Any buisness owners in here?

[Spector5]

So just wondering of there was any self made buisness owners on the site? My wife and I had spent sometime in Florida and st Louis and were at all their local bars and grills and noticed how there were no bars like them in our area. We live off of lake Michigan and we started to notice that we actually didn't even have any actual bar bars, with the exception of buffalo wild wings and other restaurant bars. However, we really don't have that party bar feel in our area. We are literally on the water, and it would be the perfect spot/space to make one. However, my questions are how realistic would it be to start a buisness? How did you get started? How did you go about finding investors? And how did you go about finding company's to buy inventory from such as in my case food, alcohol, cleaning supply's, etc...?

 

[Catbox_95]

I graduated from college in May of 2000 and have owned my own businesses ever since. It's what I like to do and it's what I knew I would always do. You do need to know, though, that it is VERY time consuming. There's no such thing as 8-hour work days, 5-days a week. I work when I need to work, which is quite often. I don't get a paycheck at the end of the week. I don't get paid vacations or sick days. I may make some money today, I may not, and I may lose some money today. I need to handle my general liability insurances and taxes on my own. I have no one above me to go to when I have a question or dilemma and any decision I make greatly affects my company.

BUT...

I still love what I do and wouldn't trade it for a 9 - 5 job by any means.

You will need to have some liquid cash available to live off of for a while, possibly a couple years, because on average that's about how long it takes to break even on start-up costs of such an endeavor. As for investors and start-up funding, assuming you have not owned a bar or restaurant before will make it difficult to convince someone that you can handle it. Your best bet may be to go into your local bank with good credit and a business plan and get a small business loan, in my opinion.

As for vendors and suppliers, talk to the limited resources around you - local bars and restaurants, liquor stores, etc - and see what they are doing.

I hope some of this helps and good luck.