Leasing or Buying Equipment: A Restaurant Owner’s Dilemma

4 Min Read By Roger Wood

One of the largest financial barriers to starting or growing a restaurant is the procurement of necessary equipment. At the very minimum, a restaurant requires cooking equipment, refrigeration units, dining furniture as well as dishes and utensils. Kitting out a new restaurant with all of this will generally cost $200,000 at an absolute minimum.

These huge upfront costs can make restaurant owners new and experienced feel like they are walking a tightrope. With life-savings and borrowed money on the table just to get a restaurant to the point it can begin to operate there can be very little money left for other essential costs such as staff, utilities and marketing.

Such financial burdens can open up the temptation of taking shortcuts to reduce costs. If these sacrifices negatively impact customer experience, then your restaurant will never succeed.

One potential solution to this problem is to lease the equipment in your restaurant. 

Leasing can give you access to the equipment you…