Don't Open a Restaurant Business Until You Watch This!
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- Restaurants are a tricky business to become highly profitable, but one of the longest-running restaurants in the U.S. is approaching its 150th year in business. They’ve kept running through over 30 recessions and are the largest purchasers of Kahlúa in the galaxy!
James Louie bought his share of Huber's Cafe in 1991. Today he’s generating over $2 million in revenue. James grew up in the restaurant business and started working at Huber’s at the age of 14. He had dreamed of becoming a baseball player, but Uncle Sam drafted him instead. He went to a few years of college before deciding to join the family business.
In 1999, James was named Restaurateur of the Year. He’ll share his customer service strategies, marketing tips, and how to get 40% of your revenue from drinks.
He’ll even share what he learned while keeping his business afloat with the Paycheck Protection Program and the Restaurant Revitalization Grants. That’s quite an accomplishment since over 70,000 restaurants closed during the pandemic. Get ready to find out how to open a restaurant business.
If you’re looking for more advice from business owners, check out some of our past interviews:
From $50 to $1,750/day Revenue►
• From $50 to $1,750 a D...
Want to Open a Coffee Shop? Watch This First ►
• How To Start A 7-Figur...
Resources
hubers.com/ - Find out more about Hubers on their website
alohancr.com/aloha-pos/aloha/ - Huber’s preferred Point-of-Sale (PoS) system
www.adp.com/ - Manage payroll and taxes with ADP
www.upflip.com/ - Find businesses for sale on the UpFlip listing
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
01:05 - How Family Businesses Start
02:16 - Touring The Hubers Cafe
02:45 - How To Handle Inflation
03:37 - Tips for Beginner Restaurant Owners
04:57 - How To Keep Employees Long-Term
06:00 - Exploring The Food Prep Area
6:37 - The Importance of Leadership Style
07:42 - James’ Best Sellers
08:58 - How Much a Restaurant Makes Per Month
10:21 - What Makes Hubers Cafe Unique
11:24 - The $1 Purchase
12:38 - Breaking Down Revenue
13:35 - The Benefits of Loyalty Programs
14:33 - The Key To Hiring Good Employees
15:15 - Systems and Processes
15:58 - Blitz Time with James
16:29 - Maintaining the Restaurant
17:57 - Expanding Hubers Cafe
18:46 - Tools for Great Management
19:44 - How To Have Loyal Employees
20:52 - Tips for Advertising
21:26 - Advice on Formulating a Menu
22:11 - The History of Hubers Cafe
22:59 - How Kahlua Got Popular
24:21 - The Reason for James’ Success
25:00 - James’ Family Tree
25:48 - How The Restaurant Industry Has Changed
#restaurant #restaurantbusiness #openarestaurant
What a classy, calm, confident and humble man James is. Such an admirable character!
This is very nice of you Angela S. 😀These are some of the characteristics that contributed to his success. Thanks for stopping by. What's the most important thing you feel you learned from the video?
Nice to have the Asian monopoly man in your video
I want to be more like him.
Cool as a fan
@@GODSSON365247 or cucumber. But yeah, more fan. You're right.
My first business was a restaurant and I have friends that still own them. It’s a tough industry to be in. Long hours, 7 days a week, and when your dish washer calls in sick you have to be ready to fill in. Glad to see he has had such long term success, great person.
Thank you for sharing your experience, My Home Handyman! Our community appreciates all insights into the restaurant industry. How did you and your friends work it out? Do you have any tips you can share with us?
restaurant era is over. people use pre cooked food these days you can get the finest dishes at your door step
I started building my pho restaurant in Feb. 2020 and then covid19 was announced in March 2020. We opened on July 15th 2020 praying we would stay alive and till this day we're still standing. And like James said, margin is about 5% but since I'm running a small restaurant, breaking even is common. Not many people that open during covid made it, fortunately we did.
Hello Jimmy, What do you say to increasing sales massively by just a simple, easy step?
Hey Jimmy, have you thought of applying a ghost kitchen/ cloud kitchen business model to your restaurant alongside the traditional one?
just remember food business is the most stable industry if you know what are you doing. no business can make a steady income like food business maybe real estate but not anything elase
When you say your margin is about 5% do you mean your Net income?
How the hell can you live breaking even or 5% profit
I’m glad that they touched upon a point of difficulty of finding help now vs. in the past. It’s mind boggling that people won’t even show up to an interview today.
Humble, classy, and an incredible mindset for operating a restaurant business. I'm certainly going to make my way to Huber's the next time I'm in Portland. God Bless James!
