Trump University is a Growing Business supported by the larger Trump Organization. We’re training 100’s of students on becoming better Entrepreneurs. Palo Alto software is used to support the efforts of our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program, an 8 week intensive program designed to assist students in formalizing their business or business idea.

What pain points within your company/division were you looking to elevate by using Business Plan Pro?
We wanted a flexible and comprehensive software package to assist our students who might be at a very early stage in their business concept or years into their ongoing business. Business Plan Pro gave us that flexibility.

What had you done in the past to help solve this problem?
This was the only solution that we implemented when putting our program together.

How did you hear about Business Plan Pro?
We conducted a web search initially to narrow down our options.

Why were you interested in using business planning software?
Flexibility

Who had a hand in choosing the software for your program?
Our executive team

How did you use the software for your program?
It’s used by our students to submit their homework. We have 7 assignments, each focused on a different section of the plan.

What was the outcome of using the software?
It’s allowed us to successfully deliver our program with maximum value.

What would you do differently regarding your program?
The initial setup is still a bit complicated. Also I’m a fan of a comprehensive Executive Summary that incorporates some elements of the entire plan as opposed to just the objectives, key actions etc.

Did the cost of the software justify the results?
ABSOLUTELY!!!

Outside of software, what other tools made your program more effective/successful, or would have made it made it more successful?
We use two books that focus on several key elements of starting a business that supports our lectures, elevator pitch session, private consultative sessions and discussion boards that makeup our Entrepreneurship Mastery Program.

What feedback on Business Plan Pro have you received from your end-users?
We’ve had overwhelmingly positive reaction to the software. It allows our students to structure a terrific plan for their business regardless of what they are doing.

Additional Comments

We have been extraordinarily happy with the Business Plan Pro software and more importantly with Palo Alto relationship. In fact we think of it as a partnership in many ways and not simply as a vendor client arrangement. Palo Alto has gone out of their way not to just support THEIR software but rather to support OUR program and the use of their software within it. They are a creative, competent and customer oriented organization that anyone looking for entrepreneurship based solutions should consult. Thanks guys!!!

Larry Morris
Trump University
New York, NY 10005
http://www.TrumpUniversity.com

Posted on June 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

Mary Ann Beauchamp of Cafe Yumm!

My story begins where all of our stories begin – at my birth in Tokyo, Japan in 1950, to an American serviceman and his young Japanese wife.

From an early age, circumstance, parentage and fate stepped in to shape the events, give me the passion and hand me the knowledge, tools and people I would need to help create a business my husband and I could never have envisioned in our wildest dreams.

Mark came into this process so early on that the Cafe Yumm! story is truly our story. His life and beliefs were being shaped in a different way than mine, but we emerged, together, with a similar philosophy and desire to eat great food – healthy food – and be able to feed and teach other people to do the same.

We never expected to come up with a product and business that would succinctly speak a unique language that would resonate with so many people. Our passion has become their passion, and for that, I am amazed and grateful. We are truly able to have a “lifestyle” business, where our life is supported by a business we are deeply interested in, have a lot of fun with, and most important, has given us valuable and meaningful relationships with many people with similar beliefs.

I have been fascinated with food and cooking all my life. Being born in Japan and then living in Italy when my father was stationed there for my early years set the background for my future culinary pursuits. At an age when most American children refuse to eat little beyond hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and spaghetti, I was dining on sushi, linguini with clam sauce, many varieties of fish, exotic vegetables and gourmet cheese. I was exposed to southern cooking – black-eyed peas, okra, mustard greens, ham hocks, gravy and my aunt’s prize-winning pecan pie.

My dad was from Kentucky and they knew how to cook – and eat. Unfortunately, when I was fourteen, all that fried chicken, gravy, steak and butter ganged up and came calling in the form of a heart attack for my father. Worse than that, he was being fed chicken-fried steak and gravy in the hospital.

I knew even at fourteen there had to be a healthier alternative to the food the hospital was serving to a sick man. I questioned how an unhealthy body could handle such unhealthy food, much less get well. I realized at that point that we, as an incredibly abundant society, knew very little regarding nourishment and how our food choices got us in trouble in the first place. But at that age, I didn’t really know what to do.

This quandary just remained with me, quietly, until I met Mark at the University of Alaska.

Mark was recruited from southern California to play basketball for the U of A in the early 1970s. I was a cheerleader there, following my dad’s decision to move to Alaska after his Army career was over. Mark had the odd habit of eating salads and sandwiches with sprouts on them when the rest of the team was gorging on steak and burgers. He had been interested in food and health since he was a young boy, reading many of the “pioneers” in what was then the new health-food movement coming out of California. The day we met he was carrying a sprout sandwich! It was a match made in food heaven.

Later, when we decided to become vegetarians, our friends were aghast – “What will you eat?!” Knowing what a foodie I was, they seemed to think it wouldn’t take long for me to get over this very bad idea. Actually, the foodie in me pushed me to create all manner of new things with a different set of boundaries and rules than what I had lived by before. One of the sauces I came up with for us and our two-year old daughter during my search for all things healthy and delicious was the now famous “Yumm! Sauce.” In my first food venture, I made my own lunch with this sauce. People would see it, ask for a taste and, almost without exception, do a little knee dip, roll their eyes, and say “Yumm! What is this?” From there, I opened a deli and wine shop and my customers demanded this dish be placed on the menu. When this little layered bowl of rice, Yumm! Sauce, black beans and salsa became the most popular item on my otherwise very gourmet menu, we felt we were truly on to something unique. People wanted it for the taste and texture – it was a plus that it was also healthy. We eventually changed the name of our deli to Cafe Yumm!

In 1999, we opened a second location, and added a third in 2002, all within three miles of the other. In 2000, Mark joined the business, leaving a well-paying career as a managing broker for a large real estate company. We decided to take a leap of faith, believing in our product and ourselves. It was sometimes scary living on credit cards and hope during the number of years it took to get this venture off the ground. When the third café opened, it was a success from the beginning and in a location which provided a huge influx of new customers. We stopped most advertising because “word of mouth” was working so well, we almost couldn’t handle the amount of business we were generating.

At this point, more and more people were inquiring about franchise possibilities, but we didn’t give it a thought. It was only after we sat down and talked about what we wanted to accomplish, both philosophically and financially, that we knew a “mom and pop” operation wouldn’t take us there. We began to receive inquiries as to investment opportunities as well as employment inquiries from highly skilled professionals wanting to work for us. After being in what he called “franchise denial,” Mark began to take the steps toward that possibility. For one, we really wanted to get this food out to more people, and the only way to do that was by franchising.

When Mark got serious, Business Plan Pro was the perfect tool for us. Using Business Plan Pro helped us plot out a strategy for our existing business as well as realize our dreams for other stores and product lines. It showed us where our assumptions needed adjustment and really focused us on milestones and the financial realities as well as the possibilities.

Today, we own three Cafe Yumm! stores in Eugene, Oregon, and a franchisor entity – Beau Delicious! International, LLC – which opened a company-owned Cafe Yumm!, newly designed with beautiful, environmentally sustainable materials. A franchise store is opening in Springfield, Oregon, in November, and another franchise is scheduled to open in Bend, Oregon, in November as well. Serious inquiries are underway for Corvallis, Portland and Boise.

Cafe Yumm! won the 2007 “Environmental Values” business award, beating out 18 other nominees. Our Yumm! Sauce is produced by Rising Sun Farms in Phoenix, Oregon, and is distributed statewide to 70 grocery stores, including major retailers Whole Foods and Market of Choice. The success of our Yumm! Sauce has encouraged us to introduce some new products as well. Look for them soon.

From a homemade sauce created in my kitchen for our family, a huge network of people and friends has been brought together to help us achieve a dream.

We are the dreamers – Business Plan Pro helped us realize our vision.

– Mary Ann Beauchamp

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 | Comments Off

Clemen Chiang, CEO Colemen

Clemen Chiang was the youngest member of his MBA class at the University of Louisville, Kentucky when he began writing his business plan for Colemen, but he didn’t let his comparative youth and inexperience stop him from achieving his dreams. Colemen was launched on April 19, 2001. The company provides business and Internet solutions such as global managed services, mobile, international calls, data and Internet, hosting solutions, printing solutions, and promotions.

Clemen and his team used Business Plan Pro to write their business plan and armed with this professional document and an impressive presentation, Colemen took its proposal to telecom giant StarHub. The #2 telecommunications company in Singapore, StarHub is a communications company providing a full range of information, communications and entertainment services over fixed, mobile, and Internet platforms. It operates its own nationwide broadband network that delivers multi-channel cable TV services, data services, voice services, and Internet access services. StarHub executives were so impressed with the team’s business plan that, despite Colemen’s start up standing, it was awarded preferred partner status.

The most valuable benefit of Business Plan Pro according to Clemen is the plan vs. actual feature. “We review our performance against our plan each quarter.” Explains Clemen, “After the first quarter there was so much variance in some areas, it was clear that some unexpectedly profitable avenues were going untapped. The plan helped us to see opportunities that we had not expected.”

