What are the advantages and disadvantages of opening a restaurant in your country? by Marina Pigaleva

Russia is the biggest country in the world. So we have difficulty with organizing our lives. We have different areas in our country. Some of them are not successful. Perhaps, I am a lucky girl, because I live in the capital of Russia. I live in Moscow. It is a very beautiful city with different opportunities for everybody. People from far-away parts of Russia don’t really like this city, because they think that all the money of the country stays in Moscow. I suppose that a little part of this is true. Basically you have a lot of facilities for reaching your dream. For example if your main dream is to open a restaurant you can do it. Perhaps it will be easier to open a restaurant, for example, in England than in Russia, but you can.
There are many restaurants in Moscow, but if you want to open your restaurant you have you think about people. What can you suggest to them? For example, maybe it will be a respected brand or it will be a pretty café where people can relax and be in a good mood. Perhaps you will open a fashionable restaurant. Anyhow the cuisine in your restaurant must be delicious. So you have to find the main idea of your restaurant.
Obviously, Moscow’s restaurants make a good profit. I suppose it does not depend on their place, because if you have a restaurant in the centre of Moscow you will have a high price for rent. So your overheads can be more than your profit.
In spite of this we have a lot of cafes and restaurants in the middle of the centre. I think that the best restaurants are there.
Actually, if you are the best chef it does not mean that your restaurant will be successful, because you must be a good manager. We have a really good chef in Moscow. He opened a lot of restaurants and I suppose that all of his projects were successful. I think he is a talented person. I suppose 30% of Moscow’s restaurants belong to him. He has good experience and is an excellent example for people.
However, it is very difficult to open a restaurant in our country, because sometimes the rules for opening are impossible.
Another reason disadvantage is that you need to have a lot of money to start. Actually Russian banks do not really like to lend money and interest on a loan is 18-19 % per year. It is very expensive to use this money. However the profit of a restaurant sometimes is 40 – 70 % per year, if we are speaking about successful restaurants.
In particular if you have a restaurant you have to decide about organizational problems and definitely the problems of staff.
To sum up I think it is a good idea to open a restaurant in my country. It is a good experience and a very interesting job.