Source: delo.ua.
Delo.UA paid attention to the issue of how the state regulates the market of restaurants, whether it is difficult to collect all the necessary documents and how to prevent excessive attention of state controllers.
The previous year was the year of recovery for the restaurant market – in the capital, there were more restaurants opened than the closed ones for the first time since the crisis. This trend continues in 2017. According to the Restaurant Consulting company, about 60 new restaurants have been opened in Kiev for eight months, and their number is expected to be about 100-120 facilities by the end of the year.
Consultants say that there are mainly facilities opened at the middle and low end of the market. The low end of the market for Kyiv is the facilities with an average bill of up to 100 hryvnas, almost always with self-service, and the middle end is about 100-400 hryvnas.
In 2017, the number of visitors to restaurants has grown by about 10-15% compared with 2016. The average bill also increased to 15%. However, experts also suggest less positive forecasts: according to their estimates, about one third of restaurants opened a year or two ago will be closed this year. Some of them – because of high renting costs, and others – because of the unsuccessful facility’s concept.
How to obtain the necessary documents
The BRDO calculated that you would need to go through15-18 procedures and collect about 30-40 documents to open a restaurant in Ukraine. However, experts say that many procedures, starting from the moment of registering a business entity, have been already simplified. For example, you can register with the state registrar via the Internet. But this does not save entrepreneurs from the need to visit a tax office.
It is obvious that you need to understand the model of your future business even at the very first stage of preparation of documents. “Will you be engaged only in cooking borscht or pizza dishes? Or may be, you also intend to sell alcohol, be engaged in serving, organize food delivery or others?” the co-owner of the АRT Éclair cafe Evgen Yelizaryev explains. Indeed, the answers to these questions directly depend on how many procedures you need to go through and how many permits to receive.
It is also important to determine the form of doing business: the company will work as a self-employed individual or as a legal entity. Statistics show that the first form of doing business is much more popular than the other one: about 80-90% of restaurants, cafes and other catering facilities work as self-employed individuals.
The reason is not only that self-employed individuals have a much simpler accounting system. But also it is due to the fact that registrars of self-employed persons have the much lower tax burden. In addition, self-employed individuals paying a single tax, which are included to the first group (up to 200 thousand hryvnas of annual turnover) or the second one (up to 1 million
hryvnas of annual turnover), have another advantage – they do not need to use payment transactions recorders (PTR).
If a facility’s turnover is from 1 to 5 million hryvnas per year, it will still be necessary to register PTRs. But the entrepreneur will get another advantage: only this group can cooperate with clients-legal entities, for example, organize catering services.
You will need to spend not only money but also time to install and maintain cash registers. Actually, BRDO experts say that according to the law, this procedure is complicated: PTRs should be registered in the tax office, sealed by its producer, and then you will also need to keep a cash book and duplicate all transactions per day in it. Both entrepreneurs and state regulators believe that the last requirement is an unnecessary outdated rule.
You can learn more about the full procedure to register and obtain all permitting documents as well as possible reasons for the refusal on the PRO platform for effective regulation.
What you need to know when you open a restaurant
Despite the fact that there is a moratorium on business inspections by the end of 2017 in Ukraine, restaurateurs and state controllers face with a specific situation. The controllers still have the right to inspect companies on the basis of complaints of individuals. BRDO experts say that in the case of restaurant business inspections, control bodies are acting as if nothing had happened. Therefore, experienced restaurateurs pay attention to several key rules that should be followed.
It is necessary to ensure that the premises where the restaurant is located strictly meets the fire regulations. They say, this is not only to satisfy state controllers, but it is also a clear need you can not make savings on. “Even if nothing is burned out, but it is just smoky, you will immediately have all types of inspections,” Evgen Yelizaryev says. “And if they find a non-compliance with fire regulations, you will not be allowed to work further.”
It is important to pay attention to the drains that should be installed through grease removal tanks, as well as to the kitchen’s ventilation. After all, if the smells impact on the neighbors, they will certainly complain, and it threatens with inspections for business. At the same time, there are still outdated requirements for the number of kitchen spaces and their area.
Those facilities, which intend to make food themselves, will have to register also as “operators of food production” and comply with state standards for cooking dishes. The state still defines technological maps for the production of food products, for how they are stored and for the timing of their sale.
However, if the restaurant decides to cook something special, which the state does not envisage, it will have to get the technical conditions for this dish. And as experts on state regulation say, here the problems begin, because it is quite difficult to obtain technical conditions in Ukraine. It is not least because there is the lack of sufficient amount and quality of laboratories that could check the safety of a new product.
Therefore, Ukrainian restaurants are trying to adapt their products to the government’s standards. And whatever unusual dish was not invented by the restaurant, it will be, conventionally, a Kyiv chicken in technological terms.
How much money will you need to start
Entrepreneurs and experts say that the cost of entering the market depends on many factors. First of all, it depends on the cost of rent, the number of staff, repairs and equipment. The opening of the restaurant will cost you at least from $100 to $300 thousand or even more.