Back on the right track

"Running a restaurant involves a different kind of stress because there’s no room for error." — Bryan Tiu of Teriyaki Boy

Iwas 19 when I managed my first business, a franchise for a pretty popular food brand. I was young and cocky and made a lot of mistakes–plus, the support from the franchiser wasn’t there–so I had to close the business after five years. But I never considered that experience a failure because I learned a lot: about the importance of being hands-on and not sinking into a comfort zone because the competition is always out there. These are lessons I am now applying in Teriyaki Boy.

The restaurant business is challenging, but it is easier for me to handle because it is something that I love and am familiar with. If I had gone into a different business that was easier to run, I would still have difficulty managing it because it is not my passion. Still, running a restaurant involves a different kind of stress because there’s no room for error; once you’ve served a dish that a customer doesn’t like, there’s not much you can do about it.

I remember the day we opened our very first branch in San Juan, when I was caught unprepared by the huge turnout. I did not sleep for two straight days and lost about 15 pounds that first week.

Right now business is okay. We have 10 branches and hope to put up branches abroad soon. The challenges are always there, but we focus on our strengths and learn from our weaknesses. What keeps us busy is developing new things for customers. We’ve introduced service innovations like the seating guarantee and the touch-button service, and every three months we try to come up with new dishes.

My family has always been active in socio-civic projects, and I’m doing the same with Teriyaki Boy now. Just last August we launched our first ever Tanabata Festival Grant-A-Wish project. The Tanabata is a festival in Japan where the wishes of the less fortunate kids are granted, and we applied the concept here by tying up with three foundations to grant the wishes of 30 kids. At first, we only planned to have our customers vote on which wish to grant, but after seeing how simple the wishes were–a pair of rubber shoes, a trip to the Manila Zoo–we decided that we would grant all 30. We hope to be able to continue doing this for many years to come.

I don’t consider myself successful or on top yet, because I feel there is no limit to where I can take my business. My advice to would-be entrepreneurs is to eliminate their fear of failure. Many are afraid to go into business because they worry about how it would reflect on them if the business failed: kesyo nakakahiya or honor student pa naman ako nung high school, etcetera. But if you’re young, you have time to recoup your losses. Look at me: I failed in my first venture, but now I’m back.

Be optimistic. Many are saying that it’s a mistake to put up a business in the Philippines because it’s so unstable, but if you review our history, we had Martial Law, we had all those coups, we had all those People Power revolutions–but we survived. The country just went through the usual cycle of good and bad times, but it’s the bad conditions that are perfect for young entrepreneurs like us because we can grab every opportunity that comes our way instead of waiting for things to improve. So grab that opportunity.

Recently, we grabbed another opportunity when we sold 70 percent of Teriyaki Boy to Pancake House for P230 million. Both companies share a common direction – ultimately it’s about going global – and we’re very excited about the partnership. I promise better things to come to all our customers. – Interview by Jaclyn Lutanco-Chua.

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Teriyaki Boy Inc.
Telephones: (02) 914-5256 to 57
Fax: (02) 914-5258
E-mail: [email protected]