Thursdays at the Huffington Post, Rana Florida, CEO of The Creative Class Group, shares her conversations with successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders about how they manage their businesses, personal lives, careers, and more. She also answers readers' questions about how they can optimize their lives. Send your questions about work, life, or relationships to rana@creativeclass.com
Hey Rana,
I've been stuck in a corporate job my entire adult life. We recently had a management change over and I HATE my new boss. I've been dreaming of opening up my own restaurant for years and cooking is my passion. I have a family with three small children and can't lose the income of a stable job. Do I keep suffering in my dead-end job or should I take a risk and venture out on my own?
Adam
Long Beach, California
Adam,
You are not alone! While I had a few inspiring leaders, I hated the majority of my bosses (you know who you are!). One used to clock my lunch time and would call me and ask why I was gone for an extra 15 minutes. Another wanted to be my best friend and go to the bar with my friends and me. Another thought I needed to give her a fashion makeover and find her a husband. The reality is most people have no idea how to motivate a workforce and should not be in leadership positions.
Professor Wayne Hochwarter of the Florida State University College of Business has conducted a number of formal studies of toxic bosses. The Daily Mail revealed some of his findings:
Unfortunately, the majority of us have been trapped in the 9-5 system since preschool. Society forces us to go to school, go to college, and get a job. Your income adjusts just enough to keep supporting your expanding lifestyle, so it is nearly impossible to break out of the prison cell without either a lot of risk or a lot of work.
So what to do? Do both! Don't put your family's livelihood at stake. Start that restaurant business on your off hours, evenings, weekends, whatever it takes. You can stay with the status quo, working 9 to 5, spending your evenings and weekends at the kids' sporting events and shopping at the mall, or you can work extra hard to create something that you genuinely care about and maybe even realize your life's ambition.
Photo credit: Flickr user Restaurant & Bar Design
Running your own business is more than a full time job anyhow, so get used to those hours. If you are serious about your dream, your family and friends will want to pitch in and lend you a hand.
Put together a professional business plan, assessing the competitive landscape, laying out the financials, and including an affordable, practical, marketing plan. Start out small, with just a few tables and a small menu, weekends and a couple of weeknights only, and see how it goes. Then assess your progress and follow up with a growth plan. As your business scales up, you can start to let go of the reins at your mind-numbing day job.
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I remember reading about someone in NYC who did that monthly.
It sounded like such a fabulous gathering.
Who would want to miss out?
Brilliant idea.
Your choices are that "you can stay with the status quo, working 9 to 5, spending your evenings and weekends at the kids' sporting events and shopping at the mall, or you can work extra hard to create something that you genuinely care about and maybe even realize your life's ambition."?
What are the children? An afterthought? You do realize that those are times you don't get back. You can't go back and re-stage their first soccer game that you missed five years before while building your business.
So, your advice is to miss your children's life (and time with the wife, don't forget about her) to fulfill a potential foolish and selfish dream? That seems very cold and callous.
Anyway, I like your perspective!
One final thought: we need another restaurant in America like we need a hole in our collective head. Most of the restaurants today aren't worth patronizing. One would be better off taking one's hard-earned cash and socking it away in a mattress before investing in a restaurant business.
How I hate it when some self-professed personal guru starts giving advice about the restaurant business. I was in the restaurant business for several years and I can't tell you how many times someone (often an employee) said they had a passion for cooking and wanted to open a restaurant. Owning a restaurant isn't about cooking, it's about running a business. The failure rate for new restaurants is much higher than for other businesses; something in the neighborhood of 90% within the first three years. You will be on your feet 10-14 hours per day. Hiring and firing, ordering supplies, fighting with vendors, dealing with the local health department, not to mention all those customers who come in the next day claiming they got food poisoning. Oh, and then the dishwasher calls in sick and the headwaiter quits in the middle of the dinner rush. (Guess who fills in?)
Don't get me wrong; it can be a rewarding, fulfilling business, but prepare carefully and I most strongly encourage you to work in a restaurant first. If you still have the dream, make sure you have a good business plan and solid financing and include in your planning the fact you won't have any personal income from the business for at least twelve months.
Buena suerte!
Signed the self-professed personal guru
That should be with my friends and ME. There is a simple way to test a lot of syntax, i.e.,
you would NOT say "another wanted to go to the bar with *I*"
you'd say 'with me' That 'with' should have been your first clue. Do you proof read your stuff?
If you are a serious writer, work on your grammar and especially your syntax.