Many people get into the pizza business believing that the recipe for success begins and ends with a great pizza. They make pizzas at home for raving friends and family and believe that those skills will translate into roaring business success. Some have even travelled to Italy to learn the craft of making and baking a Neopolitan style pizza, thinking that the training will be enough to guarantee success in business.
Unfortunately the art of making and baking pizza is only a small slice of the business and when these individuals - passionate as they are, move forward with opening a pizzeria they soon discover that there is much, much more that they don't know about owning and operating that business.
This is one of the top five mistakes that new-to-the-business people make. Focusing solely on the product with tunnel vision leaves an individual at a complete loss as to actually run the day-to-day business affairs. What's more, just because they enjoy a particular style of pizza doesn't mean that there is a market big enough to support a pizzeria dedicated to their preferred style.
Let's look at the scenario of someone who's passion for a great Italian style pizza runs deep and travels to Naples to gain skills and training for making and baking a Neopolitan style pizza.
The individual has completed their certification and returns to their home city, somewhere in North America to open their pizzeria. While this individual makes a fabulous Neopolitan pizza, the bigger question is, does the market/community where he/she intends to open a Neopolitan pizzeria want this type of pizza?
Many North Americans don't care for Italian style pizzas; they prefer more toppings, more cheese and many consider the "char" that happens during the bake in an authentic wood-fired oven to 'have a burnt taste'. North American style pizzas are very different than Italian style pizzas, and they won't bake in a traditional wood-fired oven. These are very important factors that one must consider and research prior to opening your dream concept. Often, a non business person's idea of research is to consult their friends and family where they are encouraged with the "Build it and they will come" analogy.
This is always very expensive and bad advice.