I've been a chef in all types of restaurants and catering for 30 years and people just don't understand how difficult it is to pull in above 15-20%. 1 off week can kill your month. Recently I saw a 60k pull for the week dissappear because of a decline in previous weeks. Crazy this business. Not all the glam you see on TV.
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So I looked at their menu they’re offering 5 star service at Cheddars casual café prices. Most expensive thing is a Filet $45.95 average dish is $18 they’re under charging I know it’s Portland but it’s DT by the water you can’t give away food.
Another Upflip video..... Yaaaaaas!!!! Thank you guys 😍 Listening to this while I work.
What a vibe. This man has won my ❤️.
5% profit, but we don't know what he pays himself. Great video. Owner is a class act.
Awesome content for any new business owner or someone thinking of starting a business of any type. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the feedback!!
I love these stories! Thanks for showcasing this one
Loved this guy! Great story and great vibe.. I'd work for him any day.
He's great King of Corridos Film and you are too. 😀We really appreciate your kind words. What type of business are you in currently?
Nice to watch this interview to get some insight into this amazing man’s life.
Really cozy n elegence place. Relax intervw n easy to understand. Mr James work everyday.
The owner of the restaurant is so humble.He always appreciates every little thing that his employees do, and never forget to praise his employees by calling their name one by one....great..👍👍👍
Do you want to do business? I can give you business tips 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Do you want to do business? I can give you business tips 👍👍👍👍👍👍
@@IVANA99643 with my pleasure 🙏
NO ONE CAN BEAT TIME..... Longer you stay open the more people will know you... hence more business
video is a gold mine of knowledge. Love how everything is divided up.
Glad you learned from this video! Hope you also watch our other content and find value in them. Any business you want to see next? ☺️
Good on to James and I wish him well and his family and I hope they keep on going with the successful business
Awesome. The passion and hard work is truly original. Most restaurants are too idealistic and gimmicky. Dining is a pleasure and what makes the most is satisfaction. If I’m a customer my priority is to appreciate what goto to making this dish and how much effort goes into it. It’s like coming home.😊
Open restaurant is easy …if you hire a chief always complain about salary 😂you headache this kind of business I don’t like …what I like is auto run business example lounge bar or club much more easier to manage
Wonderful story, very interesting.
What a guy James is! Who will not love a boss like him!
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PRAISE THE LORD.... very insightful and great wisdom and knowledge tips for business and faith
Person of this nature is only the outcome of vast life lessons learnt. Elegance in all ways. Thank you for doing this interview. Please, if you see him again, convey that I have learnt to be even more humble and polite. ICONic stature.
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I would love to see a welding business whether it’s a fab shop or a mobile welder! More construction videos in general!!! Great videos!!
Its on our to do list ;)
What enjoyable episode, so much history and class. James thank you for sharing your story and giving God the glory!
Glad to know you loved it, Keenan Walsh! Do you have other historic restaurants in mind we can feature? Let us know! :)
Love this interview. They definitely need to upgrade their accounting system.
I think that accounting systems are overrated. If his business has worked for a freaking century without one, and people still love to dine there, they are doing it good.
nononono that cashier machine is great with the old vibes it should stay for another 100years 😁
@@PedroCostaeSilva ur tone lacks ambitious but its okay
What acc.system would you use?
Props to this guy continuing to lead this great restaurant despite the chaos happening in Portland.
if i got an employer like him... i will never leave ❤️
Inspired and subscribed!
Welcome yo the Upflip family Dekass. We're so happy the video inspired you. Thanks for subscribing to the channel.😀😀💖⭐ We can't wait to get your feedback on some of our other videos?!
Love that this guy wasn’t scared to share his faith. Thank you Jesus. Also, Xero Accounting is really good.
This was an amazing interview and we are so happy that this business owner didn't hold anything back. 😀😀He was really great to work with. Thank you for supporting the channel. Please give us more detail on Xero account and your personal experiences with it?
Its like im watching my dad...talks and thinks exectly like James and it is in restaurant industry all his life. It is really hard right now for restaurant owners to succeed so thats exectly why i watched this video, to give me advice...hope you will make more videos on restaurant business, maybe some modern restaurants...and i need to say that it really triggers me watching all restaurants nowadays turning into fine dining restaurant just for the sake of trend
Yes we will most definitely do more videos in the restaurant industry Adam. 😀👍 Thank you so much for watching. That's cool that the business owner reminds you of your dad, he has such a welcoming presence. How long has your family been in the restaurant business?
