Momo-loving food enthusiasts will be happy to hear the news that ‘Everest Mo:Mo:’, the popular Nepalese restaurant, has recently launched a second restaurant at Westmead. Realise Business has helped the owners upscale smoothly, to the delight of dumpling devotees.
Santosh Adhikari and his business partner started Everest Mo:Mo: in the heart of Parramatta many years ago, seeing the potential in the Australian market for a truly authentic Nepalese dining experience. With the success of the business they envisaged expansion – their view is to scale up to include five specific sites during the next three to five years, with the potential to then franchise the operation.
They decided to position themselves as Sydney’s main supplier of momos – the Nepali dumplings made from various combinations of ground meat, vegetables, tofu and paneer cheese. With its mouth-watering dumplings in hot demand, Everest now offers more than 59 momo varieties. In 2020 they decided to set up a branch restaurant in the neighbouring suburb of Westmead.
Plans to realise the dream
Managing their second big business step was potentially as important as launching the first restaurant, so the owners opted to work with Realise Business Advisors Tim Noye and Sue Walsh.
Careful planning was required to successfully scale up the whole business. Realise Business helped with producing operational and marketing strategies to match the demands of a second successful establishment.
In particular Santosh sought advice from Tim and Sue regarding local area operations, marketing tips, securing permits and tips to scale up sustainably.
The Realise Business Advisors worked with Santosh on marketing and operational strategies to leverage the original restaurant’s following and carve a new niche for the Westmead branch.
Targeted marketing for the new location
The business was in the fortunate position of having great word-of-mouth recommendations from its Parramatta patrons, but benefited from extra tactics to market the new restaurant, including:
- Revamping the original website – paying particular attention to improving the website layout and showcasing two venues
- Blogging effectively
- Local area marketing – letterbox drop of flyers
- Targeted marketing – advertising to Westmead Hospital and distributing flyers to its reception and waiting areas
- Updating social media, Google my Business and OrderDoorDash presence.
Local community awareness of the new restaurant has since increased.
Operations overhaul to manage greater workload
From the top down, business operations needed to match the scale of the expanded business, including:
- Business Partners – getting the owner and partner on board, monitoring cashflow and cost of goods sold, dividing responsibility with one partner overseeing the floor, the other the back-end operations
- Management – improving workflow efficiencies and reorganising the workforce
- Restaurant staff – empowering staff to manage specific tasks.
The team are now underway with the above roles. No longer overstretched, they have registered positive improvement within the current operation.
Securing permits that open up new sales opportunities
Realise Business assisted Everest Mo:Mo: in applying for essential permits, including commencing an application for an On-Premise alcohol licence.
Everest Mo:Mo: could then use the licence in conjunction with a Happy Hour menu promotion to boost sales during quieter times of the day (4–5pm).
A positive future
The mission of Everest Mo:Mo: is, “To lead the industry locally and abroad, at the forefront of product development, creating the healthiest yet tastiest Nepalese Momo, using quality Australia local ingredients, crafted by passionate Momo lovers”.
Santosh is pleased that despite the many challenges of 2020 they have been able to make so much progress and take the Everest Mo:Mo: brand to Westmead. Their momo mission has been aided by Sue and Tim’s work on business priorities, specifically local area marketing, and Tim’s operational advice.
Santosh comments, “Tim has done an outstanding job of helping us understand our current operational capabilities and how to scale sustainably with new businesses within 2021.”
To celebrate the success of the Westmead opening, Everest Mo:mo: is offering 10% off when spending $20 or more at Everest Momo.
If you are looking at starting a business, doubling the size and scale of your original business or making the first move in the franchising journey, talk to Realise Business advisors today.
