Anyone out there have any recomendations for starting a pizza business?

Answer 1

First and foremost you must have a business plan. There are many resources that can help develop one that must be used as a guideline for the business - its location - its funding (the amount of cash you need will depend on the location you choose to pursue) once you have set up a plan compile a budget - stick by it or you will get in over your head. Once you have set a budget expect to spend almost twice as much - those unforeseen costs will add up fast. Also remember that 9 out of every 10 restaurants fail in the first year so you must have something unique to the restaurant. don't even think about going to the SBA for a loan THEY WILL NOT LOAN MONEY TO A STARTUP RESTAURANT NO MATTER WHAT YOUR QUALIFICATIONS ARE. I speak from experience.

Answer 2

Unless you're going to be in a thoroughly under-pizza-ed market, do something different. Pizza flyers land on my door incessantly, and are mostly ignored -- same old same old; I stick with the same couple of places I know make reliable pizza.

See if you can find a trend before it's worn out. Living on the west coast in the early 90s, I had a lot of feta cheese pizza, loved it -- then came back to the east, and called every pizzeria in town looking for it; no luck at all. Now, of course, everybody's got feta as a topping, but the next new thing is undoubtedly waiting out there.

You could also try catering to fussbudgets. I might switch pizzerias if one advertised "We take thin crust seriously!" -- most chains make a slightly thinner version of the regular, not the nicely skinny, crispy thing I want. I'd pay extra for a variety of _good_ cheeses. I love artichoke hearts, but everybody uses the cheap tinned kind with too much tough, barely edible choke left on, and it's not worth it; anybody who really paid attention to toppings would also get my business. (Portobello mushrooms are fashionable right now, yet still not seen on pizza menus -- why?

Answer 3

find a great crust recipe, toss your own pies, use a stone oven, make sure you've got tons of ingredients I worked at a pizza place where we made a pie with saur kraut and peperoni and the customer had us take a 12 inch dough and turn it into a 16 inch pie so it was insanely thin. Make sure you've got all sorts of things besides pizza....calzones, lasanga, rigatoni, salads (anti pasto is awesome), subs, appetizers such as chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, fried zuchinni, fried mushrooms and so on those are relatively easy to make once you get the hang of them. Make sure you have a large delivery area and you can get pizza bags that plug into your delivery drivers car cigarette lighter to keep food piping hot. Don't make unrealistic delivery time estimates say 45 to an hour and if it gets crazy busy tell the customers straight out your slammed and delivery will be longer than usual but youll get it out to them as fast as possible or they can pick it up in about 20 minutes (pizza takes less than 15) make sure youre incredibly cool to your employees so they stay on and you arent always running behind because your employees don't show up cus your a crappy boss or just quit for no reason other than managment sucks,keep the place small say 10 or 15 tables because it keeps your over head lower and people tend to be more loyal to "hole in the wall" places than chains and the like because they get to know the people who run the joint.

Answer 4

Been in food four years get job in pizza shop pinch ideas and then when ready find the best position u can afford the rule in business is position, position,position . Also look out for franchise expo .

Answer 5

Well considering there are tons of pizza businesses and there are tons of mexicans buying pizzarias, I would get out of the pizza business and get into starting a Mexicanaria.