Let me first start by saying I asked permission from Naill Harbison one of the contributors from the blog over at ifoods.tv to repost this here. Naill has put together 25 reasons he would never own a restaurant and I would have to say 99% of the reasons are the SAME reason why I struggle with thoughts of owning my own.
Just last week (or was it 2 weeks ago?) I emailed a friend (thanks for the info Bobby M. !) about zoning issues and building. (Bobby’s one of those architectural type genius’s) But before I get too far off the subject here is Naill Harbison’s post that I can whole heartedly agree with AND this may explain a few things to those people who think us Chefs should always ‘open our own place’ – sometimes its better as a dream in our head, than a reality:
Posted by Niall Harbison
Being a chef and having worked for some pretty famous people one of the first things I am always asked when I meet people is why would you not open a restaurant? I have even been made offers by people willing to put up the money to open here in Dublin and although usually politely declined here are the real reasons why I wouldn’t open a restaurant……..
1. Having worked for Paul Allen I have seen how wealthy technology can make you. I have never seen a restaurateur with a boat like this……
2. We are entering into a massive recession and there are far better restaurateurs out there than me who will fail.
3. Over a third of restaurants close within the first year of business
4. I don’t want to my busy time of work to be Friday and Saturday evenings when my friends are all out having fun.
5. Having a Monday and Tuesday as days off is not that appealing either!
6. I don’t want to spend years of my life working in an aggressive and stressful environment.
7. I don’t want to spend my life in fear of getting slaughtered in a restaurant review
8. I don’t want to work in a business where staff turnover is so high.
9. I don’t want to spend 70% of my time in a place that has no natural light.
10. I don’t want to worry constantly if I am going to go out of business just because business has been slow for 1 week.
11. The customer is not always right when it comes to food and I don’t want to have to pretend they are just to keep people happy.
12. I don’t want to smell like fat all the time.
13. I would rather not injure myself using sharp knife/hot oil/ovens etc
14. If I invested the couple of hundred thousand needed in AAPL and GOOG stocks instead I would be considerably richer in 3 years time.
15. I love what I do at the moment too much to sacrifice that for anything.
16. There are a lot of chancers working in the restaurant business.
17. I don’t want to stand on my feet for 18 hours a day.
18. All of friends would be expecting freebies when they came in. It is very hard to say no to friends but this kills a lot of restaurants.
19. I would drink too much of the amazing wines we would have in the cellars
20. Unless I sold cookbooks and had a few restaurants (thus losing quality) I would not be very wealthy in 20 years time.
21. I don’t want to spend 80 hours a week behind a stove.
22. Cooking can become a chore instead of being something that you love doing when it is mass produced.
23. I don’t want to have to wear a hat for 70% of my life.
24. Being in a large freezer first thing in the morning is one of the most horrible experiences in life and one I don’t want to repeat until I am dead.
25. I would end up washing dishes/cleaning toilets/scrubbing floors when somebody phones in sick at the last moment!
Yep, that about says it! (and sums it up quite nicely) ~
Excellent review. Have to say I agree with the points 100%