Making bagels is sort of like practicing law. At least, it is according to lawyer and full-time “bagel consultant” Beth George.
The 57-year-old is the mastermind behind Fair Lawn, New Jersey–based BYOB Bagels (the acronym is for both “Build Your Own Business” and “Be Your Own Boss”), a bagel-focused consulting firm that has helped open more than 60 bagel shops across five continents.
“A lawyer starts with a problem and has to figure out what went wrong, how to repair it, and how to move forward,” says George. Her experience teaching people how to start a bagel business is similar: One “could boil and bake bagels the standard way, but it’s very expensive, labor-intensive, and difficult to scale that model.”
