The failure experience of fast food restaurants - died of expansion

Lao Jia is from Shandong and has no family background. He worked hard to start a business and open a fast food restaurant in Beijing alone. He has experienced failures and also experienced Joy, now that he has returned to the sales industry and is sitting in a job that he likes, he said that he wants to reflect on his grassroots entrepreneurial experience while thinking about it. Therefore, as a good friend of Lao Jia, I spent one night slowly integrating this period of struggle, failure and setbacks in Beidiao into my fingertips. He said that he hoped that his experience could help more people The fewer detours people take, the more successful they will be. In Lao Jia's narration, there is no loss, sadness, or frustration, but only a calm and confident man who constantly reflects and embarks on a new life. The following is the entrepreneurial story of the entrepreneur Lao Jia:

First time entrepreneur: I lost all my principal when opening a restaurant

I came here on May 17, 2009 of the city of Beijing. Before I came here, I worked as a car salesperson in a 4S store in Jinan, Shandong Province. It was my first job and I did very well. I won the annual sales title in 2008. Because I won the sales title, I was promoted to promotion. As a sales manager, as a fledgling college student, I led a few buddies to sell cars together. It was my first time leading a team. That sales experience in a 4S car store allowed me to develop my own values ??and values ??at work. The way of doing things, I have to say that the first job is very important to life. The reason why I later chose to give up this job and go to Beidiao was entirely because of an accidental experience.

The idea of ??coming to Beijing began with an accidental trip in 2007. At that time, I was standing on Chang'an Street and saw a huge crowd of people in Wangfujing, Tiananmen Square, Xidan. So I thought how popular it would be if so many people opened a restaurant in Beijing. At that time, I came up with the idea of ??starting a business in Beijing. It can be said that at that time, a small idea was like an ungerminated seed in my heart. I deeply bought the foreshadowing.

Later, when I went back, I put this idea aside and kept selling cars honestly. However, I am a restless person and I always feel that there is something wrong in my heart. I know that it is actually the feeling in my heart. Impulsiveness is the feeling that rural children have when they go to the city and then want to stay in the city and want to get ahead. I am not willing to sell cars for the rest of my life in a city like Jinan.

I carefully conducted a SWOT analysis on myself, and finally felt that I still have the strength to try my luck in a city like Beijing. That's how I came to Beijing. After coming to Beijing, I saw the prosperity of the metropolis and the luxury cars and high-rise buildings everywhere. My inner ambition was suddenly ignited. I secretly made up my mind that I wanted to stay here and stand out from others.

So without being familiar with Beijing, I took a map of Beijing and a hand-delivered newspaper and started running around Beijing looking for a place to open a restaurant. The long-hidden dream in my heart was once again revealed. lit. At that time, I only had a few meager funds earned from selling cars, so I could only find a store based on the concept I had in mind.

So the search was very hard and frustrating. But I am a person with a very strong execution ability. I will not give up until I achieve my goal. I will quickly find a place to buy the store, and then I will start applying for a license, decorating, buying tableware, and looking for chef services. I finally opened my own store after I came to Beijing for more than two months. At the same time, I invested all my savings and my brother’s support. When I got the business license, I had mixed feelings. , finally started his own business in Beijing.

Not long after I opened my business, my weakness of not having market experience began to show up. The thing I started to make at that time was the bachelor’s chicken from Linyi, my hometown. I liked eating it very much and my friends in Beijing also liked it, so I didn’t go through market research. , and started doing it without verifying how big the market was. But I overlooked a problem. We may like to eat this product, but it does not mean that Beijing people like to eat it. The sales volume is very small. It turns out that the business has been cold after opening the store. It is difficult for me to adjust it. The chefs and waiters are all found in my hometown. I was not familiar with the catering market in Beijing, and they couldn’t give me any advice. In the end, everyone could only watch as the remaining working capital was spent and it failed, basically losing all the money I earned from working.

My first so-called entrepreneurship did not have even a certain degree of glory, and it ended quietly like this. After the failure of that business venture, I deeply felt that I was lacking.

Starting a Business Again: Reflecting on Starting a Profitable Business

Later, I moved to the West Campus of Tsinghua University, and then I went to attend classes every day. At the same time, I also reflected on why I didn’t even have a small restaurant. It can't start, and at the same time, it is also looking for opportunities to make a comeback. After that, I met a friend who had also failed in starting a business and was wandering around Tsinghua University, and we made building materials together. The business model is actually very simple. In fact, it is still my old business in sales. I went to find it myself first when I had nothing. The customer takes the order and then finds the manufacturer to produce it to earn the price difference. The biggest advantage of this business is that the start-up capital is very small and almost non-existent. Sales is also my old profession. Within two months, we started to make money, and we still have a lot of money. I make a lot of money, but this business is not a long-term solution for me. I just drink and give gifts and kickbacks all day long. The most fatal thing is that the payment is too slow and a lot of money will not be returned. I feel that this is not a big deal, and I think of my restaurant business again.

