In the fiercely competitive world of restaurants, Danny Isaacs’ career took off like a rocket. Shortly after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 2018 at age 20, he landed a plum job as a sous-chef at a Long Island yacht club in Long Island, New York. Half a year later, Isaacs moved up to executive chef at another nearby yacht club. Then COVID-19 hit As the disease engulfed the state, the club closed. Isaacs was the first one laid off. “My options were very, very slim. The only things that were open were hospitals, other institutional facilities,” Isaacs recalled. So in late August of last year, just as the pandemic was shuttering restaurants across the U.S., he took a chance, maxed out his credit cards and bought a food trailer. Within a few months the truck, dubbed “Bacon You Crazy,” had a regular circuit: barbershops on weekdays, feeding the overnight shift at a hospital a couple of weeknights, and bars and breweries on weekends, when they were desperate to serve food on the premises to meet state pandemic restrictions on alcohol sales. “I literally get phone calls from bars every single day, asking if I can spend a night there and sell food. Most of the time I have to turn it down,” Isaacs told CBS Money Watch. By the first weekend of March he bought a second food truck and started negotiating for a third, he moved the trucks from his parents’ driveway into an overnight lot, helped his parents move to Florida, and moved himself to a new apartment. Isaacs still works 12 hours a day, now with two former yacht club colleagues alongside him.

“It’s a dream come true but it’s so much work,” he said.

Danny Isaacs in his mobile food trailer, Bacon You Crazy. As remarkable as Isaacs’ story may seem, there are thousands like him. COVID-19 has decimated the food industry, closing more than 110,000 eateries, or 1 in 6 establishments, according to the National Restaurant Association. But thousands more are flocking into the field, according to data from Yelp and the Census Bureau. Yelp data show that while restaurant openings plummeted during the peak of the pandemic last year, they bounced back quickly. In the last three months of 2020, the food-ordering platform added more than 18,000 new food businesses, on par with the previous year. The surge has continued into 2021, with new food businesses launching at a much faster rate in January and February compared with the same period a year ago, according to Census Bureau figures. In the first two months of the year, Americans filed applications for 50,000 new food businesses, Census data show — nearly double the 10-year average. Some of these restaurant owners are industry veterans for whom a layoff became a springboard to starting a new venture. Others are laid-off workers who are turning to a side hustle to make ends meet. And still, others are entrepreneurs who’ve managed to hang on and are using a down market to grow their businesses. “It’s never been easier to get high-quality locations,” said Dan Rowe, CEO of the franchise development company Fransmart. “We’re writing more franchise deals right now than we have in years.”

Retail apocalypse creates empty space

The biggest barrier to opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant is the cost: Building out the space and installing needed equipment can cost six or seven figures, not to mention still-hefty rent prices in major metro areas. During the pandemic, such costs coupled with customers’ continued aversion to indoor dining are driving a surge in mobile food businesses. Some 1,500 new food trucks have opened in the last three months of 2020, according to Yelp — 40% higher than the year-ago period. The wave of closures has also created a glut of restaurant-ready retail spaces, spawning opportunities for entrepreneurs who have managed to stay open and who have some cash on hand. “In the current environment, there are a lot of built-out restaurants where the heavy lifting is already done. So a lot of the infrastructure, which are the biggest costs of restaurants, is already there,” said Steven Zagor, a restaurant consultant based in New York. The excess of retail space has also softened up some landlords in formerly hypercompetitive areas, Zagor added. “Landlords have found themselves with empty spaces, some premium spaces, and are willing to negotiate.”

Old shell, new tenant

For some entrepreneurs, the crisis has meant an opportunity to expand. Rather than fronting hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a business from the ground up, they are essentially creating a new business in the shell of the old. Amelia Raley, who owns a vegan ice cream parlor in Austin, Texas, had been looking for a new restaurant space for about two years when she came across the perfect location across town — vacated by a pizza parlor that had closed in April. Raley and two business partners signed a lease in September and opened Big Nonna’s, a vegan pizza joint, two months later. – Source: CBS News.

Franchisees for Domino’s, Chick-fil-A, and McDonald’s share their stories and advice for other female business owners . . . .

