Implications
We see the following implications from
this portion of our study:
1. Contrary to the oft-repeated myth that 90
percent of restaurants fail in their first year,
we note a failure rate closer to 26 percent—
and the cumulative failure rate never
exceeded 60 percent in the three years we
studied.
2. Failure rates were notably higher for small,
independent operations than they were for
relatively large, franchised restaurants.
Thus, we suggest that the financial community
make itself aware that the restaurant
industry comprises different segments with
varying levels of failure rates and, thus, different
levels of risk.
3. In that regard, the banking community
could consider lower interest rates for all
restaurants and particularly for those ventures
that are statistically more likely to succeed.
Purported high business failures have
often resulted in high interest rates for restaurateurs.
In addition to gaining more favorable terms from the banking community,
restaurateurs should also be able to
gain better rates when borrowing from the
federal agencies such as the Small Business
Administration and state and local economic
agencies. Moreover, although restaurants
(i.e., eating and drinking places)
topped the list of failed businesses in the
1996 records from Dun and Bradstreet
Bankruptcy Reports, several other businesses
were much higher when one considers
the loss per failed unit, as shown in
Exhibit