At some time or another, nearly everyone has this dream of taking their great recipes and opening a restaurant or food business. And there are plenty of examples of people like Debbie Fields who baked-up Mrs. Fields Cookies, or Famous Amos (AKA Wally Amos) who made a fortune manufacturing and marketing his cookies into grocery stores, or Fred Deluca who in 1965 borrowed a $1,000 and opened a sub shop in Connecticut that eventually became Subway.
All of these people had a passion for what they made, and they made the best the market offered. And many of them weren't successful on their first or even second try. Fred DeLuca didn't get it right until his third store. Mrs. Fields was ridiculed by many who didn't think a cookie business would succeed. Wally Amos would send home-baked chocolate chip cookies to celebrities to entice them to meet with him and maybe sign a deal to be represented by the William Morris Agency. But instead Marvin Gaye and Helen Reddy lent him $25,000 to start his cookie company on a Hollywood corner, and the rest is history.
Each of these great entrepreneurs had several things in common...they started small and they had a great product that the public "eat-up."
So the lesson here is “keep it simple,” “start small” and “have the best.”
This means keep your menu small and simple using your best products, making products that are easy and easily repeated for consistency.
Another link between these great entrepreneurs is they all had passion for their product. But passion alone won't make you a success in this business. This author knows that some of the worse restaurant operators are chefs, who tend to be very passionate about their food. They are so obsessed with the art they lose focus on the fact the need to make money. Don’t lose your focus, because if you can’t make a living, then you’ll be out of business in no time.
Here are some more helpful hints that can help you be a success: [CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE]