• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Anyone know anything about owning a pizzaria?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
JMapleton said:
I know a few business brokers and yes I would list an $80k business with one.

Why? Most people shopping through a business broker are going to be legit and not a waste of my time. And most people selling through a business broker are going to have some business sense, thus the business is not going to be a giant mess.
Click to expand...

Meh. You don't need much of a buyer for an $80k business. Well worth skipping the damned broker.
 
lxskllr said:
Yea, and for every Anand there's 10,000 others that would be doing better if they managed a Mcdonalds.
Click to expand...

Ask yourself honestly, how many people out there put as much effort, thought, and time into their website as Anand did?

Anand never gave up and constantly worked to improve his website. 99% of website owners and probably 75% of business owners in general give up within a short amount of time.

If you took 100 people and they all put the same level of effort and work that Anand did, probably at least 90 of them would succeed.

That beats withering away in a cubicle right?
 
Carson Dyle said:
Meh. You don't need much of a buyer for an $80k business. Well worth skipping the damned broker.
Click to expand...

I know, ATOT baller, $80k is couch change. For most people $80k is a fortune. Especially for people who are looking on craigslist for a business.
 
madoka said:
Well, his is a special case because he was able to convince a bunch of power-hungry chumps to moderate his site for free. Most businesses don't get free workers.
Click to expand...

Whoa whooaaa, bitter? Table for one?

You know there is an actual website associated with this forum, right? Most users here are so ad-blind, I doubt they make any revenue off this forum minus the server expenses.
 
JMapleton said:
I know, ATOT baller, $80k is couch change. For most people $80k is a fortune. Especially for people who are looking on craigslist for a business.
Click to expand...

I didn't even know businesses were sold on craigslist. I thought it was all cell phones and hand jobs.
 
lxskllr said:
People say this a lot, but I don't buy it. Full responsibility 100% of the time, and you're lucky if you make as much as your highest paid employee.

I've thought I wouldn't mind owning a grocery with pre-made food available, but that's 100% ownership, including the property(paid off), and me living on the property. With that setup, I wouldn't have to be "successful". Work would be home, and I'd only have to make enough to pay taxes, and a bit more to live on. I think I could manage that with little stress, and I could see a store that sold things *I* was interested in.
Click to expand...
I know this from personal experience. My father has been self employed for nearly 40 years. He started out by owning furniture stores, and then moved into the food business years later. The furniture businesses he had were never really profitable, and he only became successful with the last cafe he had with my mother. My mom was the one who ran it. They had it for 12 years. When my mom passed away he sold it. That was 3 ago. I've heard the new owners are doing really well.

Our scenario was different than most people. My father was a contractor for the state of NJ. Do you remember the old voting machines? He delivered those. He made $60k from that gig alone. $15k for 2-3 weeks of work. He also delivered government food to the local public schools. For 3 days out of the month he made nearly $4k dollars. Finally, in the summer he sold ice cream on the beach. Not bad for someone who didn't graduate highschool.

My father was a husler. He wasn't afraid to work, and he wasn't afraid to put the time in. When he owned his businesses he did all the renovations. My mom and dad put 12 hours a day easily. During the summer my dad woke up at 5am so he could prep the food, and mop the floor. Then he went to the beach from 8-6 and sold ice cream. Then he would visit the cafe to help clean up.

Being self employed means you're in control of your destiny. It's not for everyone, and it's not easy. If you're able to pull it off it's worth it.
 
Last edited:
Carson Dyle said:
Meh. You don't need much of a buyer for an $80k business. Well worth skipping the damned broker.
Click to expand...

Brokers take a cut of the money. Rich people can afford that. 80k people can't.

If you know how to run a successful pizza business, do it. If you're expecting easy money, don't.
 
Sorry, I should have been more clear in the OP. I am not considering buying that business, it just seems like something I could do in maybe 2 or 3 years, and this just seems like a the type deal I would be looking for.

ponyo said:
$80k asking price. I would stop right there. I have a rule. Never purchase a cheap business unless I know that business inside out. It's cheap for a reason. Any restaurant business priced < $250k is really not worth looking at.
Click to expand...

You have a rule? You purchase businesses frequently enough that you have a rule about it? And that rule covers all kinds of businesses, from real estate agencies to nail salons?

That $7-8k a week is total sales. Basically $1k sales a day. Multiply this by 365 days and you're only looking at $365k yearly sales. At 10% profit, you're looking at $36k profit a year and that's probably if you worked the business yourself. And that's being generous. I bet this business nets less than $2k a month or $24k a year. And that's owner operated. Absentee owner might suffer a loss with this business.
Click to expand...

Why are you assuming a 10% margin? I've always understood pizzerias to be very profitable businesses.

JMapleton said:
No restaurant is going to have a 100 percent profit margin. on $8k a week i revenue, maybe you'll have $1k in profit for you, if it's run efficiently.
Click to expand...

You mean 50% margin? A pizzeria is technically a restaurant, but I don't think it's generally anywhere near as difficult to manage as a traditional sit-down restaurant with table service.

JMapleton said:
And OP, anyone who would list their business for sale on craigslists and not through a legit business broker, is not someone I would do business with.
Click to expand...

Why not? I don't know anything about business brokers, but I doubt they would really be interested in trying to move a pizzeria for $80k.

If this business was making so much, it would be easy for them to sell it. And if he was making $200k a year (profit after expenses), the business would probably be asking close to a million as an asking price.
Click to expand...

