Rythm Blues!

Neither is it the new punchline nor is it the new name coined for our outlet... It is just the nervousness catching on us(rather me)... With work in full swing now(carpenters have made their base at our location) and talks for appointment of staff and cooks towards their final stages.. Work has got its RYTHM now.. Whats giving us the BLUES is the acceptability of this concept to Amdavadi crowds... We have many thoughts and fundas.. How many of them can be converted to reality?? Best location, one of the best designers, poaching staff from the best restaurants...

Ziddi

Yes it is frustrating, yes it is taxing, yes it is tiring and difficult. People management is the toughest part of any work. It may sound sexy like in mba books but its not as easy as it seems. Specially when people you have to get work done are a carpenter who is working on 50 other projects at the same time, the interior designer who is not bothered about money, the ironsmith who has not delivered anything on time and ur shop shutter is just one addition to it.

Probably that’s why they say starting a business is not an easy task. That’s why starting a restaurant is not as easy as it looks. That’s why businesspeople are task masters. That’s y they are classified as ruthless. That’s y we are determined like never before to start our business on the predetermined date. And that’s why we are charged up like never before.

Ziddi hum b yahan.

Men at work

We have been unusually silent for sometime now. We had to be, after all it takes a lot to build the most happening juice bar in town. So bear with our silence, and keep putting ur comments we promise to revert on each and every comment.

The update as of now is:
General Civil work is over
Last interior designs have come up. They are fantastic and Ahmedabad is surely gonna love it.
Already work on interiors has started, its gonna take another fifteen days before we can use it.
Simultaneously the menu design and item finalization is happening.
Slogan and logo are still a tricky part, yes we are being nosy and are very particular about every detail.
Freaking out on staffing, apart from the bartender nothing is finalised should get over on this weekend
U'LL get to see IPL matches on a fancy LCDTV along with the mocktails and exotic combination juices.

Mahurat Shot

Today being Sindhi new year we inaugurated the place. All other work will also start soon. We are pulling down a wall that separates two commercial units we have rented in. The interiors will soon start taking place.

How to sell???

Now with the location in our hands we have lots to do in very less time... It just feels as if the blood in our brains is replaced by adrenaline(as if we were going to invent the bulb again!!!). But with so many tasks lined up our minds will be short of placid moments essential for creative genesis. It would hence be great if you all could share ur views and opinions bout this project. We are looking for few words to take the place of punchline with our trade name. Trade name being Glass Full sounds cool has been contributed by my dear friend Karan. This has also come from the list of almost 10 to 15 names that he suggested. And the greatest of creations happen by accident. So let these juicy and thoughtful accidents happen as and when you all bask in peaceful moments and please do share them with us. While we are lining up architects and cooks we need cool graphics to use in our media communications. Juices have many things to be exploited as USPs be it health drinks to rising corporate trends. Think on any lines and contribute to selling these colourful extracts to people. With ur ideas u will atleast motivate us to sell a drink to u for free.....:-)

Location Location Location

We started with the thought of doing something small. Like a pavbhaji stall with a pinch of twist, we went on to decide opening a cafeteria with 1500 sqft of carpet area. We also thought serving non veg food would be a good idea as there are not many options in Ahmedabad. Made lots of inquires about a franchisees of pizza outlets, café, restaurant, ice cream parlor and so on. But all these thoughts were half hearted for at least one of us. Still on each of these thoughts we did thorough analysis and study. We went out to look for a place for all of these concepts. In the process we got to know where the realty prices were headed in Ahmedabad and also how foolish we were. A decent 1000 sq ft of place in an average locale will not cost you nothing less than a petti (INR 100K) as monthly rent.

We went into soft mood but kept looking out for location. During this we met lots of Ahmedabad k thag. There was a guy who was asking for 25K as rent for a 300 sq ft place on first floor in an average area, a person in the similar locality asked for 70K for a 1000 sq ft his contention was one day the sky will fall and the prices of that place will shoot up. Well that’s true with all the properties but u can not ask for the rent based on the future value. Decide if you want to give the place on rent and let the market decide rent. One gentlemen asked for 80K for an off peak location. One uncle is not willing to come down from his demand of 50k for a place which will not fetch more than 22k as rent. All these guys were in oblivion and that’s why their places are available for rent even after 3 months of first discussion. There was one good café for which we wanted franchisee badly the guys asked for franchisee fee which was our total venture budget. That café has no franchisee yet, last time during casual discussion they threw hints that they were ready to give franchisee at the third of the original quote. We wish all of them luck and hope they get desired rents / fees at least in this decade.

Finally one good day Uday was moving around with a broker on his scooty to look out for a place in the heat of Ahmedabad. To avoid traffic he took a small lane and there it was an under construction building standing tall with all the pride and dignity new yet smiling with confidence of a 50 year old. The place had everything we needed a good neighborhood, couple of nice eateries around, and realistic rental. The place was finalized.

The address: Road Facing Ground Floor, Galaxy Towers, Next to Mr. Beans Café, off CG Road, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad.

You all are welcome to come and inspect the place. We will be putting up a formal invite for the inaugration.

Taking Decision

I and Uday used to have these seducing thoughts of getting into food business before we were born. And then one day we both sat on a glass of Chivas when we decided to get into the pool together. The decision was made almost 9 months ago. So were we sitting on the thought and waiting for it to hetch? well sort of. We both had our full fledged careers where we were making decent amount of money and spending all the daylight time. Moreover getting into food business is no joke there are hazzaaar things (I will be sharing most of those in coming posts) you got to work on.

I was still with my Bangalore employer and Uday was working in Mumbai. Starting a brick and mortal business would mean we should be in the same geography. So I started looking out for job in Gujarat and Uday decided to call it quits at the right time.

What made us take this decision:
No it was not a mundane job that we were tired off. We both love our jobs still. It was neither the frustration of the bosses. It was not even a spirit of changing the world. I think it was plain sulemani keeda inside us that wanted us to work for ourselves, and enterprising spirit. Probably a cliché that Sindhis are born to do business worked here as well.

We were not our first choices as business partners. Uday had a group of friends and all of them went on to become NRIs. I thought my circle of friends had a different waive length and it would be difficult to work on something together. Involving relatives is too compromising. And after knowing a lot about each other we made this informed choice of becoming partners. So the business line was decided: Food business. And being from Gujarat, Ahmedabad was decided as the playing ground.

Ahmedabad market was an obvious choice because people eat out a lot here, the place is becoming more cosmo each day and the realty prices were affordable (at least at the time when we decided).

Enterprising

Hi guys this is my first entrepreneurial post.

Most of us nurture the thought of starting something of our own. I have been having this thought for ten years now. I have been craving for starting something of my own since I was in my tenth standard. The thought is now getting actuated, is getting executed. The thought has taken the shape of a small juice bar in Ahmedabad. The bar will serve fresh combination juices, sandwiches and kathi rolls. Yup I know it’s no rocket science and there is nothing new about it. it’s a tried and tested concept, and that is why I chose it. Doing something of my own was more important than doing something revolutionary. I never thought of anything else but to get into food business. This is one business where u can be as mundane or as creative as you dare. You can go to extreme levels of getting innovative and risk taking or you can chose to play the basic game and be on a safer side. What I am getting into is a reasonably safe and decently innovative concept.

So wish us luck and I will keep you posted about glass full, that’s what the place would be called.

P.S. for those who think guys are complete waste when it comes to cleaning, cooking and housekeeping, this venture is a brain child of two guys who are all game for everything including sweeping the floor and cleaning the doormats.