Laid Off Lady Gets Help for Cupcake and Wine Bar
Cupcake, beer and wine bar.
The business is her Sweet Revenge from being laid off in the corporate world.
I get to be happy and make people happy.
Being laid off was a blessing.
If she had supportive bosses she may have never found what she really wanted.
She was working for Time, Inc.
It's been 2½ years and the first was the hardest.
She had a lot of help researching and doing her business plan.
She took free and cheap classes.
Got lots of great help from SCORE.
She spent a lot of time at the public library working on her business plan.
New York City has a free class called Restaurant Boot Camp.
Private consultants will charge $100-$200 per hour for what she got for free.
She took affordable classes at the local culinary schools, not for cooking, but for running a food business.
YOU HAVE TO DO A LOT OF RESEARCH.
She got a SBA loan to finance her business.
You have to prove your amount of investment in the business.
She is not a chef or baker so experts work in her kitchen.
Her biggest surprise was that she did not realize how hard the first year would be.
But she would not change anything.
She has received lots of awards from local magazines and was on the Martha Stewart show.