How to start a small Restaurant.

[ideacrash]

hello guys,

Some of my friends and I are fed up of this IT job and want to start our own business .

We have around 3Lakhs now. We have decided to start a small restaurant and then expand in the future.

The problems we are facing are :
1) none of us can devote full time to that , as we are all working and have family to take care .
2) we dont have any idea about the legal issues ( like the licence, NOC from various departments etc.).
3)finding the employees who work in the absence of the owner.

We would be very if some one with the prior experience help us.

How does so many entrepreneur's like Ambani's , TATA's handle so many business with their virtual presence.

Regards
Jay

[Apurv]

Originally Posted by ideacrash

hello guys,

Some of my friends and I are fed up of this IT job and want to start our own business .

We have around 3Lakhs now. We have decided to start a small restaurant and then expand in the future.

The problems we are facing are :
1) none of us can devote full time to that , as we are all working and have family to take care .
2) we dont have any idea about the legal issues ( like the licence, NOC from various departments etc.).
3)finding the employees who work in the absence of the owner.

We would be very if some one with the prior experience help us.

How does so many entrepreneur's like Ambani's , TATA's handle so many business with their virtual presence.

Regards
Jay

One way I can think of is... if you can arrange the space, then it makes sense to tie up with a caterer, who will make the food and manage the place. You can give him a revenue share for 1 year, or whatever the time you think you need to get past your risk averseness and chuck your IT job to take it full time. You can use the time to learn about the trade and then after 1 year, chuck the caterer/continue with him/whatever.

Cheers

[Mash]

Hello Jay,

Though am no experienced guy, I had/have similar plans albeit on a smaller scale.
First decide the customer you want to target and accordingly design the type of restaurant. Is it going to be a small chaat shop or you wanna go the full hog and start a 9AM-11PM restrnt?
If its the latter then it would be better if you leave the current job and devote full time to it.
Either ways, you need to be present in the place atleast during the initial stages of growing your business till it stabilizes. In other words, you need to get your hands dirty. no 2 ways about it.
Am not aware of the legal issues.
Hiring people...I guess its best to do some poaching.

cheers

[sudoku]

Originally Posted by ideacrash

hello guys,

Some of my friends and I are fed up of this IT job and want to start our own business .

We have around 3Lakhs now. We have decided to start a small restaurant and then expand in the future.

The problems we are facing are :
1) none of us can devote full time to that , as we are all working and have family to take care .
2) we dont have any idea about the legal issues ( like the licence, NOC from various departments etc.).
3)finding the employees who work in the absence of the owner.

We would be very if some one with the prior experience help us.

How does so many entrepreneur's like Ambani's , TATA's handle so many business with their virtual presence.

Regards
Jay

Originally Posted by Mash

Hello Jay,


First decide the customer you want to target and accordingly design the type of restaurant. Is it going to be a small chaat shop or you wanna go the full hog and start a 9AM-11PM restrnt?
If its the latter then it would be better if you leave the current job and devote full time to it.
Either ways, you need to be present in the place atleast during the initial stages of growing your business till it stabilizes. In other words, you need to get your hands dirty. no 2 ways about it.
Hiring people...I guess its best to do some poaching.

cheers

It looks like an option that can get you rid of your it headache... who doesn't love food,

However 3 lakhs dos net seem like good money to invest (depending on what city you are in). In mumbai the real estate costs are so high that you will probably pay amount you just mentioned only as deposit. My frd rented place almost in outskirts and it has still taken him upto 10 lakhs on a ballpark to come up with a decent restaurant. if you are from a smaller city 3 Lakh might do.

Anyway
i would like to share form a friends experience in recently having opened a restaurant cum hookah bar and what i could observe from it
- as Mash says, wt kind of monies you need will completely depend on what kind of place you want to open up.
- There are two main factors about starting restaurant and making it work. one is food of course and two is ambiance. Your major chunk of budget will be eaten up if you decide to go heavy on two , but then its only a wise investment.
- About food, again as mash says poaching is best. Another one of my frds attempting a niche in this are has brought in part time people by visiting places, interacting and networking with staff off records and this has worked.
- If there are three of you, may be just may be you can attempt part time. but somebody has to be present. at all times. It takes between 4 & 6 months to come up with restaurant and working full time. Small factors like food tasting (if you consider every single item on menu) itself can take you upto 2-3 months (considering things will be in testing stage and your cooks/chefs will only be working part time)

- I'll be able to check with people i know on licenses and will get back on this.

