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| Roberto De Carvalho, Roberto's Signature Restaurant Photo: Peter Unsworth |
Have you always been
entrepreneurial?
For 16 years I worked for other people, but the last three years, I would
probably say, is when I started to formulate how I would go about starting my
own restaurant.
What were you doing before
starting your business?
Prior to this I was the resort Executive Chef at the One&Only Hotel.
Being in charge of world-renowned restaurants such as Nobu and Reuben’s at the
One&Only also made me realise that I was capable of opening and running a
successful restaurant of my own.
What kind of planning went
into starting the venture?
I would say that an elaborate business plan is necessary, especially
if you are opening a restaurant with many facets to think about (décor, food
style, pricing, location, etc.). It gives you a good place to start from and I
think that when you write a business plan for your own restaurant, you want
your business to be the best it can be. It’s a great reminder too if you try
and keep what you are doing on a daily basis, in line with what you thought of
when you first did your business plan.
What was your start up
capital and where did you work from?
My capital came from 10 years of saving and some investment from my
father – I contacted letting agents and then started to view premises for my
restaurant until I found the one which I thought had the best location, as well
as the best rental payment that I could afford.
What was your big dream
for this venture?
To be the best Mediterranean-style restaurant in Cape Town, offering
five-star quality food and service at affordable prices.
How does a new
entrepreneur find business leads and profit from them?
Every possible angle has to be utilised – in my line of business it
means staying in touch with the concierges of the surrounding hotels, so that
they send their guests to us for at least one meal while they’re in Cape Town.
This brings many new feet into the restaurant – people who would probably never
have known about us had the concierge not informed them about us.
How does a new
entrepreneur figure out what makes them unique and leverage that difference?
By seeking out weaknesses in other businesses like yours and
implementing better ways of doing things in your own business – I have found
that not many restaurants in Cape Town cater to the vegetarian population, so I’ve
implemented a vegetarian menu with new and different items on it to bring the
vegetarians back and get them talking about it to their friends who are also
vegetarian.
How does a new
entrepreneur figure out what to charge for their service/product?
For me, I did price comparisons between the other restaurants around
me. To start off, I pegged our prices somewhere in the middle of the
competition because I didn’t want to be the cheapest, but I also didn’t want to
be the most expensive and scare potential customers away when they saw the
menu. From there, after a few months, I became aware of items that customers said
they couldn’t get better in other restaurants, which meant I could then start to
adjust the prices slightly to balance with the demand for those dishes.
What was your most epic
fail in the early days?
Hiring the wrong staff – I eventually re-hired and became more
stringent in the hiring process.
What are the two biggest/most
common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make in their first three years of
business?
Over-capitalising and not sticking to budgets.
How do you keep yourself
motivated?
By remembering a little 9-year-old boy who was adamant that he
wanted to be a chef and make people happy by providing them with the food that
they like to eat.
Did you have a mentor?
I have three major mentors in my life: my father, who taught me to
either do something properly or not at all; the second is Rudi Liebenberg who,
I believe, pushed me in the right direction to make me the chef that I am today.
My third mentor is Clive Bennett, who taught me the finer details of running a
business from the financial aspect and forced me to rethink ideas I had about
how to try and run a business with as little costs as possible.
How long does it take for
a venture to get off the ground, in your experience?
In the restaurant business, I think it takes at least three years to
get your name out to as many people as possible and that action plan should be tweaked as
many times as needed during this time to make the business a viable entity. After
that period, if you’re still not succeeding, I think it would be a good idea to
shut shop.
In your opinion, is it
ever alright to give up on a dream?
No it isn’t, as long as it is not to the detriment of your health or
financial stability!
If you could give yourself
any advice back then, what are your top 5 wisdoms?
* Save more money in summer to cover the winter months.
* Make sure to count stock more regularly to ensure that all is
accounted for.
* Put more Portuguese items on the menu from the get-go as there’s a
lack of good Portuguese food in Cape Town.
* Train staff more thoroughly. Show them how you want things to be
done and triple check that they understand how you want the “ship” to be
steered.
* Get out of the kitchen and speak to your customers every chance
that you get.
Get in touch with Roberto De Carvalho from Roberto’s Signature
Restaurant via email: info@robertodecarvalho.co.za,
visit: www.robertodecarvalho.co.za
or find him on Facebook or Twitter: @chefdecarvalho
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