Ever since I was a child I have dreamt of one day owning my own restaurant. A few of my friend’s parents have opened their own restaurant or have been the head chef at a brand new restaurant, and with the brief experiences I had there I found the lifestyle to be thrilling. I enjoy a fast-paced work environment, and I actually enjoy high-stress situations. I have found my odd enjoyment of high stress situations stems from my ability to handle them, and that overcoming high stress situations makes the gratitude felt at the end of the day that much better. Also, I am a quite social person, and managing a restaurant requires many social skills that I believe I possess. This includes hiring, training, overseeing, and the dreaded one, firing of employees1. I have found that opening up a new restaurant can be very overwhelming, but after the first couple of months, or whenever you achieve success, it becomes more manageable.
The salary of a restaurant manager varies widely. If I were to take a job managing a franchised restaurant such as Chili’s or T.G.I.F, I can expect to make anywhere in between $35,000-$50,0001, and I believe that I could live off of that wage quite comfortably. I do not have a family (yet), and my dog and I aren’t too picky when it comes to living accommodations. Since I don’t have any experience in budgeting out my life with a family in mind, I don’t know if this wage will be enough to support a family. From what I have seen though, living expenses vary from place to place and I believe that a modest living is definitely attainable at this wage.
If everything goes according to plan, I will have a degree Management degree from the University of Florida6. I believe that this degree, combined with my almost 10 years in kitchen experience, will be more than enough to get me the job. Also, there are a plethora of restaurants in every town in this country so I feel pretty secure in that there will always be a demand for the position that I seek. Job security is definitely an important reason as to why I chose this as my career path. From the data that I have gathered it shows that Florida has had an increase of job openings for this position in the past year2.
All of what I have just said is assuming that I will be only working at an already established restaurant. After a few years of experience doing that I hope to find an investor that will give me the capital to open up my own restaurant. Ideally this investor will already have an idea for the restaurant in mind, and I will just be a sort of facilitator helping to make his dream a reality. At this point I couldn’t care less about the theme of the restaurant, how big or how small, I just want to achieve my dream of successfully opening up a restaurant.
A. Job Description of a food service manager, found at the
following websites:
1. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/food-service-managers.htm#tab-2
2.http://www.careerinfonet.org/occ_rep.asp?next=occ_rep&Level=&optstatus=111111111&jobfam=11&id=1&nodeid=2&soccode=119051&stfips=12&x=32&y=10
B. Profession Organizations
3. National Restaurant Association- found at
http://www.restaurant.org/
4. Florida Restaurant Association- found at http://www.frla.org/
C. Schools, Colleges, and Universities
5. Johnson and Wales, Management, found at-
http://www.jwu.edu/college.aspx?id=19532
6. University of Florida, Management, found at-
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/business/majors/management.aspx
D. Employers (I honestly hope to open my own restaurant, but I will try and
provide a couple restaurants just to get credit. Sorry if this seems like a
half attempt at completing the assignment)
7. Chili's- found online at
http://www.chilis.com/EN/Pages/home.aspx
8. T.G.I Fridays- found online at http://www.tgifridays.com/
9. Shuckers- found online at http://shuckersbarandgrill.com/
E. Other Resources
10. Gray, Jackson; Lodging, Restaurant and Resort Management 1st
Edition; Chandni Chowk, Delhi : Global Media, 2009. ISBN: 978-9380075082
11. Gupta, V. K.; Restaurant Management 1st Edition; Chandni
Chowk, Delhi : Global Media, 2009. ISBN: 978-8182040380