Southwest Burrito

Our story

We had no experience with running a restaurant. My husband was an engineer with a major fortune 500 company. He was laid off when he was in his early 40s. We are just too young too retired, so we started looking for small business opportunities. It was a very rough time for both of us. The pressure was mounting with mortgage payments and all other expenses. We started buying small items and sold them in local flea markets. We started to learn a few tricks like

· which table/location makes more money than others in a specific flea market,

· which items sell best,

· what kind of customers are big spenders/buyers,

· how to negotiate with buyers about price in a specific item?

We wanted to sell, but we wanted to make a profit too. Often times we were negotiating with customers down to quarters. It was fun, but it was sad.

Franchise is simply too expensive to buy-in and too risky for us to try, so we just kept our eyes open for any independent stores, shops etc. until one day out of the blue, we spotted this take-out/dine-in restaurant for sale by the East Brunswick NJ train station 5 years ago.

According to the owner the business was barely making even, so the owner decided to sell because of his other business was doing well and he simply did not have time for this one.

· The very first thing we did before we made an offer on this restaurant was that we went there and sat in the restaurant to count the people who came and went,

· and we took inventory

· we went there on weekdays and weekends just to test the water and see which days the restaurant was doing better?

· and what kind of customers are they? Students or businessmen,

· More people in lunch or dinner

· More take out or more dine in

· We also watch the cook how to cook the different dishes, meals

· Last but not least we went to find the suppliers and see what material we need to make the dishes/meals

3 months later, we made the offer and bought the restaurant.

How we started? Tips and Tricks

Issue 1—November 2006 page 2

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