How tough is it to run a restaurant in Singapore? Should my wife and I invest into opening our own restaurant?

Some of my friends run a chain of successful Mookata restaurants. Now they living in condos, drive big cars. I see most of their day to day running is done by their employee, they only do high level works. Is it really that tough to run F&B? My wife and I are thinking to invest our money into opening our own Mookata place too.

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Nathaniel

09 Nov 2021

The F&B industry closure rate is very high. I can't find exact statistics for the closure rate in Singapore, but in the US, 60% of restuarants shut down in their first year, and 80% of all restaurants will close within 5 years. That sounds about right for our local market too. Think of places like New York New York, Tony Roma's, Chili's, etc. which have all closed down. Even famous eateries like China Club and Bakerzin, both of which survived for almost 20 years, ultimately had to shut down.

It's not that common for restauranteurs to succeed. Your friends who own these Mookata restaurants probably work day in and day out behind the scenes. You only see what others want you to see; they might not show you the 100+ hour weeks and insane stress that comes with running multiple F&B joints.

You should think carefully about how you're going to execute your planned Mookata business. Starting a restuarant will easily cost your wife and you several hundred thousand dollars. This sum of cash could easily form a good base for you to invest in stocks to build your retirement fund. If your Mookata restaurant tanks and you fail to recoup your investment, you're going to have to deal with a delayed retirement, along with a whole host of other financial setbacks. Of course, if you do well, the sky's the limit, and you could certainly end up wealthy like your friends too :)

Make sure you do lots of background research and planning as the first step. Here's a curated selection of some online resources, so you can have a thorough read before you plunge head in: