Quote :

"That's right, it was the College of Engineering and professors' faults you couldn't find a job. It's the cheap military's town's fault that you didnt sell enough pizza. It's the investor's fault that you agreed to put your business in a shitty little mini-mall with no traffic. It's the government's fault that it all cost too much and you couldn't advertise. It's the big chains' fault you couldn't sell your pizza cheap enough. BLAME BLAME BLAME BLAME "

Yeah, you fucked up. Bummer for you.

2/5/2011 1:32:18 PM

Quote :

"This guy didn't go to NCSU. He went to ODU or something."

Whoops. Sorry.

2/5/2011 1:38:36 PM

man this thread is awesome

2/5/2011 1:41:13 PM

Kinda think the world would be better off if he took a one way trip to the beach. I bet he could fuck that up too.



[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 1:44 PM. Reason : ]

2/5/2011 1:41:40 PM

This thread makes me feel better my dreams were crushed years ago.

2/5/2011 1:49:00 PM

Quote :

"That's right, it was the College of Engineering and professors' faults you couldn't find a job. It's the cheap military's town's fault that you didnt sell enough pizza. It's the investor's fault that you agreed to put your business in a shitty little mini-mall with no traffic. It's the government's fault that it all cost too much and you couldn't advertise. It's the big chains' fault you couldn't sell your pizza cheap enough. BLAME BLAME BLAME BLAME"

That's what I'm hearing. And people like this make me sad. If they would actually sit down and own up to their own failures in life they could get somewhere. But instead they blame it on everyone else and end up right where they started in the first place. Kind of makes me seeing someone like that.

2/5/2011 1:56:14 PM

You people are fucking absurd.

Business fail every damn day. Sometimes it's skill when they don't, sometimes it's luck. Maybe he wasn't the best advertiser or promoter, but everything else he listed

Quote :

"3. Government and Taxes 4. Fees and Licenses 5. Health, Fire, FOG program crap, code enforcement 6. Unnecessary insurance costs 7. Minimum wage 8. Utilities 9. Cost of Advertisements 10. Equipment failure and maintenance"

isn't shit you're going to be able to plan for on a fucking internet forum or in a business school.

The only people that have a damn inkling of authority to critique are the folks that have started and run a business, and really only the ones that are in a similar market...because lets face it, ordering around a bunch of fucking illegal immigrants to cut grass and hang sheetrock is a damn bit different than running a restaurant.

2/5/2011 2:02:14 PM

none of that stuff should have caught him off guard, especially if he has ever worked in or managed a restaurant before

2/5/2011 2:04:08 PM

add four loko to the menu

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

2/5/2011 2:05:11 PM

Quote :

"I think they we should all rally together for one last stand. We should all go to va beach, throw a TWW party at this place, and keep him in business! "

Why? He hasn't taken responsibility for ANYTHING. If we were able to keep him in business, we would just be prolonging the inevitable.

Not to mention the amount of warnings people have given him on this forum from people who HAVE run small businesses. He just retorts with "FUCK YOU, I'M A HARD WORKER, I'M GOING TO SUCCEED!!!" People told him about things he needs to work at and do better.

According to him, it's EVERYONE ELSE'S fault that his business failed. It's the customers, it's the government, it's the strip mall owners, it's the competition. So really, what would be the point of keeping his business alive? If he's not going to own up to his own failures and stop blaming everyone else, then he accomplished and learned NOTHING.

2/5/2011 2:13:51 PM

Quote :

"none of that stuff should have caught him off guard, especially if he has ever worked in or managed a restaurant before"

It DIDN'T catch him offguard you dumbass. He simply couldn't know how much demand he'd have for his product. I didn't read everything in this thread and the min wage thread, but I get the impression his demand was never high enough to raise prices. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen him post "man, I had tons of customers, I don't know why I didn't make enough money".

The lack of demand could be from anything. It wasn't good, his restaurant wasn't attractive, location, competition, price. Even the best market research doesn't guarantee a win. So stop trying to play internet know it all.

2/5/2011 2:17:18 PM

you should probably read the threads then. the dude just doesn't have a very good business sense.

2/5/2011 2:31:10 PM

You're right, and college kids that have never run a business certainly do!

2/5/2011 2:33:43 PM

Quote :

"I hope you looked at some of the successful, locally run businesses and tried to do similar things. And I hope you at least talked to the owners of those businesses. I also hope you at least are from that area. How long did you spend in the area before you decided to open up the pizza place there? "

The pizza places out here all suck. They "try" to mimic new york style and fail miserably. The only reason people go to them is because of society. The same reason people killed witches. People do stupid, irrational things when they get the approval of society. "Hey guys, I'm going to Tony's pizza"
"Okay! Good Choice! Sounds Italian! 18 inch pizzas!"
I try them out and I had to spit the shit out. Their toppings came out of Super Mario Brothers 3 Level "BIG world", while the pizza was as thin as a piece of paper. The grease pooled in the middle of the pizza and when you picked a slice up, the topping were to heavy and fell off the limp, greasy, heart attack.
The best of the best pizza places had normal cheap cheese and so much garlic your mouth burns.


