The entrepreneurial adventure begins
I’m Alberto Bovo, the owner of the Osteria Testamatta.
This is a seafood restaurant in Este, near Padua. This restaurant was born from a long journey. I studied accounting in the center of Este, then for a particular cause, my driving license was withdrawn and I decided to move. My decision was to go abroad and I ended up in London, where I achieved one of my dreams that was working in a restaurant. A restaurant that gave me a lot, made me learn many cooking techniques. Then I moved to Paris, and then to Marseille. When I returned to Italy, I went to work in a restaurant in Montagnana, where I met Silvia, the other owner of the restaurant. We worked for five years until we decided to realize our dream, creating this type of activity. We moved here to the center of Este and we decided to open this restaurant.
Creating this restaurant was realizing our dream. Having worked in various restaurants around the world, definitely put an imprint in my hands, but creating my restaurant meant leaving my own signature. Creating something personal means putting all your energies in a venue or any other activity, but still letting free your ideas and your cravings to create something different.
The money to start
Where we found the money: this is a quite interesting question, a bit difficult to explain. I think that the dream, our dream, born over the course of several years, led us to save a lot. Saving means having renounced to many things throughout the years, I am not saying that I didn’t do millions of things, however, I can say that we saved, in order to be able to open this type of activity. Many things had to be done, therefore we had to set apart a lot of money. Throughout the years me and Silvia put away a lot of money and with the help of parents, who fortunately helped us and the bank; in the end, three people helped us build this restaurant: ourselves, the bank and the family. Most of the money was saved by us, a part from our parents, and another one from the bank that, with the signatures of our parents, helped us achieve this dream. In conclusion, the important thing is saving money to be already at a good starting point when you open the activity.
A negative and a positive event
Good question, this one, finding a good thing and a bad thing of the restaurant. Surely we start from the bad stuff and not many bad things have happened, even if, thinking about it, something, let’s say, a little ugly took place.
Last year, a year after the opening, the restaurant was doing well and Silvia and I decided to gift ourselves with a few days of vacation to celebrate this happiness. When we came back from the vacation we realized that there were less clients, the flow of people to the restaurant was lowering and just few people came. For a month, we were wondering what was happening: was it because we went on vacation? Because we didn’t cook well anymore? Because we didn’t treat our customers well? We understood that there was something, maybe we were “resting on the laurels” and the people, I am not saying that they were tired, but they needed a continuous novelty. A client, I will always remember, told me: Alberto it’s difficult to get to the summit, but staying there is even more difficult! Staying on the top, means continuing to invest, but not economically, investing in ideas. The initial idea was ok, it worked well, we worked very well. This year was ok, even if maybe we stopped with the new ideas, so we had to create something new, we had to continue with new menus, with new things. Giving the restaurant new wines, new methods to serve the customer and so we tried to change. And after a couple of months, thanks to all these efforts, we were able to get back to the summit.
When someone starts an activity, he can’t think of giving the same product throughout the years, people change, fashion changes and therefore we must continue to invest in our ideas, think about it, to stay always, at the top of the mountain.
Doing business in Italy
I opened in Italy because I love my territory, I love my people and I love all those flavors that we have in Italy. Definitely, opening the restaurant abroad would have been a very beautiful thing and the Made in Italy, especially in the food industry, is very appreciated abroad. Many tell me that it is difficult to open here, but I do not understand why. We have 25 seats and it’s full every day. A restaurant abroad, it would have definitely been easier, but the contact with the people is different.
Abroad, maybe it’s a different contact, while in Italy there is customer loyalty. Everyone who comes here knows me, they know Silvia and they know our kitchen. I love the flavours that come from our land and I don’t see the difficulties of opening here. Definitely, times are not the best, but the commitment is bearing fruit, like in our case, and the restaurant is working well.
The key traits of an entrepreneur
Entrepreneur in 2017 is a strong word, a little peculiar. Many define it as a crazy person, crazy because we are living in a particular moment, economy wise, a period of calm. I think the crazy ones are other persons, they are the ones who don’t take decision and don’t believe in their own opportunities and their dreams. We believed in our dreams and we continue to believe in our dreams. In 2017 there have been one million of opportunities and it is right that we used all of them. Surely the crisis is here, but it’s here for those who do not believe in themselves. We believe in ourselves and we do not feel the crisis, we are living a beautiful moment where our dreams continue to be fulfilled.
So I do not see why the word entrepreneur is a rather strange word nowadays.
The future for the new generations
The message I want to give to young people is to try, try and try again. Try together to believe in it: try to believe that creating a business is not a wrong choice. The fear of getting lost, it mustn’t be a fear. We must believe in our dreams. Many ask me if I would do it again: I would do it again immediately, I would do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, as many times as you want, because I believed in my dreams and so I’m happy of having believed in them. Surely it is not easy, but we must change all the kinds of activities that are there in Italy. Activities, however, that were founded by people who have already succeeded. We have more ideas, we are young, we see the world from a different perspective. Therefore, trying and believing in our dreams, in our ideas, is the right thing to do.
Surely, young people think of the scooter, the car, the disco, the girlfriend: all those things, definitely beautiful, that make sense of our life, but it’s also right to think to leave a mark in everything we do in our life, to be remembered tomorrow. We must believe in creating new shops, new restaurants, all kinds of activities. The Made in Italy, here in Italy is a very important thing, we are people full of ideas, but above all we believe in quality. Creating new things for the young people is definitely a difficult task at the beginning, but gives satisfaction, fantastic personal satisfaction. A young man sees it as a difficult thing because he sees other activities run by older people. But we must believe in our dreams and surely, this will not be difficult.
IP Crew
