I am a chef and currently located in KL/PJ but I am relocating back to Cameron Highlands. CH has been my last stop 2 years ago until I moved to KL to facilitate my daughter's college entry and now I am going back to CH. I know fairly well about the food industry in CH and there is an outlet there operated by a few youngster who wants to give up in Brinchang. They say it is too boring up there. The takeover fee is not much and I am interested in taking over and need someone to finance the venture.

If anyone is interested, we can sit down and talk over the venture. I am actually very easy to please, since I don't have much to support except me and my wife who is also experience in food handling business. I will be going CH this 22nd to take a look at the said restaurant and I can relay any other info on it. Thanks.

This post has been edited by etigge: Feb 8 2011, 04:54 PM

You should also check the 80 percent occupancy status. What sorts of clients and how many of them using by the hour! You know what I mean. I have seen budget hotels mushrooming in all sorts places you don't even want to open a restaurant in. If it also rents room by the hours, you should also brace yourself for other commitments. Will you really want to do this type of business?

What else is there to do? They usually come with a uniformed policeman, that is needed for a legal search. Just let them search.

Normally you hang around car sales staff and keep a lookout for trade ins. First you have to know the procedures like financing matters, JPJ matters and also study the market value. Then you have to have a group of repairmans that are reliable. Last note though, it is not a job for normal guys. Most used car salesman are crocs. So be prepared for turning into one yourself.

Most like to emulate successful businesses. Getting ideas from such people is a good idea but in my opinion it is also prudent to also get advises from people who failed and why they failed. Success comes from years of hard work and struggles and most of all many FAILURES. SO getting an idea on why they failed and try to avoid it is actually more prudent than blazing through others success theory. Not all success story are similar in nature, it might work for them but it might not work for you.

The most important principle as said by the chinese proverb, 'lorr tak hei, fong tak tai' literally meaning, able to lift it and also be prepared to let it go. If some businesses doesn't seem to go forward, try changing path instead of sticking and hanging on until you give up which will totally drain all your resources.

I DO! During the 90s, I managed to save quite a bit and thought that I can relax a bit and do something that I liked. I went into fishing tackle and diving shop. With another partner I started one which is a bit up class like those here in KL but failed to see that place like Langkawi don't need standard like those in KL. It was also air-conditioned. I stocked more than those in existing and even said I can beat them easily (boastfully).

What I don't see is that those in existing has a solid foundation as they have been in business even when I was not there, their clientele was their friends and also people from small places like those don't need branded items. That I can still manage as my goods were not perishables but what I cannot foresee was the Asian financial crisis. Most of my good were imported directly from US fishing catalogues and paid through CC. When the USD went flying to RM4.65 per USD, most of my popular items were not sellable because the prices doubled. Payments on those that are on terms, due dates for payments are fast approaching. When I can't pay one on time, others started demanding for payments even faster and eventually I failed to renegotiate for lower rentals, I folded up with tons of debts.

Those that I said I can beat them, they are still in operation. Still like they were 10 years ago, no changes. Still making money peacefully. What they saved on renovations is their profits, what they save on ordering branded items (to make your oulet looks upscale) were their profits. So, even if you have started one, don't overlook your competitors. Till today, I sometimes still think I failed in my tackle shop because I had a big mouth!

This post has been edited by etigge: Mar 20 2011, 12:35 PM

I don't want to pour cold water onto your plans. They are enterprising but bubble tea is a bit over the hill, don't you think so? My guess is if you want a spot in MidValley for such venture, you MUST have a high traffic area and I am sure spots like this is not RM6,000 but more not to mention that you will be maybe no.20 on the waiting list. Second for workers in Midvalley averages about RM1500 per person else they can't survive on the high transport and food cost there.

Your calculation is flawed, did you realise? If you can hit 80 cups per day ( this number is easy for a good spot in Midvalley, give and take for holidays and weekends ) but aiming for RM320 to RM400 turnover in a place where rental is RM6,000 plus is just not right mathematics in F & B. If the RM2,000 (for the stuff) is correct then that would make it RM0.83 per cup. It is not enough, you have not consider the cups and covers, the straws and you have to factor in the machine that seals the cup not to mention the powder and the bubble. The bubble is costly too. The boiling and cooling and then they can't last long after cooking.

