Do you enjoy having a life? Do you like to cook? How about telling people what to do? Is "and you just have to try her homemade quattro formaggi" the first thing that people say after introducing you to someone new? If you answered a resounding yes to everything (except maybe the first question), then you might just be the sort of no-nonsense flour goddess who'll someday excel as the food service manager of her own pizza parlor.

 

Sadly, most new pizza parlors look the same when they're open as they do when they're closed. (Source)

If you want to get into this business, the first thing you should know is that owning, running, and managing a restaurant is, like, suuuuper easy. After all, it's not like the job is so notoriously difficult that multiple television networks have green-lit entire blocks of reality shows about failing restaurants. Well, we suppose there was Restaurant: Impossible. And—oh yeah—Kitchen Nightmares. Oh, and, uh, 3 Days to Open. Then there was that one show, Restaurant Stakeout...hey, wait a minute. Maybe it's not easy after all. Maybe it's actually so incredibly hard that 80% of all restaurants fail within five years (source).

Yes, as the food service manager of your own parlor, you've got the potential to make a near unlimited amount of dough (sorry for the cheesy puns), but you're also shouldering the risk of unrecoverable failure. The range between "mountains of cash" and "abyssal debt pit" is somewhat large, so here's a metric we use to judge things by instead: If you can keep the doors open and make yourself (after meeting all your business costs, of course) about $48,000 a year (the average wage of a food service manager working for somebody else), we'd say you're likely doing it right (source).

You may be asking yourself, "What separates the pizza princes from the pizza paupers?" Well, it's far more than just making a tasty pie, though that certainly helps. Think about how you feel as a customer after walking out of a restaurant. Was the place clean and in good repair? Was the staff friendly and welcoming? Was the food good? Was it affordable? That restaurant's food service manager is the one ultimately responsible for whether you're smiling or frowning as you walk back to your car.

 

What's that smell? Why, the scintillating aroma of entrepreneurship, of course. (Source)

Managers take care of the big picture stuff: hiring and firing employees, ordering food and supplies, enforcing government regulations, and supervising the budgets and payroll. We're getting tired just typing it all out. If you take this job, imagine how tired you'll get actually doing it. It's a truckload of work and, no, you won't be above doing any task in the joint. See those toilets over there? Pinch your nose and grab a brush.

Think of your future restaurant as a family-sized supreme pizza—stay with us here: you've collected a ton of ingredients and now you've got to figure out how to make them all work together. Creativity in the kitchen is definitely a plus, but you must have a sharp mind for business and finance if you want it to actually tantalize anyone's taste buds.

While you can get many of these skills in a college or culinary arts program, we'd recommend snagging some practical experience in a successful restaurant before driving to your local credit union and begging them for a $200,000 business loan. Remember—succeed or fail, you're going to have to pay that back. Don't worry too much, though; banks won't cut that check unless they think you can do it. Probably.

That said, there's obviously more to a job than the hassle and labor. As a food entrepreneur, you'll be in charge of your own destiny. Your daily successes and failures are having a direct impact on both your livelihood and that of your staff. Stressful? Maybe. Empowering? Definitely.

If you've got the skills and the drive then, just like your trademark pizza dough's instant dry yeast, all you need is a little bit of time and the warmth of a bank lender's handshake to rise to your full potential. Play your cards right, and soon you'll be living the immortal words of (Little) Caesar himself: "Veni, vidi, femi pizza pizza." I came, I saw, I made pizza pizza.

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