The company achieved profitability within a year, and is currently mapping out forecasts for next year. “The three-year plan that we created was more than long enough.” said Clemen. “The economic climate in Asia is so fast moving that attempting to plan over five years is just not realistic. The business and technological climate is so dynamic that it is impossible to predict that far in advance.”

Clemen and his team soon proved that their company was worth the risk. In October 2002 the company was awarded with the top performance award for the highest level of revenue achieved of all other StarHub partners. The company beat out other resellers that have been working with StarHub as system integrators and product pushers for many years.

Colemen has had its share of challenges over the past year or so. As the business grows, Clemen and his colleagues have come to realize the importance of managing customer expectations. A change in senior management at StarHub almost impacted Colemen’s whole relationship with the larger telecom company. Their new contact could not see the long-term value of Colemen to StarHub’s business, and the company had to adapt their business and strategy to meet the new expectations of the StarHub manager in order to retain their position.

Currently, Clemen tells us that the company does a good job in reaching the corporate customer. They are focusing on ensuring that this foundation is solid and that customers who join them receive more value. However, the next step is to expand the relationship with these corporate customers to reach them on a consumer level, too.

BUSINESS PLAN PRO® 2003
According to NPD Intelect, Business Plan Pro® is the best selling business-planning software product available- outselling all competitors combined since 2001. The software includes more than 400 sample plans and is the easiest, fastest, and most efficient way to create a winning business plan. Business Plan Pro® 2003 features the EasyPlan™ Wizard, a dynamic tool offering an extensive wizard-driven experience enabling users to create their plan with greater ease and speed. Based on the responses to a series of “yes or no” questions, the EasyPlan™ Wizard automatically selects the plan outline, tables, charts, and reports. This feature simplifies the plan creation process and is unique to any other business-planning software available. Users are able to access over 8,000 industry profiles that will save them both time and money.

—-
Sadie Dressekie

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »

Kris Price, owner of Noah’s Arf, with canine customer.

You have got to be…
Her friends and family thought Kris Price had lost her mind when she sold her house and left a successful 23-year career with Nike, Inc. to launch her own business. But after four years of hard work and research, Business Plan Pro customer Price achieved her dream in June 2002, by opening Noah’s Arf. The business is a full-service pet care facility based in Portland, Oregon. It provides a safe, clean, and fun environment for pets, whether you leave them at the Arf, or hire the company to visit your pet at your home. As an exhibit manager for Nike, Price spent a lot of time traveling for business, and finding a good facility at which to leave her dog was challenging. This gave her the idea. She visited dog day cares and dog washes all over the country, but she never found one that had all the services as she imagined her business would. Her first step was to create a business plan.

Getting Started Right

“I hadn’t written a business plan before and I am not good at writing, so I struggled with it. But I just kept at it and kept at it, and then went back and forth with the SBA and took about a year getting my numbers right. The exercise of writing my business plan totally opened my eyes - I didn’t know what was involved. Business Plan Pro asked questions that made me think about what was involved and made me do my research. There is no way I would have known all that without Business Plan Pro.” Armed with her business plan, Price approached the SBA for a $200,000 loan. “I had to come up with $70,000 of my own contribution, so I sold my house, and gave my car to the business. I lease this place - I wish I owned it. I have put a lot of money into the building considering it’s not mine, but I had a vision of what I wanted it to look and I don’t think it would have worked if I had not put the money in. A lot of people said, ‘Don’t you think you are getting in over your head. Why don’t you try to launch one thing at a time?’ And I said, ‘That’s not the concept’. A lot of people have day cares, and kitty condos and dog washes but they don’t have all in one. There is nothing else in Oregon like this.”

Open For Business

Price’s vision turned out to be one that her customer’s shared. In July 2002 the company broke even and six months after the launch has built up a regular clientele of 20 dogs whose owners drop them off at the Arf every day. The facility has a capacity of 40 day-care dogs and 26 overnight stays, as well as 9 kitty condos. The company currently has two full-time and four part-time employees, and needs one more of each. “We are growing so fast I can’t keep up with it. It’s scaring me, it really is!” says Kris. The holidays are the Arf’s busiest time. All kitty condos and dog kennels were full for both Labor Day and Christmas, and Kris began promoting the home-care service when they realized that they had reached capacity. In-home care involves visiting the house twice per day to check on animals, and this service becomes more popular around the holidays as Noah’s and other local facilities get full. The Arf has had to do very little advertising. Business is coming its way through word of mouth as well as some free publicity. There is a dog park close to the facility, and Price is told that her business is “the talk of the dog park”. In addition, Noah’s Arf received the Multunomah Animal Control Facility Award for 2002 and received a front page write-up in the Oregonian newspaper.

