I was very interested in bringing a Chinese dim-sum type restaurant to Brazil,


Factors that I think would make it profitable:

1) very addicting and "mainstream" kind o food with wide appeal and there is not 1 single dim sum (Cantonese) place in Brazil.


2) low Chinese population makes it a "exotic" food. In Vancouver a dim sum meal cost U$20 despite MUCH higher fixed costs for operating in Canada. In São Paulo you can easily charge U$50 for the same product.

3) first mover advantage

Difficulty is where to find a chef (probably have to bring in foreigner that will maybe have equity stake in the business)

I dunno how many poor Chinese guys would be willing to move to Brazil and make 10x how much they make in Peking/Shanghai (since there the skills they possess are so common).

What advice can you give to me to make this happen?

Any thoughts on Yogurtland? How feasible would it be for someone with no restaurant or managerial experience to open a franchise here? Thanks

Have you checked out Americas next great restaurant on nbc, any thoughts on the contestants/concepts/format

http://www.nbc.com/americas-next-gre...ies/top-rated/

did this thread die?

Sorry for the delayed response everyone. For the first time I have been pursuing outside money for a franchise concept I have been modeling & I am slightly burnt-out (tilted) from all the convos that pursuit has brought to rise. I'm back on the thread & ready to talk.

+10, these are excellent comments & are clearly from someone who has been in the trenches. As to the counting methods, anything from a matchbook to a cell phone can be used. A clean cash wrap (the counter area) is essential.

Disclosure: I wouldn't pursue an investment in a novelty item unless I had access to an A+ location with heavy footfalls (and that does include the weather patterns of your geographical location)

These are not difficult franchises to open or operate. I am not familiar with the operator you speak of, but I am curious why you wouldn't start your DD with a brand like PINKBERRY? First question, do they directly reveal the AUV (Average Unit Volume/$) of their operating locations??

bump this thread shouldn't die!

Quick bump for your thoughts?

Interesting. Assuming you are properly capitalized & have some operating experience, I would first get some sense of if the culinary talent you need to pull this off is available. My guess is it probably is. Drill into the Asian communities in Brazil (they exist) and try to locate someone with experience (pref commercial) with Dim Sum. You should be running ads & making contacts with these people before anything else. The rest will be "easy".

I don't know if your plans are to open in Sao Paulo, but I have a good friend who is very experienced with conducted business in S. America & years ago he had plans to open a large retail operation in Sao Paulo. The foot traffic & density was off the charts. LMK if you have any other questions or need another set of eyeballs on this.

Just watched some of the 1st episode via your link. I have been looking at Chicken & Waffles for some time & remain a big believer in the concept. However, it will likely be significantly different than what the contestant has in mind if it ends up the winner. You will note that Flay picked up on it right away. Next time your in Las Vegas get over to Bouchon in the Venetian & try their version--you will know exactly what I mean. The Wok concept was pretty meh & soulless, but it was the 2nd best of what I have seen so far.

Would a chicken and waffles food truck be feasible in an area with mostly black people?

Sorry for not responding sooner.

1.) Difficult question to answer without a complete set of facts. One starting point, at least pre-opening, is to divide the development & build-out costs evenly among your partners. Let's say it was 100K each. For those members of your partnership who can't make an equal contribution, start looking at what costs of the build-out they can offset by a different type of contribution. For example, if you have demo costs of 3K, could one of your partners sweat it out & do it himself & thereby reduce is capital contribution requirement by 3K? When you move into operations, would they work on property for less money & would your partners allow the sweat equity to offset? Obviously someone has to pick up the financial slack, are your partners willing to do so?

2.) It's pretty basic. No part of it is unreasonable.

3.) Start with the municipalities that you would like to do business in & check the individual city websites for zoning info. You will have to make some phone calls of course, but you can answer the major questions by checking with your state's liquor control board. The main question I would want an answer to is re: the legality of operating a brewery, most of those restrictions will be on the state level, but every city is different.

4.) Visit as many brewpubs as possible, invest in some books on operating restaurants, work part time in the industry, ask lots of questions & take copious notes & pics.

Hi, I appreciate your thoughtful post. Please know that the majority of the people who have been successful in this business have followed the same path you are on. The difference is they had the will, desire & knowledge & desire to separate themselves. The time you spend working for someone else is the time to create good habits & sharp instincts that will result in success when your working for yourself. I lifted one operators sales almost 450K one year & missed out on quite a bit of "life" in the process. That's how it goes.

Re: Catering

I would like to see you get into a situation where you have control over a commercial kitchen for very little $$. Here are some thoughts.

