My Bussiness Going Under, Within The First Three Months
And how it give me time to learn the secret finance
By the time, I moved back to my hometown Indonesia in October 2016, I already feels I had a lots of experience in bussiness Industry.
And why not?
I working for many Restaurant in Malaysia. I working in Restaurant Japan for Takoyaki food, and in Indian chain food with the names "Monica Sri Cafe"
I was young...
Stupid but brave.
So, I think I can manage bussiness.
And you know what?
It's out bussiness within the first three months.
Crazy, right?
I'm not blame anyone. I just want to take that lesson and sharing it to you.
Hope, you can relate with this.
Why I crazy enough to open my first bussiness?
In that time, I don't think I'm doing something wrong. I buy nice cooking utensils, I buy shiny table and chair.
So, it's looking so good right?
Wrong.
I don't have confidence to promote my Restaurant.
It’s look easy when I’m outsider. But when I try to make profit with my everyday sell.
Things begin to go wrong ways.
First, I try to make smaller, more restaurant-focused entertaiment.
So, I ask my sister to help me design and launch a new simple menu Indonesia foods.
The concept was simple.
"Kedai Eyang", (it's the name by the way) was going to deliver the best Instant noodle and fried food experience imaginable.
The restaurant is located in the country part of Sumatera Selatan, Indonesia.
It's dimly lit entry paved with beautiful plants.
Instead of traditional dining chairs, patrons rest on high chair clustered around small clean tables.
You can feast from an extensive fried food bar, including fried rice and Instant noodles with meatballs.
And the menu offers delicacies like fresh ice drink.
But What I don't know yet.
Good food and great atmosphere wouldn’t be enough.
After all, the thing restaurants are best at is going out of business. More than 25 percent fail within twelve months of opening their doors.
Sixty percent are gone within the first three years.
Restaurants fail for any number of reasons. Expenses are high—everything from the food on the plates to labor that goes into preparing and serving it.
And the landscape is crowded with competitors.
For every new Indonesia chain food that pops up in a major city, there are two more right around the corner.
Like most small businesses, restaurants also have a huge undervalue problem.
Just getting the word out that a new restaurant has opened its doors—much less that it’s worth eating at—is an civil war scene.
And unlike the large food chains in Malaysia, I had previously worked for.
Most restaurants don’t have the resources to spend lots of advertising and marketing.
They depend on people talking about them to be successful.
We knew we need to generate viral advertising. But Indonesia already cowd enough with viral campaign from big names like KFC and Mac Donald.
Dozens times I try to be stand out.
And it fails bigs time.
So what the lesson?
I think, we must try to give people a sense of the uniqueness of the brand.
Like the book Contagious by Jonah Berger.
He says, "One reason some products and ideas become popular is that they are just plain better. We tend to prefer websites that are easier to use, drugs that are more effective, and scientific theories that are true rather than false. So when something comes along that offers better functionality or does a better job, people tend to switch to it."
Remember how bulky televisions or computer monitors used to be?
They were so heavy and cumbersome that you had to ask a couple of friends (or risk a strained back) to carry one up a flight of stairs. One reason flat screens took off was that they were better. Not only did they offer larger screens, but they weighed less. No wonder they became popular.
Another reason? Attractive Price obviously
If you try sell something in middle price. People would likely to buy. Because we are social animals and we tend to see other products as middle man.
If one product sell in price 5$ And the other product sell in 8$.
I will likely to buy things in the price 6$
The logic here, majority don't want to buy cheap things.
And the expensive things, out question.
The solution is to buy things with attractive price
The middle man, of course.
Conculsion
So the first step in starting a business of your own is to know something about it.
You don't need to know all about it. But you must know something about it.
Fortunately much of the knowledge you need may be found in books and youtube.
The manufacturers of the equipment which you will need to get started are usually able to furnish you with essential information.
This is all experience which you can buy very inexpensively, yet it is experience that has cost others much time and money.
So read everything published about the business you intend to start, to get the combined experience of others, and begin your plans where they left off.
Good luck.