What’s Next

When asked whether she will expand the current facility, Price says definitely not. “I don’t want it bigger because right now I know every dogs’ name and after I walk them at night, kiss each of them, rub them down, give them a hug, I can still be very personal with them and that’s the way I like it. If you get bigger, you lose track of all that.” “The next stage is to hire people and get them trained so that I can get out of the kennel and think more about the business side of things. I took my first day off in over a year last week, for my 50th birthday. I went to a spa and I was a nervous wreck.” Looking ahead, Price plans to grow the business by opening similar facilities in other cities, and she has already scouted a couple of potential locations. “I look back now and I can’t even imagine I did it. Every day is like a Saturday now. I work probably 18 hours a day. I was up at 5 this morning. I work till 10 - 11 at night, and I love it. I am working on adrenalin now, that’s all it is.” she laughs. Noah’s Arf is open 7 days a week and charges $23 per day and $32 overnight for dog care, $12 per day and $18 overnight for cat care. You can read more about Noah’s Arf services and prices at www.noahsarf.com.

BUSINESS PLAN PRO® 2003
According to NPD Intelect, Business Plan Pro® is the best selling business-planning software product available- outselling all competitors combined since 2001. The software includes more than 400 sample plans and is the easiest, fastest, and most efficient way to create a winning business plan. Business Plan Pro® 2003 features the EasyPlan™ Wizard, a dynamic tool offering an extensive wizard-driven experience enabling users to create their plan with greater ease and speed. Based on the responses to a series of “yes or no” questions, the EasyPlan™ Wizard automatically selects the plan outline, tables, charts, and reports. This feature simplifies the plan creation process and is unique to any other business-planning software available. Users are able to access over 8,000 industry profiles that will save them both time and money.

—-
Sadie Dressekie

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »

Julio Nascimento, co-owner and head chef of EPC.

It is time for dinner in California and many families are sitting down to ho-hum meals consisting of last night’s leftovers. Or they have dispersed through the house—the kids are upstairs watching TV, eating frozen pizza pockets. Meanwhile Mom and Dad, too tired from their long days of hard work, stare desperately at the refrigerator hoping for nutritional inspiration to hit. The next time this happens to you Suzan and Julio Nascimento hope you’ll reach for the phone instead of that box of Mac ‘n’ Cheese and order a meal from their company, European Personal Chef, Inc. (EPC).

Founded in October 1999 by this husband and wife team, EPC serves up delicious healthy meals to the Lake Forest, California community and outlying areas. EPC provides three different services:

1. Personal Chef
2. Event Chef
3. Interactive Cooking Class

The Personal Chef becomes your hired chef de cuisine for the night with an affordable menu plan for families, couples and singles. The Event Chef caters entire events, intimate dinner parties, and platters for small-to-large gatherings. Clients can also take cooking into their own hands, and hire EPC for one-to-one cooking instruction.

A natural people person, Chef Julio Nascimento was drawn to the personal chef business. Julio was born in Portugal and he has an extensive background as a chef and restaurateur in Europe. Julio began his career as a chef working for others, but realized he had an entrepreneurial spirit and so decided to work for himself. After owning two restaurants and working non-stop around the clock, Julio realized that he missed the personal interaction between the recipients of his cooking and himself. He wanted to get out of the kitchen, away from managing a staff and into the dining room to see the smiles of fully satisfied customers.

Starting small, he started cooking a full-week’s meals for families in their own kitchens. As word got out about the quality of the EPC food and service, Julio and Suzan decided to move the company into a commercial kitchen where Julio could work his culinary magic and then personally deliver the meals to his customers. With Julio’s extensive experience as a professional chef, and Suzan’s savvy business skills, EPC was able to reach profitability in 2000, only one year after inception.

Haute Planning Before joining her husband in establishing EPC, Suzan Nascimento worked for a start-up software company where she wrote the business plan which landed the company the financing they needed to launch a new product. Looking to expand EPC in 2002, Suzan again sought out the help of Business Plan Pro® software, from Palo Alto Software, Inc., (www.paloalto.com). “Using Business Plan Pro has given me great confidence that we have done our homework and have a solid game plan,” explained Suzan.

Not everything was coming up radish-roses in the beginning. Suzan found it difficult to secure financing at times, and discovered that Business Plan Pro was a great aid in confirming the funding that would be needed as the company expanded, “…once all the numbers were entered in, we found that we needed more money to expand than we initially thought.”

