(Small business) Double business

Hankyoreh has a piece from the economy weekly of the company, Economy21, about having two business simultaneously in one shop: "Two businesses under one roof: sales up, expenses down. (Interesting to notice how similar the article is with the infomercials that Chosun often has on small businesses: introducing successful business items and proprietors and not failing to mention the company, most often some chain. And the piece is written by a representative of a business opening company.) • Let's see... "the double" in the first case introduced is nothing but adding another main item to the menu of a chicken place, in which sales got bad with the poultry fever last winter. The idea was to have a cheaper item in the menu in addition to the more expensive one. Business opening expenses: premium (kwôlligûm) and guarantee money 50 mil W [33000€], franchising fee 3 mil [2000€], shop interior 15 mil [10000€], initial equipment 1 mil, which makes 69 mil [46000€] altogether; monthly sales 18 mil [1200€], of which net profit 8.5 mil [5600€ - not bad!]. "There are many chicken places in the neighborhood, but Mr Kim's place has the best sales." Half of the sales is takeout and half deliveries. (Seems that there are no customer tables in the place - not unusual, and it should be somewhat a relief for the keepers.) • The second example is a restaurant which sells cold noodles (naengmyôn) in the summer and warm noodles (onmyôn) in the winter. The Kim couple had an ordinary Korean restaurant (paekpanjip) until early this year, when they started the noodle place. Last summer they sold at best 200 bowls a day (that is good, very good). They not only take what the franchise gives them but also do development on their own: 두 사람은 독특한 소스맛을 개발하기 위한 노력도 많이 기울였다. 4월 한 달 꼬박 매일 밤 연구한 끝에 본사에서 공급하는 매운 맛과 순한 맛의 2가지 소스 외에 이 둘을 적절히 배합하여 매운 듯 달콤한 새로운 소스맛을 찾는 데 성공한 것. 이 가게에서는 부부가 만들어낸 소스가 가장 높은 인기를 끈다. • Real estate agency and home cleaning [홈 클리닝] is what Ms Kang does; she and her husband have had the realtor office, but because of the bad real estate market she decided to start another business. [Quite typical: it's the woman who starts it. We don't get to know what the husband does, but one does get the feeling that the woman takes care of also the real estate business while going cleaning. Considering who are those who mostly gather the information on housing, her work is surely indispensable for their realtor office.] Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: self-employment ∙ businesskeepers ∙ money