Do I give up?

RestaurantMan

I finally left managing restaurants for greener pastures (so I thought). I found a career that is 100% commission based. I thought I could make it, and I was ready to struggle and scrape by before I got my income to were it once was. Unfortunately, I haven't brought in any income from this new position in the four months I've been working. I've been doing other "part-time" work to try and get by, but it's just not enough anymore. This isn't uncommon for my position, it takes time to build up a base and make some real money. I thought I was willing to do that, but I also thought I would have closed a deal by now. 

I have started applying for other jobs, but now I don't know what direction I should take. I've applied for manufacturing jobs, sales, and restaurant management jobs. I actually have an interview in insurance/financial services sales; which I would have never considered before. So I'm struggling with the following questions:

Do I go after any job I can get just to get the income back?
Do I look for a job with the intention of it being temporary until I get my sales job making enough $?
Should I just give up completely on this and try to find something that suits me short and long-term?
How much time do I spend on my job search vs my sales job? (I'm not held to a schedule)
Do I go back to managing restaurants or try to find something with better work/life balance? (Sales job with base?)

Key points:

• In the short-term: I need to make some money
• In the long-term: I want something that gives me purpose and time with my family.
• I've been a restaurant manager for several years, but that will not work long term for me.
• I like sales, but I should have made the transition to something with a base pay
• I now look like a job-hopper since I've had 3 jobs in the last three years

Thank all! Trying to get my MAP back on course!

-RM

Blackwulf

Good to see you back RM.  You need to catch us up on where you are in life.  

When looking for a new job typically an employer looks at why you have switched.  I know one of the job switches was to move back closer to family.  The other two could just be you weren't a good fit.  

What type of sales are you in?  Have you had any prospects and you just couldn't close? How much does one close bring in?  

RestaurantMan

I do business brokering and commercial real estate (tenant representation). The problem is that the cycle is extremely long. A closed-deal can bring in from $2k-$20k+. If I sell my highest-priced listing, it will net me almost $25k. 

I spend most of my time prospecting for new listings (businesses to sell) which drums up more activity. Even once I get a listing (weeks-months), and an accepted offer (weeks-months), then there is usually 30 days before it's closed. I have two of my own listings and also work with buyers on the other brokers listings.

I have gotten extremely close on a few deals, but the buyer & seller couldn't agree on price. 


As far as why I have switched, I have an easy time explaining that. 
 

Blackwulf

I believe I would tough it out a little bit longer if you have made the switch to commercial real estate and business brokering.  What type of business brokering are you doing?  Are you a part of NACVA?  Business brokering can be kind of tough.  

What type of networking are you doing on the business brokering?  I can see where there can be a good synergy with the business brokering and tenant representation, but most firms I know specialize in one or the other.  
 

RestaurantMan

I work only with food-service businesses (mainly restaurants & bars). I'm not part of NACVA. I have fallen off my networking a bit, but I was contacting restaurant vendors to build some relationships. My first listing was off of a food distributor.

The tenant representation helps with the lower priced "asset sales."

Blackwulf

What have you done for networking?  

RestaurantMan

I'm a member of a local hospitality networking group. I've called former vendors of restaurants I have worked at. Typically, I reach out to vendors for a coffee meeting to discuss how we can help each other.

Since we are the first contact to the owner when the business is sold or space is leased, they are pretty open to connecting.

Blackwulf

What are you doing to sell the businesses that you have to list? 

RestaurantMan

@Blackwulf ;
We have a huge database of past inquiries that we email. We have our own dedicated website and my principal broker is very good at keeping it at the top of search pages. We post on BizBuySell, Craigslist, and LinkedIn. I've been calling on owners of similar businesses so I can prospect and sell listings at the same time. 

Blackwulf

What you describe is on the sales side is what I was hoping to hear.  What has the principal broker advised that you need to do?  Just what they are doing and keep at it?  Is anybody else selling restaurants or is the whole business suffering? Do you deal with franchises? Who typically lends in your area to anyone to buy the restaurants?  Maybe you need to develop a relationship or two in that area if you haven't already.   

I am a CPA and I have dealt brokers before and regularly the sales of businesses.  With such a long cycle you have to have a lot of iron's in the fire and determine if the business is able to keep going without the original owner.  If the restaurant is losing money, is there someone who could buy it that could turn it around/actually profit from it.    

Blackwulf

What is the average turnover/time to sell the restaurants in your area? How fast are other people turning them?  

frillyfun

Here's the trick with being self-employed...figure out how much money you need to live on, and THEN figure out how to make that much money.

Do you have a budget?  Get one.  Then figure out what you can do to get an emergency fund setup with a few months of expenses so that you have some cushion while you wait for commissions to come in.

This is just a brainstorm, but what if you took your restaurant management experience, and combined it with your real estate business, and did some consulting? You could do something like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares- go in for a week, and make sure the restaurant is displaying high value.  The seller gets a better asking price, the buyer benefits from having a stronger business, you get paid right away, the sale goes through quicker, and potentially you'd get bigger commissions.

It uses the experience, and contacts you already have, and you could do the majority of the work at off-service times so you'd be home with your family nights, and weekends.

RestaurantMan

@Blackwulf ;
He has advised me to get back to the basics with prospecting and to mix it up with networking. Our company only deals with restaurants; it has been a little slow for the entire office the past quarter. I have actually met with a couple lenders in the area, but haven't led to any leads yet. We don't really have an average turnover time for restaurant sales. We just renewed contracts on two after a year listing. We also had one under contract before we even marketed it. 

@frillyfun ;
That's what I should have done before I jumped ship. I didn't save enough, and now I'm in a financial bind. I'm thinking about going part-time brokering and full-time restaurant manager again to stack some cash so I can be better prepared to succeed. 
I like the idea of consulting, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that. I know restaurant owners, and most of them don't want to pay for menu design, let alone consulting services. 

I haven't told my principal broker what I'm thinking yet. Should I go ahead and let him know that I'm not financially prepared to continue full-time? Maybe he'll have some good suggestions. We have casually talked about buying one of the failing restaurants we've valuated, then get it profitable and flip it. (He did this with 4 bars several years ago) 

frillyfun

Do your budget tonight.  See where you stand, and where you need to be.  If you're not  asking the right questions you'll never get the right answers.

How much do you stand to make from a restaurant gig?  

FWIW no one is ever 100% ready to be self employed.  After 9 years of running my own business I can tell you that although I have impressive skills- I'm making it up as I go along.  Business owners will spend money if they know it will make them money.  

RestaurantMan

@frillyfun a restaurant manager position is probably worth $50-60k/year + benefits. You're right about being self employed, but I just gotta pay bill now. 

CartB4Horse

@RestaurantMan -- How's your marriage doing?  Sorry if you put that somewhere else, I didn't read it....

As far as the business side goes I've found that I was drawn back into the business I've been in for 20+ years.  I just couldn't seem to escape it.

frillyfun

Feeding the family comes first.  I hope you find something quickly.

CartB4Horse

Mmmmm, depends on who's on board the ship.  She don't want to play?

I'm trying to figure out if you're the same RM that I know of.....

The_Dude

@CartB4Horse   http://marriedmansexlife.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/13734/believe-it-or-not-we-made-it#latest

Tiger

@RestaurantMan,

I don't fully know the story, but if you are truly in a situation where you are having to borrow money (credit cards) to pay normal old living expenses you can't afford to be employed in a position that may not pay off for several months.

You didn't prepare well enough for this job, lesson learned.  It's time to cut your losses and go back to salaried work where you can get a steady known paycheck.  This is, however, only a temporary setback.

As @frillyfun says, you need to figure out your living expenses per month, then figure out how long you are likely to need in months before you can start reasonably expecting income from a commission only job.  That will give you a number, now double it, that will give you a cushion in case either, A) it takes more time that you think... it will, or B ) you have a dry spell at a later date, that will happen too.

Hang in there, this is just a temporary setback.

RestaurantMan

@frillyfun @tiger You're right. I shouldn't have a problem finding something. I had a great interview on Friday and immediately got a second one set up. 

I always tend to learn these things the hard way. Thanks again for the help.