Years ago, I worked with a older NCO who'd decided upon some life-dream as he retired. He was going to buy and run a bowling alley. He and the wife had the savings to accomplish this dream.
I would have been the first to admit....on my list of 100 business opportunities to own and operate....a bowling alley wasn't on the list.
So he retired....bought the alley, and about twelve months later....he came through the local area, and gave us a brief update on his 'dream'.
There were three essential problems:
1. He was spending 70 hours a week in this effort, and it was burning him out. He could not reach a point where he was a part-time manager.
2. Customer flow was not a constant thing. Around the holiday periods, he'd lose 50-percent of his cash flow. This was something he'd never calculated or figured into his plan.
3. Finally, virtually all of the employees were minimum-wage type people, and half of them had no enthusiasm over whether the business succeed or failed.
As he pointed out, he had forty-year-old employees who were set into a pattern of life....they weren't going to get pumped-up or hyped to be customer-friendly.
In simple terms, this whole life dream was crapped-out and he probably wasn't going to do this more than another year or two.
I look upon this $15 an hour chatter for minimum wage and kinda wonder how these operations like this (the bowling alley) will function in the new era. Right now....a single lane for an hour runs $25....shoe rental is $3.....with food and beer for the evening near $20 per person. After the minimum wage change? You can probably add another $3 to $4 in cost.
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