Recipe for Success: Make Room for "Prosperity"

Through the course of our Workshop In Business Opportunities ("WIBO") classes back in the spring of 2004, I came to realize that in order to write out our business plan (which eventually went on to win the top prize in a business plan competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Business Library), we would have to focus time and energy to it. How else would it get done? Certainly no one else was going to do it for us.

This meant evaluating how I spent my time and where I was directing my energy. This meant replacing coming home and watching TV with reading information on neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It meant exploring who my target market was and why.

It meant reading restaurant trade and industry magazines. It meant exploring different neighborhoods at various times of the day and evening over the course of many nights looking at foot traffic, exploring traffic patterns and researching transportation to and from the area.

It meant dining alone many nights and counting the number of patrons eating, counting the number of take-out and delivery orders being made. It meant picking up menus from nearby restaurants and seeing what they offered.

It meant looking for a niche , an "in", that I could fill that wasn't being served. It meant walking up and down streets looking at "FOR RENT" signs, calling brokers and owners and finding out what rents were going for. It meant introducing myself to other business owners and asking for advice.

It meant going to the library and seeking out information and additional resources available to the budding entrepreneur. It meant picking up flyers on various low-cost or free business workshops being held throughout the city. It meant looking at my calendar, taking out my cell phone and immediately signing up. And it meant actually going to the class or workshop even when I was tired and didn't want to go.

It meant attending cooking classes and workshops and seminars on taxes, accounting methods, marketing, and advertising. It meant learning how to network and believing enough in our business to put ourselves out there and tell everyone what we were doing: opening up a restaurant.

Creating the business plan meant making changes in my life. Making those changes has changed my life and continues doing so.

File this under "If you want things to change, you have to change things."

Bank Loan Rejection Letters

File under "If At First You Don't Succeed"

Each one of these rejection letters has a story behind it. HSBC, Citibank, Chase, Community Capital Bank, New York Business Development Center, Commerce Bank, Hudson United Bank, Renaissance Economic Development Corporation, Independence Community Bank and Northfolk Bank, we received 10 rejections in total. In one bank's case, we were told by one of their loan officers that the loan looked like a "sure thing" and that we should expect "great news in the next week." We never heard from them again in spite of the fact that we repeatedly followed up with emails and voice messages. Their silence spoke more than their words could have. Another bank's underwriter (not knowing that we were standing in her presence) responded to our loan request to her colleague with, "Oh No, Not another restaurant!"

After winning the Brooklyn Business Library's PowerUP! Business Plan competition, we assumed that the bankers would be more than happy to work with us. How wrong we were. Along the way we learned a number of things when it comes to banks. Some of those lessons are:

Rule #1: Banks don't like restaurants - especially start-ups.
Rule #2: Banks aren't venture capitalists.
Rule #3: Banks want collateral! Have a house, they want it.
Rule #4: It's really important to have a good relationship with your banker. Having a good relationship with your banker can pave the way towards raising money for whatever your goals and dreams may be.
Rule #5: Don't take rejection personally.
Rule #6: Don't give up. No matter what. Don't give up.

After 10 rejections we didn't give up and eventually the money did come through. We did get loans throught HSBC (a different branch than the one that rejected us), Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and The Business Outreach Center. We had anticipated that the funding process would take 1 to 3 months, it took 14 months. It just goes to show that you must expect the unexpected.

Grand Opening: LASSI !

Lassi is owned by our friend, Heather Carlucci and is having their opening Friday, Feb. 18th. Heather is also an instructor at the Institute for Culinary Education here in New York City. We love Heather and know you will too. Whether you're around tomorrow or find your self hanging around the West Village in the future, we encourage you to support her. I have no doubt she's got a winner on her hands.
LASSI - 28 Greenwich Avenue NYC 212-675-2688

CONGRATULATIONS HEATHER! We're very excited and happy for you!

Marketing: Look It's Bogota Bistro!

Coming to Park Slope's 5th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York

Letters from the Archive: 1983

After graduating high school in 1982, I left Allentown, Pennsylvania and moved to New York in 1983 armed with $2,500.00 (which got stolen), an electric guitar (which I gave away) and 2 letters of recommendation from the Good Spirit Restaurant (which I still have and where I worked as a teenager) seeking out my fortune.

22 years later, I'm still hopeful that it could happen.

Mantra For Success: Persistence = Success

I Will Persist Until I Succeed.

1. Be Brave. Being an entrepreneur and being brave go hand in hand. If you're afraid, use fear to motivate rather than paralyze you.

2. Be self-motivated. Surround yourself with winners and with those who believe in you and will cheer you on. At the end of the day (and at the beginning of the day too!), you have to be your own cheerleader. Before going to bed each night, make a list of things you need to tend to the next day. Make yourself accountable and let others know what you're doing.

3. Take another step. It sounds cliche but the journey of a thousand miles indeed begins, but ONLY BEGINS with a single step. Keep walking in the direction of your dreams, no matter how small a step it is.

4. Do the little things - consistently. Slow and steady wins the race.

5. Eliminate negative self-talk. If you don't believe in your own dreams, no one else will either. Avoid negative people whose negativity will trigger your own fears about what you're capable of doing. Champion yourself.

6. Reframe refusal. We received 7 bank loan refusals before we heard our first "yes". It was tough and disappointing hearing it the first time. And the second time. And the third time. We didn't allow the 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th bank rejection stop us. We kept looking for those who would say "yes.' They're out there.

Accept that hearing "no" is a part of the process. Get used to hearing it and don't let it stop you. The first time hearing it is the hardest. It gets easier with each subsequent time.

7. Overcome obstacles. Obstacles are opportunities in disguise. Don't stop because of what you can't do. Find other ways to get things done. Speak to others who've accomplished what you'd like to and find out what they did to get to where they are.

8. End each day with success. I tell friends, "if you can focus on taking actions which will lead to your dreams, regardless of whether or not the outcome is favorable, you can deem yourself successful". Many people dare not take any actions for fear of rejection. Pat yourself on the back for having made that phone call, sending that email, following through with that contact you made at some networking event.

9. Sustain momentum. Keep striking while the iron is hot. Out of sight is out of mind. People I met yesterday don't wake up in the morning thinking about me today. I have to place myself there consistently.