Zheng He' Dim Sum

This few month I received few question from my friends, ex customer & some investor about my previous business - Zheng He Dim Sum. Maybe for some of you that never heard about it is fine but this is the signboard...



Is a long long story about this business. Sweat, tears and basically everything that you can think off. I started this business out of my passion for food and especially food. Ever since I reverted in 10th August 2005, is very difficult for me and maybe majority of you to find a good economical Halal Chinese Food. Is far from what we have today. Today we have lot of choice in terms of Halal Chinese food and maybe even Dim Sum in Hj Shahrin Low Restaurant, Mohd Chan Abdullah Restaurant, Dong Yi Shun, China Treasure, MinMax and lot more.


HOW I STARTED
When I started this business idea I spent nearly 1 year researching about F & B as I do not have any qualification in this. How do I do my research? Basically my daily schedule start like this...

9am - 4pm
- Sit in Oldtown or any F & B outlet for my breakfast and my prefer location is beside their bar or a place where I can peep into their kitchen and look at how they position their kitchen equipment.
- Look at their menu and design
- Estimated crowd

Then finally I almost get what I want but that doesnt enough as I need a premises therefore I went looking for location and I end up at Dataran Glomac Kelana Jaya (where Mohd Chan Abdullah current outlet is). How brave and confident I am when the time I looking for premises I basically I have no capital, YES is right no capital. What I have that time is only A VISION, A DREAM.

I managed to sell my idea to 3 investor and group 3 of them together and start this business. I am sure you would like to know how I manage to do that but let me keep that for other time. So there we go and started the business and my objective is to hired at least one physical challenge individual & I manage to hired a mute & deaf name Christopher Lee. I have to push myself to learn sign language to communicate with him.


DOWNFALL
Although the business was ok but we start to develop some problem in terms of delivering. I mean delivery time since our kitchen is small so no point adding manpower but the space is not enough. Slowly we are losing our customer not to our competitor but to ourselves. I suggest to my partner to move to a different location that provide bigger space for kitchen but they couldnt agree due to financial terms. From there onwards I been left alone to sustain the business (practically I am the one who run the business as they would not pick up the call or sms and only call back few weeks later) but Allah knew the best. I run into debt and until I have to turn to Ah Long (Loan Shark ya not a friend call Ah Long) for help.


LOOKING FORWARD
Well my post is not to discuss and talk about my problem but more about what I learn in the process. There is few thing that make me proud of the business idea although it been TEMPORARY CLOSED for business is that I make a lot of friends among my customer and we still contacting each other also a Minister visit my shop with his family and ask from which country I get this franchise from? Franchise from other country? I told "Maaf Dato' konsep dan idea ni saya buat sendiri dan ini baru outlet yang pertama" and he was surprise and he told me this "bagus, bagus..teruskan dan saya akan suruh pegawai saya datang selepas 6-7 bulan awak beroperasi untuk membantu bagaimana untuk mengembangkan restoran awak ni ke franchise". Also there is few celebrities always patronize my outlet, and the most memorable is where there is an offer from a businessman in Melaka who happen drop by my outlet to sell him my franchise! Selling him a franchise? he must be kidding dont you think? I am happy but I knew we cant because we just operated for less than a month and we do not have SOP so how to franchise??? He told me that no worry we can work that out together gradually as long as I willing to franchise my concept and name to his company. I told him I have to discuss with my partner about this and he agreed but he want me to visit him in Melaka so he can show me where he intended to open and to discuss the terms and condition ASAP. I call & sms to my partner and they told me just go ahead and visit him so I went to Melaka to visit and tell him the t & c and he agree. He even asked me to choose where do I want to this outlet to be? Do I want it beside Pizza Hut or where? Actually, his company OWNED the whole shopping complex. WOW!!!

I am so excited while on my way back to Kelana Jaya and I start to imagine and think I going to become rich. My DREAM HAVE COME TRUE - TOO EARLY. I went back & met my partner to discuss this but the REJECTED. The rest are history. So to cut the story short, lets enjoy some of my previous dishes...

WARNING BEFORE YOUR PROCEED!!! PLEASE PREPARE TISSUE TO WIPE YOUR SALIVA!!!

Malat ChickenSiew Mai "KING"
No Name Prawn (This is the name actually)
Golden Ring Prawn (Marvellous!!!)
Fried Cheong Fun
Deep Fried Sotong
Deep Fried Butter Fish
Deep Fried Butter Fish
Honey Sesame Prawn
Lemon Chicken (You cant find this elsewhere now)
Wasabi Chicken (Exclusive in Zheng He ONLY)
Spicy Ramen

So that all people. Hope you enjoy the photo and do you make your keyboard wet? Drooling? Dont blame me. I have warn you beforehand..Please do not believe bulat bulat what I say. Here is some review from other...
> Zheng He Dim Sum Blog
> Photo Malaysia Food Review
> Flickr
> ShutterAsia