Successful Restaurant Guaranteed?

[baygo]

Originally Posted by Descant

$200K purchase, $200K working capital? Means you need 8-10 people who have $50K, will work 50-60 hours a week with some expectation that they will not draw a paycheck for an extended period. And they have to be compatible, at least on the surface. You don't just get somebody off the internet job sites for those qualifications.
Let's say you have some success. One or two want to get out. Where's the funding for their buyout, or now it costs $100K to buy in? The original contract can be difficult to draft.

Pooling tips is socialism. Waitstaff is the face of the business, as you know. They have their own following, shuffling them around with 7 other people does not necessarily keep the best players in the starting line up. I agree that everybody should know every job, however.
You need one person in charge, not eight.

"In a limited partnership, at the beginning, the general partner has the expertise, and the limited partners have the money. In the end, the limited partners have a lot of experience and the general partner has all the money." (Unknown business pundit)
After all that, there's probably a germ of a good idea here, but you asked for negative input.

In my youth, the lakes region was dotted with small family restaurants and motels open from May to October. With a couple of local young people for the shoulders, the owners hired and trained new staff every year, and most were successful, year after year. Some worked a couple of years in HS and 3-4 years of college. I now have a great deal o respect for those owners who could do it all, including training, and rarely took a day off all summer long.

The scenario you paint is more a scenario for a start up. This is a restaurant with a positive cash flow. Abundance of hands on deck eliminates the 50 to 60 hour work weeks. By the way 50 to 60 hours is part time based on what my wife and I do.