Looking for Partner for Western-style Breakfast Restaurant

Business Money
1

Would you like to eat at a greasy spoon type restaurant in Taipei?

  • Definitely, I’d be there every morning!
  • Sometimes, I might introduce some of my local friends to it on a weekend.
  • No way! I didn’t come to Taiwan to eat scrambled eggs…

0 voters

Hi all,

Two Taiwanese friends of mine want to expand their business to include a restaurant. What they want is to set up is a brunch style (think IHoP) higher-end greasy spoon (pancakes, omlettes, etc, etc). They started such a venture before, but shut it down because it got too busy (they couldn’t manage both it and their primary business and couldn’t find staff or partners to run the restaurant for them).

Their major complaint is that most Taiwanese business types would rather have their own business than partner with someone else. I’ve offered to help them try to find a Westerner who might be more interested in a partnership.

What would be needed from someone who wanted to meet with them and discuss this would be:

-Some investment capital (the restaurant space is open to the outside, which is fine in the winter, but will need to be enclosed and air-conditioned in the summer). Their estimate is about $8,000 usd (250k nt) for this. In exchange for the renovations, they will let the partner run the restaurant (and keep all profit) rent-free for 1 year. Personally I think this is a killer deal and was tempted to take them up on it myself, but I don’t have any restaurant experience and don’t plan to stay in Taiwan for 1 year. I IMAGINE if someone was VERY keen and didn’t have this sort of capital that something else could be worked out, but I think investing some cash into the business at the start will make you more invested (pardon the pun) in its success. There kitchen facilities are acceptable (apartment/house style), but if things took off an upgrade here might be worth considering.

-Experience at a breakfast style restaurant, either running one, serving or cooking. If you don’t have this, I suppose that it might be possible to try and figure things out as you go. My Taiwanese friends haven’t done much like this before either, so the going might be tough if its new to everyone.

-Most importantly an interest in being a business owner, building such a venture from the ground up and passion for its success. If someone starts this, than loses interest and heads back home it would be a real pain in the neck for my friends to pick up the pieces.

E-mail me your thoughts, and if you’d like me to set up a meeting I can introduce you to my friends.

John

2

Where is it? That’s definitely a factor. Keep in mind that there are many places in Taipei that serve a damn good brunch pretty cheaply (Amaroni’s, Carnegie’s, Jake’s, etc.) so you’d better have a good authentic product, with good service, or you’re sunk.

3

This seems like a bad deal to me.

You pay to make the restaurant look like a restaurant. You run the place for one year and hopefully make enough to get back the money that you put into the renovations, which if it is only US$8,000 sounds like a dive joint so I doubt you could get your money back. Then just after you have built up the business with your white face and authentic home cooking and maybe you start to make a profit, they take it back from you. On the otherhand if you fail, they don’t lose anything and you lose your US$8,000!!! :raspberry:

Hahahaha…Tell your Taiwanese friends foreigners are not that stupid!

That’s a bad offer, don’t be fooled.

4

Make it like a diner.
Serve grits and buttermilk biscuits with gravy.
Put mini juke boxes at each table with golden oldies.
Install pleather boothes and hire fat foreign women with beehives to be your waitresses.

5

What does this mean? To me it means a two-burner stove. This is very very far from being even remotely acceptable for a kitchen that hopes to pass itself off as professional.
As Hobart says, what happens after a year, assuming you somehow manage to scrape a living?
NT$250K is NADA for renovation – barely sufficient for furniture and crockery, let alone NICE stuff, which would be essential for what they are thinking about, given the stiff competition from the places Maoman mentioned.
These people might be your friends, but the “deal” they are offering sounds far from friendly to me.

[quote]If someone starts this, than loses interest and heads back home it would be a real pain in the neck for my friends to pick up the pieces.
[/quote]
Why? From what you’ve told us, these people put up precisely nothing. Its the foreign “partner” that has to shell out. The very most they lose is a year’s rent and even then, they still get it decorated for free and presumably keep any fixtures and fittings the foreign “partner” puts in.
Sounds like a complete scam to me. Perhaps you haven’t given us the whole picture?
True, when Rainbow opened Grandma Nitti’s about 15 years ago it was a tiny hole-in-the-wall, but you must remember that at that time, she had a virtual monopoly on Western-style breakfast/brunch. The business environment today is far removed from those days.

6

The capital outlay looks somewhat under financed, even by Taiwan standards.

If you

7

taiwanese “but shut it down because it got too busy”

english meaning - “shut it down because they couldn’t get a proper licence”

8

This doesn’t sound like a great deal to me, but everything is negotiable in business and anyone thinking about becoming an entrepreneur shouldn’t blow off this idea just because the initial offer (as vaguely described as it was) isn’t very attractive.

All first year profit and free rent in exchange for the initial investment in renovations and operating expenses is a good start. However, to make it more enticing for the foreigner, perhaps you could suggest to your Taiwanese friends that they offer the foreigner partner an ownership interest in the building itself, based upon the invested capital. If the building in its current condition is worth X dollars and the foreigner is investing Y dollars, then the foreigner could own Y/(X+Y) of the building. I am assuming the building is owned free and clear with no mortgage. Both parties would then also have to work out an ownership split on the restaurant itself.

My bet is that if you have enough money for the renovations sitting in cash, you could probably go out and buy your own restaurant location using the initial money as your equity for a loan. But then you’d be saddled with large fixed mortgage payments. So the advantage of having the Taiwanese partner is that you are freed from those mortgage payments, in exchange for giving up an ownership interest in the restaurant.

9

I don’t know if I am reading this wrong but I think the capital outlay of 8000us or 250000nt might be the cost needed to get the food, administrative stuff(hiring staff)(negotiating price,time and delivery), and time on the job(cooking). The renovations are taken care of by the two taiwanese partners I think. Also, they already have the place as mentioned above.

10

The deal isn’t that bad if it is negotiable. The free rent thing is pretty good. I would negotiate that you get to stay on after one year and you would share the profits then. Also, I think the owners of the land should either pay the US$8000 for the AC and closing off the space, or they have to give you the option of not doing it. They cannot require it. Also, check to make sure the space is LEGAL! Just thought maybe it is not and they want you to take the risk of getting busted and having your walls torn down and your AC hauled away.

11

This is no deal for sure! It takes a year to just to get things going. After that point I would require my partner to buy me out or I would take 20% of the profits for the next 10 years. I act as a consultant and keep the quality up, they run it … Otherwise, no way.

On the contrary there here is a deal for sure. There is a little place called Elvis that I now manage. The place is closed during the day. It is near Civil and Da-an (behind Sogo). Very busy area. The place is totally unique and I would be willing to share give 60% profit to anyone who would put in a little Kitchen and run the food. It is a unique little place and cool as hell, definitly need to see it to believe that a place like this exists in taipei. I currently run the night time entertainment and dont have time or experience to do the food. I pay rent and utilities, I am your partner, western and everything.
Any kind of food you want, I would prefer something Taiwan does not have like Good Tacos al Pastor, or maybe real Gyro

12


Panini!

13

Swindle.

14

How are the “work permit” issues being handled?

15

Oh yea, you really will stick out and get noticed. If you take business away from other places they may get jealous and call the cops.

16

Taiwanese Axiom 259.3: If my neighbor is happy or satified or successful, then I am by definition miserable, wanting and a failure. I must constantly tear down my neighbor to feel good about myself, have a sense of self-worth and perceive myself as successful. See below for the mathematical equation:

Your Failure = My Success

This place wouldn’t be half as fun without Bo Yang’s soy paste vat in action!