With the rate of current success, Suzan foresees the need to hire additional personal chefs by 2004. She uses Business Plan Pro to help her forecast the financial resources the company will require to grow, “I am almost addicted [to this program] because I like playing around with the numbers for ‘What If?’ scenarios. I mess with the numbers probably monthly and update/review [our business plan] formally every quarter.”

Not only has Business Plan Pro helped Suzan predict the future, it has also increased her understanding of business financials, “I never really understood the financial part of [a plan] as much as I thought I did. I used to be scared of the term Cash Flow Statement, but now it’s my best friend. Numbers don’t lie and all I have to do is consult the plan.”

Rave Reviews Herald Continued Success For the holidays, EPC launched a successful Dinner and Massage package that incorporated the best of both worlds—a romantic meal for dinner personally prepared by Julio, followed by a relaxing massage by a professional masseuse. This caught on quickly—they received requests from all over including an area hospital considering it as a gift for all of their nursing staff.

One grateful customer, Al Weingartner sums up the success of EPC, “On a spring day in 1984 on my honeymoon in a small town on the coast of France, I had what is now the second best meal of my life. Thank you for our wonderful Valentine’s Day dinner! You are truly a genius!” Armed with a Web site (www.EuropeanPersonalChef.com) and a dependable business plan, European Personal Chef, Inc., is expanding and could be your choice over another unexciting TV dinner.

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the drive-thru café on your way to work is a small business; it is anything but small to an owner and budding entrepreneur like Bart Fisher.

It is 5:15 a.m. on Monday morning. Bart arrives at The Daily Perc in Rock Hill, Missouri and preps the espresso machine for the morning rush. He has already purchased two papers for customers, cleared the snow from the drive-thru lanes, stocked all the necessary paper products, and received the day’s shipment of dairy products, bagels, muffins, and cream cheese. For the next ten hours he sells coffee, espressos, cappuccinos, sodas, cookies, smoothies, and the concept of The Daily Perc to each customer that drives through his store. After closing at 4 p.m., he spends the next two hours balancing the books, contacting vendors, and cleaning the café before heading into a meeting with the city planner. Bart Fisher knows the meaning of multi-tasking. Early in 2002, Bart launched the drive-thru coffee retail store called The Daily Perc. He didn’t stop there. Since then, Bart has spun off four other businesses under The Daily Perc name and has three more planned for launch within the year.To add to his list of accomplishments, The Daily Perc business plan won a prize of $1,000 in Palo Alto Software’s annual Business Plan Competition in June of 2001. He had been introduced to Business Plan Pro®, business planning software, while at college and remembered it when it came time to write the business plan for The Daily Perc.

Bart Fisher, owner of The Daily Perc, at the first retail location.

“Business Plan Pro gave me an immediate structure to fill in my thoughts. The best part was the ability to take the cerebral ideas and plug them into an already set pattern and see it all come together.”

Bart began writing the business plan for The Daily Perc in mid 1998. The Daily Perc’s first retail outlet is in Rock Hill, Missouri. A second retail facility, The Daily Perc of Brentwood, should be open for retail business in early May of 2003. A third location, The Daily Perc of Creve Coeur, is slated to open later in 2003.

The Daily Perc concept was born while Bart was doing a lot of driving in Colorado and Nebraska. In some of the larger towns he came across, he discovered a little know secret to Midwesterners—that many drive-thru cafés serve excellent coffee. He believed the concept would work in his home state of Missouri. He was thrilled that he could drive up, stay in his car, and be served excellent coffee at a reasonable price. He was sure that fellow Midwesterners would also appreciate the service.

As the CEO of the entire group of companies, Bart works full time at the Rock Hill retail facility, making sure all processes are followed and keeping track of the day-to-day operations of the café. On his “off days,” Bart attends meetings with city planners, financial institutions, vendors, and equipment customers as well as taking part in a daily routine of checks and balances on the future growth of the company compared to the current situation.

Bart is looking to boost the economy of the Midwest as he grows the business. As of February 2003, the company had five employees and he anticipates tripling this number before the year’s end. “The long-term goal is to have many locations throughout the Midwest,” says Bart. He plans on having a franchise agreement in place and begin marketing it before the end of 2003. “I spent over 18 months researching coffee-based franchises before opening The Daily Perc and found none to fit my vision.” With this in mind, he has structured his company for growth. A holding company owns all of The Daily Perc entities, a separate company oversees the marketing and technology needs of the retail stores, and another company is responsible for the sales and maintenance of the equipment that the company is licensed to distribute.

