A perspective of a former restaurant owner

Recently I have been seeing posts come across social media both positive and negative about local businesses. I think these posts hit me especially hard because my wife and I owned a restaurant in Kansas and experienced personal struggles in, and throughout the time we owned it. I thought maybe I could give a fresh perspective from a former restaurant owner to those who have never owned a restaurant.

I have been a business owner most of my life and can tell you that owning a restaurant is one of the hardest businesses to own. Someone was surprised the other day when they found out we used to have a restaurant. In response, I told them in reality that the restaurant owns you. You don’t own the restaurant. Long days of prepping, cleaning, visiting, marketing, keeping customers happy and dealing with employee’s needs only to get up and do it all over again.

The community never really affords you a day off. If you end up having medical or personal struggles, as we did, the “note on the door” means a kiss of death to the business. In addition, if you do anything wrong… the food is too cold, too hot, the service takes too long or doesn’t taste the way the customer thinks it should, it will be all over social media and online reviews. There is very little grace to restaurant establishments.

In many ways, it’s like having a second spouse. The business is a labor of love. I can tell you that we developed close bonds with our customers and were broken when they wouldn’t come back. Sometimes they never let us know why, instead they posted negative things without even giving us a chance to make it right.

The dynamics of local businesses vs. chains are night and day. National chains have the resources to make sure a business is open even if there are local staffing shortages. They can hang in there during slow times, absorb bad reviews, and at the end of the day, or at the very worst, put up a sign that says “under new management,” or ultimately close the store for a nice tax write-off.

When individuals, who often open a restaurant to serve the community and fulfill a lifelong dream, must close down, it typically means they lose everything. Their life savings and maybe even their home are wrapped up in making it happen. What’s worse is the emotional loss can even be more devastating than the physical one. And when it is all said and done, people again flock to social media or talk at the local salon about why they think it was a good thing for the place to close. Rumors are never-ending. Many of them are very, very untrue and very hurtful.

In this day and age the local small-town business needs you. They provide relationship, customer service and unique flavors that national chains can’t provide. What’s more, your dollar stays in this community, and your town prospers. Do you remember the last time you drove through a town where the buildings were boarded up and falling apart? How sad was that… I am not suggesting you shouldn’t eat at a larger chain. I am just suggesting you consider supporting the local businesses that support your community. I am also not suggesting you don’t hold a business accountable. I would say consider kindly making suggestions to ownership or management before you ever even think about posting it publicly.

One last thought… By not supporting the business you are not making the business better. You are just helping cause its demise. Increased resources could very well mean that local businesses could hire better staff, get better equipment, buy better ingredients, ensure additional open hours, and frankly, just get better overall.

I can tell you from personal experience when a community rallies around local businesses it just makes it a better place to live. Thanks for supporting our local businesses! Thanks for coming to the rescue of someone in need!

Publishers Note: The owner of Break of Day permitted me to reference her post but had no idea what I was going to say. Ultimately, I hope giving the perspective of a former business owner will help those who haven’t owned one. Hopefully, supporting them and giving them a little grace. I have often heard it said that everyone should own a business at least once in their life.