steve1334: auto sales to pizza sales

[NicksPizza]

steve1334:

I am getting out of the auto sales business and going to open a pizza delivery store. I make very god money in the auto business but I am 42 and burnt out. I worked for dominos in college and LOVED it. I would like any advice on start up as far as what I should do for, ovens, is it a good idea to have fountain drinks, should I prepare my own dough, and should I shave my own cheese or bag cheese, and if my delivery area consist of a college of 20,000 students plus another appx. 5000 households with an avg. income of around $30k-$35. I believe price will be the major sale point. Do you think door hangars is enough for advertising if I am aggresive with real good pizza and priced below the major names. Is there any way that I can predict how many pies I may average per month as a guess with low price and a college to market to. I was thinking around 5000-7000 pies a month. Does that sound off if I door hang 2000 doors a week. We used to door hang the dorms while at Dominos and we got slammed everytime. We would give the RA’s at the dorms pizza once a month to let us hang the doors. Please give me any advice you may think of. I want this to work. I will run it and I have a guy that I lives with me that is like my handy man and I plan on him going in during the day to prep all the dough, etc for the night so I will have very little cost for that. I will pay him $1000-$1200 per month for that. How many drivers and in store employess should I have on a 200 pie night open from 5pm-2am. I was thinking 2 phone people and me and one pizza helper and 5 delivery people. My delivery area is small it is about 10 mile radius. Thanks and I will appreciate anything you can offer.

My very first suggestion is to get a job at a local pizza place to learn TODAY’s pizza market. See if you can learn specifically what processes are going on and what decisions they made in their business.

REALLY . . . most of the questions you ask are decisions you need to make based on your business model, space, budget, market, etc. Every one of us makes these decisions on a daily basis and have lots of reasons why we do.

Let me tell you two things that jumped out at me:

• 10 mile delivery radius will destroy your business if you do not have an iron clad plan how to manage all tha territory, and crack drivers to get the pies there. Three to five is more what others are doing in a dense area. Ten miles is a very large area when you start counting times to make runs.
  
• If you can do 6000 pies a month, meaning an AVERAGE of 200 per day, then you will be rocking . . . at least as long as you can mange the costs side of the business, which is huge. WAIT, you said you were pricing below the major chains. If that means the economy delivery places, trhen expect to be out of business in 6 months or less without an spectacular business plan, marketing plan and staff training. I don’t mean good . . . I mean spectacular. There is a reason they make the money they do.
  
• You tell us nothing about how many other pizza joints are in town (or what town it is). If you are the only one, then you have a leg up. IF you are competing, then you need to understand the market potential for the town . . . both during school and when school is out. The National Restaurant Association somehow figured that the average household will spend $17.85 per month on pizza. That does not include college students in dorms, I do not believe.
  
  These are intial thoughts. We have lots to offer, and there is a ton of info in the archives. Please understand the sheer volume of people dropping in on their fist post and asking how to set up and run a pizzeria . . . with not a lot of info either. Specific question can get a specific answer, but asking us to give you what amounts to a complete set of plans to open your shop is a bit much in one post.