Women business owners not only have to prove they’re up to the task, they also need to exude confidence and leadership ability, and make sure all their team members, male and female, buy into it. They have to be knowledgeable about every facet of the business: the financing, operations, purchasing, sales and marketing, supply chain processes, and team management and development. And they must know when to let go and trust their employees with their businesses. These are the realities shared by three quickservice franchisees in PRIME Strategy Inc.’s Women’s History Month webinar series, “A Conversation with HER.” The Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance, a division of the National Restaurant Association, endorsed the series.

Bringing your ‘A’ game to the business

The latest webinar in the series engages three quickservice concept franchisees: Danica Anderson, Chick-fil-A; Emily Elwell, Domino’s Pizza; and Tanya Hill-Holliday of McDonald’s, who talk about how they’ve succeeded in a business typically dominated by men. The webinar, moderated by Microsoft’s Libby Saylor Wright, covers several topics, including mentoring, challenges during the pandemic, and preparing to finance your business opportunity. Elwell, who started at Domino’s as an assistant manager and today owns 11 franchised restaurants in Missouri, with her husband, says she never really saw herself as a female franchisee. “I just saw myself as a franchisee,” she says. “Sometimes that meant pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I’m naturally an introvert, but I knew that hiding in the back of the room taking notes wasn’t good enough for the business world. I had to push myself through the front door, shake everyone’s hands, and introduce myself. For me, it really was about stepping into the room and making sure I was seen.”

The lessons of mentoring and letting go

Anderson says the support she received from the owner of the Chick-fil-A franchise she originally worked for helped her become a better employee and fed her dreams of buying her own unit one day, which she did in 2016, in Oak Creek, Wis. “I am an example of women bringing other women along,” she explains. “Before I’d worked with my boss, Lauren, I’d never dreamed of owning my own business, never considered the idea of franchising. I knew I was a leader; I’d established myself in leadership roles since my very first job, but she created a platform for me to grow, trusted me with her business, and allowed me to dream things I hadn’t before. She became one of my closest allies and confidantes. That relationship shaped how I lead in my business, how I teach young people, particularly females, to dream bigger.”

Caring for ‘internal’ and ‘external’ customers

Hill-Holliday, a 10-unit McDonald’s franchisee in Philadelphia, talks about the importance of empathy, connecting with her team during the pandemic, and letting them know they were cared for and protected during these challenging times. She explains she had to take care of her “internal” customers so they could take care of her “external” customers—the guests. “We changed a lot of our processes, ramped up safety, sanitation, and security,” she says. “But, at the end of the day, there absolutely was a silver lining; we made sure everyone felt safe, whether working in our business or as a patron. It was a challenge, but it paid off. “We made sure they knew we cared, that we were there to help them through this weird time,” she continues. “We had moments where our team would panic and wouldn’t want to come to work, but we talked them through it and tried to give the managers the presence of mind to think through everything. That brought us through to the other side.”

Spend or save? The answer’s easy

The panelists also address the issue of business financing. All advise operators to be prudent when it comes to saving money and judicious when spending it.

“Be disciplined,” Elwell says. “You have to be able to say no and grow your savings account. Make sure you have liquid capital. Also, whoever you’re talking to, whether it’s a lawyer, accountant, banker, or insurance person, make sure they’re someone you can have a conversation with, someone you’re comfortable with. We found that person at our local bank here, and the relationship has really grown. I’m confident that no matter what our financing needs are, we can pick up the phone and have a conversation.” “I’ve had this business for almost six years and have to say that Chick-fil-A, as a franchising model, is a bit different,” Anderson says. “It doesn’t require as much liquid capital, but we do pay a higher franchising fee. So, some things about our franchising model make it a little more accessible. At 25, when I started, I wasn’t independently wealthy, so I was really blessed to be able to navigate that. I have to say you must prepare for when the rainy day comes. I think all of us felt that way about COVID-19. When we first shut down dining rooms and were questioning if our businesses would stay open, I was really grateful for the discipline I’d developed before.” “Don’t wait until you get to the fourth leg of the relay race to start saving money,” Hill-Holliday adds. “Start saving right out of the starting blocks. If you have a vision of someday becoming an entrepreneur don’t spend all of your money. Start saving early. Spend a little, save more.”

Source: The National Restaurant Association.