What I Did Not Love About Dessert Noir Cafe & Bar

I've had nearly four months to think about the key lessons I learned from owning and operating Dessert Noir Cafe & Bar. As I noted in my previous post, there were several things that I loved about the experience. However, there were also many aspects of the business that I never, ever want to experience again. Here goes:

Employees
If I must have employees in my next venture, they need to be experienced, self-motivated, and committed professionals who can make good decisions in the context of what's right for the business. It's very difficult to motivate employees in general, but it's especially challenging when you have a low-skilled, low-wage, young workforce. I spent an inordinate amount of my time reviewing processes and procedures that should have just been common sense, like come to work ready to work, teamwork is critical to success of everyone in the business, focus on the customer, follow the government's regulations for health codes and liquor control, etc.

Restaurant businesses are notorious for "drama" and we had plenty of it. My handful of high performers became very annoyed with the folks who weren't as dedicated and committed and rightfully so. It was all I could do some days to just keep the team from coming "unglued."

Customers
No more consumer retail storefront that relies on the "good graces" of the "general public" for survival. As I learned in a tough economy, the very first thing people do when times get hard is to cut back drastically on their discretionary spending. This is especially true in a suburban market like Beaverton, Oregon, where there really isn't a culture of going out and folks are too unpredictable in their spending on local restaurants. For example, most weekends we were busy on either Friday or Saturday but not both. It seems like everyone got the same "memo" about which night to go out for the weekend. It was rare to get several good days in a row. Also, it's too easy for people to "hide away" in their cul de sacs with their kids and just not be bothered altogether.

Operations
Restaurants are low-margin businesses. You're lucky if you break even and can get profit margins in the single digits once you achieve that milestone. You don't have to be an expert to know that these businesses tend to have really high start-up costs -- construction build-out, equipment, fixtures, finishes, tables, chairs, labor, food/beverage -- particularly if you're building a place as opposed to taking over an existing operation. And then once you're up and running, the fixed costs are a killer. It didn't seem to matter if I served five or 50 people, it cost the same amount of money -- rent, utilities, payroll, cost of goods, loan payments, etc. -- for me to operate on a daily basis. So that meant that if revenue went down significantly, I had to scramble and hustle to make up for the shortfall. That happened all the time...

Also, I needed a strong, operationally-focused "Number 2" person to back me up. With a day job to manage, I lacked someone to whom I could truly delegate the day-to-day operation and trust that he/she would execute my vision. Honestly, the two general managers I had were complete failures for a variety of reasons, and when I stepped in to change my operational model and have everyone in the restaurant simply be accountable directly to me, the operation improved almost overnight. But that created a lot of stress and strain on me, to say the least, and I sacrificed a lot in terms of my quality of life.

Now it's on to the next chapter of my entrepreneurial life. I'm still working on it. I think I finally have a few good ideas and will start putting some plans together in the next couple of months to make something happen.