How Many of you work at your store fulltime.

[misteroman]

The guy finally left as of today, APRIL 9th so we are getting close!!!
I ask this as I’m getting laid off from my Job in August and was wondering if When I open(May 12th slated) should I just take a leave of absence and open and stay there or what.I was going to take a month leave when I opened anyways, so I would lose about 7-8 weeks partial pay.
I say partial as I bring home about 1,100 a week from my job,but then if I was at work I would have to pay a person to be there for me.Then when I got laid off would I have to let them go anyway?
I think even though I would lose $4K or so,I would gain the invaluable experience of meeting my future customers and friends I would hopefully have for years to come.
Thanks and Now I’m getting the excitement back!!! 8)
Derek

 

[gobpile]

We are at our restaurant every day at least 10 to 12 hours a day. No days off AND no paycheck. We opened in September 2006 and don’t foresee any days off or paychecks for several more months . . .

 

[system]

i opened june 2006 and work 100 hours a week and no pay!!!I cant wait 4 my first paycheck :lol:

 

[goomba]

Hello Misteroman and congrats.,1st of all you should be ready to dedicate all your time to your new endeavor.This is not a hobby this is as you said ‘your’ future.I opened a couple of years ago and we were very successful thank God,but we are just starting to reap some of these profits. Keep your head high and good luck!

 

[famouspizza]

Mistereoman,

Give it everything you have, which of course means YOUR time, especially in the beginning…you only have one shot to make a first impression. Just make sure you have enough working capital to stay afloat for year 1…it will not be easy. My parents opened in 1982 and didnt make a dime for 3 yrs (100+hours per week). My brother, sister, and I grew up at the shop and worked all throughout our schooling and built our loyal following. After college, we all hated our corporate jobs and took over fulltime. My brother-in-law and I work full-time 12 hrs a day, 6 days a week (we are closed on Sundays) and still have alot of our extended family helping out. I truly believe that in this business, a hands-on owner will have a much better chance for succes
Good Luck!

 

[Registered_Guest]

Misteroman - Are you being realistic?

When I read your post, I sort of chuckle. You imply that you will be able to take home ANY paycheck at all starting from day 1.

Well, I guess it is possible - but it is highly improbable - in fact, you will probably need to pay money into the business to work there for a number of months, if not longer.

 

[j_r0kk]

Gobpile writes:

We are at our restaurant every day at least 10 to 12 hours a day. No days off AND no paycheck. We opened in September 2006 and don’t foresee any days off or paychecks for several more months . . .

up23 writes:

i opened june 2006 and work 100 hours a week and no pay!!!I cant wait 4 my first paycheck Laughing

You guys are working too many hours in your store. This is not a competition about who can work the most. I can tell your right now that whomever decides to participate in that competition is going to lose, because it’s not good and it’s not healthy.

One question: If you’re spending all this time in your stores, who’s out there marketing on a day-to-day basis?

Now… I’m not trying to trap you two and single you out, trying to make you look bad because I wouldn’t do that. What I’d like to do however, is open your eyes to the obvious:

Both of you are struggling to get enough sales into your stores to pay the bills.

Now, of course, when this happens it’s natural instinct to want to just work harder. You feel that if you work as hard as you can and as long as you can it will, one day, get better… it won’t.

Both of you need to cut your hours in the store. Once you hit around 50 hours/week you’re unproductive anyway. You’re just there taking up space. I’m sure you can find some little shift runner to work dayshifts for you or maybe even a close a night or two to give you a little relief.

Now, after you get your schedule taken care of, get your butts out there and market! That’s all I’m going to say, because both of you know you’re not doing it as much as you should. You’re too tied up in the stores to give it the attention it requires. Also, I stand by doorhanging in the advice I offer because I know it works. With that being said, don’t be afraid to try something new to see if that works out for you because we all know each market is different and each store has it’s own niche. Either way, get out of the stores. You’re letting sales slip away each and every week you’re wasting your time behind the counter.

Think of sales as “compounding interest”. The more new customers you create each week, the faster they start to compound. So remember: CREATE NEW CUSTOMERS! That’s your goal in life. -J_r0kk

 

[billy_romano]

my final answer;yes
i am here every day 600 am to 900pm 362 days a year.
this is by my accord,i love it,and live it.would not do it any other way.
i am not sure what you mean buy a pay check,however,i pay the bills,have a house,3 cars,plenty of money to put back into my work place,and plan on dieing here.
good luck and god speed.

