New industry, new venture for us.... but we're excited!!

[CareyJo]

I've had a little bit of chit-chat with @Lovewell and @TheRealChipA about our upcoming venture and we're getting much closer now to making it a reality, so I finally decided that I should join this group and start learning some things.  So, I'm looking for input.  On all the things.  But, first.... here's what I know and what I need to learn.

1.  I've got some experience.  I was a shift leader in a pizza restaurant for more than 3 years.  I ran the inventory there and the inventory in our current business.

2.  I've got over 35 years experience being self-employed.

3.  I ran the food program for 8 daycare locations in Phoenix many years ago and know how to shop in bulk, price shop and create menus.

4.  I've taught classes on how to make 30 meals in a day and shop for it.

5.  I was a manager in Tupperware and sold for about 5 years, I'm super at storage and organizing.

6.  I run our current business.  I manage every aspect of it but I know there will be new things that I need to learn.

What I know I need to learn, here in Square, that I haven't yet researched:

1.  Having a second business after already having one here.... something about more than one profile???

2.  Getting our POS system and learning all of the tools that Square offers, that will help me run our new business.

3.  Learning which of those tools will be most beneficial to us and how to utilize them to our greatest advantage.

4.  Lastly, what I don't know that I need to know.  For those of you in this industry, if you were to start over today, with what you know, what would you have done differently?  

Tell me... All. The. Things.

[SVLFever]

Congratulations @CareyJo !

The advice I can give is;

• Use technology to your advantage and work smarter and not harder.   Use a system that consolidates your data and shares it for you automatically so you don't have to do "busy work".  For example, ShoGo is a 3rd party software that interfaces to Square and other POS systems that can consolidate your data into Quick Books.  It's automated and one less thing that I need to do.
• I see you mentioned "making an offer on a building".  If you renovate, no matter what your GC says, plan 10% to 20% for cost overruns.  You'll thank me later.
• Youtube is your friend.  I was asked to beta test Square for QubicaAMF and I had used the QubicaAMF software as my POS for over 20 years.   I learned as much as I could on Youtube before hand so I could hit the ground running.   

Good luck and we are all here to help as needed!

[CareyJo]

Thank you!  Fortunately for us, we're already the GC!  We know how to get all of our equipment at cost AND do the installations.  There will be no third party work.  We're doing VERY light remodeling that we can do ourselves.  So fortunate for us!!

I'm really going to have to think about the QB integrations.  I use QB currently for all of our businesses and I don't like the integrations, so I'm already entering things in manually.  Not sure that I will want to change that.  I won't be required to have a separate QB subscription for the new business, I just create a new company in it.  I code everything for my CPA so she knows which company it is.  I'm probably going to continue it so that it's all uniform.  But a good thing to consider...

[doc_choc]

Congratulations and best of luck with the new venture.

For me I would say get good people around you in your team. We have a small, enthusiastic but highly motivated team. You can't do everything so have one or two super talented people at your side, it really catapulted our business. 

[CareyJo]

Thank you!!

Oh ya... I forgot to add that in my comment to @ryanwanner.  We're going to start with one of our adult sons and one of our adult daughters as our team.  I've worked restaurant before and she's been a barista.  I know that I need 2 people on the floor and one cook.  Dad is going to cook, kids will work the floor and counter and I will do everything else, lol....

Good news is that we will have a very limited menu and not consider ourselves an actual restaurant.  We're going for the Soda Fountain...

[ryanwanner]

@CareyJo Congrats on the new venture! Anything dealing with foodservice is the most rewarding, most soul killing, most frustrating, and most fun I've ever dealt with. Every day will bring something new, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes financially horrible. But that connection you get to your fellow human makes up for everything bad you'll ever experience.

For Square, definitely have an intuitive flow to your items. This is even more important when operating an online ordering platform. For example:

Drip Coffee

     -Variations for cup sizes

     -Required Modifiers for coffee type

     -Required Modifiers for cream, sugar, etc

     -Optional modifiers for tweaks (extra hot, double cup, extra sweet, etc)

I do recommend investing in the upgraded online ordering sites if you're going to have them. Having the option for your customers to view and reorder prior orders is extremely nice to have.

Employees will be the bane of your existence. Be sure to trust your gut, don't be afraid to let them go if it's obviously not working out, and have well documented policies and procedures in place for them to follow.

And if you're needing a coffee supplier, I may know a guy... 😉

[CareyJo]

Thank you!  Sage advice!

We've decided that we're going to leave coffee alone and just do old fashioned drip for the elderly who like a mug in their hands.  I do need advice on where to get a good machine with a hot pot.  I haven't even started researching that yet... I also don't know that we will do so much volume that I need to buy in bulk.  At this point, it's jumbo size at Costco, lol...  Our town has less than 2k people in it and the bulk of our business will be locals.  We're going to make everything fresh, have very limited items and do everything in small batch.  Less work, less waste.  Once we know better what real numbers look like after 6 mos to a year, then we can plan better.  In MT, when something new opens, people flock to it and it stays that way for about 2-3 months.  Then it dies down.  We want to know what those died down numbers are going to be consistently.  At this point, with a closing timeline of up to 90 days and time to do a light remodel, we're not anticipating opening until March or April.