Advice on cafe/restaurant startup & operation

[bangkokpoppys]

No doubt there are a few folk on this forum who have opened cafe's or restaurants or are running them at the moment. What has been your experience? What would you do differently? What do you think works really well?

 

Thanks in advance.

[ThaiPauly]

Save yourself a lot of time and money by doing nothing. Coffee shops are a dime a dozen and have more failures than any type of business along with small bars.

 

We have owned two restaurants, neither made any money, although we did make a small profit on the second one by selling the remainder of the lease (7 years) to the cook, but in the six months my wife ran it we never made a penny and she was working all the hours under the sun...and moon.

[Rc2702]

You want it to make money?

Keep the wife occupied and break even?

What kind of location you set on?

What local knowledge of the location do you have?

 

If it's 2nd option more than the 1st then why not give it a shot.

 

Diversify the shops interests. Coffee shop could  have other facets for business such as:

 

Printers

Scanners

Small Internet kiosk- not for gamers.

Beauty products

Traditional thai products in a presentation display. - wallets etc

Artworks for sale and display purposes

 

Not many coffee shops doing much other than coffee so make yours stand out.

 

The best little coffee stall I ever saw in london gave a free piece of fruit with every purchase of hot drink.

 

 

[NiwPix]

I took over a Bakery & Cafe about 3 years ago and slowly converted ( or actually added ) a full restaurant menu. Am I glad I did. Soooo many bakeries and cafes opening and closing in a 1 km radius. Everytime a new one opens, my coffee sales drop and then pick up again a bit. I couldnt have survived with Coffee and Cake alone. But with the addition of a full menu and some marketing etc it is running really good. Experience was very important too when doing the Restaurant Menu. Without any knowledge about food cost or how make certain dishes with limited resources it most likely would have failed too.

Be prepared to work at least a couple years until everything starts running somewhat smoothly and be prepared to have Staffing problems....people staying 1 week to 3 or 4 months and then just not showing up to work anymore. Third year we have faaaar less turnover, which actually starts making it fun to run a restaurant :).

So, it is possible to make ( good ) money, but realistically the chances of making little money / break even / loss is much higher.

[mike324]

Location and menu is key. You can't survive with simply coffee and cake if you don't have a good location for cafes. Restaurants are even more tricky, too much selection in bangkok nowadays and its very competitive. Unless you plan on opening somewhere else.

Edited January 13, 2017 by mike324

[jackted]

Bit late on responding but if you are still intending to open a cafe / restaurant could you give a few more details?

 

Like - location, existing / new business, menu, clientele, No. of settings, staff, competition

 

I have owned and run a restaurant for 4 years and would gladly give you some advice

[phuketjock]

On 2/21/2017 at 0:22 PM, jackted said:

Bit late on responding but if you are still intending to open a cafe / restaurant could you give a few more details?

 

Like - location, existing / new business, menu, clientele, No. of settings, staff, competition

 

I have owned and run a restaurant for 4 years and would gladly give you some advice

You have 4 years experience running a restaurant, can you please tell me what % of 

your monthly takings i.e. total till receipts for the month you would expect as reasonable

profit?  

[jackted]

On 3/7/2017 at 5:56 PM, phuketjock said:

You have 4 years experience running a restaurant, can you please tell me what % of 

your monthly takings i.e. total till receipts for the month you would expect as reasonable

profit?  

The restaurant business is notoriously difficult to predict accurate monthly figures. Especially in Thailand where it`s seasonal and tourism has been down for the last 2 years. I look for a 20% net monthly profit.....but don`t always get it! Lol.