How many owners on here actually are able to be out of the shop 90%+ of the time? If so, what kind of set up do you have?
Messy :lol:
Dave
I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but, I only spend about 20 hours a week in my stores. I wish I could say that I spend the rest of the time marketing or otherwise building the business, but that really isn’t the case. I have 2 full time managers who run the business for me. Even when I am at the stores I’m pretty much just supervising, making sure everything is to my liking and talking to customers. I haven an accountant who does all my bookkeeping and bill paying, so that doesn’t take much time. I do spend a couple hours a week putting in my weekly orders and making deposits, etc. I have 3 small children that I get to spend a lot of time with, but that comes at a cost. I could make a lot more money if I worked more, and maybe when my children are older I will. It took me over 20 years to get to this point, and I am loving it! I was 21 when I opened my first shop and I sacrificed a lot in my early years (that is why I’m in my 40’s and have small children).
Good for you Thunderman - you obviously put in alot of hard work over the years to get to this point. Now you can rely on your competent staff while enjoying your family and doing the things you’ve always wanted to do. I think alot of people lose sight of the importance of a work/life balance…all the best to you and continued success!
Unless there is some kind of problem I am in the store about 5 hours a week.
Bodegahwy…
is there like a tiny statue that looks like you, that I can worship daily? 
Cause I should would like to get where you are someday…
Do you think it would be of any value if at the bottom of our message, we had our “vital statistics”?
dine in , carryout, delivery
1 unit, 10 units, franchise
owner/chef/manager/90 hours a week slave/turnkey genius/etc
I like that idea. It’ll save on asking or being asked multiple times about our current situation.
5’ 275 lbs (all earned) brn hair, blue eyes, athletic build, very easy going, loves music, movies, cheesy food, sense of humor and keeps toilet lid down most of the time . . .
How many owners on here actually are able to be out of the shop 90%+ of the time? If so, what kind of set up do you have?
I am working on getting there. I will let you know when I sell. :lol:
Kris
2 stores/overworked/underpaid/million headaches/independent/my specialty is being a certified scatter brain
Napoli,
I am told I look like Steven Spielberg, so look for a little statue of him and put my name on it.
Just kidding,
I did not have a choice. I opened one location and bought the second later the same year. Within a couple of months I was offered a job I really wanted so I really needed to concentrate on creating management systems and managing my managers to get the results THROUGH them (I did have solid experience in that area having been COO of a 40 million dollar business with VPs and managers reporting to me)
Question 1 is: Does the business have the cash flow to pay a manager AND produce a nice profit? If so it can be done, if not you could still do it, but there would be nothing left over. In my case, I need to be doing at least 500K for there to be much left over.
Question 2 is: Is you focus where it needs to be? Back to the statement about getting results THROUGH your manager. One needs to concentrate on setting expectations, creating systems, providing resources and removing obsticals so that the manager CAN run the place without you. It is a different mind set than running the place yourself.
Question 3 is: Are you willing to reward the manager for doing it? This level of responsibility is not a $10 per hour role. Comp varies by region/market and by the size of the business. In my case the manager costs me 45-50K by the time I add in benefits.
In the end, I am proud of the business, I like it. But… I don’t want to work there. At 625K sales I am able to take about 90-95K out of it NOT including the rent I pay to myself. (I was able to buy both property locations over the years) I need more than that to live on so I am still employed elsewhere. (I am a business broker) I also teach business related courses on local marketing, leasing and startups at the college and volunteer as a SCORE counselor.
Suggested tag line:
Two store Indy. One Delco and one Slices. Owned a little over 9 years. It makes me crazy when the cooks run plastic stuff through the ovens by accident.