We recently connected with Tracy Goh and have shared our conversation below.

Tracy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

Grow revenue. Cost cutting may provide some short term financial relief, but ultimately too much cost cutting can hurt quality and reputation, so I spend more time on growing revenue. I pay attention to industry leaders that I look up to, how they improve their quality and public image. We add new items to the menu to keep things exciting for the clientele as well as our team.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Tracy Goh. I am the chef and owner of Damansara, a Malaysian restaurant in San Francisco. My restaurant is a result of an eight-year journey where I taught myself how to cook as a professional, created my first paid cooking jobs by hosting a supper club out of my one-bed-room apartment, and worked for chef friends who were willing to share their knowledge. Between 2018 and 2022, I formalized my business and launched multiple campaigns to fundraise for a brick-and -mortar. Damansara Restaurant finally opened its door to the public on October 22, 2022.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

2023 has been extremely challenging for small new restaurants like us. In the first quarter of the year, the storms and floods had a significant negative effect on our business. The mass layoffs in the tech industry had left the city with fewer people with disposable income and restaurants lost corporate catering orders. As a merely one-year-old restaurant with a modest capital, we had experienced all of the above multiple times this year. Each week I wonder if we’ll be able to stay open for another week. We are still paying off so many startup debts while losing money every month, sometimes I half-jokingly tell people that this business is practically running on pure willpower, hopes and dreams.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’m living the story of resilience every day. I had put everything into this restaurant, quitting is not an option.

Contact Info:

• Website: damansarasf.com
• Instagram: @damansarasf
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/p/Damansara-Co-San-Francisco-100082527104185/

Image Credits
all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media. all images by Aron Pruiett, Limitless Media.