During the outbreak, he closed the restaurant. In the past two years, he had a lot of reflection.

The new crown epidemic in the past two years has brought impact on the lives of all Chinese immigrants, especially those who originally operated small businesses and small restaurants.

Liu Yue and his wife from Wuhan immigrated to Quebec in 2005, and began to operate their own restaurants in 2011.

Two years ago, the new crown outbreak, he had to close his restaurant, on the one hand, he needed to take care of the three children and the elderly at home, on the other hand, he was looking for his own direction.

Referring to the experience of the past two years, he said: at one time, I even felt that my health and life were threatened, and I almost didn't realize how to make money when the restaurant was closed.

Although the Canadian government has provided financial assistance and re employment training for people of different ages and professions in this process, Liu Yue said that he needs to reconsider what he can do in the future, and it depends on the development of the epidemic.

"My experience is a bit brutal"

When he was interviewed by Jiaguang, Liu Yue said it frankly: I feel a bit ashamed. It may not be an inspirational story, but it's actually a cruel one - it may not be that exaggerated, it's a more ordinary story.

Since immigrating to Canada, Liu Yue felt that he should do something by himself.

Originally, he and his wife decided to open a grocery store by themselves. At that time, three of their children were born in Montreal.

He said: "we feel that if it's a grocery store opened in the community, it needs a long time to invest every day.". We have a consensus that we don't want to sacrifice everything in order to earn money, ignore children and have no life. So, I want to find a shop that can take care of life. For example, if it's a shop in an office building in the city center, you can get off work on time, and you can have a rest on Saturday and Sunday.

One day, they heard that there was a shop for sale in the Sun Life Insurance Mansion, a landmark building in the center of Montreal.

As a result, they accidentally found a small restaurant next door and are looking for someone to take over - the shop is not big, but the layout is very emotional and exquisite. What's more, the transfer fee is much cheaper than the grocery store, which only costs tens of thousands of yuan.

At that time, he also considered that if he wanted to spend more time with his children, this shop would be better, because it only did lunch - the main customers were those employees in the office building, and he didn't have to get up early.

At first, Liu Yue was a little worried because the couple didn't have any restaurant experience and worried about whether the food could keep its original flavor.

The proprietress of the small restaurant is a Thailand person. She promised Liu Yue that she could learn from her without a deposit, including cooking and management, to see if she liked and could control, and then make a decision.

In this way, he studied with the boss's wife. After about two or three months, he felt that he was competent, and then he officially bought the restaurant.

Of course, the real business is full of hard work. We need to look around for the purchase channels of Asian seasonal vegetables, and we need to operate the fried vegetables. In a word, it depends on two of them. In the next two years, the small restaurants opened smoothly and the profits were quite good.

Liu Yue also analyzed this. First of all, thanks to that time, mobile office and home office basically didn't start, which may be the last golden time for downtown operators.

What's more, their husband and wife are united, and a Japanese girl they hired is also very hard-working and reliable - to find a good employee is actually not to be expected.

Opened a second restaurant: the beginning of nightmare

With the success of the first restaurant, Liu Yue began to be dissatisfied. He decided to open another restaurant - a regular restaurant for dinner, hoping to replicate the success of the first restaurant.

For this reason, he spent a year following the Thailand chef to learn cooking and how to operate a bigger restaurant.

In 2014, he opened a second restaurant in the center of the city, also making Thailand dishes.

He said with a wry smile, but it became the beginning of a nightmare. It was quite difficult to operate, mainly because he made some mistakes.

He concluded that before, the restaurant was a husband and wife's shop, working together. But when the new restaurant opened, a lot of people were added at once. On the contrary, the responsibilities were unclear and the responsibilities were shuffled, because many people felt that it was just a job.

For example, he said that the waste of kitchen materials and materials, including free lucky desserts and disposable cutlery, is in the cost.

Liu Yue said: "small business, some money is earned, some money is saved."

He believes that the second restaurant is difficult to operate. There are also other reasons that he can't control:

Liu Yue said: "it took me two or three years to understand that the restaurant is expanding, and the requirements for management are also high. Frankly speaking, I lack this ability. Sometimes, when employees do not do well, I will do it by myself, but I will not scold them. I lack this kind of thing in my personality."

Liu Yue also mentioned another point: "the internal things can be changed through our personal efforts, but we can't change the general environment. In recent years, the pattern of working in the city center has changed, and the Internet, home office and mobile office are slowly starting. The number of people who really come to work is decreasing, which I can't change."

"What's more, the pattern of competition has changed. For example, in the downtown shopping mall, there are high-end Food Courts, which gather many famous restaurants together and make them into self-service mode, so that you can eat good things without paying extra service charges. This is actually crowding out small businesses like us with capital. Although I worked hard, the whole environment was deteriorating, just like boiling in warm water. " Finally, Liu Yue concluded.

In this process, Liu Yue has experienced a lot and is very tired. But he didn't give up, couldn't admit defeat, and didn't close the restaurant immediately.

Liu Yue said: "from the perspective of life experience, this experience is very interesting, but it is also a failure, even a painful process. But I care about this process rather than wealth accumulation."

Then, the outbreak began.

There is an epidemic

In the middle of 3 2,020, the whole Canadian community was closed, and Liu Yue's two restaurants also had to close.

Liu Yue said: "I feel like a sigh of relief. It's probably because how many stores can be controlled by the epidemic."

At that time, Liu Yue's mother and mother-in-law happened to visit his family in Montreal. From their relatives and friends in Wuhan, they heard many stories of the epidemic, which was frightening, especially the fear that two old people would be infected, and there were children at home who went to school.

Also in the past two years, his wife returned to school, completed the course of computer analysis, and is now looking for a job.

He also began to sell kitchen helper equipment through the Internet. He still hopes to continue to open restaurants, just waiting for the trend of the epidemic.

Looking back at the past few years of immigrants, he felt sorry that he didn't learn French well when he just immigrated - after a few days in the French school opened for immigrants in Quebec, he quit school, helped his friends deliver goods, and also did airport pick-up.

Now, he feels that it's very short-sighted to do so, especially his wife is actually a person with great learning ability, but he didn't support her to continue to learn, and now I feel very sorry for his wife.

Liu Yue said: "in Canada, you should actually do a good job in language, which is beneficial in the end, because you can't get around language."

Time flies by. He has immigrated for 17 years. He always believes that he is more suitable to live abroad.

What makes him most happy is that three children, 15, 13 and 10 years old, are growing up healthily. He enjoys driving them to school, and the children are willing to share with him.

Liu Yue said: "it was said that we should accompany children more, which we have achieved."