What to Look for When Buying a Restaurant

What to Look for When Buying a Restaurant

If you’re looking to buying a restaurant, there are certain considerations that you should make in terms of the buying process. Chief among these are price and locality, but even beyond this there are a few other things that also will affect whether you’re making a worthwhile investment or not. Especially if the space that you’re looking at was already a restaurant, it’s vital to know why the previous owner is selling it. So if you’re looking at a restaurant for sale, this article should help you to determine whether or not you’re actually making a good investment or not. Restaurants, after all, are a great business opportunity and often come with a lower investment than many other commercial properties.

You might find a particular restaurant property tempting because of its low price, but this alone does not necessarily mean that it will be a good deal. There are many motivations for selling a restaurant property, everything from limited space to poor customer traffic owing to the location. A bad location, whether one that doesn’t see any foot traffic or one that does not have adequate parking, will almost certainly kill the profitability of any potential restaurant space. If the location is such that there are not many other businesses, this is also a red flag for a foodservice business and will almost certainly be detrimental to profits. Since the first few months are critical to the success or failure of any restaurant, you should be absolutely sure on the location. Even if you think you’re getting a great deal on a restaurant space, you absolutely must take the location into consideration. After all, customer traffic is what will make or break virtually any restaurant regardless of the quality of the food or the service or the ambience. You could hire a Michelin 5-star chef, go all out on the decor, and hire the best servers and yet a bad location will still shred any possibility of your restaurant ever being financially viable.

Limited space is also a huge concern if you’re looking at getting into the foodservice industry, and so if you find a cosy space in a great location then you still may have to worry about this. If you’re questioning whether or not to invest in a given restaurant property because of space limitations, the safe assumption is that you should look at other properties unless the location has a lot of great potential. You might be able to renovate the place if you need more kitchen space, but this requires additional investment and also significantly more time before you can open the place.

If you’re looking at a restaurant space that already has a lot of equipment inside, this can offer a certain set of advantages itself. After all, you won’t have to source furniture and equipment from elsewhere, which not only means that there’s less time needed to set things up before serving your first customers but potentially lower investment cost as well. Sometimes this may be suitable for your vision, but sometimes it can be a huge hindrance as well if it’s not conducive to the sort of setup that you have in mind for the place.

When you’re not only buying a restaurant property and the equipment inside, but a functional restaurant, then you should understand the reputation that the place has already. It might take less preparation to buy an operating restaurant and simply take over the helm, but if the place has a less-than-ideal reputation then it will probably stick. If you’re taking over a place with a great reputation and a good-sized customer base, you can at least trust that customers will keep coming so long as the place remains up to the mark. Lapses in quality and service will be hard to recover from, and indeed when buying a restaurant under new management will either improve or decline in quality as some changes are certainly in order.

No matter the current state of the restaurant that you’re considering purchasing, you should understand the reasons why the current owners wish to sell it. Some restaurant owners want to retire, while others get tired of all of the work and responsibilities that come with running their own business. If it’s simply a case of retirement or career change, then your restaurant purchase might well be worthwhile. On the other hand, the current owners not making enough to cover their operating costs or wanting to get rid of the place before losing their investment should be seen as red flags and buying a restaurant like this is almost certainly an idiotic investment decision.

No matter what the case may be, there’s no guarantee that a given restaurant will be successful or not. The foodservice industry is a tricky, fickle sector and should not be seen with any surety whatsoever. Perhaps your new purchase will make you a lot of money and be a huge success, but there’s also a decent likelihood of even previously successful restaurants going under. Running a restaurant can be rewarding, but the only givens are uncertainty and taxes.

Buying a Restaurant

Ten things you need to consider before buying an existing business

Ten things you need to consider before buying an existing restaurant

Buy an existing restaurant in Florida

While it is a financially smart idea to buy an existing restaurant in Florida, turning it around will take experience, help, and patience. The advantage of purchasing an existing business is that you won’t start from scratch. This will have taken you almost halfway through the journey to being a successful entrepreneur. It is estimated that in every year over half a million business change hands; the number is expected to soil since more and more people are willing to sell their businesses due to hard financial times being experienced. Below are ten things that you should consider before buying a business.

Know your employees

Before signing that purchase document, always know your employees. Make sure they are willing to stick around once you buy it. Why? Well, your employees are usually there most of the time, and during that period they have built a good rapport with your customers, so you need them around. Most sellers never notify their employees that they are selling the restaurant, so be sure to include a clause stipulating that the seller has to inform the employees of the purchase within 48 hours of closing. It should consist of another term that requires the buyer to meet up with the employees and weigh their suitability to continue working there after the sale. Lastly, include another provision that allows you to walk away from the purchase in case you are not satisfied with the particular restaurant.

