When the bistro wants to exit operations but is trapped in people management

And the expansion dream crashes against low margins

Do you recognize this situation?

• Bistro focaccia shop, good revenue with good profit (low margins)
  
• Many people to manage between employees and collaborators
  
• Established business for years, moderate growth
  
• But the exhausting situations: people management, bureaucracy
  
• Concerns: employees, government inspections, not being up to par, becoming old as a company
  
• Goals: no longer being operational, new laboratory, second location, franchising
  
• Significant portion of family income depends on this business
  

And the fear is: with these margins and this people management, how do you expand?

---

The trap of expansion vision with inadequate margins

The place works.

Years of established activity.
Bistro with quality Ligurian focaccia.
Good revenue, moderate growth.
Vision, mission and business plan written.

But you're tired.

Tired of managing many people.
Tired of bureaucracy.
Tired of always being operational.

And you dream:
Not being operational anymore.
Second location.
Franchising.

Vacation weeks. But the numbers say otherwise.

Good profit on good revenue = low margins.
Many people to pay and manage.
Financing still to repay.

How do you do a second location with these margins?
How franchising if the first location isn't optimized?

How do you exit operations if the business depends on you?

---

What happens when you want to scale before optimizing

On the economic front:
Good revenue, good profit = low margins (healthy food service is higher).
Goal: increase profit significantly.
Many people to pay = preponderant labor cost.
Financing = medium-term debt that erodes liquidity.

Second location = significant investment (from where?).

On the people management front:
"People management" among most exhausting situations.
Many people between employees and collaborators = maximum complexity.
"Employees" concern among the first.
Goal "no longer being operational" but who manages people?

Impossible to delegate if the structure is fragile.

On the operational front:
Many weekly hours (probably too many).
You're the owner and "collaborator manager" (everything on you).
Very little prospecting time (practically zero proactive acquisition).
New laboratory in plans: further investment and complexity.

Exhausting bureaucracy: government inspections, administrative management.

On the market front:
Competitors: "copy what I do" (innovator without protection).
Fear of "becoming old as a company".
Fear "bad publicity" and "not being up to par".

Ambitious franchising but copyable concept = difficult defensibility.

---

Why it happens

You have expansion vision (second location, franchising) but shaky foundations.

Bistro that works.
But with low margins and many people to manage:
It's not a scalable business.
It's multiplied operational work.

Second location with these margins =
Double investment, double complexity, same low margins.

Many more people to manage.

Franchising?
But if you yourself are tired of managing the first location:

What are you franchising? Your stress?

And you want to exit operations:
But who manages people if you're not there?

You're building the second floor before reinforcing the foundations.

---

The (wrong) path many try

Apparent solution: "I'll open a second location, so I dilute fixed costs and grow"

But with low margins:
Second location with same margins = same problems multiplied.
And liquidity needed for investment where does it come from?

First optimize the first location. THEN expand.

---

The method

No longer expand with fragile foundations. Optimize first, scale later. Profit surgery: significantly higher margins.

You can't expand with current margins.
Brutal analysis: people labor cost vs productivity.
Options: reduce team to core people (fire less productive).
Renegotiate collaborator contracts (commissioning more tied to results).
Menu optimization: cut low-margin products.

Target: much higher profit, healthy margins. Operational delegation before second location.

Goal: "no longer being operational".
But with many people dependent on you, how?
Solution: hire operations director.
Justified IF margins increase significantly.

YOU exit operations, director manages team. Centralized laboratory for efficiency.

Goal: new laboratory.
Rationale: centralized production reduces costs and improves margins.
Prepares for second location: central lab serves both.

Investment pays back with margin optimization. Second location ONLY after first optimized.

Not now, but after:
Bringing first location margins to healthy levels.
Delegating operations to director.
Centralizing production.

Validating replicable model without you. Franchising after second location success.

You can't franchise a concept you yourself can't replicate.
Sequence: first location optimized → second location success → THEN franchising.
Franchising protects from competitor copying (now they copy you for free, with franchising they pay).

Realistic timeline: years, not months.

---

What changes after

You no longer directly manage many people.

Operations director takes care of team.
You supervise, you're not inside daily operations.
"People management" is no longer exhausting because it's no longer your daily responsibility.

Margins:
From low to healthy.
Profit increased significantly without opening second location.

With director: good net profit, but you have vacation weeks.

And then you expand:
Second location with healthy margins = sustainable.
Central laboratory serves both = efficiency.
Franchising with validated and defensible model.

"Becoming old as a company"?
No. You become mature as a business.
No longer single location managed by operational owner.
But group with replicable and profitable model.

Not low profit with too many weekly hours and stressful people management.
But good profit with sustainable hours and director who manages.

Vacation weeks are no longer a dream.
They're natural consequence of well-structured business.

This is the turning point: when you stop wanting to expand and start optimizing, expansion becomes possible.