(1.)Investigate with your state liquor control board what laws prevail upon bars/taverns/clubs that require them to serve food in order to maintain a certain license types. In some states the ability to serve hard liquor until xam or on Sundays requires them to serve food. There are many instances where the bar operator does not want to be involved in the food side & you may be able to operate their kitchen with very little investment. The idea is to get you into a kitchen that you can operate from without the investment of building one. You may be required to maintain food service in the bar until a particular hour, but you will then be able to run your catering operation out of a legit kitchen.

(2.)I would also recommend locating a commercial kitchen that you can rent during off hours to do your production work in. This could be a restaurant operating limited service parts, a vfw hall or some other type of club, church etc...etc.. Your going to have to get aggressive & pursue these places, but they are out there & you can launch from one of them. 3rd option is partnering with a establishment that is not presently catering & strike a deal with them to operate the catering component.

(3.)If you manage to locate a site & can operate solo, pursue daytime catering while maintaining evening employment. I would specifically recommend you start with breakfast & lunch drop-off catering. Get your collateral documents in order..menus, photos, business cards, chefs jackets with your logo embroidered on the chest. This is money well spent, so don't be cheap about it.

Wraths,
Let me add that the real trick to securing daytime catering is getting onto the firm's approved vendors list. You should incorporate, get a tax id number & have a form letter for the accounting department with this info as part of your marketing materials. They will likely want to cut you a check & need this info to do so easily. Never put zippers on your customer's pockets, make it easy for them to say yes.

What's your take on a food truck? Any educated guess on set-up costs, what an operator needs vs "should haves"?

i haven't looked through all of this thread but some inputs:

1. the food truck near my college was extremely profitable. when the owner decided to make a brick mortar restaurant out of it things went downhill since he had to up most of his menu items and the location + price was what drove the traffic. i think they now have 2 more food trucks due to sheer amount of business.

2. the idea of bringing dim sum to south america seems pretty good tbh.

I am a big fan of food trucks & believe it's one of the best spots a young chef or operator can put his time & money. There is an abundance of info on this subject on the net. Depending on the product, you can get in for as little as 25K

Food trucks force operators to focus their menus on doing a few things (sometimes just one thing) really, really well. That's a pretty good formula for success that traditional operators often overlook. Combine that with operating costs vs a fixed location & you have put yourself in a pretty good spot.

I am currently looking at starting up a fast-casual Indian restaurant. I have a great location figured out (i.e. high foot-traffic consistently through day and night) and a market that is very cosmopolitan and amenable to this type of food. Further, the competition is favorable.

My background is that I have done 3.5 years at a management consulting firm. THerefore, I have a very strong background on the fundamentals of running a business (e.g. understanding financial statements, operations and inventory, sourcing w vendors, etc). However, I have no experience in starting up a restaurant. I have shared the concept with a friend who is a successful entrepreneur in the area, and he agrees it would do well and wants to invest. He is bringing expertise in areas such as rent/lease agreements, marketing, partnering with other organizations in the community, etc. But again, no expertise in running a restaurant.

Ok - So that's a little background. I have a laundry list of questions that I would like to run by you. I can start with a burning few:


1. How did you estimate your start-up costs? As someone with no experience and no contacts in fast-casual, are there any resources or guidance you have to figure out some semi-accurate way to understand what my one-time costs would be? (I do have a pro-forma and a P&L projection from another restaurant in the area, but it is not fast-casual...using that as a guide for now...however, it's a sales-based P&L model, so I'd have to figure out reasonable sales estimates - so far I have just staked out a few similar concepts and tracked foot-traffic)

2. If I plan to bring this idea to fruition, and also plan to be in the trenches to manage it at least for the first few months, and assuming I am the only one with day-to-day responsibilities, what is a reasonable sweat equity? Is it typical to take 40-50% and ask the financial investors to dilute their portions in half?

3. I need some help with menu creation. I have a good concept and the menu of a few other similar restaurants scattered around the US as a guide, but I am no chef. Do you typically build out a menu that you think would work and then hire a chef to create it? Or can I tell the chef the general concept and allow him to go? Where is a good place to find a chef (craigslist)? Lastly, what kind of constraints are reasonable to put on a chef (e.g. "Please create a menu whose unit costs will fall under $xx)? The last question I imagine would be tricky as it'll be based on quality of ingredients and how well you source w your vendors...

4. What are the couple biggest challenges/obstacles I should look out for in starting up a fast-casual concept? Please be as specific as possible.

5. What is the best way to determine my staffing model? Should I have an experienced manager there at all times? If so, what is the best way to find these individuals?

Finally - What are some good resources (books, websites, blogs) that provide comprehensive help for someone starting up a restaurant (preferably fast-casual)? The more detailed, the better...

I appreciate the help!!

