ddechter
02-05-2006, 10:21 AM
Hey there everybody!
OK, here's the situation and anyone can lend some insight would be awesome. I manage a cafe in an up and coming area in Brooklyn, NY. The cafe has only been around for three months, and is hardly breaking even. I see it as having tons of potential, but the owners haven't a clue about what theyre doing. I know that with a few basic changes to the decor and menu, along with some promotion, change of staff etc. this place could do much better.
Now the opportunity has come to turn the basement of this cafe into a bar. I'm a former bar manager and I have enough $ to build and start the basement bar. The owner wants to partner this way: I invest the money for the bar, and then trade shares between the bar and cafe so that I own 65% of the bar and 35% of the cafe and I can use the kitchen from the cafe to make food for the bar and I will have complete control over the bar and some control over the cafe. He wants this situation primarily because he wants me to have an incentive in the cafe. I will also be paid as the manager of the bar/cafe. The two businesses would be separate entities.
The area itself is gauranteed to boom in the next few years as new condos are being built everywhere and we're right next to a promising subway stop. Also we'd have a virtual monopoly on the area because there are so many churches its impossible to find locations that will permit a bar. Because the cafe owner has first dibs on the basement, I have to work w/him to attain a lease, and w/out him I am failing to find any suitable locations. he has all the connections to landlords and he's got more reputation etc.
So...my question is does this seem like something I should consider? The owner also said that eventually when things get steady (whatever that means) we'd split entirely and I'd be 100% owner of the bar and that I'd just pay the cafe a nominal rent for the use of the kitchen. Any tips are tremendously appreciated.
Thanks!
OK, here's the situation and anyone can lend some insight would be awesome. I manage a cafe in an up and coming area in Brooklyn, NY. The cafe has only been around for three months, and is hardly breaking even. I see it as having tons of potential, but the owners haven't a clue about what theyre doing. I know that with a few basic changes to the decor and menu, along with some promotion, change of staff etc. this place could do much better.
Now the opportunity has come to turn the basement of this cafe into a bar. I'm a former bar manager and I have enough $ to build and start the basement bar. The owner wants to partner this way: I invest the money for the bar, and then trade shares between the bar and cafe so that I own 65% of the bar and 35% of the cafe and I can use the kitchen from the cafe to make food for the bar and I will have complete control over the bar and some control over the cafe. He wants this situation primarily because he wants me to have an incentive in the cafe. I will also be paid as the manager of the bar/cafe. The two businesses would be separate entities.
The area itself is gauranteed to boom in the next few years as new condos are being built everywhere and we're right next to a promising subway stop. Also we'd have a virtual monopoly on the area because there are so many churches its impossible to find locations that will permit a bar. Because the cafe owner has first dibs on the basement, I have to work w/him to attain a lease, and w/out him I am failing to find any suitable locations. he has all the connections to landlords and he's got more reputation etc.
So...my question is does this seem like something I should consider? The owner also said that eventually when things get steady (whatever that means) we'd split entirely and I'd be 100% owner of the bar and that I'd just pay the cafe a nominal rent for the use of the kitchen. Any tips are tremendously appreciated.
Thanks!