“Because all of the corporate stores and the franchise stores will be offering the same basic product lines, it makes financial sense to place all retail orders through one distribution company and enjoy the economies of scale. Not only that, but you then are able to better control quality and shipment times if you are not relying on multiple vendors to distribute to multiple locations throughout the Midwest.”

Before launching The Daily Perc, Bart started Netcom Services as a division of NetCom, Inc., a high speed cable installation company and construction firm, and worked on a number of technology-based projects throughout the Midwest. “This was my true first ‘business’ with financial meetings, goals, sales, and etc.” It was while at Netcom, Inc. that Bart traveled around the country and was inspired to start his own gourmet coffee store.

When asked whether the company has been profitable yet, Bart is pleased to mention that The Daily Perc of Rock Hill broke even for four of the six months in the last half of 2002.

You can read more about the Daily Perc at www.thedailyperc.com and check out his business plan within Business Plan Pro.

To find out more about Palo Alto Software’s annual Business Plan Competition and your chance to win $25,000, go to www.paloalto.com/competition.

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | 2 Comments »

It seems like you can do anything online these days. Investors can buy stocks, vacationers can reserve a hotel room on the opposite side of the world, entrepreneurs can get a loan for their business, and now you can find out if your parents are really your parents. DNA Bioscience was launched in December 2002, and offers paternity testing, maternity testing, and DNA banking. Go to the website, order a DNA testing kit, send them a sample of your saliva and you could find out if the child is really yours. You can even have your DNA stored in the exclusive London department store, Harrods.

DNA Biosciences was funded initially by angel investors, and is projected to pay back initial seed investment and start-up costs to show profit by March 2004.

Avi Lasarow, a South African who currently lives in London, is the brains behind the business. “A close friend had [a] child outside of wedlock in a fairly new relationship, naturally the relationship was not strong enough and when the child was born they split up. At this point my friend had lots of questions and constantly wondered if he was really the father of his child. Investigating how and where to do a paternity tests for him, I realized that there were not many companies in the UK offering this service.”

Contacting companies on behalf of his friend was an enlightening experience for Avi, but not a positive one. He found companies that were mainly U.S. or Australian posing as UK entities, and the service and information he received was inadequate. “The service I was given was so poor. I felt that with such a potentially life changing investigation individuals should receive more attention and expect more sensitivity.”

Avi was amazed to find out that paternity testing could be conducted by saliva rather than blood. This experience and new knowledge about the process inspired him to set up a true UK paternity testing company, so people can feel confident in the provider they choose. As CEO of this three person start-up, Avi keeps busy in all aspects of the company, from strategy development to day-to-day operations. He coordinates with legal council and doctors’surgeries for administration of paternity tests, completes all Internet and telephone orders, manages and designs the marketing campaigns, attends industry trade fairs and explores business development opportunities.

Avi knew that his plan would need to be impressive if he was to be successful in attracting the funding he would need to start the business. He began by using the free sample plans on the www.bplans.com web site, but realized he needed more structured help, so he purchased the software. Since writing the plan two years ago, he has reviewed it twice and regularly updates it with actual financials so that he can track the company’s progress.

“Business Plan Pro (UK edition) helped me to understand what to put into a plan, what investors need to see, and the correct structure. In addition, I now realize more than ever that a business cannot be successful without a plan which you can track against. I [am] from an IT/Accounts background but did not have the knowledge to put a comprehensive plan together. Business Plan Pro helped meet this need.”

Starting the business has been a long haul for Avi and his partners. “Becoming accredited by the Department of Health and Lord Chancellors Department is a lengthy and arduous process, but to be accepted by the court system, DNA Bioscience would need to get ISO 17025 accreditation for the labs which it used.”

Avi has some thoughts and tips for others wanting to launch their own venture. “Working for yourself is very fulfilling but also can be lonely. Sometimes I doubt if I am doing the right thing, especially on days when the phone doesn’t ring or we do not get any interest and orders for our service. I believe this is time related, the longer the business is running the more people get to hear about it and show interest. On the other hand, we have also achieved a lot of exposure already. We have appeared on BBC TV and been invited to take part in ethical debates on BBC Radio. When you have big wins like this, you realize that you are doing the right thing!”

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »

Luis Monje had never even waited a table when he opened Re/Charge, a health-focused, quick-service restaurant and smoothie bar in Chelsea, NY, in November last year. Little in his technology career prepared him for the multiple and variety of tasks that he had to juggle to open Re/Charge-from designing the restaurant layout and negotiating with contractors to deciding on the menu. “It was a dizzying experience!” Luis says.