 

[system]

[quote
Well i have a difficult time finding help to make pizza while I work all the hours my wife and kids go promoting every other day. Plus my 100 hours includes cooking all my bbq food and running breakfast believe me if I could get out for a day a week I would love to. Every kid I try to get to work works 4 a few days and quits either to busy or to much work, not enough pay i dont know.
Believe me Jrock I take nothing u say for granted ur heaven sent [/quote]

 

[system]

that wuz meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[DFW_PizzaMan]

To work 80+ hours a week in a pizza place is kind of silly unless you really love the work. There are so many better ways to spend your time that is better for your business than that.

You have the exact kind of restaurants I look for when I am looking for an acquisition. Some hard working guy who spends 100 hours at his shop in a week, probably has decent numbers, but does little advertising because he doesn’t have time. Preferably he has a decent product and a good location. I throw in a Manager, promote the heck out of it, and sales double. At the end of the day, I take home at least 50% more than before.

Then I turn around and sell it at a substantial profit. There are entirely too many of these opportunities out there. Do yourselves a favor and cut back on your hours and spend more time promoting your business.

Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and whatever local chains you have in your area should be teaching you something. When it comes to pizza, good advertising is so much more important than good pizza. Combine good pizza with good avertising and you can be really successful.

The customers knowing your name is only beneficial in a small town. In a big city is mostly irrelevant.

 

[wa_dave]

Now I have my manager back after 17 weeks off with his injured hand I no longer am doing 7 days per week with long hours.

I promoted a casual to fulltime manager in training and this has reduced my hours considerably. My manager is back working fulltime as well. The two of them are only rostered together for 3 days (Thurs, Fri & Sat) so it menas I have someone in control everyday be it one of them or me.

The wages have gone up slightly but came down when two casuals moved on and we didn’t replace them.

Since I took over 16 months ago I spent the first 9 months learning the ropes and driving the business from the store. Unfortunately my manager had his accident and this put my marketing plans on hold. Now he is back I’m to begin my marketing push.

I will be spending time doing the rounds of the real estate agencies promoting my own version of moving targets. Once we get that up and running sales should begin to go through the roof. Other activities are now in practice and we are beginning to see results, albeit slowly at the moment.

We commenced box toppers, something not done very much if at all in Australia, and after some six or seven weeks we are now starting to get a trickle through. As this is new we are in an educational / learning period with our customers but I’m sure they will soon catch on. We are also doing a letterbox drop to houses either side of where we deliver with a special flyer. I had to work as a driver on Easter Sunday and started dropping these at each delivery. Had some instant success.

So to answer the original question. I am now doing about 45 - 50 hours in the shop, plus about 25 - 30 hours marketing… and 3 -4 hours playing golf (very badly).

Dave

 

[Red_Baron]

j_r0kk:

You guys are working too many hours in your store. This is not a competition about who can work the most. I can tell your right now that whomever decides to participate in that competition is going to lose, because it’s not good and it’s not healthy.

One question: If you’re spending all this time in your stores, who’s out there marketing on a day-to-day basis?

Now… I’m not trying to trap you two and single you out, trying to make you look bad because I wouldn’t do that. What I’d like to do however, is open your eyes to the obvious:

Both of you are struggling to get enough sales into your stores to pay the bills.

Now, of course, when this happens it’s natural instinct to want to just work harder. You feel that if you work as hard as you can and as long as you can it will, one day, get better… it won’t.

Both of you need to cut your hours in the store. Once you hit around 50 hours/week you’re unproductive anyway. You’re just there taking up space. I’m sure you can find some little shift runner to work dayshifts for you or maybe even a close a night or two to give you a little relief.

Now, after you get your schedule taken care of, get your butts out there and market! That’s all I’m going to say, because both of you know you’re not doing it as much as you should. You’re too tied up in the stores to give it the attention it requires. Also, I stand by doorhanging in the advice I offer because I know it works. With that being said, don’t be afraid to try something new to see if that works out for you because we all know each market is different and each store has it’s own niche. Either way, get out of the stores. You’re letting sales slip away each and every week you’re wasting your time behind the counter.