Thanks for this QandA.

I was asked to maybe come on as an investor in a bar yesterday. This person bringing me in is my closest friend and a bar tender at this place. I have been a bartender a few places both divy and posh as well as the AGM at the posh, restaurant group bar for a year. Before that I worked all of the other FOS jobs. Currently I sell commercial bar and restaurant equipment. These things make me confident in our abilities.

That said a bar owner in a very happening part of nyc is looking to sell. From what I can tell being there the place is busy most days. They recently had a problem with a bouncer selling drugs but there is a crack down. I believe my first step is to analyze the bars financials and determine why the owner wants out (which I doubt he'll be totallt honest about.

Please let me know some things most people miss and if this is indeed my first step. Thanks. Any other advice is definitly appreciate.

Oh and I have a degree in business management but no ownership experiance.

Correct, the first step is always to determine why the owner wants out. The answer to this question will inform the price & terms more than anything else. I mention terms because some situations are more conducive to the owner carrying a note on some or all of the purchase price. Read through the entire thread & you will find some advice I gave another poster who was also looking at a bar purchase.

Some general advice. Since you mentioned the drug issue I would first check with your state's liquor department to see if there are any charges (past or pending) against this license due to drug dealing or any other issues that might have put the owner in a tough spot. You definitely don't want to get into a situation where your buying a bar, but the license won't transfer because the bar has been determined to be a nuisance by the city or the state. Bar license transfers often require the ok of the city & sometimes neighborhood groups get involved to stop that transfer due to any nuisance the bar has created in the neighborhood...loud music, loud drunks, urinating outside, trash, drugs, shootings, etc..etc.. Don't make any serious moves without an attorney involved, but don't waste money on one until after you have done some prelim work.

You have a friend working on the inside, so exploit that edge. He should be able to give you some sense of what the numbers are over a typical week & what shifts are the worst. Does the bar run through a POS? If so, you want to audit it or have your friend collect the info for you. I would also be questioning my friend on the general operation of the place. Do they re-fill or dilute their booze? Does everyone get paid on time? Are vendors showing up looking for a check? What's the owner like? What's his background? Where did his money come from? Is he burnt out?, how old is he?, is he mixed up in drugs himself? is he just a rich ****-up? does he have a family?, is he competent?, how are employees being paid? cash? etc..etc.. The answers to these questions & more will help you profile the owner & ultimately inform the purchase price.

Start with the P&L reports, POS reports, try for payroll....you must see the liquor invoices, you can extrapolate the true sales figures better from what he is buying than from what he claims to be selling. Don't be shy about asking & get your friend involved too.

Many of the questions that you pose are beyond the scope of this thread. I originally posted to ignite the defensive sensibilities of the forum readers who are entertaining investments in F&B operations and hopefully keep them from setting their money on fire. Since your background is in consulting, you should already understand the value of engaging a restaurant consultant to shape your concept & put it into operation. However, I will certainly post some general replies to your questions later this evening.

I have picked up some info on the owner and tomorrow I will have the liquor license number to do some checks on. I'll make a big update in a few days.

Thanks for this thread again. This is very valuable info that people usually have to pay a great deal for.

My dad owns a Pizza restaurant in a small town with a lot of tourist traffic, i've had a job there since I was old enough to toss a pizza dough and i've been helping on and off ever since. He has owned the business for 22+ years. Back in 99' we had peaked as far as traffic, gross income, employee's, ect...

Unfortunately the driving point behind the business was a famous private music academy that had students year round and the cafeteria food was beyond horrible. We would deliver stacks and stacks of pizza down every night and the students drove the majority of our sales. In 02' the academy brought in HDS food services and improved their cafeteria tremendously while also adding a pizza portion that was available for delivery on golf carts. Great move on their part, but it was a huge blow to our business.

The loss of that part of our sales was a huge stress on the business and my dad was forced to cut delivery and go exclusively to take-out. Delivery made up about 60% of sales and when we stopped delivering only about 20% of those customers continued to order pizza with us while we maintained the 40% of previous takeout customers.

Over the last 8 years the business has been break-even and really is only there to provide payroll to the 4 employees that we have. (my brother and I being two of them). My dad was forced to get another job and has pretty much neglected the business and it has been going downhill. We still have a loyal customer base though and we make great pizza.

The building is in rough shape, the dining room is dated, the outside of the building needs work, but we have a great location and we own the building.
My brother and I convinced my dad to let us take over operations of the business and since then we have run the books a lot tighter, keep everything fresh and stocked and provide the best service we can. We both make a mean pizza as well.

What advice do you have for someone hoping to increase sales and traffic of a business that has been around for a long time but needs work. I need to make this place relevant again.