Opening a restaurant can be a rewarding but complex undertaking. It is a responsibility with many different pieces of a puzzle that the new owner must skillfully put together. For many, it is all about learning an entire new business from inside out, and doing so in a relatively short period of time. Regardless of your prior job experience or education opening a restaurant is a huge gamble for anyone, anywhere in the world.

The most important factor in establishing any new business is the location. A typical restaurant owner is generally required to commit to a long term lease, and he had better hope and pray he makes the right decision, because if he doesnt, he will be stuck in that location for a long time. Or pay a hefty penalty to get out of the lease early. On the other hand, the operator of a mobile food concession has the ability to change locations, without penalty, at any time, as conditions warrant. If business slackens off in one location, he can readily fold up his tent, so to speak and tow his trailer to another location.

The initial capital expenditures for building lease, leasehold improvements, outfitting the kitchen, seating, lighting, flooring and all other pre-opening costs can easily reach $200,000 or more. And if you pour all your money into the wrong location, that money is as good as gone. You cant take the leasehold improvements with you. On the other hand, the owner of a mobile food business has a substantially lower initial investment with a much smaller risk factor. If things do not work out at one location, he can hook up his concession trailer and bring his business to customers at a different location. And take his entire investment along with him.

If your idea of fun is constantly worrying about money, hiring consultants, training and managing employees, complying with government regulations, setting up systems, balancing the books, taking inventory, preparing menus, controlling theft and working 18 hour days, then you are a natural born restaurant owner. If this doesnt appeal to you, you might consider the simplicity of owning a mobile food business. Did you know that many hot dog vendors working downtown areas make more money than the majority of struggling to survive restaurant owners? And most of them work only 4-5 hours a day. Talk about a low stress job with a fraction of the risk.

Staffing a restaurant and keeping it staffed will be one of the most difficult and time consuming tasks the new restaurant owner will face. Unless you have a large family and friends to tap from, you will be constantly hiring, training and firing both full-time and part-time employees.

Managing a restaurant staff is a difficult task. It can be one headache after another. Employers find that many restaurant employees are unreliable and uncooperative. The restaurant business is plagued with staff turnovers. To add insult to injury your good employees are often wooed away by your competitors.

There are a number of other factors to take into consideration which will be covered in detail in subsequent articles. The list includes city ordinances and Health Department rules and regulations; advertising and marketing; menu selections; working capital reserves; inventory control; waste; bookkeeping; incorporation; income taxes, payroll and more. Running a successful restaurant is not a one-man job. You need a team of professional dedicated people and even then it never runs smoothly.

Opening a restaurant is a daunting task, but no matter what you put into it, in terms of time or money, it will not be successful if no one knows you exist. If you are taking over a location that was a restaurant at some point in the past, make sure you do not make the same mistakes that the previous owner did. Unless it was a management problem or some other obscure issue, restaurants usually fail because of their location or lack of working capital. Or as one restaurant critic jokingly remarked, The restaurant failed because the owner ran out of working capital due to a bad location.