hello dp mates, I would like to start a small Restaurant in India. I have made around 11k USD from websites flipping. I have decided to start a small restaurant and then expand in the future. The problems which i are facing are : 1) I cant spent whole time on Restaurant. 2) I 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 to find best cheff? How to decide salaries? How can i trust staff or employees? Regards Kevin
First of all hire a professional Hotel Manager for your hotel management. you should better given an ad in news paper. I hope he or she can assist you in all your legal and technical problems.
Offtopic; I would suggest you find people in India and then move to another country with them; you'll make tons more. I went to an Indian restaurant here on a mountain in Spain, and paid E250 with 2 persons. The restaurant was full as a) they are very good and b) they are the only Indian (even foreign) restaurant for many miles. That's making the real bucks. To answer your questions: finding chefs; just download Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares (UK version! The US version is crap, as always with US remakes; yes Office US sucks enormously compared to the UK one) ; you'll learn that you pick a chef very simply by tasting his food; you let him cook all his signature dishes and you taste them ; if you don't like, don't hire. Salary is simple too; go to a place in the city/country you want to start and eat in restaurants and get friendly with them talking about having businesses and being your own boss. Tell them you do websites but are always wondering about other businesses because you love entrepreneurs. When you are talking nicely ask them; 'so, for instance, how much is a waiter in this kind of place my friend? And a cook?' Sound casual and interested in *his* type of business; you are only a web developer and have no employees. It works, always. Trust; you cannot trust them. Period. The more professional they are, the better you can trust them; cooks you can trust a lot better than waiters. But you cannot trust them; make sure you have automation in place; a good POS is worth ALL it's money 10 fold, a beertap with a measurement system connected to the tap and an inventory system built into the POS. Put the POS server into a room upstairs where your employees cannot get to. That way you can see when stuff disappears. The POS registers who opened the cash register and when and you can randomly (a few months after a new employee started) take the money for 'security reasons' and put fresh small coin exchange money back for the staff. But make sure they don't notice you are checking up on them; they'll try to cheat the system or go away. I owned a Thai restaurant (and a beer bar) and this works; our average price for a main course was (and is under the new owner) $25 and we were booked full every night since opening; 90%+ orders starter + main + dessert + coffee, that's $55 average per person coming in.
How to find best cheff? You can use a job agency and they will head hunt for you. How to decide salaries? Use industry pay rate and pay extra more if the worker is good. How can i trust staff or employees? Run a through background check against your employee to see their history and criminal activities.
Nice advise for an extremely general business; these don't work in the restaurant business at all though. A job agency has *no idea* whatsoever about quality cooks which will fit to your restaurant so you'll get to see dozens of cooks that do not fit your taste or the restaurant you are trying to start. Industry pay ; yeah right. Background checks; ofcourse they won't have criminal records; we are talking about stealing $10 from the till every night and giving away drinks/food to friends. Even if you are caught mostly you'll end up getting fired without any record. But sure mentos does have a million posts talking like this Something to be proud off I guess.
I believe you should use an experienced Restaurant manager. You will be better off to start at your local chambers of commerce. It works.........Good Luck!
I don't think that you will gain much money from it, especially since you don't have any prior experience in that business. YOu've made 11k from flipping, do it harder and earn more, take the most of it, and go for something els with the capital you've made..
Hi Kevin - First of all, congrats on earning a huge sum online. good work. For a good chef - Contact me A friend of mine has worked for a 5 star and can help. For salary slabs - check the market - what do they pay ?