ME: I had some AWESOME pizza!

They only thing they got that I don't is a good location and I'm not a FAT ITALIAN MAFIA LOOKING BOSS who can scare people into liking your pizza!

2/5/2011 2:34:54 PM

Quote :

"I think they we should all rally together for one last stand. We should all go to va beach, throw a TWW party at this place, and keep him in business! ""

I think this is a GREAT idea!

Can you guys really make it out by the end of February?!?! I want to prove to you that my pizza ain't SHIT!


(I still have four lokos in stock Advent )

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 2:38 PM. Reason : .]

2/5/2011 2:36:46 PM

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 2:48 PM. Reason : actually, i don't give a shit]

2/5/2011 2:40:00 PM

A restaurant? Where someone else had it all running like clockwork and all you had to do was not fuck it up by following directions you were told? In other words, nothing like what this guy has tried to do?

I don't get it Rob, you registered last year at the age of 21, and you've traveled forward in time 2 years and become a successful business operator and you're now back here in the present telling us how it works?

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 2:43 PM. Reason : .]

2/5/2011 2:42:23 PM

fuckin' society, man.

2/5/2011 2:42:25 PM

Sucks dude, I don't have experience running my own business so I'll save the advice for those that are more knowledgeable, but it's never fun to put a ton of effort into something and fail in the end. Id be down for pizza and four loko party.

2/5/2011 2:42:59 PM

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 2:48 PM. Reason : actually, i don't give a shit]

2/5/2011 2:43:53 PM

No one fucking believes or cares about this bullshit you're making up. If you want to prove you aren't a liar, feel free billyclownet or whatever alias you are.

2/5/2011 2:45:50 PM

ok baldy

2/5/2011 2:46:26 PM

So shut the fuck up already.

2/5/2011 2:48:02 PM

His experience in CoE at NCSU tells us all we need to know about GeniuSxBoY. I dont know about you guys, but I ran into more than a few of his type in my undergraduate at state.

Classic case of a really bright, hard working person who absolutely refuses to question the things he thinks he already knows. It's your way or no way.

GeniuSxBoY: Dude, the CoE has extremely high job placement rankings. You can check the numbers yourself. WolfAce is right. EVERYONE tells you to get internships and do COOPs as an engineer. You chose to ignore this advice.

Sounds like exactly the same thing has happened with the pizza place. Your pizza actually looks really damn good in the pictures and the place looks pretty cool too, but the more you talk about your experience, the more clear the picture is. You had imagined how things would work, and when things started deviating from your expectations, rather than adapting to reality, you instead started retreating into blaming the things that were different from your imagined experience.

Honestly I dont think you have to close your shop and give up. From the looks of it you have a pretty good product, a pretty nice looking place and have had at least enough business to keep you going for a few years. I think you just need to take a step back, look at yourself and make some personal changes, followed by making some professional changes.

Take an honest look at your expenses and business model. What can you change to start becoming profitable? That could mean you stepping aside as the day to day manager, or it could mean you just being the operational manager and getting someone else to keep the books and handle employee hiring and firing. But I have a feeling it's really just about you opening your eyes and taking an honest look at what needs to change to be successful

2/5/2011 2:48:09 PM

HOLY SHIT! IT'S JESUS!



RESURRECTED!!


HOW YOU BEEN MAN?

2/5/2011 2:48:37 PM

lots of excuses in this thread.

2/5/2011 2:48:57 PM

Dude should quit the pizza business and teach classes on how to make excuses.

2/5/2011 2:52:06 PM

Quote :

"The pizza places out here all suck. They "try" to mimic new york style and fail miserably. The only reason people go to them is because of society. The same reason people killed witches. People do stupid, irrational things when they get the approval of society. "Hey guys, I'm going to Tony's pizza" "Okay! Good Choice! Sounds Italian! 18 inch pizzas!" I try them out and I had to spit the shit out. Their toppings came out of Super Mario Brothers 3 Level "BIG world", while the pizza was as thin as a piece of paper. The grease pooled in the middle of the pizza and when you picked a slice up, the topping were to heavy and fell off the limp, greasy, heart attack. The best of the best pizza places had normal cheap cheese and so much garlic your mouth burns. "

This just further reinforces my previous post.

You are not your customer. You do not get to set the bar for "good" and "bad" pizza. If everyone likes thin slice new york style pizza with giant toppings, then that's "good" pizza. As a business owner, the first thing you throw out the fucking window is YOUR preferences, because they dont matter.

Wake up, figure out what the people want, figure out how you can make it for them at a profit, then make it. Over time you can slowly start integrating YOUR pizza style into the menu options and who knows, people might actually prefer it! But no one is every going to even try it unless you start off where people are today.

2/5/2011 2:53:41 PM

Quote :

"Dude should quit the pizza business and teach classes on how to make excuses. "

When a person is driving a car down the road and a someone hit him and it's not his fault, you're not going to tell the driver that he shoulda done this or shoulda done that when he did all he could do.

You could say "You shoulda left the house 5 seconds earlier or later" but it's all hindsight


[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 2:57 PM. Reason : ..]

