> When I tell her she makes it sound easy, she responds smoothly. “It is,” she says, reminding me her own shop sells 1k bagels on the weekends.
> To start a bagel shop today, she says, costs ~$500k.
"To START" - key quote. Rent, machinery, staff, etc. And then you have to do volume (~1k/day) to even start to cover costs. Then you need ancillary products like coffee (huge margins), cream cheese, etc.
I've been making bagels for almost 4 years and looked into the economics, it's hard and you wont break even for at least a couple years. As someone in tech, trying to get to my current salary would take around 5 years, that doesn't include the time investment, especially with a family.
It sounds like it could be more lucrative to be a restaurant/baking consultant/trainer than to run a restaurant directly. Devilish details in the execution, requiring just the right individuals and timing and probably luck. With lots of ways to fail.
The problem with being a consultant in that industry is that your prospective clients usually don’t understand that they have a problem until it’s too late. Additionally, the restauranteurs who need help are usually under-capitalized. A friend of mine used to do this sort of (consulting) work, and it was relatively low-earning for him (he was an accountant).
> When I tell her she makes it sound easy, she responds smoothly. “It is,” she says, reminding me her own shop sells 1k bagels on the weekends.
> To start a bagel shop today, she says, costs ~$500k.
"To START" - key quote. Rent, machinery, staff, etc. And then you have to do volume (~1k/day) to even start to cover costs. Then you need ancillary products like coffee (huge margins), cream cheese, etc.
I've been making bagels for almost 4 years and looked into the economics, it's hard and you wont break even for at least a couple years. As someone in tech, trying to get to my current salary would take around 5 years, that doesn't include the time investment, especially with a family.
It sounds like it could be more lucrative to be a restaurant/baking consultant/trainer than to run a restaurant directly. Devilish details in the execution, requiring just the right individuals and timing and probably luck. With lots of ways to fail.
The problem with being a consultant in that industry is that your prospective clients usually don’t understand that they have a problem until it’s too late. Additionally, the restauranteurs who need help are usually under-capitalized. A friend of mine used to do this sort of (consulting) work, and it was relatively low-earning for him (he was an accountant).
On one hand, it's kinda like selling shovels in a gold rush.
On the other, a consultant needs to grow/maintain their brand. That's a skill like running business is a skill.