Jon Taffer Quotes

All of my businesses are profitable.

The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.

I think, as a chef and restaurateur, that you have to take care of your business. Otherwise, you're only as good as your last meal. You have to watch if your food costs are too high, or you could be out of business in no time.

I love cooking, but I love the business, too. It's important because a lot of chefs forget the business side and have to shut down after six months.

Don't open a bar if you think all you need to be is social and greet the customers. You have to run a business.

Profitability is coming from productivity, efficiency, management, austerity, and the way to manage the business.

I always worked in institutions, I never had a restaurant of my own before, but I have opened over 30 hotels, restaurants and casinos. I understand what it takes to keep them running.

Doctors quickly learn that how much they make has little to do with how good they are. It largely depends on how they handle the business side of their practice.

My mom and I had a kids' clothing store called Smooch for six years, and I did all the buying before I even had kids.

I don't have any interest in being a chef without being on the business side of things, or vice versa, because if you don't make money at the end of the month, you're going out of business.

The music and airlines businesses are tough, but I've been successful in them.

It's much more difficult running a business than buying one.

Bar owners tend to be social rather than operators. Most bar owners do not manage their numbers. They do not have spreadsheets or reports to manage their budget, cost, or inventory. I would say 90% of independent bar owners do not even have a budget.

I've always wanted to buy a bookstore. You know, sell some of those muffins and a little coffee. I don't care if we make any money. I don't want to lose a lot of money, but we could visit with people and get books.

My father built a small manufacturing business. I worked alongside him and saw firsthand the challenges that business owners face.

It was Labor Day weekend in 1983, and Dad hired me to run Mick's Lounge, a bar he co-owned, for $200 a week. The business was nearly bankrupt. But I said, 'Dad, I can fix it.' It was the most natural thing I'd ever done. It just made sense to me.

My last two years of high school, I did work-study half the day, and I ran the restaurant. It was just this little restaurant, but it was just so cool. I had 35, 40 employees.

This is my hobby: growing stores, adding stores. It's fun.

Selling cookies helped me to realize that you needed to have a certain way to communicate with people. You also needed business skills. You knew you needed to sell a certain amount of boxes, so that gave me some business sense.

All businesses require capital, management and labor, and business executives, wanting to grow and maintain profitable enterprises, have a strong incentive to keep costs, including labor, as low as possible.

I came from Bill Blass, where it was a well-oiled machine and if I said I needed a fabric, it was done. Now, I have to budget everything. I have to take on the role not just as a designer but a business. But I'm a glass half-full kind of guy.

On the whole, and this comment can get me in a lot of trouble, I find that retailers in the comic book business are not business people. They're fans who've gotten themselves shops.

Filmmaking is a business and at the bottom line people who don't make fiscally responsible decisions end up going into another line of work.

The restaurant business had a profound effect on my future and that of my two brothers. When we were able to stand on a stool to reach the sink, we washed dishes, and later, when we could see over the counter, we waited tables and managed the cash register.

Admiration takes on a whole new level when you appreciate just how complex it is to run a modern business.