Sales taxes and payrolls

Each state has a specific set of rules and if you decide to buy a business’s assets, inquire if he owes sales taxes or payroll taxes. In case he has employees ask whether he is current on his employment taxes – if he is up to date, then as the state’s tax body to issue you with a clearance letter. Failure to this the state can come for you if they discovered that you are behind in your taxes.

Negotiate a letter of intent

This is a letter that stipulates all necessary agreements, usually a two to a three-page document. In this letter, you should include the purchase price, when and how you pay the price. Also, it should include the assets your seller wishes to keep and those he hopes to sell. Letters of intent are not fully binding but filling in all the technical agreements is important, this is because they will serve as drafts that lawyers will use when typing a purchase and sales agreement for the restaurant.

Buy the assets and not the restaurant

In case the seller is an LLC or a corporation, don’t buy the stocks, instead buy the assets. Why? The first reason is that in case he is being sued or has debts you will be covered from those legal responsibilities. Lastly, you will have a friendly tax treatment because your tax will be based on what you bought the assets for and not what your seller paid.

Understand why the restaurant is for sale

When you want to buy an existing restaurant, it is crucial to understand why the restaurant is up for sale. Though, it is a bit skeptical to inquire why but it should be a red sign when a seller fails to give a compelling reason as to why his business is for sale. This is because most people have been through gruesome battles to keep their businesses afloat. They are emotionally connected, so it is only fair to understand why? Additionally, ask neighbors and employees, if their answers conflict then that’s a red sign.

Do you have an exit strategy?

This should be a factor that you should have in mind before signing a purchase agreement. The world of business is brutal and before making it through you will have to keep digging in your pocket. Due to unforeseen circumstances sometimes, you can’t make it through, so always have an exit strategy, and if your business has some partners make sure you have a buy and sell agreement in place.

Restaurant contracts and leases

The fun part of when you buy an existing restaurant is that it comes with all documents. It is important though to keep an eye on the business contracts and leases. For instance, if over 80% of your revenues come from one client, think twice, what would happen if he walked out?

Agree on an indemnity with the seller

Even if you hired great business advisors, sometimes things slip up, and you may end up being sued for something your seller did. It is prudent to ask for an indemnity from the seller, where he promises to pay all legal fees and defend the suit in case of such a scenario. Furthermore, in case you should also give your seller an indemnity in case you get sued after the close of the restaurant.


When you buy an existing restaurant it will save you time and heartache, but before buying what should, you consider? It is important to know why the restaurant is up for sale. This will allow you to plan for any skeletons that you had not foreseen.

Buy an Existing Restaurant

Buying a Restaurant

If you’ve devoted anytime whatsoever to checking out restaurants for sale ads, you likely notice that there are more restaurants posted than all other variety of operation. Is this a favorable or negative fact? There’s simply a couple of ways to look at it: the idealist will claim that there’s a tremendous niche market when the moment comes to sell, although the pessimist will enquire why each of these owners are selling off their establishment. Really, they are both correct.

Great restaurants, the same as any strong small business, will sell easily. However, the failure rate among restaurants is so overwhelming that many owners merely prefer to do away with them before they end up being one more statistic. There are several important concerns you ought to bear in mind to ensure the restaurant you invest in is, or at least will be, a success with you as the business owner.

The Lease Contract

Unless a restaurant has a long-standing, recorded history, usually the geographic location will play a substantial part in its success. Its clientele may be propelled by its closeness to office workers, a theater, a shopping center, or a highway. No matter the cause, one can see that locality is beneficial and this is specifically connected to the lease contract in effect.

An increasing number of property owners are being exceptionally careful or extremely tough when it concerns authorizing a lease contract to a new restaurant purchaser. Some emphatically reject an assignment unless the purchaser has previous expertise in this particular profession. Or, they may insist that the prior business owner stay on the lease contract (very challenging to persuade them to do so), or firmly demand that the purchaser set up a year of lease payments in escrow.

With these prospective obstacles, it is suggested that you resolve the lease contract part of the sale as early as feasible. On this note, it is important that any purchasing contract include terminology (a condition/contingency) by which the agreement is contingent upon you, the purchaser, acquiring a lease contract that is acceptable to you. When you have a contract in place, you will need to schedule to meet with the property owner. The seller may request you to finish your finance assessment before anything else, which is easy to understand. Having said that, your most effective approach is to communicate to the seller that if the property owner will not authorize or enter into a new lease contract, the earlier everybody finds out, the better it will be. Additionally, the seller will certainly prefer to be aware of the property owner’s stance for any potential purchasers.

