kc2006's Pizza Shop?

[Steve]

Hi kc2006, In another post you said you used to run a Pizza shop. Could you tell us more about this and how you got involved with it? Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]When we owned a pizza shop we were basicly an Italian eatery, we offered pizza as number one but we also had alot of italian specialty meals, and on top of that we had the normal "quicky food" (wings, fry's, all types of fried foods, american style sandwiches and subs). I think the biggest problem with that situation was we were too widespread and overhead for inventory killed us. If we would of been just a pizza shop or just the italian specialty restaurant I think it would of went alot better. My proof that the business structure wasn't right, its a franchise and the longest owner of one of the shops was us (1 year), other then us everyone had to close up in 4-6 months.

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[kc2006]

Lawn care business tips

My family had bought the franchise and I worked there. My mom actually bought it for my three brothers and myself. I was younger at the time (14/15) but still helped with all the book keeping with my mom and was actually the assistant manager when our oldest brother wasn't there. Even back then I took alot of responsibility, I was there at 6:30 making dough all summer and sometimes when my oldest brother couldn't make it (we were the only two that could make it), I would open the shop, close the shop whatever I had to do. Theres so much more that I realize now that I'm older and have more experience with business ventures that could of been changed, really no one had business experience in my family except my oldest brother who managed restaurants in the past. We still did a pretty good job I think, there was alot of mishaps that the franchise owners contributed to though. They got 20,000 for the name everytime someone would buy into the franchise, and suprisingly everyone would show great numbers for 6 months and then sales would fall off after that...My father was at one of the franchise meetings and made some bad comments about the brothers that owned the franchise and after that our sales fell off. The comments were true, but shouldn't have been said. And considering the franchise owners also owned their own restaurants in the area its not hard to believe they would pull business their way if they wanted. In our first 6 months we did outstanding sales with commercial orders (businesses in the area would order large amounts for the whole office or where ever they worked), after that famous meeting, never had one commercial sale after that. Things got even worse when we refused to use their select food suppliers. Look into Youngstown Ohio and you'll see the mafia background.

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[Steve]

Hi kc2006,

That is a fascinating story! How long was your pizzeria open for?

Would you ever consider opening another pizzeria in the future?

What did you like most or least about the pizza business?

How did it compare/contrast to your current business?

[kc2006]

The shop was open for alittle over a year, we were about to go on our own under a different name in a different location but then decided we had enough. At the time my one brother was just entering the military and my other brother was entering college. So everyone felt it was time to let it go and move on.

Would I consider a pizzeria in the future, probably not. A restaurant in general, yes I'd consider that. I had considered becoming a chef before I got into the green industry but decided I liked working outdoors and better yet for myself. But I'd deffinitly think about a high end restaurant down the road.

I probably would say I enjoyed the cooking the most at the old shop, like I said I love to cook and that was great to me, creating nice dishes was fun to me. Not really sure of a least favorite area, there was alot of bickering amongst the family as there is in most businesses, I could of lived without that.

The pizza business is alot more hectic then the lawn industry I think (unless your a very large business). But for the most part a restaurant is going to be alot more hectic, theres alot more sales and overhead. Right now being I'm still a new and smaller business I'm dealing with very little over head and only deal with 15-20 customers on a daily basis. So this is all alot slower pace for me and alot easier to manage on my own even.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]we were about to go on our own under a different name in a different location

How would that have effected things?
What would you have done differently if you had gone through with this step?

[kc2006]

As I recall our plan was to become an all around upper scale pizzeria. *Old world style pizza (cooking them in brick ovens) and a nicer eat in restaurant.

At the first shop we were in a smaller building and had the new age black & white checkerboard floor going on, just a new age pizzeria. *The new place we wanted to make "warmer" feeling and just a nicer old style pizzeria. *Since no one around here has yet to do that style of a pizzeria we thought it would do pretty good.

If we went on our own, for one we wouldn't have the franchise owners looking over everything we did. We had alot of different ideas that would of worked rather well, italian ice cream and the brick oven cooked pizza for example. But under them we couldn't do any of this. I think it would of worked alot better, just like I said two of my brothers weren't able to be there anymore and my oldest brother was going through a divorce so it just wasn't the right time.

[Steve]

Hi kc2006,

Thank you again for all the great insight.

How competitive did you find the pizza market versus the green industry market?

[kc2006]

The pizza market around here was fairly competitive, theres alot of taste contests (of which we placed 1st or 2nd in all that we entered, we upset the long time champ) so Italian food is in demand here. But green industry is totally different with the lowballers and such. If we played on a level playing field, it would be a totally different ball game I think.

[Steve]

Ahhhh that is a very good point. It's not like someone can run a pizzeria out of their apartment and sell from their window. There are many more fixed costs. One has to rent a building, get licenses and insurance.

Do you forsee yourself getting into any other industries in the future?

[kc2006]

I'm still young, so yes I see alot of adventure in my life. I already have a 3 and 5 year plan devised for the lawn business, at the 5 year mark I hope to have it large enough that I'll have a manager and I can be free to do what I want to do.

I have so many hobbies that I'm sure I'll find another industry that I'll want to get into. I've never really put alot of thought into it because of the amount of competition but a race shop might come down the road. Cars are my number one hobby so I'd find something to tie into it and make a few bucks