reasonable goals to open?

[pizzajoey]

I have a pretty decent job with a huge amount of flexibility and great benefits.

I’ve just started the process for opening our pizza delivery/pick-up business and it will be several months before we open.

I know that there are a lot of factors involved and every city is different.

My question is, I want to keep my job, at least initially (first 6 months or so), until I see how this all works out. Honestly, I can’t afford to quit my job and put everything into a full-time shop. So, I plan on working 6 hours a day at my job and opening the shop at 3pm. I plan on closing at around 10 pm during the week and midnight on weekends. Is this a reasonable plan? My brother works at a large chain pizza shop and he says that between 1 pm and 3 pm it’s always dead for them. That is why I am planning on opening at 3pm. I will attempt to mix my dough around 1pm, or hire someone to come in and mix the dough while I am at my other job.
I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot right from the beginning. My theory is, if we can make a decent go of it doing afternoons and evenings only, that I can open up for lunch and kiss my day job goodbye!

thoughts?

 

[royster13]

Good luck on your quest!..A few tips…

• Make sure you read this forum from beginning to end…Making sure to understand even the stuff you do not want to hear…
• Develop a detailed business plan with good, bad and ugly projections of sales, profits, etc…
• Have enough money to aggressively market and stay open for at least a year without taking any money out…
• Give your head a shake and make sure you are not in “dreamland” before you make a huge investment…

 

[jackaloo]

If you’re not in a good area for lunch business then skip lunch altogether. Come in at 3 and make your dough or just come at 4 and make dough after the dinner rush at 8PM (you don’t want to use dough that’s less than 24 hours old anyway). Then you can quit your day job and use your days for marketing and paperwork
Also depending on your area you may find you dont make any money the last couple hours so just close up at 10 every night and get some sleep.

Paul

 

[pjcampbell]

i think opening at 3pm you will still be able to catch after school sales if applicable plus dinner. if you can profit during this time and keep your existing job you are in a great position.