Restaurateur Aditya Wanwari On Running Multiple Outlets In Mumbai And How He Stays Motivated

Mumbai's Aditya Wanwari is a 28-year-old entrepreneur, restaurateur and founder of Toast Inc. Through his company, Aditya owns multiple restaurants in the city. His company also provides consultancy services to many hotels and eateries all over India. Aditya's journey to success has been a roller coaster ride as he worked as a professional DJ. During the peak of his career, he decided to venture into the F&B industry and has never looked back.

For Aditya Wanwari, going solo and becoming an entrepreneur took work. There were many challenges, and he faced them all without giving up. His success results from hard work and lessons he learned in the last 6-7 years. Aditya shared about his challenges: "An entrepreneur serves many roles, including those of owner, manager, accountant, marketer, and spokesperson. The entrepreneur needs to be knowledgeable about all of the above for a startup to truly succeed and gain some recognition while also trying to stand out in the competitive restaurant industry. In my field, capital expenditures are very significant. It can potentially cost 30 to 40 lakhs to open a tiny 500 square foot bistro. Prior to beginning, you need money for working expenses such employee pay and electricity."

Restaurateur Aditya Wanwari learned through his setbacks and made some amazing decisions that helped Toast Inc and his multiple restaurants to become such a huge success today. His restaurants include Donna Deli, Baodim, Foodlez, Shy, Demy and more. Running multiple food outlets while providing consultancy services is challenging. So Aditya was asked how he manages to multitask and stay motivated. The entrepreneur gave an interesting and informative answer.

Aditya Wanwari stated, "Pre opening of a restaurant, it's concept planning and branding is the critical part. Once that is aced, then a lot of it falls in place much easier after. We have strong SOPs (standard operation procedures) which are followed through all the restaurants. We are fortunate to have a really strong team of close to 250 people that support this as well. Keeping them motivated is essential as they are the pillars of the organisation."

He added, "We also have cost controllers at each venue making sure the business is sustainable throughout as running a restaurant opening can be very expensive and keeping a check on costs is very important. For a restaurant owner, there is no better motivation than a customer coming to your outlet, trusting you and your place, dining and appreciating your work. This is pure bliss."