As someone who owns a restaurant cafe business, my advice is don’t do it. 6 months in still losing money, even when you assume it’s successful, things may change so fast. One day competitors open next to you, and the game changes immediately.

I think you lack persistence. Not to sound harsh, but shit happens. Only a minor few will succeed in business, because shit always happens and most give up too early. You’ve given up only after two rounds of adversities, doesn’t seem like you’re committed at all. The project didn’t even launch so you’ve given up before day one.

There were a couple of cases I’ve given up the projects in short time, I’m not perfect myself. But most of the time I stuck with the projects for years, or at least months. Don’t quit too early. Quitting is always easy. If you quit easily, better to stick to a niche or a stable job.

You could go to upwork.com. I hired plenty of freelancers that completed the projects.

I’m a restaurant cafe owner for 6 months too. Like you and your family, I didn’t bring home money for the last 6 months. The part that sucks is I even need to pour in more money without income when the business is not breaking even. I used up all my savings, and my wife’s too, and had been relying of my wife’s income for the last 6 months.

I’ve decided the testing period should stop now, and I’m focusing on getting a second job. The bright side is the restaurant cafe can run by itself now with minimal supervision. It just needs money to survive. In worst case I’ll close it down, but I still have hopes it will prevail.

The thing is cafe is oversupplied in my community. People draw to the vibe and the expensive coffee, thinking it’s high profit margin. It’s low entry barrier business. Truth is this is a bad year to start a cafe. The fast rising costs, labour and rental. There is really hardly any margin. Given the chance again, I’ll rather invest the money in real estate than to quit my job and like your parents spending 200k to buy a job without income.

My advice is find a job while still keeping the business going. Hire people. It’s low skilled labour business, it shouldn’t be hard to find someone to replace you. Help out when you can, but get another job to at least have some income for yourself.

In a different country than yours most probably, but shit is the same here. Rising cost and shrinking margin. Near impossible to succeed for new business, those will prevail must have a lot of cash reserves or financial backing. Every month is negative month.

Not sure anybody mentioned this, install TrueCaller. It works for me, cut down a lot of cold calls

Can you read mandarin or know anyone that could? I frequently use TaoBao which is a variation of 1688.

TaoBao app can be linked to Alipay app. Alipay can tie to credit card.

For logistics, there is a local courier service that serves as the intermediary between China and my country (or rather my place). Perhaps there is an intermediary for your place too since 1688 and TaoBao have existed for such a long time. The registration is simple, just Whatsapp the customer service, fill up a short little form, then the customer rep will provide you an address. Each time you buy from the Taobao app, just fill up that address then the intermediary will act as receiver and notify you if any item has arrived to your place.

I’m not sure 1688 works the same way but I imagine they do. There should be agents/intermediary at your place.

Anyway you could try youtube for Alipay setup.