Michael Politz - The Food and Beverage Magazine Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success

MICHAEL POLITZ

Copyright 2020 by Michael Politz. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available:

ISBN 9781119668961 (Hardcover)
ISBN 9781119668954 (ePDF)
ISBN 9781119668985 (ePub)

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: A-Digit/Getty Images

This book is dedicated to my children, Shelby and Jett, with the loving support of Kaiulani, Julien, and Amora, who have never let me quit. By never quitting, I am always winning.

So you want to open a restaurant, and you don't have millions of dollars to spend. This is your dream, your passion, and a goal you want to achieve, but you don't know where to start. Thousands of books can tell you how to start a business, succeed in the food and beverage industry, and achieve your aspirations and purpose. So what makes this one different? The Food & Beverage Magazine Guide to Restaurant Success is all of those books rolled into one.

This book will show you how to

• Determine if you are ready, willing, and able to open a restaurant
• Select the best location, menu, and staff
• Understand step-by-step how to open a restaurant
• Market your new restaurant
• Make smart decisions about where to invest your money to grow your business

Experts and naysayers will urge you not to open that business until you have millions of dollars to back you up. Clearly, you're not going to listen to them, because you're reading this book. Good for you.

To begin, you must read this section over and over to understand this book.

If you are going to open and operate a successful restaurant, you must understand that it is a business, and you are now an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter if you are a mechanic, office worker, chef, sommelier, or foodie. Restaurateur is a nice label, but you must become an entrepreneur as well as use your other skills to open and then operate a successful restaurant.

Period.

What is an entrepreneur?

Do you watch popular television shows where people pitch business ideas, or successful entrepreneurs work with startups? While viewing these programs, do you yell at the screen or tell yourself you could do so much better? These shows are entertaining (or they wouldn't be on the air), but this is not what an entrepreneur does to become successful.

According to Forbes magazine, an entrepreneur is more than someone who owns and operates a business. That person is both a leader and a manager. As a leader, you find the solution to every problem, including hiring the right people to solve a particular issue. As a manager, you handle the day-to-day operations (until the situation changes). You understand the difference between finance and accounting. You recognize how marketing and sales are very different but that both are needed to be successful. You work long hours, get dirty, become frustrated, and would not live any differently. As an entrepreneur, you want autonomy, purpose, and flexibility, while making money and ultimately leaving a legacy. Most importantly, you are willing to pay the price in sacrifice, failure, and hard work with faith in yourself and what you want to accomplish.

Usually, other experts would begin their book by telling you about their many successes in the food and beverage industry, hospitality industry, and business in general.

I am very successful, but more importantly, I want you to understand me as a person and entrepreneur. Using my guidance, you can open a restaurant without having millions of dollars to spend. I can open one today for as little as $25,000.

How? The steps will be explained throughout the book. For now, let's start at the beginning.

I was 8 years old, and I found a way to sell greeting and holiday cards. If I sold enough cards, I got points to pick a prize. Something inside of me said that I could move these cards by lugging boxes and selling them door-to-door. Making money this way, I would get to pick whatever prize I wanted.

I selected a shiny, new, brass-plated trumpetand I have no idea why I picked that trumpet or what happened to it. My eye was on the prize, and while I remember the feeling of the importance of selling enough cards to select a reward, I can barely remember the prize itself.

As an entrepreneur, even at such a young age, that feeling kept me going. I realized that if I could sell those cards, I'd get that prize and much more. That was a defining moment that influences my life to this day.

However, my parents urged me to pursue a career as a professional. I do wonder where I would be today if I had become a lawyer or doctor. My dad (and everyone else) told me to do a lot of soul searching when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a career. I was a little envious of others at the time; many people in my world already knew what they wanted to do and where their paths were going to take them.