16/07/2025
WHY DO RESTAURANTS FAIL IN DUMAGUETE CITY
DISCALIMER:
Do not take any of my advice
I am not an expert
Infact I am a failed businessman
All of the things you will read below are my experiences.
There is no reason for you to be influenced by this.
Just giving out my two cents.
So….
I have had 4 branches of Big Poppa’s Before and each one of them failed
I was ashamed to tell the story before but now i am going to to help others.
Im gonna do this all in bullet form rather than paragraph
WHY IT FAILED
-I got burnt out
-Staffing Issues/ Human Resource
-Competition
-Market
-Finances
-Lack of Experience
-Lack of Passion
I GOT BURN OUT
I’m telling you i had endless sleepless nights, no steady salary for about 4 years, emotional binge eating due to stress
F**k i got really fat and sad
I wasn’t happy anymore, i did not take holidays or day offs, i was the reliever whenever someone would call in sick
Constantly training new hires while at the same time being a good husband and being a new Dad to a beautiful baby girl.
There’s so much stress going in a business man’s mind and sometimes if not handled correctly can lead to a burnout.
STAFFING
“Sir di ko ka duty”
“Sir absent ko ugma”
“Sir ma late ko”
“Sir resign nako”
Or in worse cases they went AWOL
When I opened my first restaurant all
I wanted to do was cook, but no! You cant do that! Most of the time you’re attending to people.
Customers, suppliers and even more: employees!
The constant no shows for interviews
The constant reminders to do this standard correctly
The never ending back stabbing stories you hear from each one of them towards their other co employees
The never ending requests, cash advances and problem solving that you need to undergo! Heck i didn’t sign up for this!
I used to be a fun owner i swear!
I used to give them birthday salo2x that consists of almost 2 main dishes a cake and an ice cream whilst closing down the restaurant for about an hour just to celebrate the birthday
I gave them above minimum pay with proper overtime pay , 13th month, bonuses, yearly get -together-outings, even had LECHON saturdays for staff meal IMAGINE!!!!
I gave my old clothes to them
(To those who know me all of my clothes are branded 😂🫠)
MY JORDANS! I GAVE THEM MY JORDANS!!
And I slowly watched myself be a fu***ng miserable horrible owner.
I just had enough, like you know those times wherein you say
“ahh sige nlng ako”
Yep that was it.. no matter how you make them comfortable in their working area they seem to just bring in problem after problem with them.
Don’t get me wrong.. most of them we’re really good and kind and caring etc.
I JUST HAD AN UNBELIEVABLE EXPECTATION FOR THEM which was truly wrong. Very Very wrong.
COMPETITION
I’m not talking about other burger joints or what. I’m talking restaurants in general. There are alot!!!!!
I just think Dumaguete needs more people for all of the restaurants here to flourish and survive!
Side note
Dear Dumaguete,
DO
WE
REALLY
NEED
ANOTHER COFFEE SHOP?
FFS!!! THERE’S LIKE 30-40 BRANDS ALREADY 🤣
Love,
Sam
MARKET
These are Dumaguete’s Market:
Kidding there’s just ONE
HAHAHA! And if one restaurant opens people would flock at that place for a good 6 months.. 1 year if you’re lucky or if you’re food is good
Then they will slowly go away, then you start to do paid ads, then they come back! Then they go away again. And it’s a cycle!
For something to stand out to the market what i noticed with successful brands are:
-the item needs to be cheap OR valuable (meaning if mahal, it needs to be sulit!)
-it needs to be accessible
-it needs to be aesthetic
-it needs to be trendy
-it needs to taste ok. Typical not-so-yummy but enough to be interesting.
One of the brands i look up to is KAPENG LOKAL.
Just wow. They have so many branches and everything works well like a well oiled machine.
FINANCES
I had no savings
Every single profit we had before went to reinvesting into new branches, new equipment, new talent, new brands, new location
Everything new
I wanted to do every single thing there is without knowing the staff sometimes cant handle it.
I scaled up the wrong way
My mindset was put everything back to the business which is clearly wrong.
I failed with finances.
LACK OF EXPERIENCE
I had tons of cheffing, restaurant and waitering experience.
But where i failed was the managing side.
Human resource
Financials
Marketing
Analytics
Logistics
Operational
I know how to cook AMAAAZING food but i failed in those areas.
I wasn’t ready.
I had close to no mentors because my EGO was big.
I believe I didn’t need any help lol.
LACK OF PASSION
When you reach burnout, passion goes away. Until now my passion for cooking is not yet fully there. Maybe it was not for
Me jud. Or maybe in the future there will be another one.
Wow if you reached this far COMMENT: DUMAGUETE IS AWESOME!
anyways.. this is a
Long ass post.
Idk if it’s worth reading but if you’re gonna give me pity praises and pity hugs then thank you.
I just needed to put this out for content and i know if you’re a RESTAURANTEUR IN DUMAGUETE you can definitely relate to this!
So to all of you who are still fighting the good fight out there!
Stay strong.. take it one day at a time.
One problem after another.
There’s alot of FAILED restaurants already and there will be alot more.
AGAIN, THERE WILL BE MORE
If you feel you’re one of the failing ones i SUGGEST you seek some professional help from successful business people ❤️❤️❤️
