

Ask HN: Hacker opening a brick and mortar franchise store? - oldfactory

There&#x27;s a really neat and relatively small franchise that I personally love. The food is excellent, the brand is extremely good. I love everything about it. I&#x27;ve talked to them about opening a franchise, and it all sounds quite good to me. I have family to help me and it should create a solid and reliable income stream if I don&#x27;t mess it up.<p>Has anyone else gone down this route? Would love to hear your thoughts.
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lsiunsuex
1: Just because you love a certain type of food or a franchise doesn't mean
many share your opinion. Food is very objectional.

2: MANY restaurants fail within their first year. You have a better chance
with a franchise, but there is still opportunity to fail.

3: Franchises are very - you do what we say, when we say it, how we say to do
it. It's a numbers game; follow what they say, expect X profit keeping in mind
points 1 and 2.

4: And most important, you will work your ass off as a restaurant owner. This
isn't a 9-5 job, its a 6 to midnight job.

On the other hand, I personally would love to open a restaurant; it's one of
my dreams to do. I have tons ideas of possible themes, names, dishes, design,
quality of service, quality of linens and plates, etc... I don't like
franchises and while my area has a ton of franchises and locally owned, I feel
I can do better on my own making my own choices. I love walking into a
restaurant and noticing worn painted walls; wrinkled table clothes, chipped
dishes, how customers are treated, prices, etc... I love to take these notes
in the back of my head and say that works, that doen't, this dish costs to
much, this wine is to expensive, etc...

Good luck though; owning a restaurant is an excellent way to gain connections.
Maybe from some of the connections you gain, it brings you back full circle to
being a "hacker"

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oldfactory
Thanks. Good feedback. Yes, the time commitment would scare me more, but I
have some reliable family members that can help. I already work with them, so
I know what they're capable of.

I have considered opening my own idea for a restaurant, and I wouldn't run a
Subway or McDonald's for anything, but this franchise is relatively small and
growing really quickly because people _rave_ about it. It feels something like
Ben & Jerry's in the early days.

I don't have the bankroll to gamble on my own idea for a restaurant, and I'm a
noob so I'd probably mess it up like most people do. Even though I'm almost
arrogant enough to think I could do it.

A franchise I really like seems like a good balance of risk and reward.

Thank you.

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lsiunsuex
Whats the name of the franchise / restaurant? I'm curious now...

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oldfactory
My apologies for keeping it quiet for now (I have some reasons), and thank you
:-)

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sharemywin
You should be talking to the franchisees. Also, not the ones that they point
you too. Look at the disclosure documents how mnay have failed?

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oldfactory
Really good idea. I have only talked to successful owners so far. Not sure how
easy it will be to find unsuccessful ones, but I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

