Written Communication: February 2010

My First Business in The U.S.
The name of my business was Thai Café at 201 E Bethany Dr. Allen, Texas. There were 32 seats in Thai Café in the small shopping district. It was a brand new restaurant about 1,050 SQ.FT. The building is two years old and there are 5 stores in this area: Japanese restaurant, Thai restaurant, Brooklyn Deli, salon, and an empty space. The Japanese restaurant named Hibachi and the Brooklyn Deli belong to the landlord.

We started our business on March 2008. My sister bought the business because the landlords were so nice, and offered her everything, such as setting up, and helping to make a down payment plus rent free for two months. The landlords are also Thai. When Jang bought the business, I was in California. I didn’t know anything about the restaurant until August 2008. I went there to visit my sister and surprised her for her birthday but I was surprised more than her when I learned she bought the restaurant. Before I went to visit her, she asked me to move there many times but I said no because she didn’t give me any reasons. I thought a lot about it because I just applied for school. Finally I moved because she couldn’t take care of her business by herself and I thought I could build the business. It was the hardest time in my life. I was so proud to have my own business instead of being a student. After I moved, I redecorated and reengineered the restaurant. Then I started to do the marketing strategy that I learned from my undergraduate education. I tried to apply this knowledge to run the business.

The location was good because there is only one Thai restaurant in this eastern site. It is close to freeway and on the main street is busy in this part of town. My place was so small and hard to see. The customers recommended doing the sign outside. I tried to ask the landlord to do the monument sign but they said they didn’t have money to do that. Then I thought I had to do something else to present my restaurant. I advertised flyers, hangers, a banner, in a local magazine, and communication online. I tried to create a good advertisement but I had no idea about the community because I just moved there. I didn’t know about their lifestyle and that challenged me. I had to work 7 days a week, no holidays, no days-off to improve the business. Besides my job in the restaurant I had to do all the paperwork and it was so difficult because I was not very good in English. I never had any kind of business here before. It was so different from my country, such as sale tax, property tax, income tax, state law, and federal law. I just moved there 2 years ago and I didn’t have any idea about the law in Texas. I worked hard and studied hard by myself because my sister couldn’t understand English at all.
In the kitchen, my sister’s friend was the chef. The chef was responsible, adroit, and skillful but she lacked the consistency of quality. Chef must cook good food, good taste, and maintain the flavor but the problem was my chef couldn’t maintain the flavor. Her flavor of food often fluctuated. After that happened, I told her to have standard cooking measurement. Although I had a chef, she was not enough, I still had to go buy the ingredients in the morning, do the inventory, and prepare the ingredients for cooking. It was a lot of work.

My business grew very well until October 2008. Then the economic recession began and the Wamu bank closed. This was directly affecting to all kinds of businesses. The restaurant was slow. In the meantime my business still maintained and the income still covered the expenses. Then I realized that the restaurant was not growing anymore or perhaps it would take a long time to build the business.
I finally realized I need to get more education and I needed more business experience. I discussed with my sister about our business situation. We should sell the business even though we couldn’t get the capital gain. We couldn’t make money and we lost the time. Even if my business wasn’t successful, I didn’t feel guilty because I thought I was lucky to have a restaurant business. I remember the customers who became my friend were candid and cordial. In the end I don’t feel bad because even though we sold the business, it was my first Thai restaurant business in the United State of America.