What does a Restaurant Broker actually do daily? Dominique Maddox, Founder and President of EATS Broker share his thoughts about the Day in a Restaurant Broker’s life.
I wrote a blog last year about my daily activities by the minute as a Restaurant Broker that received great interest and replies. I have decided to start a series of blogs about some of my most exciting days as a Restaurant Broker. This blog covers a day where I drove 900 miles round trip in a day to visit four potential restaurant listings and two restaurant owners.
I was super excited about the potential to get four restaurant listings, and one of the restaurant owners operated three locations. My Day was planned out the night before with an 11am face to face listing appointment in Jasper County in South Carolina.
After my 11am scheduled appointment, I was scheduled to meet the restaurant operator of three locations in Florence County, SC, at any time because he would be working that day. His restaurants were located in three different cities. My strategy was to visit all his locations before I met with him in Florence County.
Let’s see how this goes:
4:00 am – Wake up and put on a pot of coffee, and drink water. Review my Cash Scoreboard with my to-do list for the Day. Add any items that come to mind.
4:15 am- 4:30 am – Pack snacks, candy, and energy shots for the day trip. Kiss my wife good-bye, say a quick prayer, and I’m in my car on the way to Sumter County, SC.
4:30 am- 4:45 am- I drive my wife’s car on my long road trips to visit customers. As usual, when I take my wife’s car, her gas is empty, so before I can really start my road trip, I stop for gas. The 1st restaurant location is 290 miles away from my home.
7:45 am – 8:00am- First stop of the Day to refuel the gas, respond to customers’ emails, stretch, and grab some Bojangles for breakfast.
8:30 am- Arrive at 1st restaurant location. I take notes about the restaurant’s appearance related to street visibility, the shopping center’s condition, lease vacant spaces, and other tenants in a shopping center. The restaurant is not open, so I can only look thru the window.
8:45 am- Jump back in the car to make my way towards my 11am scheduled face-to-face meeting with a restaurant owner located 145 miles away.
10:45 am- I arrive early in the surrounding area to drive around to have a better feel for the location. I take notes on the surrounding competition, businesses, residential properties, and the appearance from the outside.
11:00 am – 12:00 pm- Meet with the single unit owner. They would like to sell to relocate outside of the state. I educate them on the current restaurant resale market, provide a restaurant price valuation, and review the lease.
12:15 pm- Respond to buyer inquiries from my car, finalize my notes from my meeting, and input location three in the Waze App. I’m headed to the 2nd restaurant of three owned by the restaurant operator in Florence County, located 165 miles away.
2:45 pm – I arrive at the restaurant, and instantly I’m impressed with the beautifully built restaurant with a drive-thru. I was impressed with the street visibility and design of the restaurant. It was a fantastic improvement from the seller’s first location in Sumter County.
3:00 pm- I take a couple pictures of the restaurant building, outdoor signage, patio space, and drive-thru window. Finalize my notes from my car and head towards the face-to-face meeting with Restaurant Owner 2; the location is 25 miles away.
3:30 pm- I arrive at destination number four. During my ride, I was thinking about the difference between the owner’s two locations. I thought about the Pros and Cons of both places. I was ready for my face-to-face meeting. By this point, I had driven 625 miles in the Day.
3:45 pm – I walk-in a restaurant, and instantly, I’m impressed with the restaurant’s layout, bar area, and stand-alone building. I ask for the owner, grab a menu and take a seat.
The management team lets me know he is not there. I sit down and look at the menu order food. My food arrives, and it’s delicious, but the owner has not arrived yet.
4:15 pm – I start to get nervous, and doubt starts to kick in. I made the cardinal sales professional mistake; I didn’t confirm the scheduled meeting the night before with the owner. I sent a text and get no response.
4:30 pm- Management team members come over and let me know the restaurant owner will not make the meeting.
4:45pm – Disappointed, I get back in my car and start my journey home, located 300 miles away.
5:15pm – The Owner calls to apologize for missing the scheduled meeting. We talk on the phone for about 30 minutes (I have Bluetooth). He agrees to send his Profit and Loss statements to me via email to provide him a restaurant valuation for all three of his restaurants.
9:15 pm- I finally arrive at home after driving over 900 miles. I was mentally tired, my body ached, and my stomach was empty. I was lucky because my wife had dinner ready.
I returned home with zero signed listing agreements. Most would think my trip was unsuccessful, but I feel different.
I was able to show my potential listing clients I will go the extra mile to provide exceptional customer service. I was trying to show Restaurant Owner 2 that I’m not a Broker that will just sit in an office and rarely visit clients at their restaurants,
EATS Restaurant Brokers commits to visiting potential clients within a 300-400 miles radius if needed to get a deal done. We can sell restaurants in Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Virginia and Georgia.
Thinking about selling a restaurant contact EATS Broker. For more information on the restaurant market and other available consulting services or restaurant valuations, contact Dominique Maddox at 404-993-4448 or by email at [email protected].
Visit our website at www.EATSbroker.com
