Getting in over your head......job related

[guids]

Im finally opening up my first of hopefully severalnightclub/restaurants. We have the cash, I have partners that have been in the industry for 20+ years, one is a multi-millionaire, the other is no slouch. We are signing the official lease after negotiating a a bunch with our tentative agreements on Monday. Im investing, not my whole life savings, but a good chunk, we have a good quick exit strategy, and we really arent putting up that much cash comparatively, if I lose everything invested, it wont ruin me. Im nervous as [censored] though. My two partners have other places to run, so they will be pretty silent, Ill be running the day to day things from finances to ordering, hiring, kitchen etc, they have enough faith in me to let me do my own thing which is a huge plus, but I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach of impending doom, even though worst case scenario there aren't a ton of consequences other than reputation. Its a large operation 10k sq ft club, full kitchen (Im developing recipes, and menu items as we speak...just taking a break), we have a great great location, at the lower end of the national average for a triple net lease. Im young for such responsibilities I assume (25), but have been worked at a bunch of places, from high volume 100k/per night to small mom and pop operations, on the surface, and day to day I feel confident, but each day I have a little panic and think wtf am I doing. I think a lot of people liked adsmans thread, so Ill be kind of using this thread to do the same thing if you guys want. Please, dont wish me good luck, or anything, I dont want this to turn into that type of thread, I just want good suggestions on dealing with this feeling, and any other suggestions you guys might have from dealing with the waitstaff/bartenders/cocktail waitresses, to software packages (Im using quickbooks so far), to recipe suggestions. We should be up and running within 6 weeks.

[El Diablo]

quids,

"I feel confident, but each day I have a little panic and think wtf am I doing"

Welcome to life as an entrepreneur. It rules, right?

[El Diablo]

quids,

I have a fair amount of experience in this industry, so will have plenty of suggestions as this thread develops.

Suggestion #1: Hire hot chicks.

Suggestion #2: Assume that every single person involved in this is trying to rob you blind.

[Allinlife]

El D could you elaborate on suggestion 2,

are you referring to his partners as well or just the employees he's hiring?

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
El D could you elaborate on suggestion 2,

are you referring to his partners as well or just the employees he's hiring?

[/ QUOTE ]

in some cases, its both, partners/employees etc. In my case, Im putting up cash, not nearly as much as them. I get an equal share of the profits though because they wont be there much if ever, Im not worried about them 1. Ill know right away if they are stealing 2. its not worth it for them as the company is in my name etc, and if Im going to make sure that the exit strategy allows me to shut the place down any time I want (losing my investment obv), closing the operation down for 2 to 3 months while they go through all the liscencing etc is my ace in the hole, but like I said it will be impossible for them to steal. In 90% of cases (and Im lucky here), you have to worry about your partners just as much as someone of the street.

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
quids,

I have a fair amount of experience in this industry, so will have plenty of suggestions as this thread develops.

Suggestion #1: Hire hot chicks.

Suggestion #2: Assume that every single person involved in this is trying to rob you blind.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I should expand a little. I just got done cooking a massive feast testing out my recipes etc..going to cater a friends football party tommorow to test everything out and get comments.

I will be running front and back of the house, Im hiring a "kitchen manager" in that Ill have two workhorses in there everyday following the hand book that Im comming up w/ for prep, and a lower paid cook to get the food out, we are only serving from 11am to about 9, mainly sandwiches, a few pastas, etc, and about 15 apps. We are located next to tons and tons of offices, we also arent expecting to make tons of profit off the kitchen becuase nowadays when you have a place like ours the liquor just makes the 150k/yr we hope to make off the restaurant seem like peanuts.


I wont be stuck in the kitchen all day, Ill be in and out throughout the day pitching in as needed, doing more quality control than anything else, otherwise Ill be out on the floor. My goal is to have everything so standardized, and clear (recipe cards, handbooks, etc) that a retarded monkey can do the job correctly (as Im sure Ill be hiring a few). the restaurant is my pet project.

at night, of course, our cocktails waitresses will be smoking, and showing T and A, our night time bartenders will mainly be guys, as Im bringing on some childhood friends to help out. I have a pretty no BS atitude, and they know that if there are improprieties they will be fired or worse.


kick backs from vendors, we will be taking "kickbacks", camel will write us a huge check at the end fo the year if they are allowed to sell there, our liquor distributors are paying from construction work in exchange for their logo (red bull) being up there, and Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble) in exchange for letting them advertise the event and put up signs, which blows my mind as we get to keep the cover charges, pretty sick imo.

I have tons of little tricks to keep theft down, I know everyone is out to rob me, and not matter what I do I cant help it, but Im going to do my best to keep that close to 0%, security cameras, random drawer checks all night long, seperate drawer so they can make change out of it because the register will not have a NS button, if I see a drawer open and its not in the middle of a transaction they will be warned than fired, etc etc.



I am actually looking forward to working 19 hour days (8am to 2am ish), one thing that I know is I thrive when Im hustling. When I first started playing poker, I went from working 40 hour weeks in HS, to not working at all, and going to college, I have more energy the more I do, my mom says Im like a ball rolling down a hill, either Im a complete useless bum or go crazy w/ work.

[basementproject]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a pretty no BS atitude, and they know that if there are improprieties they will be fired or worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Could you expand on this plz? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have a pretty no BS atitude, and they know that if there are improprieties they will be fired or worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Could you expand on this plz? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

If your buddy slept with your wife, and you gave him a beating, would he run to the cops?

[slamdunkpro]

[ QUOTE ]

kick backs from vendors, we will be taking "kickbacks", camel will write us a huge check at the end fo the year if they are allowed to sell there, our liquor distributors are paying from construction work in exchange for their logo (red bull) being up there, and Anheuser agreed to pay for some major Djs (tiesto, skribble) in exchange for letting them advertise the event and put up signs, which blows my mind as we get to keep the cover charges, pretty sick imo.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's not what I meant by kickbacks. We took every promotion from sponsors we could get our hands on. Kool brought in some major acts for us, we did the Camel thing and were a stop on the Budweiser concert tour.

I'm talking about taking things personally outside of normal promotions offered to the club that could come back and be used against you later by a rejected vendor or reported to the liquor board.

[jeffnc]

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Suggestion #2: Assume that every single person involved in this is trying to rob you blind.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember watching some episodes of Flip This House that showed Armando Montelongo, who is basically a pompous ass. He thinks he is so crafty and business-saavy, when in fact he's way too full of himself. Yet, I have to admit the way he deals with subcontractors is probably correct - he does pressure some of them to work for less than I could accomplish. It's almost like dealing with children sometimes - children who are constantly pushing your limits, but over whom you ultimately hold power. Especially if they know you'll be dealing with them in the future.