Restaurant Dealmaker

Book excerpt: In this book you will learn my trade secrets from being a front-line restaurant, bar, and club owner/operator, as well as my extensive experience as a buyer and seller of many restaurants, bars and clubs. For a 45 year period (1950-1996), my family owned and operated: a) Zim's Restaurants, the largest independent non-franchised restaurant chain in San Francisco, b) nearly 35 restaurants, bars and/or clubs in Northern California including Zim's Restaurants, Z's Bountiful Buffets, Kibby's Drive Ins, and Casa Carlita's Mexican Restaurants and c) miscellaneous other operations, including many cocktail lounges. Today I own Restaurant Realty Company, the largest restaurant, bar and club business brokerage in California. I have personally sold over 800 restaurant, bar and club businesses, and I have completed over 2,500 business valuations since 1996. Throughout this book I will share my experiences and knoweldge from my twenty-plus years of restaurant experience, and more than thirty years of real estate experience. Having worn many hats as a restaurant, bar, and club owner/operator, buyer, seller, landlord, and broker, I want to share my years of experience to make it easier for prospective restaurant, bar or club buyers to learn how to effectively purchase a business. My goal is to help a buyer understand the key things he, or she, needs to know in order to minimize mistakes and to make a successful, well-thought-out purchase. I want this purchase to have a strong chance for success, subject to buyers operating the business properly after they take ownership. I cover the following topics in the book: 1. The Buyer - a. motivations for buying, b. things you need to know before buying, c. qualfications needed to purchase, d. things you need to do before you purchase, e. the advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing business versus starting one from scratch, f. what are you buying, and g. how buyers initially screeen business opportunities; 2. What Do You Need - a. the essential for preparing a business plan, b. how much money do you need to open and operate, c. methods for raising money; 3. Buyers Do's and Don'ts - a. buyer's three-stage checklist, b. important questions and information to ask the seller, c. signs to look for to determine if the seller's business is in trouble; 4. Success Vs. Failure - a. key ingredients for a successful business from a customer's and buyer's perspective, b. why so many businesses fail, c. turning a losing business into a winning business opportunity, d. why do sellers sell?; 5. Valuations and Other Financial Aspects - a. various sample valuations, b. understanding financial statements; 6. Importance of Location - a. major factors in selecting a strong location, b. how an operator determines if an existing site will work for his proposed new operation, c. special types of locations, d. how to find a good restaurant site; 7. Lease and Other Legal Aspects - a. premise lease, b. how a tenant can negotiate a good lease and renew it on favorable terms, c. helpful techniques in negotiating your lease, d. why landlords want to maximize their rent; 8. Steps to the Sale - a. selling process from offer stage to close of escrow stage, b. dealing with the most common problems related to the sale and how to ensure a closed escrow, c. overcoming the most common obstacles in dealing with the landlord, d. the main three parties in the transaction: buyer, seller and landlord, e. how the sales process works, f. explanation of the asset purchase agreement, g. the buyer's due-diligence process, h. things that can go wrong during a sales transaction that a seller needs to know - and a buyer should too, i. advantages and disadvantages of an asset sale versus a stock sale; 9. Is Franchising For You? - the advantages and disadvantages of buying a franchised business versus buying an independent, non-franchised business and 10. Using a Restaurant Broker to Your Advantage.