Baret Lepejian – Never Go Into the Restaurant Business Alone

BIO: Baret Lepejian started his business career at 14 years old, working in his mom and dad’s family business that they started in 1971. Together with his brother, they went on to expand the business to 9 locations and 150 employees. STORY: When Baret and his brother agreed to sell their photo lab business, Baret took his share of the money and invested it all in a second restaurant. Baret thought that he had what it took to run a chain of restaurants on his own, but it became too overwhelming and he had to close shop after a long struggle. LEARNING: Never go into the restaurant business alone; make sure you have the right people beside you. Have good contracts in place and do proper calculations before opening a restaurant.   “Don’t let one thing consume you.”Baret Lepejian  Guest profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/baret-lepejian-007626123/ (Baret Lepejian) started his business career at 14 years old, working in his mom and dad’s family business that they started in 1971, called Isgo (Is go) Lepejian Photo Lab. Baret was a black and white darkroom printer for photographers from many fields, including rock & roll, celebrity, bodybuilding, architecture, fashion, fine art, and much more. He and his brother Vic expanded the business to 9 locations and 150 employees at its peak. Then, in 2004 a western saloon that Baret frequented with family, clients, and employees became available just across the street from the Burbank headquarters of Isgo, and that’s how he got into the restaurant industry. From there, he ended up owning four restaurants from 2004 until now. Today he will share his story about opening one of those four restaurants, Tinhorn Flats–Hollywood, from scratch in 2013. Worst investment everIn 2012 Baret and his brother sold the photo lab business, and sales had started decreasing as people moved to digital cameras and smartphones. Investing everything in a second restaurantAt the time, Baret had a restaurant that was doing pretty well. So he decided to take the money from the sale an