Looking at purchasing

[panzerg]

I live in Michigan, am 24 and have little experience in the restaurant industry. I'm looking at purchasing an existing bar thats about 2800 sq ft seats 75 people and has been around for 22 years. It's a mostly blue collar establishment and its cashflows are between $250k-$270k a year over the past 5 years. They have a good lunch crowd and I've got my CPA looking at the books right now. I'm not looking to change it at all at this point because it is profitable. Its just a nice mom and pop bar. I'm keeping my fulltime job and a close friend of mine who does have alot of experience in the industry is going to run it and he's going to teach me the in's and out's. The total cost is under $400k (with building and license). I'm wondering from the veterans here, if you think I'm pretty much stupid for attempting this, or if you think its do-able.

[ministry]

if you want to do this then jump in. ive been in the show now for about 18 years ( that's only 1.5 in fine malt years )and if i can tell you one thing is be prepared to be there all the time. yes you friend has experience but he may also steal from you ( oh my god not friends !) you need to be hands on in your business so you know what is happening. i have fired more than one so called friend for stealing from me, to the point that i don't hire anyone that i know. you need to be able to do everything in your bar, why just sat morning i had my arm in a sewer pipe up to my sholder trying to fix a clog. nothing is beneith me, i will do anything to make my bars work and survive, and wont ask anyone to do sonething that i wont do myself.

[40 Thieves]

I'm 24 and a new owner/ Day jobs are tough to keep when opening up. I have my own production company where I'm the boss and its still hard to keep up. I think its a no brainer from what you described (don't know the full details though). Your buddy is great resource but its hard to work with friends. My resources are my family running the biz when I'm not there. Good luck. Nothing ever worth doing is easy though :D