2/5/2011 2:55:39 PM

I hope that the OP finds a buyer and gets enough out of the deal to retire most of his debt; also I hope he finds a job soon because methinks he won't be eligible for unemployment insurance.

2/5/2011 2:56:52 PM

Quote :

"I hope that the OP finds a buyer and gets enough out of the deal to retire most of his debt; also I hope he finds a job soon because methinks he won't be eligible for unemployment insurance."

I paid 3 times was the place was worth to get my foot in the door. I figured 8 years of debt is better than working 30 years and THEN starting a business. Stopping now, I still owe too much to make anything

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 3:02 PM. Reason : typoing]

2/5/2011 2:59:30 PM

This thread has made me feel a little better that I dont have the balls or the good idea to start my own business or try to start something that could bankrupt me.

Playing the safe route ftw.

2/5/2011 2:59:59 PM

Dude, all you have done in this and all your other threads is make excuses. It's like Noen said, you don't want to change your views on anything. Looking at your pictures, your pizza does indeed look very good. And I don't think there's any way beer delivery can fail in the long run. But you have an attitude problem and it's very likely that this manifested itself in your service. Quit blaming other people for your failure.

When you're a small business owner, you have to take responsibility for success or failure. You're the one making decisions in the end. If the location was bad, then you should have turned it down. It's YOUR business. It's YOUR decisions.

^^ See, you make poor, poor decisions.

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 3:04 PM. Reason : ]

2/5/2011 3:03:05 PM

Quote :

"The pizza places out here all suck. They "try" to mimic new york style and fail miserably. The only reason people go to them is because of society. The same reason people killed witches. People do stupid, irrational things when they get the approval of society. "Hey guys, I'm going to Tony's pizza" "Okay! Good Choice! Sounds Italian! 18 inch pizzas!" I try them out and I had to spit the shit out. Their toppings came out of Super Mario Brothers 3 Level "BIG world", while the pizza was as thin as a piece of paper. The grease pooled in the middle of the pizza and when you picked a slice up, the topping were to heavy and fell off the limp, greasy, heart attack. The best of the best pizza places had normal cheap cheese and so much garlic your mouth burns. "

That didn't answer any of my questions.

I've seen plenty of restaurants with great food fail because they weren't running things properly. No offense, but you obviously ran blindly into this thing.

2/5/2011 3:03:27 PM

This thread also reminds me of the series Gold Rush on the discovery.

Fuckers raised 100k, and borrows another 100k and went to get gold in Alaska without knowing if ANY of their equipment actually worked. They literally had no experience. Only person who had dont it was a half crazy old fart.

They spent all of their money before getting a consult with someone who actually ran some of the equipment. And literally they had problems with every piece of equipment and were essentially washing any gold they dug up into the river.

SO MANY ASSUMPTIONS!

2/5/2011 3:03:31 PM

Quote :

"I paid 3 times was the place was worth to get my foot in the door. I figured 8 years of dept is better than working 30 years and THEN starting a business. Stopping now, I still owe too much to make anything"

seriously? i'll quote myself here from an old thread

Quote :

"goddamn you're a terrible business owner"

also, I hate when I have to agree with Noen

2/5/2011 3:03:44 PM

You think someone is going to give someone with no experience $76000 without anything in it for them?

2/5/2011 3:04:31 PM

If someone is forcing you into a deal that almost guarantees your failure, would you still take it? Why not just walk away? Wouldn't that be a better decision. You did not take the time needed to do things properly.

2/5/2011 3:06:49 PM

you should have joined the restaurant association....could have saved lots of money, its designed for businesses like yours.

2/5/2011 3:07:31 PM

I offered.

I said "Give me a figure that'll change your mind"


He couldn't say no after he said a number

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 3:08 PM. Reason : .]

2/5/2011 3:08:20 PM

And honestly, looking at just your website, I can find a laundry list of things I would change.

2/5/2011 3:08:31 PM

Do you have the ability to change things or simply opinions to change things?

2/5/2011 3:09:28 PM

Opinions. You're the only one that can change anything.

2/5/2011 3:10:07 PM

That's not what I mean. Do you have the expertise. The graphic and coding skill?

2/5/2011 3:10:43 PM

I'm not talking about your actual website. I'm saying, from looking at only your website and using information I get from it, there are lots of things you could change.

For instance, your pizza prices go from $6.99 to $12.99. Where is the $9.99 medium 12" option? The $12.99 will scare some people off and the $6.99 is too small. That's a huge gap in pricing.

2/5/2011 3:13:25 PM

I think I do, but your website didn't matter much: Your business mostly came IMO from locals who saw your storefront or an ad in the paper or on a flyer.

2/5/2011 3:14:44 PM

ok, so at 4 pages now, how bout a summary...

is the place shut down yet? if not, when?

2/5/2011 3:14:51 PM

I dont think he's talking about the website, I think he's talking about the business (at least I hope).

2/5/2011 3:15:07 PM

I will be the first to tell anyone that I don't know a damn thing about making a website.

2/5/2011 3:15:55 PM

On a side note, this thread really makes me want pizza and I would totally buy one from you if you were in Raleigh.

2/5/2011 3:19:29 PM