For over 20 years, he pushed me and my brothers to work early on...we started working in a bar when we were 12...and I hope one day that we take over a restaurant😀
This is a great video and James seems to be a really sweet man who cares for the restaurant, his employees and his guests which is great! As someone who helps to manage a family restaurant that generates about the same revenue as Huber's I can say that a 5% margin, while not uncommon in the full-service restaurant business (5-10% net margins) it's a pretty abysmal number. I am particularly surprised that the margin is so low given the product mix (i.e. their alcohol to food ratio) - their mix is virtually the same as ours and the margins in mixed drinks are much higher so, again, I am surprised that the blended margin isn't much higher given percent of revenue that is alcohol. The reality is that margins have been compressed across the industry over the past couple of years as inputs have increased significantly from food to labor, etc. and therefore prices have had to increase to the customer but it has been hard to pass all of the increased cost on to customers. Anyway, there seems to be inefficiencies somewhere because a full-service restaurant, producing that level of revenue with a big bar program should probably be able to achieve at least a 10-15% margin even in today's environment.
Yes, they gave the key at the beginning, "treat staff like family", surely that is why the business is not more profitable, because it is so long therm that they prefer having their staff for 40+ years. I think that is probably the only way to go for them, specially being in Portland. Because they would never be able to offer any quality at all having to train new staff all the time.
@@PedroCostaeSilva That is a reasonably valid point and I assume that the cost of doing business in Portland, in general, is quite high but at our restaurant, we pay well above the going rate and we have staff that have been with us for years - we definitely want to create a team/family environment and take great care of our staff - the point is, you can still have a net margin that is higher than 5% (double or triple that) and pay and treat your staff better than the average restaurant or business.
maybe the owner gives more benefit to his employee so it rdeces the margin
wow this guy is great
PS nice camera work and editing - really beautiful and professional
Glad you love this video, Shiretsu! Your appreciation means a lot to us and motivates us to continue producing content like this. Do you have a business topic you want to see next on the channel?
God bless this man, his business, and his health. You can see the gods miracle throughout, his humbleness is testament that you don’t need to treat employees or customers as a number. I wish him great success
This is so nice of you junknmail123. 😀He is really a great business owner and knows the value of both his employees and his customers. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and comment. Please let us know what type of business you'd like to see featured on the channel next?
Exactly an employee is a possibility not a resource.
I love that he gives credit to God. It resonates w/ me. Inspiring story. Thank you both!
Our pleasure! So glad it resonated with you. Thank you for watching!
He seems so calm and peaceful, seems like that has been transferred over to the business culture and thats why their employees have styaed for so long. Its so important for your health to have a caring working environment.
Spot on @Improlife! Thanks for your sharing your thoughts.
Love the videography on this one
We really appreciate that and we also appreciate you always leaving such wonderful comments. 😀 What details did you like about the videography the most so we can make sure to include them in future videos?
Love your vids so much.
thanks for the support!
What a nice guy. Would love to have a boss like him.
He really is nice and a great business owner Marius. Thanks so much for the wonderful comment. 😀Would you ever consider starting this type of business up on your own?
be a boss like him
@@GummyRiches hahahs for this we have this channel hahaha and this guy want to work for him😂😂😂
I was 5 yrs old when they first opened I love the foods there
It takes a lot of family values and structure for a family business as this to stay in business for this much years; 100yrs plus wow ..how did a family like this transfer their values from one generation to another hmmm ???
One must appreciate the type of women that came into this family that kept the husbands of each generation to stay dedicated and committed to sustaining the family legacy 🙏 just one wrong woman in family can cause havoc
Right it's mostly men who are heirs Maybe at some moment women was leading the family business as well.
The soup looks so good.
By the grace of God! Now that's a powerful statement. For so many fools believe that they alone have made things happen. However, the truly wise man believes & says that It was thru God's Grace that all things are possible. God Bless you Sir!
What a fantastic spot.
I'd love to have Mr James as my boss,,,, full of class, and care for his employees
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The food looks very good
can you do upflips on tradesmen?
5% is low but he's right, most restaurants are doing the same.
My advice :
- let a cost controller take a look at your expenses.
- if you can, add a few services, like deliveries.
- try take out.
- add special days on your menu, even if you have to low a little your prices, try to beat with volume.
- marketing is easy with social medias.
These are excellent tips! Are you running your own resto as well?
