn't a month where they made a profit. I asked "Did you talk to any restaurant owners for their advice prior to opening?" Nope. If the food is great, people will come.
These guys work (or worked) pretty good jobs prior to opening the business - sometimes in senior management roles. Is that how decisions were made at their companies?
Sorry to hijack off of your comment - none of what I say is meant as a negative about you or your parents.
I've seen two types of people start these:
1. People from low income backgrounds who don't have many other options and don't have the means to gain good knowledge. I sympathize with them.
2. People who are somewhat wealthier (have a good degree, work for an engineering company, etc) who complain about how poorly people are running restaurants and how poor the food is and know for certain that they can run a restaurant that makes the food really well and everyone will come to their restaurant and business will be good. Very common for this to be about ethnic restaurants but doesn't need to be.
I have little sympathy for this group. They really should know better. I've talked to them about it before they put a huge chunk of their savings into starting a restaurant. They typically do no background research. They don't ask other business owners. They have no idea about the margins (hint - the other restaurants who make food poorly do it for an economic reason - not because they can't find good chefs).
Recently one of them opened a restaurant near my home. And their food was great - I would put it in the top 2 of their category in the city. But their prices were too high. Normally I order this type of food once in a while when I don't want to cook or am busy. But the price was beyond that threshold. I went there only when special friends visited me in town and took them there.
And not many people went there. The reviews everywhere (Yelp, etc) were awesome. But people didn't go there. Partly because of prices, but partly because of the location. Why did they pick that location? Because there's a big company in the neighborhood. Surely there are plenty of well paid people there who would come for lunch? Yes there are and no they won't. Over the years living there I know this plaza well. It's a graveyard for restaurants - most of them likely relying on employees of that company eating there. All these guys had to do was spend time in the restaurants in that plaza prior to signing the lease to get an idea. "Ah, but they don't go to those restaurants because their food is crap!" Yes, the food is crap. No, that's not the reason.
And then there's the food. Great food they made. But they weren't making a profit. So did they revise their menu to focus on items that would give good margins? No. They raised the prices. Fewer people came. They raised the prices again. Even fewer people came. This spiraled out of control. Within a year they had shut down. One of the co-owners told me there wasn't a month where they made a profit. I asked "Did you talk to any restaurant owners for their advice prior to opening?" Nope. If the food is great, people will come.
These guys work (or worked) pretty good jobs prior to opening the business - sometimes in senior management roles. Is that how decisions were made at their companies?