Chapter 1
I am honored to have met the French gentleman Oliva. He was my first real business partner in restaurant investment in Shanghai. I learned a lot from this gentleman from Paris. It’s a pity that at that time I didn’t have the ability to support our business operation together. Luckily, we didn’t lose a lot during our cooperation on 4 concepts together.
Thanks to him.
He is a neighbor of my Spanish client who used consulting services at that time. My client warned me to be careful if I wanted to invest in him because Oliva’s first successful story was about the location of his shop. I had no idea about that warning until years later. It is a great location at the corner of Yong Kang road and Jia Shan road, with two rooms for sushi restaurants. One room is from a good company background landlord who develops Yong Kang road, and the other room is from a private local landlord.
When Sushi U restaurant succeeds, the local neighbor who lives on the second floor of the restaurant starts complaining about the noisy exhaust system of the shop.
Meanwhile, the approval of a business license for his restaurant is impacting Oliva’s schedule. Operating a restaurant without the correct license may not seem like a big issue until there is a fire or food poisoning incident, which would be disastrous for investor Oliva, especially if he has gone over 6 months without paying taxes. Clients will complain if they cannot receive correct invoices, and if the tax bureau starts an investigation, it is still risky. Even though Oliva told me that he has stored revenue records in iCloud to hide real information, he is very smart.
During my first visit to his restaurant, I tried to find out details of his situation. One day, while talking with Oliva in front of Sushi U, an angry local neighbor stepped in directly with his smelly mouth. We both ran away in different directions at the same time. It’s really a cultural difference even for a local like me.
The second time I visited Oliva, I brought some licenses for other clients. This brought me luck and trust from Oliva. I started visiting his company background landlord for the license and negotiated with his tough neighbor upstairs. The company landlord helped with the license application, and finally, the government approved it.
The company background landlord, an old local gentleman who is trusted by the neighborhood, also helped with the neighbor issue. He seems like a mafia-style figure to me. This old gentleman has pressured the local neighbor upstairs to accept a reasonable monthly compensation because the exhaust pipe of sushi U causes shaking in the neighbor’s window frames and floors during operation hours, impacting his life - especially since his wife works at the 24-hour store 7-11 and needs to sleep well after her shift. However, another private landlord of sushi U is pushing for a rent increase now that they see the business is successful. What a greedy landlord and what a valuable lesson…
It’s a valuable lesson that:
It is better to find a good landlord instead of a private landlord who has more chances to be greedy when they see your successful business.
Be prepared for potential issues with your neighbors if you install an exhaust system next to their property.
Operating a business without a license carries significant risks.
As a consultant,we need to be super polite and patient during conversations with landlords,neighbors,or government officers in order to work out solutions.