As far as I know Cool Blog is sprouting everywhere and they are also most probably looking or waiting for spots in Midvalley. Now Chat Time(another chain cafes) is also doing the bubble teas competing with Cool Blog and their prices for most is way below your RM4. So, do you have the financial resources to compete with them or the imagination of their experience to do businesss side by side with them. There's another one starting called Buddies Smoothies and I also heard Mr. Bean is coming in. Then there are bubble tea sellers in every 'pasar malam' selling at RM2.80 although a different market but nevertheless in a way will affect the perception of the cost of per cup.

Why not try to source something traditional, innovate and modernise them, make them more enticing and sell that rather than bubble tea?

350K to renovate a 350 sq.ft kiosk is too high. I think you should improvise and save some bucks. You can still renovate hiply and attractive if you were to go around malls and observe others and try to absorb what's nice in others. Colours is most important in a kiosk and also nice and pleasant people attending to it. Don't ever put a Bangla manning the kiosk. As for stainless steel equipments, try to get ready sizes and then measure them and renovate around them rather than renovate first and get stainless steel makers to build it specifically. One thing I do know is stainless steel tables, stoves, ice compartments etc. is cheaper in places like Ipoh and at times in KL they are 30 percent higher. You can custom make them in Ipoh and it only takes a few hours lorry ride to KL. I had a friend who even ordered them in Ipoh to be sent to Langkawi.

Get lots of quotes from various contractors. Places like Station One and Old Town, the renovators gives a cut to the franchisee. Like 7-11 it is part of their profits. The equipments and food suppliers are also the same. Get a nice interior decorator or maybe you have friends of friends who are still a trainee and get their ideas and then start visualising the concept. In F&B the work triangle is the most important, meaning you don't have to walk from one end to the other end to accomplish the work.

Check the yellow pages for stainless steel fabricators and suppliers and get their quotes too for reference.

Both your options are the same isn't it? Either you get your supplies to sell from someone else or get from your present employer. Both involves you reselling pet products. Might as well go both options.

This post has been edited by etigge: Apr 5 2011, 04:35 PM

I have a friend who has relatives in China. The Chinese came visiting and he became the guide and he went to China one day he was amazed by the prices there, He was in IT line (more like computer retailing). He then ask a friend of a relative to bring him around and ordered a container ( a half sized 20 feet container) of the accessories. After paying for them, he asked his relative to cheack on the goods when they are loading. He checked and almost half of them are replaced by other useless stuffs. He argued and corrected the stock. What happens if you don't have a guy you can trust especially on the first consignment.

Then again, after the first container our friend turned his business from owing suppliers to suppliers owing him money. That's motivation enough for him.

'Pasar malams' seems like ideal, doesn't it. Every business comes with it's sets of problems. 'Pasar malams' are not permanent, they are fluid. The street can be taken over overnight and rights denied if there is a need by the local council. The local gangster as mentioned are called " commitees" nowadays and most of the times they are the 'RELAs' there too. There are responsible for collection of money (under or ontop of the table) for rubbish collection and cleaning of the street after the session. Fights used to happen when another fresh trader moves in.

Usually I notice that if a trader wants to start, he will place a table at the far end of the 'pasar malam' and then see what happens. Then maybe the commitees will approach you or the local enforcement will approach you. If you go apply, they (local municipality) will tell you the quota is full for this or that 'pasar malam'. Some have friends selling in a particular spot and they multiply their table space and types of goods at the same spot. Some take over from existing traders.

'Pasar malam' worst nightmare is rain. Worst still when it rains after the stall has been set up. Just guessing how much a 'tong sui' seller makes is in the end a guess. He might be just selling only at 2 or 3 spots a week. Those that they allow him to sell. If he is selling well, then his must be good and that entails long ardous task of preparing unlike nowadays where a lot that uses powdered form of 'tongsui'. What difficulties he 's going through (I am sure he has problems) operatiing that stall is unknown to us. A motorbike carrying 600 bowls of tongsui doesn't really compute in my mind. That's a lot of tongsui actually. You can actually gauge the amount he is carrying to sell. 3 types means 3 pots. A bowl is 300ml. 200 bowls is 60 litres. Multiply by another 3 means he is carrying 180 litres of tongsui on an old motorbike. That's almost 3 full tanks of petrol in a normal car. My guess is he probably selling half of what's mentioned.

