Pizza_De_Puta
New member
As some of you know, I am developing a menu, putting together a business plan, and want to eventually open a pizza parlor in my town of 20,000 people. In addition to the locals, our main drag sees 25K of tourist cars come down the main drag daily on their way to Yosemite National Park. Three chain restaurants in town, two of which do $1 million plus business.
This will be the sixth business I’ve started during the past twenty years (3 of 5 are still going strong). One is a prominent industry leader in a worldwide marketplace–but I’m burned-out and have turned operations over to one of my sons. The two failures have been retail where the market proved smaller than anticipated and simply weren’t worth the work. This will be my first restaurant, however.
The business concept is simple. Produce perfect NY style pizza. Use the freshest, top-quality ingredients, make the very best pizza within 100 miles, and never compromise on these standards. I’ve been baking for two months, first in my home oven and now in a used Blodgett. My pizza has reached a level where it is easily superior to the chains in town. The taste testers I invite over are asked to be critical but are now 100% positive in their overall evaluations, with some giving minor tips (i.e. “I’d like to taste more garlic”, etc.). Several have stated voluntarily that mine is the best pizza they’ve ever eaten (remember, we’re in California and that bar isn’t terribly high). However, I still have several more months of full-time development work and tasting tests to do before the menu is rock solid. My wife, is a full-fledged chef who was classically trained in Italy, is working on a dessert menu, too.
But putting the positive comments aside, I am having trouble dealing with the overwhelming amount of negativism I receive, particularly from family (my mother is the absolute worst) and neighbors:
“You don’t want to ever open a restaurant.”
“More restaurants fail than any other type of business.”
“You’ll burn-out and end up in the hospital.”
“Don’t do anything until Obama is out of office.”
“Wait until the economy turns around.”
“Don’t go into business you know nothing about.” (Said right after, “This is great pizza.”)
“Two other restaurants went broke in that location.”
“What are you going to do when a bunch of people shows up at once?”
“How are you going to take orders and make the right thing?”
“You can’t touch the money and the food.”
“You know the health department will inspect.”
“How can your kids take the orders?” (They’re 20+ and college grads)
“Remember when you failed at _______, you don’t want that to happen again.”
“You should go back to being a teacher.”
Like the old DOS command states: “Abort, retry, ignore?” I don’t know whether to scream, listen, give-up, or just keep my head down, working toward the goal. I’ve never faced such resistance and negativism when discussing a business concept and the dream. While at the same time, witnessing such joy and enthusiasm from the taste testers and the people who sample what is being produced.
Has anybody else out there had to deal with this?
Are these people looking out for me or trying to beat me down?
This will be the sixth business I’ve started during the past twenty years (3 of 5 are still going strong). One is a prominent industry leader in a worldwide marketplace–but I’m burned-out and have turned operations over to one of my sons. The two failures have been retail where the market proved smaller than anticipated and simply weren’t worth the work. This will be my first restaurant, however.
The business concept is simple. Produce perfect NY style pizza. Use the freshest, top-quality ingredients, make the very best pizza within 100 miles, and never compromise on these standards. I’ve been baking for two months, first in my home oven and now in a used Blodgett. My pizza has reached a level where it is easily superior to the chains in town. The taste testers I invite over are asked to be critical but are now 100% positive in their overall evaluations, with some giving minor tips (i.e. “I’d like to taste more garlic”, etc.). Several have stated voluntarily that mine is the best pizza they’ve ever eaten (remember, we’re in California and that bar isn’t terribly high). However, I still have several more months of full-time development work and tasting tests to do before the menu is rock solid. My wife, is a full-fledged chef who was classically trained in Italy, is working on a dessert menu, too.
But putting the positive comments aside, I am having trouble dealing with the overwhelming amount of negativism I receive, particularly from family (my mother is the absolute worst) and neighbors:
“You don’t want to ever open a restaurant.”
“More restaurants fail than any other type of business.”
“You’ll burn-out and end up in the hospital.”
“Don’t do anything until Obama is out of office.”
“Wait until the economy turns around.”
“Don’t go into business you know nothing about.” (Said right after, “This is great pizza.”)
“Two other restaurants went broke in that location.”
“What are you going to do when a bunch of people shows up at once?”
“How are you going to take orders and make the right thing?”
“You can’t touch the money and the food.”
“You know the health department will inspect.”
“How can your kids take the orders?” (They’re 20+ and college grads)
“Remember when you failed at _______, you don’t want that to happen again.”
“You should go back to being a teacher.”
Like the old DOS command states: “Abort, retry, ignore?” I don’t know whether to scream, listen, give-up, or just keep my head down, working toward the goal. I’ve never faced such resistance and negativism when discussing a business concept and the dream. While at the same time, witnessing such joy and enthusiasm from the taste testers and the people who sample what is being produced.
Has anybody else out there had to deal with this?
Are these people looking out for me or trying to beat me down?
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