Abriendo Puertas

Shopping for kitchen doors at the New York Restaurant Show, Jacob Javits Convention Center

New York Restaurant Show @ Jacob Javits Convention Center

Shopping for booths at the New York Restaurant Show

Vendors of note:

No Flame Candles

Creative Packaging, Promotions & Promotions:
(including Wine Take-Home Totes):
The Complete Package
500 East 77th Street, Suite 1812
New York, NY 10021
212-717-9427
Ciara Pretlow: 212 398-9160 x. 23
CompletePack@aol.com

Refrigerator Magnets
800-337-2637

Prime Metal Mfg.
24k Gold Plated Gift Certificate Coins
516-621-9500

Booths, Banquettes, Chairs, Chairs & Upholstered Walls:
Five Star
65 Ludlow Street
NY, NY 10002
212-533-4975

Bar Accessories & Misc. Packaging: Custom Coasters
Layne Allen
3150 Clinton Court
Norcross, GA 30071
800-264-7494
layne.allen@sonoco.com

Professional Associations:
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce
215 Park Avenue So., Suite 1255
NY NY 10003
212-479-7772

New York State Restaurant Association

Awnings & Canopies: Capitol Awning Company
Design/Consultation/Installation/Manufacture/Project Management
Stephen Rubino
105-15 180th Street
Jamaica, NY 11433
(did Jensen Lewis & Atlantic Terminal Vaulted Ceiling)
718-454-6444

First Aid Cabinets & Kits for Businesses
'Direct First Aid'
Box 2575
No. Babylon, NY 11703
800-989-5909

Booths, Banquettes, Tables, Stools & Chairs:
Rollhaus Seating Products
134 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
212-334-1111

Dinnerware, Glassware, Accessories:
Arcoroc / Cardinal Glass
30 Corporate Drive
Wayne, NJ 07470
973-628-0900

Interior Designer:
Z Squared Inc.
Denise L. Ziatyk
52 Locust Lane
Oyster Bay, NY 11771
516-922-1546

NYC Business Services:
DEP Small Business Services
96-05 Horace Harding Expressway
Queens, NY
718-595-4820

Marketing:
Postcard.com
800-348-143
2,500 cards = $325
5,000 cards - $400

Go Card Postcard Advertising:
212-925-2420

Food Purveyor:
Pro Foods
Jim Santana
718-651-7948

News Flashback: Brooklyn Entrepreneurs Win Brooklyn Public Library Competition

Thursday, December 12, 2003



Brooklyn Public Library's (BPL) Business Library's PowerUP! Your Business Starts Here Competition recently awarded entrepreneurs Farid Ali and George Constantinou as the top prize winners. Ali and Constantinou plan to open Bogota Latin Bistro, a 30-seat restaurant in Park Slope. The partners received an award of $10,000 and an in-kind package of services worth $9,000.

In its first year, BPL's Business Library's PowerUP! Business Plan Competition encouraged Brooklyn residents to craft an implementation approach for a new Brooklyn-based business. Entrants were offered resources and workshops through BPL's Business Library. The competition, sponsored by BPL's Business Library Success Council, offered all entrants the support of workshops and library resources to help develop their business ideas, with monetary awards for the best plans.

The runner-up winners of the PowerUP! Competition were Tremaine Wright, who plans to open a community-based coffee shop in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and Kristen Davis and David Bivens, who developed a business plan for the Yogasana Center for Yoga in Park Slope. The runner-up winners received a cash prize of $3,000 and an in-kind package of services worth over $6,000.

The Honorable Mentions for the competition included Roger Fortune, Susi Yu and Richard Yu for a retail wine store in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, Kristen Marino for Slope Sports in Park Slope and Deborah Stewart and Shakellin Graham for a magazine featuring West Indian culture, lifestyles, music and dining.

"The competition tapped into Brooklyn's entrepreneurial spirit by inspiring a wealth of new business ideas," said Ginnie Cooper, BPL's executive director. "We were impressed with all the creative and well thought out business plans that were submitted. The creators of Bogota Bistro were selected because their idea had all the elements of a winning plan. We hope their participation in the library's competition contributes to their success, and maybe even their dreams."

"The PowerUP! Business Plan Competition offered the motivation and tools to create a business plan for our restaurant idea," said Ali. "It brought us to people, places and valuable resources we would not have acquired on our own. Some amazing doors have opened up as a result of walking into this library. The Brooklyn Public Library has been an incredible place to come to get information."

"The idea for the PowerUP! Competition was developed following September 11 and the subsequent job losses," said Kathleen Parisi, National Business Development Officer in Community Development for Citibank, the main sponsor of the competition. "The goal was to take advantage of the entrepreneurial trend and fill the job gap by encouraging individuals to become self-employed. I feel so strongly that every single person who participated in this event was an incredible winner. The key to the success of everyone who participated is to never give up and continue using the resources of the library."

To qualify for the competition, individual applicants or team leaders had to be Brooklyn residents planning to open a business in Brooklyn. To help the applicants develop their business plans, the Brooklyn Public Library offered a series of workshops on marketing, creating a business plan, and budgetary principles. Applicants also received assistance through SCORE volunteers and the resources of the Business Library. The business plans were judged on their content, including the thoroughness and quality of the analysis, use of business information and clear communication.

The PowerUP! Business Plan Competition was sponsored by Brooklyn Public Library's Success Council and funded by Citibank, Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation, Community Capital Bank, Donovan Communications, Harvest Hanson and Pina M. Inc.

Brooklyn Public Library is an independent New York City library system serving the borough of Brooklyn. It is the fifth largest in the United States. Its Central Library, Business Library and 58 branch libraries offer free information, programs and computer access to people of all ages. Reach the library's resources of over 60 reference databases, catalog information and news 24 hours a day at www.BrooklynPublicLibrary.org.

Being An Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur means being courageous. It means having a LOT of faith. It means taking risks. It means fighting the occasional impulse that tells you that it's not going to work out. It means listening to those who have succeeded and filtering out the negative messages from those who would never attempt to strike out on their own. It means believing that even in dark moments, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that a rainbow does lie on the other side. A piece of advice a good friend gave me years ago when I was attempting something new and different in my life was, "Come what may, don't give up before the miracle happens."

Networking: Bogota @ Gleason's Gym

Marybeth Sullivan of ShadesOfFun.com, and a Gleason's Gym trainer/boxer.

One of the things I enjoy best about being a member of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is the numerous events I get invited to throughout the borough. It gives me an opportunity to meet other chamber members and business owners in addition to representing Bogota. Last Wednesday, Brooklyn Chamber Members were invited to Gleason's Gym in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) for an evening of networking and white collar boxing. I invited my friend Marybeth to come along and introduce her to the joys of networking - something she's never really done before. She went as a representative of Bogota Bistro but she also got to represent her own novelty sunglass business: Shades of Fun.

The event was very surreal. Boxers and businessmen and women each doing their thing at Gleason's. I enjoyed it.