Re/Charge provides a full service menu for people running between work and the gym. It’s the only quick-serve restaurant in New York that Luis knows of that serves alligator meat. The restaurant offers exotic protein-rich food outside the typical fare, like bison, buffalo and alligator. Non-vegetarians who want to eat healthy, high protein, low-fat, low carbohydrate diets generally don’t have a choice beyond chicken or turkey. Re/Charge is aiming to fill this gap.

From an idea to a reality

During the 10 months of taking the business from an idea to a reality, Luis relied on his business plan to ensure he was covering all his bases. “I used Business Plan Pro to get a firm grasp of where to go.” In the early stages of building the business, Luis was pulled in a hundred different directions all at once. He often updated his business plan within Business Plan Pro and the software’s financial features helped him confirm that he was projecting an economically sound business.

From software to alligator meat

Luis began an impressive technology career on the West Coast with AOL, Netscape, Comtouch and Verisign. Like so many people in the world of technology, he fell victim to layoffs during the Internet downturn-first from AOL/Netscape, then Commtouch and then again after only six months from Verisign. After the second layoff, he was determined that he would not be laid off again and he began to work on his business idea for Re/Charge. Luis had dreamed of the business since living in San Francisco and seeing the popularity of similar ventures there. When he moved to NY, he found that people worked just as hard and drove themselves just as fast as they did in the Valley, but there was little opportunity for them to eat well, while on the run. While healthy eating was more a part of the lifestyle on the West Coast, he felt that New Yorkers would appreciate the same.

Luis began the project with his CPA, who had previously run restaurants. One of the first steps was finding the right location. Much to Luis’s disappointment, when he found the location and was ready to sign on the bottom line for the lease, his business partner failed to raise his portion of the initial investment. At this stage of the game it left him with three options: to forget the venture all together, to backtrack and try to find another partner, or to raise the money to start the business by himself. Luis chose the latter. He re-mortgaged his home, got a $150,000 loan through the SBA and started to use credit cards like they were going out of style.

Rave reviews

The restaurant has only been open for six months, and has already been written up by Zagats, America’s leading guide to restaurants and hotels, and has received rave reviews from customers. Even more of a compliment are the two copy cat restaurants that opened in NYC this year. Luis aims to stay ahead of his competitors by creating a distinctive brand, and by developing his restaurant, right from the beginning to be a franchise. He has created a look, feel and set of processes that can be plugged into any area in Manhattan and be successful.
No rest
Luis’ parents were not happy when they heard that he was planning to go into the restaurant business. Both his parents have been in the hospitality business, and know the amount of work it takes to open and run a restaurant. He remembers his mother telling him, “You had it easy in technology and software. You don’t know what you’re getting into in the food industry. It’s a seven day a week job.” Luis is quick to tell her how right she was. He recently spent a long weekend to visit friends on the West Coast-his first break from the restaurant in six months!

Biggest stress

The sources of major frustration for Luis, as with most restaurant owners, are employee issues. High employee turnover and employee mistakes are costly, but inevitable. “It’s no one’s dream job to work behind a counter or bus tables. It’s your career, but for your employees it’s just a stepping stone.” Re/Charge employs 21 people. Luis feels the weight of the responsibility, since he has to make payroll each month and is responsible for the livelihoods of 23 people. “Even though I am not paying myself yet, I still have to find wages each week to pay my employees,” says Luis.

Being a health and fitness oriented new business, Luis decided against having any sort of alcohol offering at Re/Charge despite the obvious financial benefit this brings. He chose to bring a California-style smoothie bar to the restaurant to improve the margins and bottom line. So far this decision has proved a sound one as the warmer months brought many customers in search of healthy smoothies and shakes. Keeping a handle on the day-to-day actual operating costs and expenses for three different revenue streams has proven to be a challenge for Luis, but one from which he is already starting to see benefits.

The most difficult part of this whole adventure is also the most exciting. While Luis is proud of the fact that he has created and launched this whole venture himself, he realizes how much more challenging it has been going it alone. “I would be six months ahead of where I am now if I had a partner. There aren’t enough hours in the day.”

Sadie Dressekie

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »

Terry Levine took a European commonplace - the lingerie boutique - and made it a novelty in Kansas City. She opened “clair de lune” on October 1, 2004, and has so far heard nothing but accolades. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here.” “I haven’t had so much fun buying a bra before.” “Thanks for taking so much time with me.”

