“When I started to do my research and learned I could be a restaurant broker and still be part of the restaurant industry I love, I knew it was the right direction for me.”

Justin Scotto is a We Sell Restaurants multi-unit franchise owner in Charlotte, North Carolina. His career as a restaurant broker began nearly three years ago in December of 2018. Since he was a teenager bussing tables, Justin has remained active in the restaurant industry. He owned and operated 12 Firehouse Subs before he served on their Marketing Board of Directors. Now, he is a restaurant broker who helps buyers and sellers like himself achieve their restaurant goals.

Discovering the Restaurant Broker Career

Every restaurant owner-operator understands the demanding hours that accompany the role. Expect 70-80 hours a week. Manage employees with varied availability. Handle overhead costs. Ultimately, ensure that your restaurant turns a profit. For those restaurant owners who love the industry, becoming a restaurant broker is one career move that can introduce a work-life balance in a busy industry. It is also a low-cost franchise opportunity with high earnings potential.

Justin Scotto is one of those restaurant owners who pivoted to the role of restaurant broker.

“When I started to do my research and learned I could be a restaurant broker and still be part of the restaurant industry I love,” he says, “I knew it was the right direction for me.”

He found We Sell Restaurants while he was trying to sell his restaurant locations. He loved his role as an owner-operator, but he recognized that it was time to sell.

Justin credits his success as a restaurant broker to his experience as a restaurant owner. He shares that, “It’s not that easy to sell something you’ve put all your hard work into for 17 plus years. That has motivated me to work with my buyers and sellers to understand the importance of the process and impeccable customer service.”

His experience isn’t unique, either. Most of our restaurant broker franchisees transitioned from owner-operator positions. We Sell Restaurants holds its employees and franchisees to a value system that emphasizes the importance of creating a customer service experience worth sharing. As former owners, restaurant broker franchisees bring an essential perspective to the selling process. Justin will tell you from firsthand experience that working with a broker who lacks specific training in selling restaurants will fall short in their understanding of selling your business.

“My restaurants were very important to me,” Justin shares, “I treated my restaurants as if they were children.” However, the broker he employed when it came time to sell did not understand that importance. Knowing the ins and outs of restaurant operations prepared Justin well for a career as a restaurant broker.

Challenges and Rewards Being a Restaurant Broker

While his restaurants were like children to him, Justin also enjoyed spending time with his actual family. He fathers five children with his wife, and becoming a restaurant broker provided the opportunity to invest more time in them. This is a huge reward of the career, and it’s one that all our franchisees talk about (do we sound like a broken record, yet?). Our home-based franchise model lets the restaurant industry lovers stay in the business without sacrificing their work-life balance, and we think that’s news worth sharing!

Nothing worthwhile in life comes without challenge, of course. For Justin, one challenging aspect he faces as a restaurant broker is meeting everyone’s timeframe in the process when they are on different pages. According to Justin, “learning how to satisfy a buyer and seller’s needs is important and sometimes might come with a timeframe adjustment.” The tradeoff? Patience and trust in the process to ensure that client needs are met.

At the end of the day, Justin’s favorite part of being a restaurant broker is helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. With so many steps in a sometimes-emotional process, he finds reward in helping clients reach the finish line.

Restaurant Broker Advice for Buyers & Sellers, from a Former Owner

Take it from the former restaurant owner who asked a generic business broker first to sell his restaurants: you need a business intermediary with specialized training as a restaurant broker to handle your restaurant for sale.

“The process can be very extensive, and having a professional guide handle the process for you like a restaurant broker will be crucial in achieving everyone’s goals,” Justin states.

Be patient in the process and find a restaurant broker that understands your position. Those interested in selling their restaurant in the Charlotte area can contact Justin Scotto at (704) 609-4460 or email justin@wesellrestaurants.com. See his latest listings on Instagram by following @justinjscotto.

If you are looking for the services of a restaurant broker, find a We Sell Restaurants Office near you. Those interested in learning more about the We Sell Restaurants Franchise Model are invited to visit https://www.wesellrestaurants.com/franchise/

Robin Gagnon, Certified Restaurant Broker®, MBA, CBI, CFE is the co-founder of We Sell Restaurants and industry expert in restaurant sales and valuation. Named by Nation’s Restaurant News as one of the “Most Influential Suppliers and Vendors” to the restaurant industry, her articles and expertise appear nationwide in QSR Magazine, Franchising World, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and BizBuySell. She is the co-author of Appetite for Acquisition, an award-winning book on buying restaurants.