Everything you needed to open a Restaurant.

Dear tntruong.

I hope I didnt make you to change your mind.

What kind of restaurant do you want to open?Seafood?Western food?

I think location and decoration are very important. Imitate a young trend, you will attract many customers but delicous food will keep the customers

I wonder if I can help you somehow cos I am interested in open a restaurant in the future too.

I just see this. You can use google translate to see what they said.
http://www.amthuckhachsan.com.vn/thong- … -c76.htmlh

Regards

The link has an error. I'm planning to open a world kitchen restaurant.  But I'm sure there are things I'm not familiar with, such as different types of renting contracts, business licenses, freelance, partnership contracts or shareholding contracts. Are there differences? Other possibilities ? I need to educate myself in order to not get "ripped off" what I'm hearing a lot about vietnam.

regards,
tn truong

Dear TnTruong,

I think you cant have other choices about the renting contracts when you find a good place among many places. Just ask a lawyer at that time because this is their job and read the rules carefully. Many areas are just good to rent, not buy when the landlord can change their mind to take back the house as they see you do a good business.

I don't know what you decide: opening a hotel or a restaurant. For opening a hotel with a restaurant, you can set up 2 limited companies. If you want to open a restaurant only, one limited company is enough although I see there are some restaurants set up 2 companies (one is for beverage and one is for food). Those companies will release yourself from debts of the restaurant/hotel and many stuffs like regulations or TAX.

About business licence, I cant tell you exact licences you need to prepare cos I don't know how your restaurant is. But serving wines or beers also ask some licences.

You will need to back-pay a bit for medical and firefighter staff to have some papers to hang in the restaurant.

Regards

Is everything do-able? Like monthly costs I'm not aware off? Contracts rip-offs? I have heard stories about the landlord taking back shops or increasing rent if business is running good. I have heard stories about people standing in front the building not letting customers in, stories about people walking in claiming money. Also that you will need a local to put the restaurant under his name.

Thanks in advance,
tn truong

Hello.

I assume you're an expat? If so, there are a bunch of legal hurdles you'll need to go through before you can open a restaurant.

In Vietnam, by law, foreigners cannot own and open standalone restaurants, unless they are also involved in the hotel business. In this situation, you will need to have the restaurant opened in the name of a Vietnamese person and you two will need to enter into a cooperation contract of sorts. Otherwise, you may get into all sorts of trouble with the authorities.

Message me if you need more advice. I work in the legal field in Vietnam so perhaps I can help.

Tn truong wrote:

Is everything do-able? Like monthly costs I'm not aware off? Contracts rip-offs? I have heard stories about the landlord taking back shops or increasing rent if business is running good. I have heard stories about people standing in front the building not letting customers in, stories about people walking in claiming money. Also that you will need a local to put the restaurant under his name.

Thanks in advance,
tn truong

Monthly costs are usually into 2 groups: legal costs and illegal costs. The illegal costs are for policemen (area mafia)-2-5m/month depends on how big your business is. Landlord cant take back the shop before the contract still takes efficiency but I suggest you to read and make a big sum amount of compensation if this happens. That is a bad trick if people stand in front of restaurant not letting customers in. There are many dirty tricks but I believe a good food, special atmosphere and good attitude will keep customers.

About the rules, I can assume for you:

1. If you want to rent a land or a restaurant to do business, it is impossible for you to register your name. But this rule can last 8 years after the day VN joined into WTO. It means it can be changed in 2016 when import tax will be 0% for WTO countries.

2. If you want to build up or buy a restaurant to do business, you can register your name as an investor.

Regards