Bear this in mind, " Ho Tai Em Ho Sek".

There are a few mini lorries (Lutons) that I have observed in my area that are selling food from public car parks. This area is still not gazetted as a paying car park so free of charge. I don't see the Luton vans ever leaving. My guess is they are just stalls disguised as a moving van. The operator comes in another car, loads the stuffs onto the Luton van and opens the stall. Either the van can't travel far or it needs to be towed away. I wonder if we find a parking lot and park our vans there but even if the lots need to be paid daily, it is still cheaper to pay the parking charges.

Mini markets does that all the time. I don't think it's illegal. Only thing illegal is sellling government controlled items at a higher price, like rice, oil, sugar etc. Sometimes mini markets buys in bulk and repackage them into smaller packets to maximise profits. Even inkjet photo papers are also sub divided to be sold. I don't see any problems to it.

This post has been edited by etigge: Apr 15 2011, 10:47 AM

Food hygeine and food handling courses for F & B operators. It is actually more of a scam for our governmental agencies to leech more money for them. It is conducted not by our MoH (the agency responsible for the enforcement for cleanliness in F&B outlets) but delegated to lecturers from some Governmental higher learning instituitions. We are charged RM70 to RM100 per person depending on the number of attendees. Nobody cares if attendees absorbs it or not and attendees don't care either. So long as the cert is issued, who cares!

In one instance, a new coffeeshop was opened. There were 50 stalls (30 night session and 20 morning session) together with his workers there are aabput 60 participants. The coffeeshop owner negotiated with the agency handling the course. Finally it came down to blindly paying for the certs. No lectures was held and certs issued to all blindly, each paid RM100 for it.

The best enforcements I have seen is in Cameron Highlands. The MoH officer although very strict but also fair. Most outlets in CH are reasonably clean and food samples are taken once in a few months for analysis. Two years I was operating there, my outlet was checked 4 times. Closed one time because of a stuck pipe and got it repaired and called the officer for inspections again the next day. Passed! Do you, the public knows that eggs need to be washed and cleaned before using. There are stains of dried chicken poop on the shell of the eggs and that's not allowed. We have to clean those that are displayed on the stalls and keep out of sight those which are not cleaned. Here in Kajang and Bdr.Mahkota, I operated stalls for more than 2 years nearing 3, NEVER been checked before, even my vaccination for typhoid has expired! I think the way our immigrant works is one of the reason and the lack of enforcement makes the workers and coffeeshop owners not serious on cleanliness. I operate there but I don't eat there as well. So, go figure, WHY?

Talking about budget hotel, I just introduced a friend to a place here in Sg.Long near UTAR. There is this corner shoplot ( 3 storey ) and downstairs is rented by a coffeeshop. The two floors above (about 3000 sq.ft. plus per floor) is empty. The church which occupies the top floor then surrendered the premises. The owner then decided to operate a buddget hotel there. He got a runner to settle all the red tape and everything is approved, right from the licence to bomba , in fact everything. This all cost the owner in the region of 25K. Then the quotes came in but the capital outlay of 500K for 27 rooms convinced the owner not to carry on. They don't want to invest further. Theya re still paying the annual lecence till now. Rental is in the region of 3K for 2 floors.

All the plans are laid out and drawn and approved by MPKj. Any interest takers? My friend declined because he says it is too far from Uptown where he is managing another.

I think your main product is targetted to a specific market which is not really office staffs kind of people. When you say office staffs like D'sara Uptown lunch crowd, they comes out for lunch usually within the hour and goes back. Pay day time,they might get something fancier and nearing end of the months they will just grab something simple and back to office. Only night crowds have the time to leisurely sit down, study the menu and wait and chat.