Think of sales as “compounding interest”. The more new customers you create each week, the faster they start to compound. So remember: CREATE NEW CUSTOMERS! That’s your goal in life. -J_r0kk

I echo J-r0kk’s statements. As an owner you MUST, absolutely MUST get out there and market your store. It is ok to initially work in your store to make sure operations are set up the way you want, conduct the initial training and hiring, and provide ongoing staff support. Plus it is important to work in house from time to time to get a better feel for your customers and crew. But if you are STUCK inside there is a definite problem, and it isn’t sales. More likely than not it is because you figure you can’t “afford” a crew or your current crew is failing to deliver the quality performance you expect.

 

[NicksPizza]

I work full time at my store, 60 hours, 6 days a week since January . . . and we hope to be open in a couple weeks to start making pizzas

We are hanging in there, and I do anticipate finding the right people to provide some ‘relief’ from my wife and my schedule every night we are open. We need to get open and rebuild our sales to see where we can find staff that will fit the new flow. We thin it will work, though. It has to if we are going to make $500,00 sales in a year in a town of 2500!! It can happen. I believe it will happen.

 

[system]

I work 35 hours a week. My wife works 30 hours a week. There is cross-over time together built in there. We have three part time managers who are in charge during the shifts when neither one of us is there. We’re going to do 1.1 mil this year with IBT of 23%. Been growing every year. If I had to work 100 hours a week I would go back to a corporate 40 hours and take home less. You only live once.

 

[MM1]

Open to further ideas on getting out and creating customers.
I have employees doorhanging pretty steadily.
I am starting to get a little systematic about sending something to lazy customers, though it isn’t perfect (or cheap enough) yet. I am working on a couple deals with corporate customers (party places and such).

I’m in need of some dramatic growth, and if I have some good ideas, will MAKE time out of the shop to pursue them - so please fire away!

 

[gobpile]

J-Rok, We have to work in the store to keep labor down. We are trying to dig our way out of this big mess my children put us in.

Don’t get me wrong, we do go out an door hang and we have employees that do it also and IT DOES WORK! Right now we don’t have enough money to do any other type of marketing.

If anyone is interested in being a partner to help turn us around, let us know - or if anyone wants to buy a 3000 square foot restaurant will listen to your offer.

 

[system]

Jrock… who do you have @ your store running it and watching over it while your not there? Some people here have been robbed and just will never trust anyone again.

Some of us are small operators do not have the money to pay a managers salary. Gobpile is a small operation from what she is telling us (5000 a week) . A Manager @ 500 a week will be 10% of sales and would bankrupt her. Her kids already did that, draining everything. In my market, it is really hard to find anyone to work. Everyone wants top dollar pay.

If sales are @ 10,000 a week, she could have the capital to hire people and market the store.

Sales solve all problems.

 

[NicksPizza]

Anonymous:

Jrock… who do you have @ your store running it and watching over it while your not there? Some people here have been robbed and just will never trust anyone again.

Some of us are small operators do not have the money to pay a managers salary. < < < SNIP > > >
If sales are @ 10,000 a week, she could have the capital to hire people and market the store.

Sales solve all problems.

Even j_r0kk has said over and again that this is a progression that we need to be working toward form the first day. The sooner the better, given each particular circumstance. Really, there are some people out here that are workaholics beating themselves to death and bemonaing the lack of progress with their business. . . . posting 80 - 90 - 100 hours a week.

If our business plans don’t include removing ourselves from the essential day-to-day operations of the restaurant, then we are creating a cult of personality that will ultimately wither if we get ill, take a vacation (we all need to do that), or take time out of the store to do business networking and customer development. Have a plan and do something each day to work toward that plan.

Saying I cannot afford a manager does nothing for my business to progress towards having the sales to support a manager. We actually cannot afford one . . . YET! And we have a new business plan that will progress towards getting me out of the epicenter of all things baked/cooked/fried/nuked/thawed and chopped. I want to be a business owner and not an owner/operator for my whole life. I want to take more executive functions like training, business development, menu development, and the like. I man a work station every night right now, so I am still a line cook with more debt than the rest of them.

I still have our business plan to move us each week toward autonomy and supervision over laboring. Not this year, maybe not next year, but it will come if we keep our eyes on the prize.

 

[system]

Nick,

“we are creating a cult of personality that…” So true.

I think the ulitimate goal for building any operation is to build it to a non-owner operated level. When you do that, you have truly created an asset that can be sold–if you choose to. My goal is to HAVE TO BE in my store ZERO hours per week.