People often open restaurants as a hobby project. They like the idea of running a restaurant, maybe because they like the idea of being sociable or cooking for other people.
But they literally have no idea how to run a profitable restaurant. Often they know next to nothing about business in general, and have no idea how to estimate costs/profits.
Plenty of other business types operate on a similar semi-amateur basis, including book shops, record stores, independent garages, hairdressers and beauty parlors, craft and art shops, realtors, and others.
Sometimes they get lucky, or they're started by people who have actual business talent and can deal with challenges creatively.
But often they don't, which is why they fail.
Many also pay very poorly. Both super-professional and super-unprofessional owners can nickel-and-dime their employees, but for different reasons.
Failure is bad because these kinds of small businesses often add life to a community. But there's little or no support or training for them. It wouldn't take much to help them avoid the more obvious mistakes, give them more stability, and turn them into more of a local and national resource.
A lot of people who open businesses aren't doing so to open a business. And most of them don't even know it. A lot of them are trying to open a clubhouse they charge people to be at.
You see it often in the board game/comic/hobby sector. Someone gets it in their head that they could open a shop and it will be great and blah blah blah. But yeah, it goes south because what they really wanted was to play games for a living.
They want to be a business owner, but they don't want to run a business. If that makes sense.
But they literally have no idea how to run a profitable restaurant. Often they know next to nothing about business in general, and have no idea how to estimate costs/profits.
Plenty of other business types operate on a similar semi-amateur basis, including book shops, record stores, independent garages, hairdressers and beauty parlors, craft and art shops, realtors, and others.
Sometimes they get lucky, or they're started by people who have actual business talent and can deal with challenges creatively.
But often they don't, which is why they fail.
Many also pay very poorly. Both super-professional and super-unprofessional owners can nickel-and-dime their employees, but for different reasons.
Failure is bad because these kinds of small businesses often add life to a community. But there's little or no support or training for them. It wouldn't take much to help them avoid the more obvious mistakes, give them more stability, and turn them into more of a local and national resource.