Earlier quoted context omitted.
> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…
Sure, sure—but you're cutting one small phrase out of my larger sentiment. I know it's a dumb platitude. I said as much. I'd prefer the focus of my comment be the rest of it. I didn't think I had to break it down further, and I was trying to be cool and all that, but what I was trying to say is: [if you know that area of Toronto, the location he chose was not that out of the way business-wise, but it is a little bit…
I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
131–140 of 190 posts
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#132maybe start with a food truck? seems like a less risky way of getting into the business. if you are successful and make a name for yourself, you could parley that into a restaurant.
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#133Reading this article, I think I'm right. I wonder what the success rate is of a restaurant is when the owner has even a basic idea of how the various positions in a restaurant work and the important business metrics.
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've done both restaurants and tech. I had to think for a really long time which one to focus on. It just so happened that the startup hype kicked in around that time. Tech is mentally exhausting. Really short but painful hours. Food & beverage is not exactly tiring, but the hours are very long. With tech consulting, you might be working 4-6 hours a day, with restaurants, expect around 14 hours/day. One involves a lo…
> With tech consulting, you might be working 4-6 hours a day ... huh? Which tech company is this?
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#135* http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/07/this-tiny-bu...
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, sure—but you're cutting one small phrase out of my larger sentiment. I know it's a dumb platitude. I said as much. I'd prefer the focus of my comment be the rest of it. I didn't think I had to break it down further, and I was trying to be cool and all that, but what I was trying to say is: [if you know that area of Toronto, the location he chose was not that out of the way business-wise, but it is a little bit…
Apologies, I'm a few glasses of wine in, and your elucidation made it much clearer. Thank you for your response!
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's correct. It worse now that a motivated irate customer can magnify the damage to small restaurant with only a handful of bad reviews.
I worked in a few kitchens for a few years. I regularly read reviews on yelp and I would say that near half of the negative "reviews" that showed up on there that pertained to what I myself witnessed or pertained to the kitchen were mostly to totally unfair. The one's that were fair I owned. One of my favorites: one star review for not being seated without a reservation on mother's day. Another favorite review: "I've…
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm surprised there isn't a big WeWork for restaurant start-ups. A large space converted into numerous kitchens, that can be rented for relatively inexpensively (no large upfront cost to buy equipment or the building, no large initial lease, etc). The WeKitchen owner would have its own inventory of kitchen equipment that could be rented and moved as needed, to facilitate a lot of various types of kitchen arrangements…
You're almost describing a high end twist on a mall food court. It's an interesting idea. I suspect this doesn't exist because the high startup costs (multiple full kitchen build outs would like push costs into the 7-8 figure range) would be too high given the inconsistency of restaurant rents. With office rents working on fairly regular timelines, it's easier to get a new tenant before an old one has finished up. Bu…
I considered that the large unit space / building could have a dining area, where customers could sit down and could then select from numerous kitchens that are local to that space. That pushes it even closer to the mall food court. My reservation on that, is that some percentage of the restaurants will be producing subpar experiences in terms of quality. So a successful restaurant in the space, wants its customers to eat in a successful atmosphere, where customers as a whole are happy; if half the customers in the dining area are unhappy, the enjoyment by the other happier half will suffer as well (people pick up on such things, it rubs off). Then I considered sub-divided dining areas, so each rented kitchen gets its own limited sit-down space, it just might be a stretch though and adds to the overall cost burden in the system with minimum gain (ie, it's probably just easier to focus more narrowly on food delivery).
To deal with the vacancies issue, you'd only build these in higher population urban areas, to maximize the potential number of restaurants etc. that you can rent to (maximize the potential start-ups due to population). You'd also seek to under-build versus demand, preferring to always have a waiting list (recession times might even trash that best effort). I don't know if it would work, but, I'd seek to get a modest upfront payment allocation from the waiting list, that covers the risk on vacancy turn-over. By keeping the demand above the space availability, you can probably get the start-ups to front the first month of rent to get on the list (with some terms of refund). It wouldn't be something you could start with zero capital, the idea would be to get it into the $5k (solo bakery) to $25k range to go from moving into the space to the time it takes to get the first customer.
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#139> In 2011, I applied to operate a booth at the Toronto Underground Food Market [...] my fingers cramping so severely from peeling 100 pounds of potatoes that I almost called 911. [...] I lost money So his first experience was extremely painful, almost landed you in the emergency room, and you lost money on it. What valuable lessons he learned going forward? > I didn’t care. None. > Eighty per cent of first-time resta…
This guy is praised, but he was a fucking pyscho (literally). He didn't give a damn about his own staff and risked everything. He got lucky, made it big.
If this guy had made it, we'd see him as a "The Hundred Foot Journey" style success story.
Maybe the only lesson is that he wasn't ruthless enough?
Re: I poured my blood, sweat and life savings into my restaurant. It ruined my life.
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, guys: find yourself in the right position in life and any act to try and enrich the thing you're calling life, enlighten yourself, and improve your lot will be considered irrational by somebody . Best take a few steps back. He's brazen, and maybe a bit dumb. I'd probably get along with calling him too proud, mostly. Now to reduce myself to platitudes: at least he did something. That's living. Who deserves…
> at least he did something. I mean no offense, because I do sorta appreciate what you're going for, but this is almost the most philosophically, semantically, and most sillily empty sentence that exists. Everyone does something. People who do 'nothing' do something. We only praise people whom succeed publicly or fail publicly. Even then, we only praise the people who fail when we ideologically align with them. We do…
http://khanism.org/perspective/minimalism/
When that failed I had to get a real job again, but got sick of it after a year and a half:
http://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/
Then I took off on the road again and eventually had to return to the full time job/life:
http://khanism.org/perspective/a-tale-of-two-journeys/
I did something. I failed .. well maybe not failed so much as just didn't find a way to sustain myself. But each time I hope I get a little better at it.
And yea ... at least I tried. One day I'll be dead. At least I got to see Singapore, feel the wind of New Zealand, ride through the deserts of Australia, do a radio poetry show on the 8am commute in Perth.
He made some bad decisions. We can see that in the retrospectiscope. I agree I had trouble reading it. But yea, respect for trying. He lost a ton of money? Well as long as he can save enough to pay for his kids' education, at least he has a story to tell and they can learn from him.
It's all relative. I can see the bad and see the good. You gotta try, or else you're just gonna die in your cube.