At one hand you are selling healthy juice and at the other you are selling fatty sandwiches. I do know though in our culture, ladies culture, when they are on a diet , they skip lunch altogether or take some drugs to short cut the process.
Our lunch culture is something they know, something they are familiar with. So when you plan to do set lunches, plan something common and not some weird sounding food that they have to guess what it actually is. They don't have the time like dinner.

Just take a stroll around your area during lunch time. See what they eat at that time. My guess is noodles, chap fan and chicken rice. Chicken parnini is not my lunch menu, is it yours? Not to sound rude, sorry if I am harsh Food business in KL is all about appearance. Either you are like a conventional kopitiam with dirty tables and stalls or you are a up market cafe or bistro. There's no in between and anything doubtful like half a shop, usually it will be empty.

Doing set lunches will eat into your profits more. Remember, you have only half a lot. How many persons can you seat? Set lunches are usually cheap discounted fares that entices customers and let's say it is good. For that 2 hours between 12 noon and 2.00 pm, how many customers can you serve? Cheap packages means lower profits and that means you need volume.
Better plan your next step carefully, study the area and the crowd, target your customers as I see it, healthy fruit juices has a very narrow scope of customers.

This post has been edited by etigge: Jul 25 2011, 10:13 AM

Probably she has cut expenses in some areas, maybe you can discuss with her. Well, you can try like what you suggeted. Make flyers and distribute around the area.

Sad thing is hiring workers regardless of Myanmarese (common nowadays) or worse still locals, the risk of them opening another identical stall is great. eventhough they have not really picked up the whole secret of preparations they will still operate another stall since opening another stall's capital is relatively small. he better your business the greater the chances he will be setting anopther stall. Thing is, your family might have a secret recipe but then any kind of dishes can be found on the net nowadays although they might not be the same but hey! the guy works at your stall and setting up another.

Your parents can operate but get a Mynamarese worker to help out. Good ones are hard to come by though but it will lessen the workload. Are you sure 3K is enough to set up a stall in a coffeeshop? I doubt so!!!

I have given up stall hawking business and if I were to get involve in food business again, I would go for my own cafe or outlet, what we called in KL " chee mun tim ". Hawking at stalls are no longer that lucrative anymore, in fact it's darn hard with the low profit margins and also the numbers of immigrants in the trade. I haven't even talk aboutcoffeeshop maagement or rather lack of it plus the green eyed neighbouring stalls. Find a small shoplot and start a specialised stall and sellyour own beverage to stabilise the ups and downs of hawking.

Good luck.

I couldn't afford so much money for build own cafe. It needs lots of capital and time to control the whole cafe including management such as staffs, supply and PR. One thing i start this hawking thing is that i want to start small, time wise management and let it grow my cashflow by time and wont affected by economy disaster. Immigrants somehow couldn't fit doing chef stuff because chinese mostly think immigrants is "dirty" and "not a real chinese chef". they are only fit into helper category... One thing i want to maintain is the "original chinese taste" and quality food. Wish me luck. Now in 70% plan phase and 30% execution phase. Waiting right time to arrive..

It's quite true on what you said but selling food also needs confidence in yourself. If you feel that you have a good secret recipe from your parents and you feel confident about the customers response, I still feel you should start your own outlet eventhough you might have to get a partner. Don't let hm about your recipe but just as an investor.

If you think of garnering more cash flow from hawker stalls, you better make time. Profit margins from hawking is no more like 10 years ago. Condiments are expensive, petrol is expensive, stall rentals is expensive, equipments are expensive and the cheapest commodity in hawking is your time. In coffeeshops the profit margin can go as low as 30% to 40% after deductiing daily rental, marketing cost, petrol, a helper (in some cases), meals for your helper etc.

The bright side is this, it will enlighten yourself to the innards of F&B trade albeit in a small way. At least your capital outlay is small and it is a good chance to get an experience before you really start something on a larger scale as I have mentioned, your own outlet.

I read somewhere Malaysia is going to impose the requirement for toys to be certified safe for children and the testing is to be done by Sirim. It will somehow affect the cost and importation of the toys. Just to let you know.