My Lamma Forums

[mojo]

Guys,

I started a creperies called Lily Garden (soft launched last Saturday), it's in Tai Yuen Village next to Mojo the candle shop. I want to get your opinion on this – the cafe is now open on weekends only, I have a full time job during weekdays but wouldn't mind switching over and run the cafe full time provided that there's sufficient business to sustain it. You think there's enough traffic on Yung Shue Wan during the weekdays? You think Lily Garden should open 7 days a week?


Thanks, any comment is appreciated.

[Lamma-Gung]

Welcome to Lamma.com.hk, mojo!

Enjoying your yummy crepe & strong coffee ("to wake up the dead") yesterday, I like your new place a lot!
It's got an ideal location overlooking the tourist trail coming up the hill in Tai Yuen, eye-catching furniture and very friendly, relaxed & bilingual service. This could become a viable little weekend and holiday business, if you'd promote it well and offer some more snacks for the tourists passing by.

As always, I followed my annoying habit of taking pictures of dishes in local restaurants, see below.

Making it a full-time, all-week business? Just a few comments:

1. From talking to most restaurants & bars on a regular basis (most of them current or former Lamma-zine advertisers), I know that the local F&B scene is a tough and overcrowded place. Many have tried and failed over the years. Ever more restaurants facing a shrinking population, many of them with very limited budgets for eating/drinking out.
   
2. Your location in Tai Yuen would rely mostly on weekend/holiday tourists, as it's too far outside the main villages up a hill, too far for a coffee for many lazy local residents, like myself. You need regulars to make the biz sustainable. Expected traffic during weekdays would be just a small fraction of weekends. That's why most shops up there open only on weekends & holidays.
   
3. If you're different, offering something new & good, it could become a success. More than juices, teas, coffee & crepes, which are available in several other places already.
   
4. Check out your direct main competitors on that road and see what they do right and wrong:
   Emily's, Tropicana, Honey Bee, "My Cafe" (reopening soon), dai pai dong opposite tea shop, Shelly's and the several sweet tofu places all the way up to Hung Shing Yeh beach.

To summarise, I'd advise to try weekends & holidays first for a few weeks or months and see how it's going, before giving up your steady-income day job, surviving on the potentially pretty small & highly fluctuating income from an all-week, outdoor-only cafe.

Or just take a week or two off from work and try it safely right now!

[mojo]

Thanks Lamma Gung,

Very helpful and intelligent comments indeed. I think for now I'd like to stick with the weekends first and see how it goes. Be sure to drop by again soon for our "waking up the dead"!

[Lamma-Gung]

Sale at Lily Garden and Mojo candle shop last weekend. I stocked up on candles and crockery. Disillusioned Mr Mojo is pulling out of Lamma. The two girls who tried to run the place for him - renaming the place to POW - didn't work out either and closed a while ago. My comments and advice above to Mr Mojo - when he just set up - were almost prophetic, unfortunately.

Stephen the Dollarfull is trying to sell the place, not renting it out any longer. Got some spare cash and always dreamed of running a little shop or restaurant on Lamma? Don't!
Gamble in the stock market instead, it's a much smaller risk and the chances for actual profits are much bigger...

Sorry about the poor photo quality... camera phone...