Feng Shui for Restaurants and Cafés:

I have recently done a consultation for one of my long-term clients about a chain of restaurants he is currently developing. Having consulted on all his residences before, it goes without saying that he had already learned firsthand about the positive benefits my consultations have had on his life, his family, and of course, his business and success.

This particular consultation got me thinking, for when it comes to Feng Shui for restaurants the rules and applications of the principles are very different than they are for any other kind of business. (Generally speaking, the application of Feng Shui rules for a business is very different than the Feng Shui rules for a house too, but that’s another topic altogether.) Feng Shui also differs significantly from business to business, which is why it takes time and a lot of experience for a consultant to really learn how to do each of them right. This is also the reason why no book or website addresses them. It’s too difficult!

To really master this aspect of Feng Shui you need a minimum of 20 years of continuous practice or more doing different kinds of Feng Shui business consultations.

Luckily for my client, I have consulted for many restaurants before. And not only am I a foodie, but I particularly enjoy seeing my clients who are great chefs and entrepreneurs become successful in their enterprises as they share their culinary gift with others. So when Max, my client, asked me to look at these new restaurants he was developing (along with his partners), I knew exactly what I needed to do.

Three of the restaurants under design were simpler to address because they were all new constructions, so I knew exactly where and how to place all the strategic areas that would make a restaurant successful and brainstormed with the architect about it until we got the layout completed. However, the fourth building we worked on, posed a different challenge. In the past it had been the location of two different, very famous restaurants. The first one was extremely successful and after a few years (when the lease was up) it moved next door and into a bigger space. The following tenant invested a significant amount of money to completely renovate the premises, but sadly, this new restaurant business ended up in disgrace before the first lease term was even up.

If you are reading this and are an entrepreneur or an investor, your first thought would be “bad management”. But in my experience, if the Feng Shui is good, you do not just go from the stars to the dust in less than one term lease, no matter how ‘bad’ you are at managing the place. So when I consulted for this building I knew that the answer to why the first occupant succeeded and the second one failed had to do with the renovation done in between the two businesses. More importantly, I knew the key to my client’s future success had to do with correcting whatever mistakes had been made during the previous renovation.

So I did some research and I was able to reconstruct the layout of the first space—which was entirely different from the layout I was observing during my inspection. I was made aware of water features that had been removed, entrances that had been shifted, management offices that were relocated, and kitchen layouts that were modified. In short, the entire space was turned around. And that is what made the whole difference in the success and failure of the two different restaurants.

It was quite a task doing the research and coming up with a solution that was Feng Shui efficient, cost effective, and design compatible for my client and their architect. But that is my job and luckily for my client I was there to assist him with making his restaurant successful, making his investors happy, and improving everybody’s life—including the future patrons of this new restaurant.

Imagine how sad it would have been if they had launch their project with a 4 million dollar renovation budget and no Feng Shui plan in mind, just to tank miserably like the previous restaurant owner had done?

And what about your business, your office, your manufacturer, or your store? Are you willing to risk hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions in investments without having a good Feng Shui business plan in place? Think about how much more profitable your investment could be simply by having my Feng Shui business consultation first!