My sister-in-law wishes to open a neighborhood cafe/bistro. Since she’s never done this before, she’d like to talk to someone who has started one and would be willing to talk with her. Also, does anyone know of an accountant who regularly works with cafes and restaurants?

In my mind, for someone to start a business in an industry or area that they know nothing about… and have no personal experience… is a disaster in the making – especially if they need to make a living from the venture sooner than later.

There’s a tremendous amount to learn and do when starting any business – dozens of details in every department and activity of the business. Add to that learning an entirely new industry and, in my opinion, you’re fueling an extremely long learning curve and a greater likelihood of failure.

A woman in Florida lost her job in the accounting department of a 20-person service company. Downsizing was the reason. I showed Linda how easy it would be to take her 14 years of bookkeeping and accounting experience and build a small service business based on that. We talked several times over the course of a month and I thought she was well on her way.

Two months later Linda called me and announced proudly that she was learning web design so that she could offer this as a service to smaller businesses.

The problem is that Linda had no knowledge of web design and development. She was starting from scratch.

In my estimation, it would take her months to gain a basic understanding of web design, then many more months to find prospects, and many more months after that before she saw dollar one.

Interestingly, during this time she told me she was getting calls from people (business owners) to do fill-in accounting work or bookkeeping. She passed up some requests but occasionally took small assignments… just to keep food on the table. (No one called her for web design.)

Now, I’m not saying that jumping into an industry you don’t know or technologies that you don’t know is impossible; I’m just saying, “Be careful.” Think it through. Make sure you have enough cash to keep you out of the poor house while you’re working through your learning curve… because it will take you longer than you think.