Can you do one of these on blogging!
i own a fast-casual restaurant and we do about 17% profit/month.
I want to try that Spanish coffee. It looks so cool to make it 🎉
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A classy joint. It reminds me Clyde’s and Ebbit’s in DC.
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It’s an amazing and inspiring story
We appreciate you tuning in! Thank you! ☺️
I was, and it gets pretty bad! Av lost 160,000 euros the first year! But I'm going to open another one, without personal!
He’s so humble
He is very Humble Henry. 😀Thank you for watching. Have you checked out some of our other videos in the restaurant industry?
he seems like a realy nice man
God bless this hotelier and his generations to come. May his generations only elevate his qualities.
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I really love the old skool way i must tell ya.
Oh, we love that , too! ❤
Upflip, do you have video on clothing business? I’m planning to start my clothing business in few months
We surely do Hameed. Thanks for the question. We have several videos in the clothing industry. Please check them out. 😀Congrats on getting started. We're happy for you. Will you buy cloths in bulk and resale or are you planning to make your own clothing?
@@UpFlip Thank you very much for responding. I’m not sure, I’m still brainstorming. I did check out those videos. With what is have in mind, it is going to be a new custom short. Where can I buy the cloth and find manufacturers?
Is there a way to reach out to you to get few questions answered?
Love this channel! My only suggestion for improvement is to not have the host do the direct to camera lines during the interview. It feels awkward to just have the interviewee standing there, like you're ignoring him. It also breaks the flow of the interview and feels forced/unnatural. I think those lines would be perfect at the end of the video after the interview is concluded. Keep up the amazing content!
Thank you for your feedback, We'll keep this in mind. We appreciate you tuning in! ☺️
very interesting
Glad you think so, Nicholas! What did you find the most interesting?
Cool place 😉
Sage is excellent software.
Very cool! 😎
Thank you! Cheers! 🙂
Looking at this guy, I am in the right business
What do you do?
What do you call this review? Huber’s cafe promotion? Love to visit this cafe when i visit the US. Which state is it in BTW? Love the turkey dish❤
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This guy is a huge gambler at the casino
I'm curious what software can be used to remind customers and the business of each upcoming birthday. Any recommendations to track that?
Nimble is good for this, any CRM software with text messaging integrated should do the trick :)
Any marketing email automation can help you with that. All you need is month and date.
A man of God.
A heart for God, and a heart for people.
God never fails to honour His children when they put Him first. I'm incredibly blessed by this video. Thank you Upflip, thank you James and David. I hope to travel half the globe to Portland some day to savour the food and coffee.
Do you want to do business? I can give you business tips 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Put God first in your life and everything else will fall into place. Thankyou Lord Jesus I’ll never run away from you again.
Never !
Fgt
Only allah is great💪
AMEN
Eqt
wow, the definition of class
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@@IVANA99643 what is your business?
I am going to dine here if I go to Portland one day.
This is very nice of you Wilson. 😀💖Please let us know about your dining experience if you ever visit the restaurant.
If you go to Portland you have to visit Huber‘s and have the turkey.
Got it Eric! 😀We'll keep this is mind next time we're in the Portland area. What other types of food does the restaurant serve?
@@UpFlip that is what this video is about! I’ve been there so I thought I would leave a positive comment.
Crazy man
5% profit margin is insane.... idk if I would do all that work for that small a profit
5% of 200k is 10k a month and when you divide that up between the two brothers (owners) it's like 5k a month. When you add government and state tax, retirement account etc, probably left with nothing.
Both brothers could be on the payroll and the restaurant is contributing to both of their 401k.
NOW...THAT'S A LEADER!
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what a humble guy
Couldn't agree more! 🙌
I profit 20%. Bs to 5% . Specially in a place like that . The guy owns the building probably, no way he profits 5%. Cuz it means he has to pull out 2 million a year to make 100k before taxes . Restaurant business is very tough , and now days a lot of people don't want to work in their own place or don't understand numbers etc that's the real problem. Actually, i want to have another restaurant and i can't find anyone who would like to get their hands dirty , put some money down and make cash . Nothing. They say isn't worth their time ...but then ... They are totally broke . I don't understand it .
Thanks for sharing your thoughts; however, he explained why his net is low. To know more about it, please keep on watching! ☺️
iam confused how turkey can sell that well, i would have thought that type of look would be selling high end french fusion food
Hello, so I’m from India n the profit margin is around 55% over here excluding all the rent,staff n raw food
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Net profit?
