How to Open Restaurant In Malaysia?...ask Elly Suliana
Elly Suliana is a self-confessed Food Addict who have been involved in opening, operating and managing few restaurants in Kuala Lumpur for the past 6 years. Although her technical background is Accounting and Management (she have a Bachelor degree in Accountancy from San Diego States University – USA and an MBA from University of San Diego – USA), her passion for food drove her to be in the F&B industry. She love food and everything associated with it.
She love the feeling of opening the restaurant door first thing in the morning, before the chefs, the waiters and the cleaners come. It gives her a peaceful feeling of looking everything “undone” and a pure excitement when seeing the place transforms into a busy restaurant where receptionist greets customers, waiters take orders, chefs shout in the kitchen, food runners dash from the swing kitchen doors and cash register drawers open and close swallowing the cash.
Her first involvement in opening a restaurant gave her a nerve-wrecking experience. She raced with time to finish the renovation, to purchase the required equipment, to install the Point of Sales system, to get reliable suppliers and to hire staffs. But the one that really gave her the test of patience was to obtain the necessary licenses.
She found out that having a registered company with a valid business license was not enough. Only after the restaurant was opened, She found out that she couldn’t put up a signboard because she needed a signboard license. She also found out that she was not allowed to play any music in the restaurant unless she have licenses from Recording Artists Association. Then she also found out that she needed to apply for Liquor License. And the list went on and on…
She wish someone had told her about this earlier so she wouldn’t have wasted a lot of time going back and forth to DBKL (Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur) to obtain those licenses.
Then she found out that she had to increase the Paid Up Capital of the company if she want to hire foreign workers. Had she known that there is a minimum Paid Up Capital for hiring a foreigner, she would have registered the company with higher Paid Up Capital in the first place, thus saving her time and money to do commandments on the Company Article of Association.
After all the legal issues were settled, she found out that she had wasted money on buying some of the equipment and furniture because she could actually get those things for free.
After that first experience, opening the second, third and forth restaurant was a breeze. She knew exactly what needs to be done first, second, third, forth, and so on.
To learn how to open restaurant in Malaysia from her experiences ...Click here
