Setting Up Your Own Cafe

Hi there ! 

I know its been awhile (in fact, a bit too long), been a bit preoccupied with setting up the shop and catching up with Raya orders for our cookies. But then I thought, I should spare a few minutes sharing my experience and what I've learnt throughout the process, hoping to guide others (especially the younger generation) on the basics on what you should expect in...... Setting Up Your Own Cafe !

First is,

1. Register your company to SSM (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia)

This is really important since you really cannot progress anywhere without a Company Registration number. Its better if you give them a call and ask them on what documents you would need to be prepared with if they acquire any before going there straight :)

Then,

2. Find a great location !

Location plays a really important role in this process. And you would need to have a location of the shop first before applying for permit or license or anything else, so find a place to rent. It can be through the internet or even by driving around scouting. We managed to find our location through propertyguru.com and iproperty,com.my but I'm pretty sure there are so many other ways to find places as to where you can set up your shop

Next,

3. Register for license from MPSJ/MPPJ etc 

It would most likely take an average of 10 days for the license application to succeed but this also depends on how fast you manage to fill in and complete the forms. They would expect you to go for certain courses, but no worries, they have the checklist of things you would need to complete before submitting it in ! (Note that this stage might be a bit costly). And for the Training, you wouldn't be expected to have any preparations before the class since the class is very direct, but you would be tested at the end of the Course. (It was hilarious how I had to go for a class with my mum, never thought I'd ever have to go for a class with my mum! One thing for sure though, she was definitely competitive in scoring better at the test than me hahaha)

We had to through a "Basic Knowledge Training" which took up to 3 hours, but it was quite interactive so it was alright. We took ours at Bandar Sunway, but you can take the Training at any location nearby your area really.

4. Start constructing your shop

Planning, planning and planning. That's definitely the most important thing I've learnt throughout the whole process. My dad thinks I don't pay attention to what he says, but I definitely didn't especially on how much he emphasized on, "If you fail to plan, it means you are planning to fail". So, plan ! Allocate the amount of money you have, plan the dates you wanna order your stuff, finding for contractors etc. It took us about 2-3 weeks in planning to set up the shop, researching the right POS for the shop, floor planning of the shop etc and our shop is only a 1/3 lot. Our contractor is taking about a week to build up the place so the target is to complete everything within 1 month and a half, so make sure you plan and try to reach the target ! The longer you take, the more money you pay for the rent of the shop without getting any returns. Do try to target for an Opening Date :)

5. Stick around for a while

Most of us give up the moment we haven't been receiving much profit the first few months. We expect our Return of Investment to be recovered within the first few months, but it doesn't work out like that with everyone. Especially if it costs a lot more to set up your shop. So, if things don't seem to work out at the start, find out ways to make it turn out! InsyaAllah, you'll be fine. I'm still setting up my shop but have been asking around other cafes on how they make it, and they usually say, you'll have to pull through, not to expect easy and quick profit at the beginning. 

That's it for now :)

Will try to share more of my experience throughout the whole process. Hope this helps ! xx