You will see the difference if the restraunteur use the term "Guests" and "Customer" .. James use "Guests" more instead of "Customer" in his restaurant, and look at the results .. 😊
Good
Where is his restaurant located at?
5% profit on a full service restaurant with a full bar?! That’s ridiculously low. I have been a restaurant supplier for over 20 years and yes profit margins have shrunk during the last 20 years but many of my customers are still pulling out 10 to 15% and if you have enough liquor sales you can still pull out 20% profit. And I’ll bet my left hand this gentleman owns the building so he has zero rent. Maybe he’s renting out a portion of the building for a substantial profit and paying down the mortgage on the building? Maybe he’s paying himself a salary of $250,000 a year and that is eating into his so-called 5% profit. 5% of 200k monthly sales is only $120k a year. I believe he is making way more than $120,000 a year.
Yeah he don't wanna say the real deal I'd rather rent this building and make more if he owns it .
If he owns the business he would not want pay himself $250k salary . If you own a business you pay yourself as little as possible as a W-2 wage ( at 32% tax rate) and take it at the end as business profit ( at 22% tax rate ) . 5% profit is low but does he own the building and rent it to his other company ?
If i own a building, assuming that it is a very feasible location. ill just be a lessor.
I totally agree. He seem like a greedy guy. His “so-called” employees appreciation note card only seem a bit cheap.
That's because you keep on the low side of what you actually make on any recorded media. You don't know if the IRS is snooping around. You are just asking to be audited.
You need to start # upflip in each video!!
Although 5% doesn't sound like much netting that after 2m a year should be about 100k right? so after all is said and done that is pretty comfy but I would imagine the dishes are the culprit. It looks like the Ingredient cost is what's killing the margins and could be improved with getting the cost down on the ingredients needed for the dishes. Another thing is that the high sales on beverages should really close the gap as well. In the end 5% net is too low if you're not grossing millions
And after taxes? Youre not left with much. I own a cpl and yes getting established take time but once you are especially 100 years if you’re not in 10-15% at least something is up.
5% ia too low and I hardly believe it.
For me, frankly speaking, every successful business has its secret, that’s the essential part we would never speak up to others. Tricks gotten through years or even decades of hard work, no one can claim them for free either, fair world.
@Wang Lei exactly even with my business I would never go below 60% margin and some items was 110%
It’s possible because he has 40 employees and at 200k a month, half of that probably goes to salary, then with rising food costs, 5% is very realistic.
Bro love from India please make a video on truck workshop business
Thank you for watching Gursewak Sidhu from India. We really appreciate it. 😀👍 Would you like us to do a video on commercial truck auto mechanic shops?
Sorry for late reply yes i would like to if you do a video commercial truck auto mechanic shop business
❤ James, he honors the Lord ‼️👍
He sure does 🙏
That old man is cool; and that goofball wearing a baseball cap next to him is just a fill-in.
I just can not believe Resturant owners do not make money. Ive seen them live, have owned multiple homes just for get aways and fun. Etc... I really love to know the true numbers. As why would there be so many food places if no one makes money selling food. Something just does not add up. Yes, like ever business. A lot do not make it. But a lot do make. But that not just Restaurants that all businesses.
Makes me wonder, too. If none of them make any money, then does that mean they stay in business for years because they were already wealthy? I don't get it. Nobody would ever run restaurants if it was all work and no payday.
They all say the same thing. Poor them, owning multiple restaurants and keeping them just do people can have jobs and pay the bills. 5% profit bullshit and special requirements for employees for the basic job that needs tips to suplement their income
The aroma is "turkey filled" lol Why is this guy interviewing anyone in the restaurant business lol?
$200k/mo gross rev, 40 employee, 5% margin?
the numbers are just not added up.
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Lol they’ve been opened for 120 years I’m sure he’s making way more then 5 percent. He’s just being smart
I am sure he is paying himself and his brother 250,00 each per year salary which is 100% deductible and thus lowering the profit margin at end of year as they are basically pulling out the profit threw out the year this way lowering the end of year profit
“SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!” 🤣
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9:50 This man ain't dumb, it's 5% profit after he paid himself as well.
Thankful for people having restaurants but who wants to work for 5%
My brother here wants to start a restaurant after retirement walla
Upflip guy reminds me of when I’m high.
Its a good story….but it doesn’t help for this’s generation more than 80yrs ago $1.00 you can do a lot of things….now year 2022 for a small business you need at least $50000.00-$100000.00 dollars and also depending on the location and may cost you more money