Chapter 5
To reintroduce the chef into the Chinese market asap.
We have chosen to pursue a shareholder visa for the chef through SB’s visa agent, allowing us to bring him into China without being burdened by high taxes resulting from his lack of a bachelor’s degree.
At that time, the visa agent for SB deceived our government. We explained to immigration that the chef shareholder had a 5% share, We were rejected because it was considered too small for the government to believe they were a key person in the business. So we adjusted the chef’s share from 5% to 10% in our government reports. All discussions got confirmed by each shareholder in the wechat group.
Fortunately, we were able to obtain approval for the chef’s partner visa with a 10% share. Throughout each step, we have WeChat records confirming the involvement of each shareholder. This is a very serious matter and needs to be addressed again. luckily, immigration officers welcome foreign chefs.
With immigration`s help, we are able to save around 8000 each month. This also sets the stage for future plans if our chef continues to do a great job. Due to this, we haven’t felt the need to sign any shareholder agreements.
Unfortunately, SB only included a clause about 5% shares in the chef’s labor contract without informing shareholders, at least he didnt ask for my advice on it. He also didn
t change the share 10% in the government report. The share doesn`t match together. When I discovered this, it seemed like they weren’t too concerned about it. I don’t want to pressure them too much as I see myself more as their supportive sibling rather than an authority figure.It‘s better to plan well for the long term.
Whatever. Now we have a talented chef with a unique culinary background. Imagine running a western restaurant without any international influence in the kitchen or among the staff.
One day, the landlord of Dongping started to do a final round of checking on us in Shanghai. Typically, landlords with government backgrounds are hesitant to lease to new investors without a shop because they want to avoid potential issues and the hassle of finding new tenants in the short term. At that time, I still had shares in a pizza company and Monsieur An’s Hong Kong plan. I showed my legal information to the landlord, and from then on, there were no more concerns from them.
This is a key point that new individuals in the restaurant business may not fully grasp, especially the HK tailor who may believe it’s solely a contribution from their clothing shop. I understand this because I am grateful for all the assistance from Mr. M and Landlord158, who offered me a great lease deal for my pizza concept.
We are about to sign the lease, but during the final location check, I discovered that there is no cooking exhaust system. I reminded everyone in our WeChat group because this relates to our PR work with environmental concerns and obtaining a hot food license from the FDA. There was silence until David mentioned that he has connections through his commercial factory business. We all trust in his influence and are prepared to move forward with signing the lease.
Rental has been amazing with the help of the landlord and David. This is another important factor. I believe that David put a lot of effort into negotiating this great lease with the landlord. Restaurants always end up closing due to high rental costs, including payroll.
Finally, we secured the lease and made the down payment to the legal representative through his personal bank account. However, we all forgot to indicate “capital” on the transfer note.
Meanwhile, I kindly ask Mr. Xin to request a free head office registration location from his local friend, Ms. Claire.If not.we have to pay for a sharing office to register headoffice.
Why do I recommend the company to follow my experience? Because we can set up the pos order system with the bank accountant at the head office first. If not, we will have to wait for decoration and shop license, which could cause delays and impact our soft opening. It’s important to have the company pos order system ready for clients’ bank credit cards, rather than having them pay into one of our partner’s personal accounts. This would be unprofessional and could lead to other tax issues, as personal income tax from a personal WeChat code is subject to a different tax rate compared to using the company pos order system, resulting in a much higher rate.
Ms. Claire sends her team to support us asap, it’s silly not to express our gratitude.she may not mind too much, considering her busy government job helping startup companies. Despite this, she still supports us during the COVID-19 shutdown. I will write more about that later.
We had a simple lunch at Mathild’s family restaurant to celebrate getting the chef and lease. I may have talked too much because I recently sold one of my projects, which is another fault of mine. Talking too much can make some people jealous, and that’s silly of me.I`m too proud after a few small achievements in restaurant business without meditation for life lessons.