You think people would be lining up to buy some shitty pizzeria in Reading? As someone pointed out above, it's a terrible city, it's not really close to anything, and there's little chance for any kind of economic growth there. If anything, I'd say $80k is over priced. He posted the ad a month ago and it's still up.
 
Blackjack200 said:
Why are you assuming a 10% margin? I've always understood pizzerias to be very profitable businesses.
Click to expand...

10% margin is a number pulled out of one's ass but a pretty standard number for your average business. Many businesses are lower than that. a few are higher. Unless you're a fancy sit-down restaurant, you're not going to be pulling more than 10% profit. A pizza place in Nowhere, PA might be 4% profit. Or maybe they're at a loss. Definitely find out before buying the business.
 
JEDIYoda said:
After paying your employees.......paying vendors...maintenance of the building....being at your store 24/7 or at least being available......maintenance of the company vehicles...insurance...lolol

There is a Round Table Pizza in Hollister, California that grosses $1,000.000.00 a year.....think about the work involved...hiring, scheduling......etc...
Click to expand...

I work in Hollister, are you there too? I suspect the owners burned down the neighborhood pizza a few doors down to wipe out competition 🙂
 
Blackjack200 said:
You mean 50% margin? A pizzeria is technically a restaurant, but I don't think it's generally anywhere near as difficult to manage as a traditional sit-down restaurant with table service.
Click to expand...

No one's making a 50% margin. Walmart is about a 3% profit margin and Apple pulls 20% on a good day. If you're lucky, you might be somewhere in between.
 
madoka said:
Well, his is a special case because he was able to convince a bunch of power-hungry chumps to moderate his site for free. Most businesses don't get free workers.
Click to expand...

That's true. Free labor is big in the Internet era. Look at huffington post. Owner cashed out for hundreds of millions after starting a business where all the writers/contributors worked for free.
 
Rakehellion said:
No one's making a 50% margin. Walmart is about a 3% profit margin and Apple pulls 20% on a good day. If you're lucky, you might be somewhere in between.
Click to expand...

I was making a nice 40% margin on my Ebay bidness selling stuff I picked up here from Echumps and my connection at Dell.

:colbert:
 
Blackjack200 said:
You think people would be lining up to buy some shitty pizzeria in Reading? As someone pointed out above, it's a terrible city, it's not really close to anything, and there's little chance for any kind of economic growth there. If anything, I'd say $80k is over priced. He posted the ad a month ago and it's still up.
Click to expand...

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, not really close to anything, becoming more economically depressed every year, with a dwindling population that is growing older. Do you know what businesses dominate all others in that town? Pizzerias. Many of the bars have closed, there's virtually no retail left, banks have moved out, there's a Subway and one real restaurant. And probably seven or eight pizzerias and taverns known for their pizza.

You have no clue whether or not it's overpriced or underpriced. You know nothing about the business beside what's in the Craigslist listing.
 
Rakehellion said:
10% margin is a number pulled out of one's ass but a pretty standard number for your average business. Many businesses are lower than that. a few are higher. Unless you're a fancy sit-down restaurant, you're not going to be pulling more than 10% profit. A pizza place in Nowhere, PA might be 4% profit. Or maybe they're at a loss. Definitely find out before buying the business.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? 10% is not a standard number for your average business because there is no such thing. Some dude cutting grass with his dad's mower is getting almost 100% profit margin. My real estate business is probably around 70% profit margin.

You guys think he's getting 10% on $8k a week? Okay, so his expenses are $32,400 a month? What exactly is he spending $32,400 on?

A $10/hr employee costs $14/hr http://www.snagajob.com/resources/what-you-cost-your-employer/

Lets say you hire two of them for 180 hrs a month each. That's 360 hours * 14 = $5,040. Okay $27,360 to go. Man, rent must be a fortune.
 
Hugo Drax said:
If you have to ask, you have no buisness even thinking about it.
Click to expand...

Whatever the fuck that means.

Mai72 said:
Pizza shop on the boardwalk in Ocean City was cited for tax evasion last winter.

Between 2007-2011 Manco Manco reportedly hid over $1 million dollars! This is a pizza place that does the majority of its business in the summer. It can pay off!

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...zeria-owners-arrested-on-tax-evasion-charges/
Click to expand...

Actually I first became aware of how profitable pizzerias can be when I was talking to my aunt, a CPA who used to audit businesses for the state. She used to make millions of dollars for the state of New Jersey by auditing pizza places. She told me that they're usually very profitable, and their owners often evade taxes. The fact that its mostly a cash business gives them the opportunity.

FelixDeCat said:
I was making a nice 40% margin on my Ebay bidness selling stuff I picked up here from Echumps and my connection at Dell.
:colbert:
Click to expand...

False! You can't possibly make more than 20%... if you're LUCKY!
 
Blackjack200 said:
You think people would be lining up to buy some shitty pizzeria in Reading? As someone pointed out above, it's a terrible city, it's not really close to anything, and there's little chance for any kind of economic growth there. If anything, I'd say $80k is over priced. He posted the ad a month ago and it's still up.
Click to expand...

That is a huge blanket statement. You cannot possibly assess the price of this business without first knowing the complete revenue/profit information.

Also, pizza thrives on lower middle class people. Well off people do not eat much pizza. I used to deliver pizza in a nice part of town. 85% of our deliveries were to the small pockets of cheap apartments in the area. Reading actually sounds like a great place for pizza.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top