Buy or open
Buying a restaurant means buying someone else's numbers.
Making sure the numbers are real before you sign.
Before you put down a single colón, we verify those numbers are real. And if what you want is to open from scratch, we walk you through the part where most projects stall: the permits.
Two routes
Buy one that already works, or build your own.
Neither is better in the abstract. They're different risks, and it's worth choosing while knowing which one you're taking.
Buy a going concern
You start with customers, a trained team and permits that already work. The risk is in what you can't see: why the owner is selling, how much of the business depends on them, and whether the numbers they show you hold up.
- Verification of sales and real profitability
- Review of permits, licences and the lease
- Analysis of how much the business depends on the current owner
- Transfer structure and what happens to the payroll
Open a new one
Full control of the concept, and no inherited bad habits. The risk is time: every month between signing the lease and opening the door is a month of cost with no income.
- Validation of the concept and the area
- Business plan with projections and break-even
- Municipal permit route with realistic timelines
- Suppliers and systems to operate from day one
The three advisory levels are set out on the homepage.
Before you put down a colón
Everyone shows you their best month.
A seller will show you the best quarter and explain why the others were atypical. They're not acting in bad faith: it's what anyone would do.
Our job is to cross-check that against sources the seller doesn't control, and tell you plainly what we could confirm and what we couldn't.
Against the tax filings
What gets declared to the tax authority is a source the seller can't dress upward. If the sales they show you are much higher, the difference needs explaining.
Against the size of the place
A place with a given capacity and a given headcount has a possible revenue range. Numbers far outside that range, in either direction, call for an explanation.
Stripping out the personal
In almost every restaurant there is personal spending sitting in the business accounts. Separating it changes the real profit, almost always upward. Worth knowing before you negotiate.
Why they're selling
The real reason matters. An owner retiring is not the same as one being pushed by debt. The second can be an opportunity, or a red flag.
Permits
The months nobody budgets for.
The arithmetic almost nobody does when opening a restaurant is the dead time: the months between signing the lease and being allowed to open the door. Rent gets paid, sometimes payroll too, and nothing comes in.
Every municipality has its own pace and its own requirements. The route is built case by case, and in a purchase there's an earlier decision that changes everything: if transferring the company makes sense, many permits don't have to be applied for again.
Let's talk through your caseWorth keeping in mind
“Do the permits come with the business, or do they have to be applied for again?”
It's the question that saves the most money in the whole transaction, and the one least often asked in time. Ask it before you sign anything.
Questions
What we get asked most.
Can I see the list of available restaurants?
Part of it, under Opportunities. When the owner asks, they're published without the business name or address: if the staff find out too early the sale gets harder, and that's precisely why owners work with us.
It also works the other way round: you tell us what you're looking for, in which area and on what budget, and we bring you what fits. The detailed information is shared in a meeting, under a signed confidentiality agreement.
How do I know the numbers I'm shown are real?
Because they don't rest on the seller's word. Before we present a business to you we cross-check what it declares against its tax filings and against what a place of that size and headcount should be doing.
And we tell you what we could verify and what we couldn't. That distinction is the most useful part of the file.
Is it better to buy a going concern or open from scratch?
It depends what you're buying. A going concern saves you the ramp-up, and brings customers, trained staff and permits that already work. Opening from scratch gives you full control of the concept but exposes you to months of paperwork and to the uncertainty of whether the place will land.
As a practical rule: if the appeal of the business depends on the current owner and their personal relationship with the customers, buying it is riskier than it looks.
Can the permits be transferred?
It depends how the transaction is structured. When the company operating the restaurant is transferred, the permits usually travel with it. When only the assets are bought, they generally have to be applied for again.
The difference is measured in months of rent paid with the doors shut, so it's one of the first things we look at.
Do you help with financing?
We don't provide financing or arrange it, but we will tell you frankly what to expect: getting bank credit to buy a going concern in Costa Rica is harder than for buying property, because the collateral is different.
It's worth having that conversation with your bank before you fall in love with a business, not after.
What do you charge a buyer?
If what you're after is advisory work — evaluating a business, a business plan, support through the opening — it's charged per project and set out in writing before we start.
The first conversation is free.
Let's talk
What are you looking for?
Tell us what kind of business, in which area, and on what budget. If we have something that fits we'll bring it to you, and if not, we'll let you know when it appears.