Thanks bodega… glad to see there are others that live in reality rather than a wonderland.
The only way you could do it for 30k is to go into a old pizza place and keep everything the same. Assuming you are some sort of town that has codes, anything you change will require engineers, architects, and most require licensed people to put them in. My second location I am opening didnt require any new equipment, no walk-ins, etc. All i put in was a used hood, some plumbing, and some electrical work. I am at 25k just with this.
I say go for it. We need more people with attitudes like yours opening small businesses. I need to find a new oven later this year, call me when you’re ready to get rid of your equipment for a “dime a dozen”.
I took over a working shop and dropped $15K in my first week just on business start up things like deposits, accounting work, LLC creation, inventory, rent, marketing, etc. Because you’re going on a web forum asking how much money you’ll make, I’m assuming you aren’t a seasoned business vet. Which tells me you probably don’t have that much cash.
Maybe your first step would be to go to the bank and ask them how much money they’ll loan you to start a restaurant…let alone something over saturated like pizza.
Is it wrong that over the years, these are always my favorite threads?
Thank Napoli, that got a chuckle. Yep it’s wrong… me too. Sometimes we just need to let go.
Steve, yes I did it all for 30k. Like I said the hood was there with the ansil… As for the grease trap, I did already have a 3 bay sink and grease trap so that was existing… Electric was all set, I did get all the permits, building and health. I tiled the floors, painted, put up new light, built a counter. Shelves, smallwares, dont have a walk in but I have 3 massive coolers and 2 freezers, 2 fryers, a 6 burner range, double stack blodgetts, security camera, pos. sub unit, pizza prep table, stainless table all for 30 k… On craigslist you can buy a whole pizzeria, 15 k… Oh yea I have a 80 qt hobart also…
italy2003gt ,
I like your posts… but:
I’m more interested in a 12 month span, have you been open for 12 months? As for me, after 12 months I was a net -$180,000. If so, cough it up, whats the total investment looking like?
There’s no need to mention how long your equipment is, its easily measured in the volume your store produces. Just say 600K or 1MIL, these operators will understand.
For all the pot heads out there, yeah, its possible to make big bucks doing nothing. Its also just as easy to win the some type of big LOT… drawing.
Like I stated earlier I bought my first pizza shop for $25,000. I made enough profit to have it paid off within 6 months. I’m going on my 10th year in business with this shop. It cost $35,000 to open my second location. It was a closed down pizza shop. The hood was still there (no ansul, I had to have one installed) and the grease trap was there as well. I’ve had this location opened for going on 6 years now. It is the busier of the 2 and in a much smaller town. About a year and a half prior decided that I eventually wanted to open a 2nd shop so I started going to auctions and buying equipment off ebay. When ever I had extra money I would go buy another piece of equipment. By the time I opened my second shop I already had everything that I needed. Because I took my time I was able to pay cash for everything and I didn’t have to take out any loans. I had positive cash flow from day one and recouped my investment (which was spread out over a year and a half) within about 8 months. So when you say it is impossible to open a pizza shop for around $30,000 and make a profit after 12 months, that isn’t always the case. I’ve done it twice.
But on the other hand like I also stated I opened a 3rd location which cost me almost $85,000 and I was closed within a year with out making any profit. So I’ve been on both sides of the fence. There are a lot of variables that determine whether a pizza shop will be successful: location, rent, competition, population size, (pizza) business experience, financial situation, luck, etc.
As far as the thread starter’s original question, yes you can make money in this business but probably not with 3 partners. You would have to have a real high volume place to make enough to give all 3 of you a comfortable salary. But the problem is, if you and your partners don’t have any experience, you’ll probably have a very hard time trying to run a high volume operation and be successful. With the way things are now I wouldn’t advise anyone without prior pizza experience to open a pizza shop. Supply prices are at an all time high and every other expense across the board has increased as well. The profit margins are pretty low. You need to have the experience and know how to run a lean operation. This is a very tough business! (closed pizza shops aren’t hard to find) I personally think that you have to be crazy to voluntarily get into this type of business. lol. I was young (22) and didn’t know any better. 
If you and your partners are simply looking to invest in something, there are so many other businesses that will make you a lot more money, you’ll be able to work half the amount of hours, and save you a lot of stress. I can only speak for myself but from my experiences, owning a pizza shop or restaurant is like a big roller coaster ride. There are so many ups and downs.
I believe we were talking about from scratch. You saved a ton of money having the plumbing, electrical, hoods, ceilings etc etc already in place. Not to mention the money you saved from tiling, painting, extra construction you did yourself and also not having a licensed contractor draw up all the different floor plans/blueprints to submit for build out. To start from scratch means 4 walls, a bare floor and ceiling with literally NOTHING else.
How bout the landlord, did he make you pay a deposit and first and last months rent? Did you have to train any staff to open? Lawyers? Signage? Marketing/advertising your opening?
I bought my first store for 35K over 10 years ago. It was was a failed PJs. It included most everything I needed. Does that mean I opened for 35K? No.
Just from memory, here are some additional items:
Rent and deposit spent before we sold our first pie: $8,000
Utility deposit: $1,000
6 station POS system: $15,000
Sign: $3500
Dough trays (PJs trays went back to the commisary) $2,000
True double door Freezer: $3,000
Additional Freezers (sears chest freezers) $1,000
Wages before we made a sale: $3,000
Supplies and small wares: $2,000
Initial inventory ramp up: $4,000 (no it is not “expense” until you use it, but you still have to sink the cash in)
Opening marketing expenses: $8,000
Insurance? Phones? Bank fees? Licenses and permits?
First year losses: $35,000
Value of me working for free?
My second store was also already a pizza store and I got it for 35k too. I spent another 15K on some remodel and equipment so that one actually did only cost 50K and it made money right away… however, I already had crew, insurance, prep capacity etc etc so yes, I realize it can be done for less than 100K, BUT when I see these threads and dreamers talking about three partners in 1000 square foot spaces, I think we do a dis-service to them if we don’t provide a little reality about what it usually takes, particularly when they do not have the experience needed to figure it out themselves. nuf’said.
I think we’re doing an even bigger disservice by not addressing the potential problems with having 3 partners. The majority of the partnerships that I have witnessed failed.
I agree that opening with a partner is a bad idea. Opening with two partners and expecting to make more than what a driver would make is ludicrous.
Not trying to bash on you, but the answers are not here. As almost every poster here has said, there are too many variables to give you a single figure that says “Success”. You have to build your own business plan; plug in your own values to the variables. You can’t buy a business plan template and think it’s going to fit your situation perfectly. Every pizza place is different.
Bottom line is that if you or your partners are serious about getting into the biz, do your homework, get some hands on experience, and don’t worry about what you’re going to make until you know how much you’re going to sell. Unless your horse knows how to push, your cart is in it’s way.