Daily Times

You are the co-founder of Dynamite Chow and also run a travel agency by the name of Travel Studio. How lucrative is the food and travel business in Lahore?
Food and travel has always been my passion. In the world surrounded by so much negativity I believe, eating good and traveling in life are enough to live a healthy physical and mental lifestyle. I run by the mantra of always being a student and learn every day. I came into Travel business back in 2014 and we did super great until Covid. It took almost a year just to lift bans all around the world but with restricted and conditional travel. And it impacted both the industries, where all over the world, thousands of restaurants had to shut down and exit the business. Post covid the entire game has changed globally for any industry. With growing competition, sky rocketing oil prices and global inflation of food cost has left no place for us to breath, but still with lots of vigilance and hard work we are still standing strong and working very hard just to insure that the people who are working in our team, their homes are depended with us and that’s our profit for now. Both business are service based and the key to survival is customer satisfaction. We’ve had bad days in our business like any other but our success rates make it lucrative for us. Once the global tensions and inflation gets in control we know we will be stronger and better. Dynamite Chow is just nine months young, despite the challenges we are growing everyday and we are really thankful for support and love by our customers. Almost all the major destinations in world have lifted the travel restrictions and globally things are getting back to normal. 
Any business is as lucrative as the amount of effort and dedication one puts in. When specifically talking about the food business, it comes with its challenges and opportunities. The challenges being a constant need for innovation and setting a benchmark and then matching it day in and day out. However, the opportunities are immense, with a serious lack of entertainment avenues and having good food as being integral to us Lahoris’, there is a huge sustainable market with great scalability options in this business.”

What are your day-to-day responsibilities with both of your ventures? Which keeps you the most occupied?
My plate is always full and sometimes it’s really hard to manage both ventures. With travel the phone never stops ringing, you can get a client message/call even at 3am in the morning for an urgent travel inquiry etc. Being and Entrepreneur looks really fancy and privileged but trust me there is no way a 9-5 routine can be compared to it. This is a 24-hour job and I love it. I’ve always learnt the hard way and love my work routine. In current times the business models demand a multi task skill set in order to always stay a step ahead. You have to be equally good in sales and marketing. An efficient operations system is the backbone of any business model. You have to look after everything and you just can’t leave unattended. In the start of my travel business I remember from issuing a ticket for client, to making its invoice to delivering it to their address to collecting payment and depositing in bank all done single handedly. With time you grow and put a manager for every job, the position changes but job remains the same. Dynamite Chow is not less than any complex operation business. One mistake can cost you the whole restaurant. From buying vegetables, stocks, to wait for tables, me and my partner have done it all and still do it. After all you have to take it as your baby and nurture till it gets on its feet and still guide and steer it on the right path.
With the saturation in Chinese food joints, why did you feel there was a need of another? Why should people be going to Dynamite Chow?
Interesting Question, a question we ask ourselves daily and the answer keeps us focused and driven to our goal. I don’t think there’s a saturation when it comes to Chinese food joints. With a huge population and with the trend of eating out/ordering in increasing, there is still a lot of space for new entrants. If anything, more people operating in this segmant actually adds to the positive growth of overall sales for the industry as it increases the trend of eating out or ordering food. People now also enjoy trying different places, exloring multiple options and all this presents a huge opportunity. Though with so many people operating, one has to constantly innovate, keep standards high and keep engaging with ones audience. Basically its about always bringing out ones A-game! Our primary goal is to have a good quality Chinese takeout restaurant with a small cozy dine in to your nearest places. In Pakistan we have two different types of Chinese models, one is the old school Chinese restaurants offering cheap price menu with great quantity and the other is premium Pan Asian diner offering single plates with great quality. We are working on model where we offer you great quality of food in single serving with imported bio degradable packaging at a cheaper price. People should visit Dynamite chow because it guarantees quality, taste, consistency and value for money. Chinese is staple food in Pakistan and we are offering you the comfort food with comfort price. A high end restaurant with sky rocketing overheads will always have trouble managing and eventually cut costs by decreasing the quality of food or the quantity. So far so good we have been appreciated and supported by the customers and industry leaders. With fast changing market dynamic, you have to have a hybrid model which is adaptable to all sorts of instabilities. We have experienced sales being higher in lockdowns and we have witnessed dine in to increase with ease of restrictions. When it comes to Dynamite Chow, we keep it very simple. Freshness, hygiene, convenience and great tasting food is what we have to offer. So people can come in and enjoy a meal at our cosy indoor/outdoor dine in space or they could just relax at home and order , and we deliver, ensuring the same freshness and taste that can be enjoyed in our eco-friendly packaging. Consistency is key and comfort food is our domain.

There’s also saturation of fraudulent travel agents. How can we identify one?
We are a certified licensed agency working for past eight years in the industry. We are official travel consultants of many reputable organizations and high profile clientele. The sole reason they are still working with us is our ethical business practices. Not just travel industry in fact scammers and frauds are all over. No physical office, verifiable accreditation, customer reviews, encourage to pay for forged documents, unbelievable deals, advising you for shortcuts in visas & immigration processes, don’t know anything about the destinations. Etc etc

What are you currently working on?
Dynamite Chow: We have a chain model for Dynamite Chow. Again we aim to make it the go to Chinese takeout place in Pakistan. So the plan for now is to grow in Lahore and then start testing the waters in other cities. Basically if you ask me whats the aim after 10 years, i’d say when somebody feels hungry or is in the mood for Chinese they’re automatic response should be to pick up the phone and dial 033-Chow-Chow! Let’s see where it takes us. Fingers crossed. 
Travel Studio: As the resumption of travel tourism destinations and lifting of travel restrictions on religious tourism, we aim to revive our Umrah Group travel services for clients to its full potential. We are diversifying ourselves to second citizenship immigration solutions to our high net worth clientele. We have signed up an MOU with one of the leading top firm in the world “Henley & Partners” to have exclusive rights in Pakistan to represent them here and help people invest abroad and get a second passport.
Which is the #1 Chinese restaurant in Lahore right now?
Its hard to choose one Chinese restaurant. I believe there are many and each has there own model and USP. I personally really enjoy Bamboo Union and Noir Stir Fry. I think they have really nice food. Again, there are many joints and everyones trying there best and its just an exciting market to work in. However at times I do miss the old classic Chinese places like Tai Wah and Hsin Kuang!

Being at the helm of affairs and running two successful businesses side by side at a young age is quite an achievement. What’s next for you?
Many more exciting lively things are in order. Always open to opportunities. You can only work hard and hard for something, success is in hands of Allah. Committed to live a 24 hour life to its fullest every day.
Who influenced you to pursue your current line of work?
Me and my partner both wanted to do something together and came up with multiple business plans. Out of all Dynamite Chow was destined for us. Here we are nine months into the business and already all set to open our second branch soon.