Steve Zimmerman of Restaurant Realty Speaks To Restaurant Management & Culinary Students At Cornell University , City College San Francisco & The California Culinary Academy.
In recent months I have had the opportunity of speaking to management and culinary students at the schools mentioned above and I will continue speaking regularly for the remainder of this year at the California Culinary Academy.
My purpose in speaking with these students is to share my 20+ years of restaurant experience and 7+ years of restaurant brokerage experience and to encourage them to pursue the restaurant industry as a career, as there is a shortage of college trained restaurant management students and professionally trained chefs. Additionally many of these students have indicated that they wish to buy their own restaurant in the near future.
At Cornell I spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of buying an existing restaurant versus developing a restaurant from scratch which I discussed in a recent Restaurant Rap article.
At City College of San Francisco and the California Culinary Academy my topic is A Checklist for Buying A Restaurant. The first part of my presentation includes – What You Need Before You Make An Offer which discusses the following topics:
a. Preparing a Business Plan,
b. Raising Your Money,
c. Having Your Key Personnel Lined Up and
d. Preparing a Personal Financial Statement and Resume.
The second part of my presentation includes The Buying Process. In this section we cover the following topics:
a. Qualifying the Buyer,
b. Offer, Counter Offer and Acceptance Stages,
c. Contingency Removal Stage,
d. Bulk Sale Transfer Process,
e. Obtaining Permits and Licenses,
f. Inspections by City and County Agencies and
g. Close of Escrow Process.
I emphasize the need for them to be properly capitalized, have well trained personnel, negotiate a favorable premises lease, present good price value to the customer and have consistently good food and service in a well maintained and clean environment.
The students of today are the buyers and sellers of tomorrow.
