What Are Your Personal Benchmarks Of Success? Most people will answer in terms of financial security, job promotion ,or achieving a personal goal. It’s understandable; these are the images that will first pop into our heads. Working as a hospitality consultant, many clients will talk excitedly about opening a chain of bars, restaurants or coffee shops across Japan with the pre-conceived idea that the more restaurants we have the more successful we are. 2 places will double your income, 3 places will triple it right? Well, not necessarily.
Pros And Cons.
While it will increase your revenue there is absolutely no guarantee that it will increase your profit margins. Rent, labor and location all play an important role in determining whether you will break even or not.
The major benefit is that it will considerably increase your buying power with your supplier. The more locations you have, the more produce you will be buying from your suppliers. This in turn will give you more power to negotiate a competitive price for your produce.
The biggest hurdle you will face is replicating the authenticity of your original shop. You can only be in one place at any given time. In general Japanese staff are hard workers and extremely trustworthy. At the end of the day though, it is just a part-time job, another paycheck. As the old saying goes if you can find a staff member that cares about your business at 60% of level you do, then hire them.
The more locations you have the wider your brand will reach. This will in turn, increase your company’s profile and attract new customers at a much faster rate than having just one store.
Another factor to consider is time. You must be able to afford the time it takes to run all locations. Are you prepared to spend all your time working? If the answer is “no” then you will struggle to maintain quality with multiple locations.
What’s the answer?
Careful consideration of what you want to achieve sometimes goes beyond the bottom line. Of course, there is no absolute right or wrong answer to the question of success. We all have our own definition. What is your definition? What does success look like to you?
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