Taj Mahal Restaurant recognized for Mom and Pop Business Owners Day

Sunday was National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. It’s a time coined for recognizing and celebrating small business owners across America.

Tariq and Lubna Jilani are definitely what you could call mom and pop business owners.

The Indian-Pakistani couple built the Taj Mahal Restaurant and Tea House in Salisbury from the ground up. It’s a family business from the inside out, down to the name.  

Tariq Jilani replies,”My mothers name was Taj.”  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it’s places like the Jilani’s that keep the economy stimulated.

They say small businesses do around $1 trillion in business a year. However, the hard part is getting the venture off the ground.

Lubna Jilani says, “I was afraid because I heard the restaurant business is very challenging.”

Bloomberg says eighty percent of new small businesses fail within the first eighteen months. The Jilani’s have made it over that hump.

In fact, Tariq was an accountant for an upscale restaurant in New York City on top of Rockefeller Center; it was there he a developed a love for food.

While working in New York City, Tariq learned the financial side of owning a business, which gave him the courage to step out on his own.  

He continues, “I have put up all my savings into this, but now I think why didn’t I do this earlier.”

The restaurant has been open for just over a year and a half and is tapping into an underserved market.

He goes on, “I realized there is no Indian-Pakistani restaurant within a fifteen mile radius of Salisbury.”

47 ABC checked and he’s right. According to Forbes, differentiation in a market is key to a successful business; whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a mom and pop restaurant.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are $27.9 million small businesses in America.