[ideacrash]

Originally Posted by Apurv

One way I can think of is... if you can arrange the space, then it makes sense to tie up with a caterer, who will make the food and manage the place. You can give him a revenue share for 1 year, or whatever the time you think you need to get past your risk averseness and chuck your IT job to take it full time. You can use the time to learn about the trade and then after 1 year, chuck the caterer/continue with him/whatever.

Cheers

Hello apurv,

even we were thinking in the same lines of hiring the caterer.

the questions we are facing are :
if we are hiring a caterer . then how are we gonna share the revenue. what would be our investment. Ususlly the caterer itself brings the ready food or he may prepare himself at the location. And we would buy or rent a suitable place for him.and we will not be able to sit there and issue coupens or take orders from the customers . Lets assume we will give this responsibility to the caterer itself. then how to track the transactions and how to stop the caterer from cheating us there must be a process happening in the existing hotels and we want to know that.

Our target is withing five years we need to have atleast 10 outlets and it should run without consuming too much of our and time and offcourse with good profits

Location : Bangalore

Regards
Jay

[mba_calling]

dude in case of Blore, the mentioned amount is a meagre one....you need to raise it almost ten folds to get a good deal....
also for an example in Blore itself, you can have the "Mast Kalandar" chain of outlets over there....started by a couple from IT (one was from Wipro and the other Infy) they have expanded pretty well...but in their case too, they had to quit their jobs in order to devote full time to the job....

[Apurv]

Originally Posted by ideacrash

Our target is withing five years we need to have atleast 10 outlets and it should run without consuming too much of our and time and offcourse with good profits

I think that is impossible . If you're talking about even one outlet in a year, it is going to consume so much of your life and peace that if you are looking for an easy-going risk-averse life, this is not a great idea. If you think you can 'outsource' Entrepreneurship, then you're just being an investor. Entrepreneurship requires passion and getting down to doing the lowest and the highest level of work required without making as much of a crib. I guess anybody who knows the ways of the world knows that nothing as big as this gets built unless you put your mind, body and soul into it.

Just my 2p

[atshubha]

One very good example in the line of business is the Moms Kitchen line from pune ,
Mom's Kitchen .This is really interesting and doable especially in a city like bangalore where good food prepared hygenically is difficult to come by.

[Neo2000]

Honestly, it looks like you are trying to have your cake and eat it too (the saying is so apt here )

You cannot build a really big company without getting your fingers dirty. Unless of course you want to become a VC. which apparently is what it looks like you are going to do. Tomorrow, the caterer can quit your restaurant, advertise that he's the "food" of your restaurant and open his own place and Voila! you are out of business.

Ambani's and TATA's handle so many because they've gotten their hands dirty. Their immediate success depends on the project doing well so they put their all behind it. Until and unless you feel that pinch you are not going to devote yourself to it.

Atleast one of you has to quit his job and work full-time on this project. Otherwise, just look for a small joint and buy into it. Your money could be spent in upgrading and getting better benefits for all.

[Rohit Sh]

HI,

Good points given by PG Mates..

My two cents:

1) Keep it structured. A step by step process. Someone has to leave the job and implement it. If you want a secure job and then implement this, you probably will take twice the amount of time to set it up than what is actually required. And business is about being damn efficient with time. A silly idea but I know of someone who is doing this, two guys can work and keep their job and the third one of you can start executing your idea, but only if the other two working fellows are ready to support you.

Another thing..what kind of speciality restaurant are u think of opening..Chinese..South Indian..or Normal Home Food restaurant..it is better to have some theme and be specialised..that ways you have a place in the market...

And like some people have already said it..You have to dirty ur hands Bro..so take the plunge...Cheers..Good Luck...