Do I need a degree to open a restaurant?
Formal culinary or business degrees are not strictly required to open a restaurant, but aspiring owners often wonder if studying fields like accounting will help them run the business and provide a backup plan. Weighing this against being broke and struggling with unrelated career paths makes it difficult to decide whether to invest time and money into school before launching.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Working in restaurant chains and front/back of house for several yearsDid this help you?
- 2Taking individual accounting or business classes at a community collegeDid this help you?
- 3Seeking mentorship programs from local small business organizationsDid this help you?
- 4Pay an accounting firm to handle financial tasksDid this help you?
- 5Wing it and use a separate business bank account tracked via ExcelDid this help you?
- 6Learn basic financial and accounting principles independentlyDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Should I wing it or is it a good idea to go get an accounting degree to help run my biz and have something to fall back on?”source ↗
“I am broke. been making under 30k past five years. env science doesn’t seem to be paying the bills.”source ↗
“I’ve been dreaming of opening a small breakfast restaurant and thought getting a degree would probably help tons but I don’t know what I should get”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 16Should I register a business before making any money?
- 8Is getting an EdD actually worth the time and money?
- 50Are professional certifications actually worth the money for a promotion?
- 3Applying for jobs before you graduate
- 19Should I keep going with my stagnating business or quit?
- 2Should I open another restaurant after failing?