After learning the lesson, the restaurant business still succumbed to expansion

So I used the sales of building materials as a cash flow business to make money for me, and then returned to my old business of opening a restaurant. This time when I opened the store, I learned the lesson from last time. It was obvious that I gained wisdom every time I learned from it. I now know the importance of market research and understanding of the market. I conducted market research very carefully and comprehensively analyzed the catering market. I felt that there should be no problem in making labeled fast food that is cheap, simple and fast.

The business model that was finally decided upon for this restaurant is fast food dine-in plus takeout. It positioned itself as a small shop of about 30 square meters. The location selection principle was based on the first-level business district and the second-level business district. The location should be selected according to the principle of road. Specifically, it is to choose a place with a poor location in a large core business district. It will mainly serve dine-in supplements. The rent cannot exceed 15,000 per month, and the meals produced will mainly be delivered. After thinking about the business model and details in detail, we started to prepare for opening a store, including name verification, company registration, trademark registration, location selection, VI design, recruitment, training, etc. At that time, we also learned from the first experience and lessons. I even made a very detailed plan on how to turn things around if sales were bad. I thought this time it would be foolproof.

And everything was exactly as I expected. Due to the accurate business model and positioning, my store made a profit in the first month of opening. I analyze that the reason why I did well this time is that I was well prepared, all kinds of plans were in place, and the publicity was in place. In addition, in The location selection was very successful. We chose a location near Dahongmen where the rent is cheap. At the same time, I chose to be next to the wholesale market where I do business and they are busy with business. We can provide food delivery services. There are not many other catering giants around me, so we just fill the gap in the market. The catering business gradually got on the right track, so I started to leave the building materials industry to focus on fast food restaurants. Suddenly I had a different idea in my heart. I decided to turn this popular restaurant into a chain. It has become a well-known brand, and the tragedy of failure has begun to be buried here.

Since I wanted to run a large chain and build a well-known brand, I began to imitate big brands in standardizing their products. For each customer’s favorite dishes, we were precise about the ingredients and ingredients. Ratio, seasoning ratio, production time.

The steaming rice is also accurate to the amount of water and grams of oil per kilogram of rice. The operating standards are posted on the wall so that every employee can follow these instructions and even those who have never worked in the catering industry can cook in an hour. We have started to operate inside, and we have also made processes in the kitchen and front office, stipulating various service specifications that have reached the standards. We have also made various forms, purchase and sales, inventory, customer information, etc. to be standardized and replicable, and we are ready to lay a solid foundation. It was a big deal. Seven months after the first store opened, I thought the time was ripe to replicate it.

At that time, I opened the second store and it was doing well. The small successes that came one after another convinced me. My self-confidence was extremely inflated. At this time, my habit of overestimating success started to show up again. I felt that if I copied this model, I would be able to grow bigger. I felt that if I wanted others to recognize me, I must at least have a flagship store, so I decided to build a big store. The idea of ??making a model, and then waiting for the trademark to let others join, then it will be easy to open my own fast food restaurants all over the world. When I did not examine my own strength, the tragedy of failure happened again, so I raised funds I started to open a large store as a model, and then I took out almost all the funds from other stores to build the largest store. In terms of area and positioning, I completely broke away from the goals I had envisioned and my market. Positioning, and then I tried my best to maximize all aspects. I just hope that as soon as the trademark comes out, I will start joining the franchise immediately and make my fast food restaurants all over China. But tragedy happened. My big store cannot make ends meet and there is no way. Cost recovery.

I started to continue to lose money. Even though I used all my methods and all my funds to save this fast food restaurant, this utopian flagship store just left me feeling powerless. I failed. After struggling for seven months, I failed again. I was implicated in running other small stores and handed them over to others. My business failed again.

Reflection: cash flow, team, mentality

This failure did not make me painful, but made me recognize myself. When I reviewed it, I thought that the biggest problem lay in my own mentality. Whether an entrepreneurial project would be successful or not was because I was so excited and impetuous in my heart that I lost my way and couldn't find the direction. When you achieve a little success, you secretly feel complacent without understanding that a company can always die within 24 hours.

The second factor is that I did not accurately evaluate my abilities at all. I thought that if I started a small store or became a big one, I would definitely succeed. I overestimated my abilities. I think I can do it quickly, but I don’t know that brand management, operation, and team are all very in-depth knowledge. I start to misevaluate my abilities after I make some money.

The third reason is that you are too eager for success. You have just opened two small stores and are successful, so you want to recruit investors and franchises. However, you don’t know that the operating model of managing two small stores is different from that of managing a brand output company. Not the same either.

The fourth issue is my own goals and sense of direction. I keep changing many directions and fail to recognize my goals clearly.

Fifth: You don’t have a good team to start a business. You have been starting a business for so long and you don’t have your own core partners. All entrepreneurship is done alone.

Sixth: I did not have a clear understanding of the financial and capital chain control, so I was eventually dragged down and destroyed by cash flow.

After the interview, Lao Jia’s tone was firm. Maybe he might be closer to success next time he starts a business. Those who don’t give up will be favored by fate. ;