As for terms and conditions, naturally you’ll want an extended lease contract consisting of options. Anything under 5 yrs is not advised.

Valuing a Restaurant Establishment for Sale

There are 2 primary strategies for valuing a restaurant: asset-based or cash flow-based multiple. The asset-based strategy is proper for a profitless or closed geographic location where you are merely buying the equipment either from the business owner or the property owner. Get a proper appraisal done on the equipment and generate an offer.

For an ongoing geographic location, a multiple of the business owner’s net profit is the best method. This total is attained by summing up the proprietor’s revenue, perks, take-home pay, depreciation and interest charge. A multiple is then affixed to this amount.

As a very standard rule, here are some multiples to bear in mind:

Full Service Restaurants: 2-3 times Business owner Benefit Amount.

Self Service: 1-2 times Proprietor Benefit Amount.

You should also take into account the hours of operation when valuing a restaurant. As an illustration, an owner-operated geographic location that is open 5 days a week for breakfast time and lunchtime that generates $100,000 year is surely worth more than one that is open 7 days, offering 3 mealtimes and generates $120,000. Wouldn’t you concur?

Traditionally, there was a very basic guideline used to value different types of restaurants according to the amount of mealtimes and the amount of days it in operation each week. It is by no means the “best” assessment strategy but once more, evaluation is an art, not a science.

Here is one other measure for you (although it uses earnings as a basis instead of the preferred, revenue!):

Five days a week: 70 % of Gross Annual Profit.

Six days a week: 60 % of Gross Annual Income.

Seven days a week: 50 % of Gross Annual Profit.

Cash Sales – Unreported Revenue

Although the market has improved, there continues to be a significant quantity of unreported earnings in these kinds of small business. The concern undoubtedly is that sellers expect to get rewarded for their full revenue, yet many times they cannot verify it. Additionally, they cannot assume to have it both ways: if they’ve been duping the gov’t for years and profiting tax-wise, they should not profit a 2nd time in the sales price of the operation.

Presently, it is plausible to construct the financial understanding of unreported earnings hinged upon company invoices, hourly wages, the seller’s personal records, etc. However, the responsibility is on the seller, not you, to do so.

The 3 matters you should ask the seller are:

Can you substantiate the amounts?

How are you intending to do this?

Are you wanting to?


Food and labor expenses are the main points in a restaurant operation. Expenses will differ based upon the style of restaurant, whether full service, fast food, or when a sizable chunk of alcohol revenues are concerned. Again, do your research. As a very standard guideline, the merged sum of food expenses, labor costs and rent should not go above 65% of the overall profit. If you disregard this guideline, you risk running at a loss, which could trigger the eventual shutting of your doors.

It is widely believed that a “typical” breakdown should be:

Food Expenses: 32-33%.

Labor: 22-25%.

Rent: 6-10%.

The optimal range when merging these 3 factors should be around 64 – 66%.

Due Diligence

Carrying out a due diligence assessment of a restaurant is an in-depth task. There’s a great deal to evaluate, and a little time to complete it. There are more than 125 things that should be researched. Ensure yourself sufficient time to conduct this important stage when purchasing a restaurant. Make a list of everything you should do, and maintain an on-going check list.

Additional Challenges

Unless you are a pro, make the effort to have the equipment assessed by an expert. In most big metropolitan areas, a neighborhood restaurant supply outlet will have the capacity to supply you with a name of an equipment appraiser. The good news about restaurant appliances are that if you do should renovate or even upgrade it, there’s a substantial market for pre-owned appliances at considerable discounts.

Health dept ordinances and compliance will form a principal component of your examination. Inspect public documents for any previous offenses, and have the “representations and warranty” component of the acquisition include a stipulation that there were no preexisting health infractions that generated a penalty, closure, and so on. As you know, customers prefer to eat in a well-maintained setting. If there were any health problems, it is almost affirmed that consumers were informed of them and there’s no swifter way to put yourself out of business than a publicized news report in a neighborhood newspaper that your restaurant is bug-infested, or not in compliance with health or safety ordinances.

So there you have it. Acquiring a restaurant can be rather wonderful, although, there is a lot to look into. Make certain that you educate yourself adequately, particularly if buying a restaurant is new for you. After all, you intend to obtain and develop a profitable business and not permit yourself to turn into another statistic.

Restaurants for Sale