Open a restaurant in Singapore

[FoodLover]

I read the paper you sent. I have a though that the paper was on US-based. I wonder, is it applicable to Spore whereas the rental here is quite high, we can't do much on that. Before I just think that I can get this one with a very lower rental compare to in the city. Now turn out it is still high. I will go back and check with my team, see how to improve on that. We happen to trap ourself when proposed that rate already.

Now I am thinking to propose for example like this:
4.8K + 0% if < 40K
+ 4% if < 100K
+ 8% if above 240K
I don't think we can shift these rate so as to reach 10% rental, but we will try.

Thanks!

[ksl]

Before I compared my case with the other near Singapore river (at the Art House). The chef is my friend. He said that his restaurant pay a bit lower than before which was 30K/month for rental and get about 100K, meaning ~20-30% is on rental.

Now after reading your comments, I need to open my eyes even bigger...


Thanks a lot for the info!!! I will do research on it!

If you have a chef who is a friend, he will know that revenue is down, today. SE thread maybe based on US, though it makes little difference, if you want to survive, you need to do much more home work, before jumping in, you need to back up your proposal with some statistics, and convince the landlord it's not workable, even if it is. You need your terms not the landlords because you are the one, that must meet your own goals. He will just squeeze what he can, but the longer it is left empty, it's opportunity cost.

He will not except just a fixed rent, that is for sure, they will be looking at a % of turnover, but you can get the rent dropped, depending the the area I would think.

What you need is a good evaluation of the location and spending power! A quick survey targetting those you expect to use the place, my guess is that what looks good, is not so good, otherwise it would have gone long ago! You are the one that would have to build the business, not the landlord! It it was a restaurant before, now you know why it failed

[FoodLover]

right right, if it is good it would not be our turn to come up there!!! It is a boring bar right now with smoking ban, because it is in btw the 2 campuses.

The owner (Alumni club) is highly concerned with smoking. Do you know why? Is it difficult to control smoking? We plan to propose one VIP room for smoking with filter, again it will cost.

[ksl]

right right, if it is good it would not be our turn to come up there!!! It is a boring bar right now with smoking ban, because it is in btw the 2 campuses.

The owner (Alumni club) is highly concerned with smoking. Do you know why? Is it difficult to control smoking? We plan to propose one VIP room for smoking with filter, again it will cost.

If i'm not wrong there is a law about smoking inside food establishments, I personally wouldn't encourage it, and i wouldn't waste my money on building a smoke room either, the trend is to discourage a filthy habit. I was a smoker myself for over 30 years, and i enjoyed it too, and have found it much easier to stop, because of the restrictions in place.

If it's a boring bar right now, you need to do a survey to find out where it went wrong, I'll bet the bar has been there for many years and has never really taken off. You need a win win situation with the Alumni Club, so explain to them to lower the rent, and give them a % of revenue, that maybe attractive, when you have reached a few of your targets, it's going to take time, to build up a loyal customer base for a sustainable business.

[wcs]

I was not fully clear if the target market is students or alumni. The trouble with students is they usually have holidays for three months of the year so income drops dramatically over that time. Thus you should calculate the business meeting your expected targets over only 9 months of the year.

I feel it is a bit "rich" that you get charged high rent and a percentage of turnover. Remember that if you commit to a high rent it gets harder to make a profit unless you have fantastic foot traffic. As a result I would ask for the landlord to guarantee a minimum amount of foot traffic each month if they expect a percentage of turnover. So on months where they fail to have enough people coming through the doors you don't to pay it. In reality I expect the landlord would baulk at this. But you might be able to negotiate that he sets aside the turnover fee as a result!

A friend runs a cafe/restaurant here and they find that food and drink costs are 40% of revenue. So use that rough guide to help in your calculations.

Other things to keep in mind. Find out how much the students spend on lunch. Go there on a couple of lunchtimes and ask students how much they just spent on lunch. Trust the reality not the perception. If they are all only spending $4 on lunch, but say they will spend $20 on your special noodles, chances are they are just trying to give you face and make you happy. Trust the $4 as an accurate reflection of what they will spend!

Also look at how the traffic flow works whilst you are there. Is there a constant stream of people all day? Or is there an insanely busy two hours for lunch, and dinner? If so can your cooking methods meet the demand over the peak period? If not, your great food might not get the sales you expect as the wait is too long.

Best of luck with it!

[shalamazoo]

Hi guys,

Would you think it's possible to open a Vietnamese restaurant in Singapore with minimal 100K startup, of course a bit far from the central area?

Also I would like to know if Sporeans and expats would like to try VNmese food in Singapore, about S$20/person?

Although most of my friends have good impression with Vnmese food but I would like to hear from majority.

I would highly appreciate your reply!!!

I occassionally eat Vietnamese food if i see it, I think yes it would sell but your pricing would have to be carefully done, outside the city.

I would think 100k is also enough, my advice would be to start very small, and build out, start with a little cafe, in one of the shopping malls, with small dishes, priced accordingly.

A restaurant outside the city, all depends on who is your target audience, choose very carefully. Most of all, you need to have exceptionally tasty dishes to stand out in the crowd, and that isn't difficult if you know what you are doing.

Seriously think about testing the food at one of the food exhibitions at the expo centre, before splashing out 100k on a resaurant. I do all the food exhibitions at Expo, and that's when you can really get a feel of what is going on in the F&B industry.

I can also tell you now is not the time to open up a new restaurant, because spending is down 50% year on year in the food & beverage industry and 30% down from May to November.

So i would be very cautious on your forecasting for the future.

when is the next food exhibitions Expo in Singapore??

[FoodLover]

hi guys, we withdraw since the owner requests us to build up the whole kitchen which will cost over 60K . We are applying for a small cafe next to that bar, planing to serve lunch and coffee. We can ship cooked food over everyday. We will start small first.

[ksl]

Check the events calendar

http://www.singaporeexpo.com.sg/index.p ... hannels=26

Asian Food Delights

26 Feb 2010 - 28 Feb 2010

Booths are not cheap so you may wish to share with someone!

[aster]

hi guys, we withdraw since the owner requests us to build up the whole kitchen which will cost over 60K . We are applying for a small cafe next to that bar, planing to serve lunch and coffee. We can ship cooked food over everyday. We will start small first.

Please do let us know the name and place of your new cafe/restaurant once you get it set up and running.

I have tried a number of Vietnamese restaurants in Singapore, and nothing beats a small place close to or in the China Square area (there are about a dozen restaurants there and you can sit outside), I forgot the name but I am heading there today as Saturday is ideal (no heavy business traffic).

[shalamazoo]

can anyone recommend a consultant to help me apply for the food, alcohol, entertainment and smoking license?

[jerm]

hi guys, we withdraw since the owner requests us to build up the whole kitchen which will cost over 60K . We are applying for a small cafe next to that bar, planing to serve lunch and coffee. We can ship cooked food over everyday. We will start small first.

Looking fwd to the opening.

I read recently in Dec 09 I think, an article that was raving about Vietnamese coffee and how unique it was.

So that was the main attaction of the cafe... and also the waitresses who were wearing the traditional Vietnamese costumes (Aodai). Needless to say... the majority of the customers were men

[zura09]

Advertise in the classifieds.

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