Welcome To Wendy Kwek’s Blog

In October 06, Wendy’s Bistro, a fine dining concept restaurant was officially opened. So far, the feedback of the food in Wendy’s Bistro has been fabulous!! Even though we are two months old, we are already having regular customers from all walks of life. We are positioning ourselves with the USPs of serving the yummiest portabello mushroom, juiciest grilled steaks, heavenly red wine and the famous Mango Lassi (my favorite) at a fraction of fine dining price.

Even though Jerome and myself are considered the majority shareholders of the business, the working team behind the restaurant are the TRUE HEROS…. I have absolutely no experience in running a restaurant but with a DREAM TEAM, everything is possible!! The HEROS are primarily Jeffri (our celebrity chef who cook with great passion) and David Gan (operations / franchise expert with KFC) and we are blessed to have very supportive shareholders like Mr Wong, Mr Tham, Michael Ram and Johnson. I must admit to you that it was not easy starting up and running a restaurant business. It takes a lot more resources and on-going commitment to make the business work. It is our plan to franchise out this business after the first year of running this business.

Wendy’s Bistro is located at No.20 Jalan PJS 8/18, Dataran Sunway Mentari, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (just 5 minutes from Sunway Pyramid, Subang Jaya). Honestly, I was not around throughout the setup process, except viewing and confirming the location of the restaurant. After confirming the location, which was totally vacant and unfinished, the next time I went there was two months later, when the whole setup of the restaurant was completed. I was totally pleased with the outcome! I know that in the process the team has put in their blood, sweat and tears. It was truly a manifestation. Turning ideas into a reality.

There were quite a lot of challenges that the team has faced.
1) The team had limited funds to work with and they had to be so resourceful that everything gets done with tip top quality at a fraction of the price. If you see the decor you would agree everything was tastefully done.
2) Other challenges include signage not done up according to specs, aircon not sufficient due to open kitchen concept, disageements on pricing strategies, staff leaving without notice, things gotten stolen, sales volume was very low…and there were just so many internal and external challenges.

However, with perserverance, there is indeed the light at the end of the tunnel!! Last week end, just after two months from the opening of the restaurant, we have to turn away customers!!

Over the last weekend we had to turn away quite a number of guests due to great PR stint in Star newspaper. (Thanks to Su Ying for her getting in the press like the Star and Sun papers.) It was a great feeling having to turn away customers. That gave us so much more confidence. So what did we do when the restaurant is facing full-house situation? Instead of turning away the guests and leave them disappointed, we offered the guests $20 in restaurant voucher as a goodwill of dropping by our restaurant and they leave feeling happy instead of feeling disappointed. The restaurant generated over RM10,000 in two days. Thanks to Jerome, Su Ying, Jefri, David, Stanley and the rest of the dedicated team of people for making it happen. Honestly, I did not do much at all since I am based more in Singapore.

What I learn from Wendy’s Bistro is that :

1) It is important to have the right team. Once you have a good team, you should entrust the team and give the team the space to function and to support when they needed help.

2) It is important to continously align expectations as any unhappiness is normally because of expectations. Be willing to share what you feel in a constructive and supportive way.

3) We have to be versatile in situations. Turn adversity into opportunity. The people who received the RM20 vouchers were grateful and instead of feeling upset for not experiencing the yummy food, they are going to come back with their friends and families!”

4) Marketing can work effectively once you learn how to do so and it is possible to leverage on media to multiply your results no money down!

5) Most importantly, I have confirmed that believing is seeing. Jerome has proven once again that with faith and massive action, the results will come to pass!! There is nothing that is impossible. The team was intially very doubtful that the business would even be able to surpass RM2000 per day. However, most people look at the current results and say, “see, it is impossible to succeed.”

Lastly, I would like to leave my team with this. “I am truly proud of you team for holding the fort, you are all winners!” TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves Miracles.

Now,if you happen to go to Malaysia, KL, Petaling Jaya, you may want to pop by Wendy’s Bistro. Get a feel of Wendy’s Bistro at www.wendysbistro.com. Ask for a discount from Jeffri or David and I am sure they will work out something from you. Cheers!!