Go to www.score.org and in the upper left hand corner, enter your zip code. On the next screen, you will find the SCORE chapter nearest you. Call them and arrange for a free meeting with a SCORE counselor.SCORE Counselors to America s Small Business is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).SCORE was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Herndon, VA and Washington, DC and has 389 chapters throughout the United States and its territories, with 11,500 volunteers nationwide. Both working and retired executives and business owners donate time and expertise as business counselors. SCORE is America s premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs.
Firstly, if your mother has no experience in the restaurant business, I d advise that her to work in restaurants for six months or so doing everything from busing tables and washing dishes to waiting tables and cooking if they ll allow her back there and if she has the skills. This will give her some of the work experience that she ll need to understand and run a cafe/restaurant profitably.If this is her first business venture, I would strongly recommend that she talk to a business counselor before she doe anything especially spend money. I d call the local office of the Small Business Development Center (go to the link below and click on the map to find the nearest office), the advice is FREE. Ask for someone who has a background in restaurants and they ll try their best to match her with the right counselor.The counselor at te SBDC will most likely advise her to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force heer to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a restaurant and force her to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers she ll concentrate on (her market) and how she ll get them to find out and want to come to her fabulous cafe/restaurant.The location of the restaurant is important but doesn t make it successful. To prove that all you have to do is walk down a street in your town where there are several nice restaurants all in a row and you ll find one or two that are empty while the others are very busy. It has to do with menu, ambiance, and your reputation at the beginning and over time.She also has to have food handling licenses, the right zoning, the right city and county licenses and permits and she has to be skilled at negotiating with her landlord about who ll stand the cost of the build-out or the changes to the premises to make it ready for her look and feel. She also has to worry about the normal business planning and management issues related to starting up any business. Take a look and read some of the articles at YCHANGE web site (see link below) especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business. Hope this helped.
