In 2022, I embarked on an exciting yet challenging venture: opening a small café in the Marina area of Dubai. We launched under the name "Doqqan," nestled beneath the Marsa Village building. Our menu was simple but delightful, offering Turkish baklava, ice cream, and coffee. At first, the business flourished. In the initial six months, we saw excellent sales, and our customers loved every detail, from the taste of our baklava to the finesse of our coffee. Everything seemed promising.
However, as the summer season approached typically around May things started to shift. In 2023, Ramadan began a bit earlier than usual, and this had a notable impact. With Ramadan, the pace of tourism slowed, and out of respect for those fasting, fewer people dined out. Our daily sales dropped by roughly 90%. This decline continued into the summer months, and even when Ramadan ended, tourism didn't pick up as we had hoped by September.
Another challenge was staff turnover. We had invested in visas and training for our employees, but many saw these F&B jobs as temporary. We lost experienced staff and had to bring in new hires, incurring additional costs around 7,000 to 10,000 dirhams per person just to get them onboarded and trained. This process took about three months and strained our resources further.
By the time Dubai's peak season arrived in November, when people typically spend more time outside, we were still struggling to regain momentum. Despite our best efforts, sales didn’t bounce back as expected. We had invested around 400,000 dirhams into the business, and eventually, it felt like a burden rather than a profitable venture. The monthly returns dwindled to the point where we were essentially just paying ourselves a minimal salary for 18 months, becoming workers in our own struggling business rather than successful owners.
In hindsight, the scale of our investment might seem surprising for such a small location, but costs like rent, additional fees from the developer (Emaar), and operational expenses really added up. It was a valuable learning experience. There is certainly potential in Dubai for cafés, but tapping into that potential requires careful planning. I strongly recommend that any business owner seek advice from professional business coaches in Dubai, because the market here is quite unique. Experience from other countries alone often isn't enough to navigate the specific challenges of Dubai’s business landscape.
In my next blog, I’ll dive deeper into the lessons learned specifically from running restaurants in Dubai. Stay tuned for that if you're interested in more insights on the F&B scene here!