If I want to open my own restaurant...will I have to go to college?

Question

Im not sure what I want to do yet, but probably open my own business because I dont want to wake up every morning and go to work at 6 am. Its crazy. (dont judge pls). So i want to open maybe my own restaurant. has anyone tried this? Would you have to go to college?? I f you have any experiences, pls share.

Answer 1

Firstly, if you have no experience in the restaurant business, I'd advise that you work in restaurants for the next six months or so doing everything from busing tables and washing dishes to waiting tables and cooking if they'll allow you back there and if you have the skills. This will give you some of the work experience that you'll need to understand and run a restaurant profitably.

If this is your first business venture, I would strongly recommend that you talk to a business counselor before you do anything especially spend money. I'd call the local office of SCORE (go to http://www.score.org and input your zip code to find the chapter nearest you), the advice is FREE. Ask for someone who has a background in restaurants and they'll try their best to match you with the right counselor.

The counselor at SCORE will most likely advise you to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force you to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a restaurant and force you to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers you'll concentrate on (your market ) and how you'll get them to find out and want to come to your fabulous restaurant.

The location of the restaurant is important but doesn't make it successful. To prove that all you have to do is walk down a street in your town where there are several nice restaurants all in a row and you'll find one or two that are empty while the others are very busy. It has to do with menu, ambiance, and your reputation at the beginning and over time.

You also have to have food handling licenses, the right zoning, the right city and county licenses and permits and you have to be skilled at negotiating with your landlord about who'll stand the cost of the build-out or the changes to the premises to make it ready for your look and feel.

You also have to worry about the normal business planning and management issues related to starting up any business.
Take a look and read some of the articles at:
http://www.ychange.com/small-business-consulting-articles.html
especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business. Also try their Blog and their Bulletin Board.

Hope this helped.

Answer 2

l would suggest doing a small business managment course as you will be shocked at whats actually involved in running a business, not just buy stock and sell it, also can you cook? you will also need to do a Food health and safety certificate, only takes a day or so, and hours can be really long in running a restaurant, been known to close at 11pm and still there at 3am, look into it thoroughly and do your home work as a large percentage of small businesses fail in the first year due to bad managment, you might be better off buying a exsisting business and make any changes to menues, set up etc as you will have a established clientelle already.
good luck

Answer 3

No, but, a course in "Restaurant Mngnt." would help... if you're NOT looking to work hard, find another business, you'll be at the restaurant for at least 20 hrs a day. Home by 3:30 AM or 4AM, deliveries start coming in at 9AM

Answer 4

Taking a business management course will help you run the daily operation of the restaurant.Then a course in culinary arts will help you create the menu selections.So colleges offer both the culinary arts program and a restaurant management course at the same time.Johnson & Wales University in Providence,Rhode Island is one and is internationaly accredited. their e-mail address is www.jwu.edu or you can call them at 1-800-dial-jwu. Good luck in your venture.

Answer 5

You don't necessarily have to go to college. It might help, but it could also be a waste of money. Speaking of money, you will need a good amount to start up your own business...THIS is the reason most people go to college before starting a private business; they need a "normal" job first to earn money to start the business.

Answer 6

You don't have to go to college, but obviously it would not hurt. I have a friend who opened a pizza shop, but first he worked in one for about a year, to learn the business. He has opened and closed ten shops, and now is worth several million dollars.

Answer 7

i agree with linds you dont but i would