Great Burgers

I open a burger joint. Here is my sign:

Everyone loves burgers, right? But the crowds aren’t materializing. After talking to some close friends, I know why… BEER.

Does “normal” beer cut it anymore? My friends are beer snobs, but so is everyone else these days. Hmmm. We need some unique beers. It’s expensive to set up the tap system but every bar needs a tap system eventually right? I find a distributor I can trust.

The microbrews flow and my friends start inviting their friends. My friend is having an office party. Office parties! That’s good! Add it to the sign.

A couple nights go by with no customers. And I find out why! At first you think it might be the food. Maybe the burgers aren’t that great. That can’t be …. sports. That’s worth five TVs for sure…

Things are going well. I run a burger joint with good beer. And Sports! One thing bugs me… there’s a patio for rent adjacent to the bar. It’ll be a stretch to expand, but in the spring and summer that could be a big draw. I pony up the cash for the rent, licensing, and frequent pigeon poop cleaning (unexpected):

Trivia. Super easy way to bring in a crowd on a Wednesday…

Pool. I’m skeptical at first, but my buddy will rent us the tables.

Something weird starts to happen. The quality of the food starts to drop. I’m not sure why. I’ve been getting more complaints lately. We need a real manager to cover prime shifts. Someone has to do the cat herding. A couple staff members leave when the new manager arrives. But that’s natural…

We’re running a big operation now. The food quality rebounds a bit. But I’m getting complaints about the pricing. “Why should I pay $14 for a burger to sit at a noisy sport’s bar!” We need some discounts…

More discounts via a bar menu…

And then I turn around and realize that I have a sports bar. There’s nothing all that special about my sports bar. The location is decent, but not great. It makes some money, but there are cashflow issues (damn patio). A consultant/investor tells me that I can leverage the brand name at another, better location (which his connection is selling). I coral the investors and give it a go:

And then realize I’m in a commodity business. Bail. Have to answer questions about how I could hire 50 people and not make any money. So I open a food truck: