Closing a restaurant. The joy after!

After 9 years building my career here in South Florida, I have seen so many restaurants and business closed after a period of time, some of those close after a couple months of operation others after years and few even they cannot open their doors for business. They are so many reasons why a business and particularly a restaurant close.

One of the main variable in the restaurant business as any other retail business is the Square Feet Cost VS Profit, the revenue is relevant of course but more important is Profit, because businesses could have a high revenue but their cost to operate the restaurant is high too, this definition is a common sense but sometimes as Business Owners we forget the most important things.

Professionals in the business have knowledge about the indicator of Profit VS Square Feet Cost. I think this cost is one of the most important, reason because I love to see from my business prospective those restaurants with a tiny location but full of customers, full of food orders and some clients waiting for a seat or for an order. That is a little Goldmine! I love to see those cases, and this is an example of a success business, is not about the size of your location or your revenue is about if your are doing a good job.

What happen after with those restaurants that closing or much better what happen with those business owners, come up; lessons, experience and thoughts. Some of those open a new restaurant and others change their focus in business. From my point of view is not something that make me feel good, see another business close is sad. As a business owner I know the pain of running your own business, is like if you have a Kid and see another Kid suffering, kind of the same. This is one of the reason because I jump in to the business consulting world focusing to help restaurants move to the next level.

But, not all the cases are because failing. As Adam Ozimek from @Forbes Magazine say: “it’s important to note that while I use “failure” and “closure” interchangeably here, a closing restaurant is not necessarily an unsuccessful one. It could be the case that the restaurant was doing well, but family or health problems forced a closure. Or maybe the location was successful but the building was sold for another use. Or perhaps the owners were making money but decided they wanted to do something else.”

Measure, come up! As a value in business. At the end Business is not about tons of knowledge, is about a combination of values and experience.

Looking forward to meet another success business case.

Article by: Alexander Lara