I am not F&B entrepreneurs. Just a kibitzer.
Sorry, I did not walk the talk. Just talk only.
The up-side.......
You make it.
The cafe prospers.
It becomes an icon in local food scene.
You open more branches.
They are a success.
Your F&B income stream is a fountain of wealth.
Every year > $1 million in profit ...for the next 30 years or more...
You can leave this enterprise to your children and grandchildren.
Everyone takes a risk.
Everyone has to be a start up.
Look at the successful:
Jack's Place many branches.
Crystal Jade group of restaurants.
No Signboard Seafood.
Jumbo Seafood.
Tung Lok.
Long Beach Seafood.
McDonald's
Ya Kun
Breadtalk
......................................
The down-side...
You fail.
You lose a lot of money.
You get into debt.
You are made a bankrupt.
You lose some of your friends too.
Family ties are strained because of money problems.
You cannot try again in our society that does not forgive failures.
You wished you never started this cafe.
Unforeseen disaster like SARS, H1N1, economic downturn affect your cafe.
Some people let you down in the cafe business, even those you thought could be trusted.
.....................................
If you let people know you got a lot of money and you are also naive, then crooked people will come out of the woodwork to befriend and advise you to "invest" in F&B.
Like sharks, these people smell blood. They swarm to you like a feeding frenzy. There are a lot of con men out there. Nowadays few people do armed robbery anymore. Punishment for that is too severe. Much better to get someone into "investing" his life savings in F&B. (or toxic financial products). Because con job is something they easily get away with. It is not a crime to say, "Sorry the millions you invested is gone because the business lost money".
Beware staff who cheat you at the cash register.