What Entrepreneurs Need To Know About Opening A Restaurant In Dubai Opening and successfully operating any business requires resilience and an entrepreneurial mindset, along with strategic leadership and smart systems.

Is it challenging to open a restaurant in Dubai?

Not more than it is in any other major city in the world.

Opening and successfully operating any business requires resilience and an entrepreneurial mindset, along with strategic leadership and smart systems.

Understanding that you are taking a step into the ownership of your own dreams and goals, as well as impact so many lives, can help fathom the expected challenges of being a business owner in F&B.

But if you're considering an starting an entrepreneurial journey in the restaurant industry, there are some hard truths to be aware of.

Firstly, the F&B business is competitive, and we are watching some really good concepts and offerings opening doors every year, so opening a restaurant can be challenging if you plan to do it without a conceptual strategy, or with a mediocre product, wrong location, or poor forecasts. You need to prepare properly for success.

In Dubai, we still have a small market share in terms of population to serve all of the new openings, which makes it even more crucial to research and build a strong feasibility study with forecasted financial numbers. It can be challenging if you do open without a good understanding of how the F&B industry runs on numbers.

Location has always been a very important strength in F&B, and it is relevant in Dubai too. Being able to identify size and rent versus potential and possibilities of making profits in that space are strategic decisions. Good locations are also in short supply, and finding the right fit remains a top challenge, just like in any other cosmopolitan major city in the world.

Next comes the need for leadership and a people-focused mentality, a lack of which is what I believe to be one of the biggest reasons for failure in the F&B domain. There is too much expectation by employers for staff to make business owner decisions. So, if you wish for your restaurant to be run on auto-pilot by restaurant managers and chefs with strong leadership, resource management, and strategic decision-making, that's a true challenge you will face.

Lastly, Dubai is a city of opportunity as well as magnitude. Don't be faint hearted. Plan, strategize, and get the right resources and partners on board, and then, play to win. If you are planning to open a restaurant, aim to be the best in all its offerings from product, location, marketing, service, and operational control.

Remember, challenges mean opportunities. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity. I'd rather grow, improve, evolve, and thrive in a challenging market like Dubai, than stagnate in old bureaucratic regions that may be more stable, but do not support entrepreneurial vision.

But then again, that's just my opinion, and 25 years of calling Dubai my home may have honed me in that direction. I've been opening, operating and helping clients for the last two decades, and I continue to believe after experiencing the recession of 2008, and now the global COVID-19 pandemic, that we have enough historical data to prove how Dubai's consistent commercial decisions, entrepreneurial spirit, resilience, and affluent population make opening a restaurant here (and successfully running it) to be no more challenging than in other parts of the world.

Every challenge is different, but the human spirit is a learner and a survivor. The F&B business is the same. It is simply survival of the fittest- armed, of course, with the best concept, strategy, and operating skills.

Related: Building A Future-Ready Restaurant Business In The UAE: The How-To