Where is your Location? #1

We come into this world not having a choice of to whom we are born (Parents) where we are born (place) or how will we grow physically. 

A Kohli born in a Cricket fanatic nation or a Maradona born in a Football fanatic nation get an added advantage of being short in height as a batsman and a forward respectively. A Stephen Curry (Basketball, USA)  or a Usain Bolt (Runner, Jamaica) are tall. A Basketball player or a Sprinter benefit from being tall. 

It shows that the place of birth and your physique determines the difference between a fairly successful career and a world beater. 

The Location of a Restaurant is the most important part for its success. The location  is decided by the purpose for which it is established. 

A Restaurant can run equally well at a thickly populated area, or in an island where no one resides or even at the top of the Mountain where accessibility itself is an effort. The only condition is our clarity of purpose for which the Restaurant has come into being. 

The next important factor is its size. Again the purpose of the Restaurant plays an important factor. A चाय की टपरी (roadside outlet) can be as viable as the Restaurant having space enough for a 1000 Customers. 

We have to define our demand for the location and space required in advance. Once it is freezed and we finalise on a place there will be no option left. If we fail in this then to make the Project successful either we have to change the purpose of the Restaurant altogether or...... close down. No 3rd way out here! 

5 factors for succeeding in Restaurant business.

“Restaurant business is a high returns giving one, I want to open one”. 

How often do you hear this statement. 

As an owner of a Restaurant I have heard this from a Bank employee to a Software engineer, from a Politician to a Film Star and from a Tendulkar to a Tata. 

The fact is, out of 10 Restaurants which opens, 6 gets closed down in the first year itself while 9 out of the 10 closes down in the first 3 years. 

In India, after Bollywood, Cricket and Politics, a Restaurant owner seems to be the most popular one. He is discussed among people. Hence maybe the attraction towards having our own Restaurant. 

But are the efforts worth it?  

Those who have come to me with some Project or the other have been discouraged, warned, tried to show sense behind the business, the challenges involved, but alas have fallen on deaf ears. Each one comes with an amazing positiveness about succeeding and doing something which no one earlier had done. 

Often the results after that are frightening. 

Some face financial loses, some get into depression loose their confidence while others spoil relationship with their near ones. 

Does this mean that Restaurant business is a gamble? 

Could we establish some laws which can help us guide or give some basic insights into this Profession. 

With the experience of more than 25 years, I have arrived into 5 factors which might eliminate some failure reasons and increase the chances of success. 

You might still fail. But this is an attempt to have at least some anchor points which will enable us to go ahead with our plans. 

Let’s know about it in the series of next 5 blogs. 

If anyone has any inputs on this subject please do share.