The 1,000-square-foot shop boasts, “style, selection, and service.” Terry modeled clair de lune after lingerie boutiques in Italy and France. It carries mostly European lines known for their design, fit, and craftsmanship (”the lace,” exclaimed Terry, “and the foundations”). The store offers professional fittings that can run up to three-quarters of an hour, unheard of in department stores and chains. It caters to women between 30 and 65, who may not find what they like at such youth-oriented venues as Victoria’s Secret, nor the right size. Clair de lune carries sizes that run the gamut from tiny to ample, another area where many stores play shy.

It all started about five years ago, when burnout set in for this 25-year veteran of advertising. On a trip to Europe around this time, Terry noticed, “these wonderful lingerie boutiques, where the lingerie was so beautiful; of a higher quality and better design than the things you see in Kansas City.” A fancy for lingerie boutiques turned into a serious career move. It was not as if she had ever pined to run a boutique before, she said. Just that she wanted to bring the European lingerie boutique to Kansas City. Once she’d made the decision, she started to plan.

Terry augmented her marketing experience with Business Plan Pro®. She knew the lingo, she said, of business cycles and buy backs, but the numbers mystified her. A financial consultant advised her to find a business plan, and when searching the Web, Palo Alto Software’s Business Plan Pro popped up as “having everything” she wanted. She found it easy to use and not at all intimidating. For Terry, “it was the numbers part that was wonderful, helping me make educated guesses about what might happen. And then the tables were already there,” in fair copies for the loan officers. Palo Alto Software put her in a position to create and finance her dream business. She wrote a prize-winning proposal that got her a $150,000 Small Business Administration (SBA) loan.

Last summer, Terry found a great location in an outdoor lifestyle mall for the sophisticated shopper, filled largely with locally-owned businesses. While keeping her day job in business marketing until August 1st, Terry went to work on the space. Today, clair de lune has a “warm and charming” atmosphere, with Oriental rugs on the floor and fabric on the walls. It’s not at all fussy Victorian, she noted, but the emphasis on color, natural wood, and fabric creates a sense of comfort and luxury. When shopping for intimate apparel, it’s the experience as much as the item that matters. And if women find clair de lune unique, surely their partners will follow, particularly around the holidays when the store hosts Gentlemen’s Nights with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and plenty of beautiful things to choose from.

Without a business background, Terry moved with surprising alacrity from her job in advertising and marketing to running a store. She admits her habit of reaching out to experts has worked so well it amazed her. She got “good guidance from good people,” found mentors when she needed them (when foggy about how much to order in each size, for example). She learned that if you ask, people are often willing. The vendors themselves proved helpful. “They don’t want you to have things that don’t move, so they’ll be honest with you about what to buy.”

The slow days are Terry’s biggest challenge, but because she works six, often seven days a week, she can turn the lulls to good effect by doing what she likes - interacting with customers, learning what they want. Her presence encourages people to identify her with clair de lune, too - yet another way to personalize the place.

All in all, Terry’s career shift has brought her out from behind the scenes and into the open. She loves offering a unique sense of style, variety (forty lingerie lines) and service to women in Kansas City. Her goal: to make the store a regional attraction for lingerie shoppers. Toward that end, clair de lune not only looks like a destination, it acts like one, offering opportunities like the “Great Bra Exchange” which gives shoppers a chance to recycle slightly worn bras and earn $10 toward their next purchase. As she says on the website: “It’s not just the size of your bra that matters; it’s the size of your heart.”

After only five months, it’s hard for Terry to tell how things are going. She has an optimistic outlook based on observation, facts, and good advice. She has advertised in newspapers and on the radio, but has found direct mail to be the most effective method. The store’s reputation is spreading, and customers rave. “I’m feeling very good about it. I am not meeting my sales projections, but because of the extremely positive reaction to the store, and because the average transaction is higher than I projected, I am going to keep things lean, watch the dollars, and cut where I need to, to keep the cash flow positive.”

Meanwhile, Business Plan Pro continues to serve as a benchmark to track Terry’s original goals and remind her of initiatives she intended to establish. By October 2005, Terry anticipates a healthy client base of about 1,500, with the majority repeat customers. After that, she hopes her reputation and client base will do nothing but “grow exponentially,” earning clair de lune a strong reputation with customers from around the Midwest. She would like to develop an e-commerce component, and offer enhanced services for niche markets such as maternity and mastectomy clients.

With its unique European inventory and service orientation, its looks, atmosphere, sense of style, and events, there is every reason to believe clair de lune has already found its niche in Kansas City.

To learn more about clair de lune, check out the website, http://www.clairdelunekc.com, or stop by Hawthorne Plaza, 5014 West 119 Street, Overland Park, Kansas, Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm.

by Kathryn Liebowitz

Posted on January 2nd, 2007 | No Comments »