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How often have you thought about getting into a business other than Landscaping? Once in a while we will hear from LCOs how they wished they had started this type or that type of company. How landscaping is just so competitive. In our latest business article we had the wonderful opportunity to talk with someone who once ran his own lawn care operation and has since started a pizzeria. As most of you can imagine, running a pizzeria is tough but it can be done. The Pizza Pizza business was started, at least conceptually, two years ago when Mike and Todd started talking about how to create their own business and stop working for somebody else. It was started by Todd, Mike and Mike's wife. The business got off the ground five weeks ago. Let's have a look inside this pizzeria called Pizza Pizza and see how it works.
We sat down at a booth with Mike and Todd of Pizza Pizza and asked the following:
In the past Mike you had been a landscaper, was that your first business?
"Yes. That's easy to get into, again with the startup costs. A lawn mower and some power equipment is a lot cheaper than many other businesses." Mike
Why did you stop landscaping?
"It's an extremely competitive field and as far as getting the jobs and maintaining the jobs, they go to the bigger companies. They have a lot more equipment, a lot larger staff, they can do the job for a lot cheaper. The little guy is hard pressed to find any kind of business that they can compete in without having that equipment and having that personnel and having the money and the trucks and the trailers and all the equipment that goes along with it. So that was, it's a lot higher of a startup cost to get that kind of business going. It was easy to get into but to be competitive it takes a lot more than a one person operation." Mike
Moving on to the pizzeria, why did you start the company?
"We started the company so we wouldn't always be working for somebody else we needed a stepping stone to move into his (Mike) future and my future and this was the opportunity that presented itself" Todd
What type of initial startup cost did you have?
"Our initial startup cost was zero. The opportunities that came our way, the opportunities present before us allowed us to start with zero money. Pretty much zero money. We started with small credit cards and what ever money we had in our pockets, which was a couple of hundred dollars. A couple of paychecks and a lot of generosity by the owner of the building and the owner of the business." Todd
If someone wanted to create this business from scratch, how much would they have to have in start up fees?
"Scratch from an empty building, I would say they would need $100,000.00, for equipment, for design, advertising, ranges, and food." Todd
What are the major expenses?
"The major expenses would first be equipment. Food, plates, stoves, fryers, grills. Those are going to be your major expenses." Todd
"We have about $60,000.00 in equipment, at least. The pizza ovens are almost $20,000.00 a piece." Mike
The booths, coolers, lighting, the televisions, you are looking at at least $60,000.00 in what you can see." Todd
Why did you choose this industry?
"Our further goals, our next step beyond this is in close relation to it. The food industry portion we want to get into, the full scale restaurant. A pizzeria is pretty much the smallest scale restaurant that you can get. Its a good way to start yourself into the business if you want to get into the full scale restaurant and climb from there." Todd
What are your future goals?
"Our future goals are to get the full scale restaurant and start franchising, developing multiple units that is the next step in the process. Once we get that accomplished I think is when Mike is going to follow further goals of his own and I am going to follow further goals of my own. I don't know about Mike but mine are outside the restaurant industry but I need a good base to start to accomplish those goals." Todd
Do you want to tell us more about what you want to do in the future?
"I'd like to go into politics." Todd
What would you like to do in politics?
"Get elected governor and one day president." Todd
And what about you Mike?
"The whole purpose of this interview is so that people know you can start with little or nothing and find an opportunity that suits you. We kinda fell into this deal but there's opportunities out there if you look. The hardest part is getting started and we've been told many times we are accomplishing something now that most people dream about and this is our stepping stone into a future in the culinary industries. We both have strong culinary backgrounds and it was easy to do anything related to the industry. The opportunity presented itself and we choose to take it and now we are going to run with it." Mike
"One thing we'd like to tell people is before coming into this, we had a few other places that we were looking at. They fell through, we couldn't get them. Don't be discouraged and don't stop at your first one. If there is no way to get it, don't be discouraged. At some point you gotta let it go cause for some reason your not supposed to be there but keep pursuing your dreams." Todd
"The possibilities are endless. There is no limit to what you can do if you set your mind to it and you have a goal just run with it, just go." Mike
How did you find this opportunity?
"This was actually an ad in a newspaper for a business for sale. Upon talking to the owners of the business we were able to work out a deal where we operate and manage the business rather than we didn't have to buy it outright from the start, so our start up costs were very minimal as opposed to going in loans and leasing equipment and things of that nature, everything was here already." Mike
"There was no savings, there was no loans. Now that we're in it, we have been open five weeks. We have a good ground to stand on and start looking for loans. We've proved that we can do it. The owner of the establishment has also offered for us to buy it now or to buy into it 50%. So we can start looking into loans now so that we can be co-owners with him, instead of just running the place for him we can be running it on our own. It will be a whole package deal." Todd
Did you have any jobs in the past that led you up to this. If so, what were they and how did they prepare you?
"I think you (Todd) went to culinary school and had several different jobs in kitchens working for somebody else. We finally got fed up making somebody else rich and decided to go out on our own and share the profits ourselves." Mike
"I know myself as he mentioned has gone to culinary school, I've worked with food for approximately 20 years now, Mike has worked with food for 12-15 years and our third partner Sabrina (Mike's wife) has worked with food for 20 or more as well. So we have a good backing in the restaurant industry." Todd
Do you have a favorite entrepreneur?
"Col. Sanders. He started off with nothing and at 65 years old he started KFC. Where most people are starting to give up at life at 65." Todd
"I like Donald Trump. Because he puts his name on everything, because he can." Mike
-ta-toes- (SP) ...
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