It can be said that in the voice of experience two things can be said of the “restaurant business”. One the owner or a trusted senior lead hand has to be there around the clock or “the hams start walking out by themselves with legs out of the freezer” and two that if you are considering partnering up with your current boss is that you might want to consider any such major decisions of your time and money more than carefully.
It’s not only the glamour that you buy into. You are also a part of responsibilities, major hours put in at your expense and losses as well as profits. If the business is on its start up phase and is not making money – do you think that you are going to be paid for your time during this initial start up no profit phase. You cannot take business good will to the bank.
It looks like; you may have an uplifted ego owning part of the enterprise. Yet employees according to state and provincial labor laws always have to be paid for hours worked – not so owners and even management of restaurants.
Speak to others in the hospitality trade before you wade into the waters.
Ask to see the books and have an independent account verify them. While it may be true that this may present a golden opportunity to you both as a worker, a person and an individual at your point of life and working career it never hurts to stand back and inspect the offer both from a business stand point and that of other experienced business people in the field and with general business experience and expertise as well.
In some cases it will make sense. Count in this mold situations where you are a trusted lead hand and ether the owner wants to reward you for good work or devoted service or perhaps since you have proven yourself as a loyal and trusted employee feels that you can be a good asset as an on site overseer with a vested interest in supervision and cost reduction efforts who can be entrusted with this role or series of roles. In other cases it may be a case of an employee stock ownership plan that generally will allow managers and management to buy into the business over time. It’s a win-win situation of reward and compensation to both sides of the ownership equation that has been proven over the eons of mankind and commerce. Since it is both parties interest both work both harder, are more productive and ultimately the business enterprise is more profitable due to simple self interest concerns. Lastly it may be that you are lucky enough that the owner or sets of owners wants to retire and is willing to work you into the mix. They may either want more help, less responsibility or feel that this way they are grooming or creating potential buyer or purchaser of the restaurant or restaurant chain.
Either way considers the business opportunity carefully if you are offered a partnership with your present employer in the restaurant hospitality field. It may be a good step, it may be not. Nothing in life or in the business world is 100 right or wrong. Just give the proposal both a proper hearing and full and enhanced review.