If you have no capital and bad credit, you may need an investor. My advice to you is similar to everyone elses. Go slow, If you have no money to fund the venture than I would star bit by bit. Check out the auctions and liquidation sales for furniture nad fixtures. Find as much used stuff as possible!! It can always be replaced once your start earning money. Have a look at different pos systems ( in my opinion they are indespensible!). Good Luck Cheers Alexis Message Edited by ChristineL on 11-27-2009 11:57 AM

My advice is that you have to learn how to crawl before you walk. Too many times I see novice business owners try to get $1 million in financing to open up a sports bar and grill. They insist that because they've been managing a sports bar and grill for years that its a sure-fire home run. 99/100 they are dead wrong. Managing a business as an employee is a whole lot easier than starting one up from scratch, financing it, and dealing with all the stress and 80 hour weeks that go along with it. You cannot underestimate the amount of stress you will experience starting up a small business. You won't notice it at first, but after a year or two, you will see why most businesses don't make it. My attitude is to go small and see if you can hack it. I found it interesting that on one of Donald Trump's reality show contests he literally had the contestants start up a lemonade stand in New York City. They soon learned that it's not as easy as it looks. But that is fundamental business. If you can't hack the small stuff, forget about the big stuff. Try a small sandwich shop or a hot dog shop in a hole in the wall. If you can hack it there, then maybe you can graduate to something bigger. And plus, you probably won't need that much startup capital other than the rent. If you can try to get something on a month to month (that might be tough). And try to be as frugal and cheap and resourceful as possible. If you can pass that test, then maybe you're ready for prime time. patent business trademark attorney los angeles los angeles patent copyright attorney Message Edited by NicoleD on 11-30-2009 05:04 PM

Restaurants are a tough business. Not to be negative but you have a lot of things working against you at the moment. You will need a lot of capital to get things going and keep the doors opened. Your best option may be to find private investors. Take a look at this article on http://www.ehow.com/how_4920597_private-investors-startup-small-business... how to find private investors for startup small business. Message Edited by NicoleD on 06-29-2009 09:50 AM

I would suggest you try SCORE (score.org) or find a small business development center (SBDC) in your area. Both are free and will help you get your venture off the ground. As a side note - if you really want to be successful - improve your credit. Make sure you are ready to do this and are positioned to do this.

Thanks for jumping in, BusPlanMaster and phanio! You both raise some sound points. Miss Luke - 10 Steps to Starting a Business offers links to free counseling and assistance programs and business plan resources.

Miss Luke; I see that you are in a tough position. My advice is not about how to start your business but a suggestion to go check out one of my sites that lists pos dealers in ny. As you will find out POS systems cost thousands of dollars but if you get different quotes from different dealers you can definitely save a lot of money and have them compete to give you more goodies (ask for extra support, free phone or remote support, extended warranty etc.). Hope you guys succeed and in case you have any questions once contact me at info@pos-newyork.com. Message Edited by NicoleD on 05-27-2009 10:44 AM

Research, research and more research! You will need to assume you will not make any profit for at least 2 years; so you'll need to know exactly how much capital is required for.... 1. 2 years of operation (inventory, salaries, operating expenses, advertising, etc) 2. Inital cost to register business, get proper licences & permits. 3. Cost to percentage of what you'll investors will get. As you'll see with #3 that will be you're main goal, to find an investor(s) who can help you start your business. I'd suggest making an entire game plan on paper; remember when you start looking for an investor they will want to know EVERYTHING about your idea... SBA.gov might be another place to start your research for capital.

MissLuke,   You may not have capital or good credit, but you are not totally out of options (and you don't seem afraid to fail...and that's half the battle!). It's going to take a ton of hard work and bit of out-of-box thinking on your part, but I believe it can be done (more likely in the outer boroughs, much less in Manhattan though).   First; A Business Plan is one of the most important things that you can do, you don't have to pay for one or use a program to create it, there are tons of free templates available to guide you though it (in fact, writing it yourself can teach you guys a lot about the business and be a valuable lesson in itself).   Next, try and find a local landlord that has some vacancies in the area that you want to build and, after showing them your business plan, offer out a 'percentage rent' (in effect, paying him a percentage of your sales). The advantage here is that he gets an opportunity, during hard times, to fill a vacancy and possibly secure a paying tenant and you get a chance to start out cheaply (Just don't expect a location on the corner of 'Walk and Don't Walk').   Next..Buy or barter for used restaurant equipment (which traditionally sells for MUCH less than it's newer siblings), better yet, take over a former restaurant that already has the equipment...but understand that they failed, so what are you going to do differently?   The expensive part is going to be the permits and approvals. You'll need to find an attorney willing to work 'pro-bono' (I'd start by contacting the NY State Bar Association) and, while you're at it, contact NYC.gov to see if they offer tax incentives, etc to new businesses and their owners...   ...and, as was pointed out before, do your best to get your credit scores in line, you'll need that when you're setting up your vendors.   I hope that helps and I wish you guys the best of luck,   -tony        

Entrepreneur the Magazine has startup guides for specific businesses- including restaurants. I've read through some for other industries and they seem great. I would see if your library had a copy. Also, restaurants open all the time, some fail and some succeed- try to find someone who has done this before and pick their brain.....what worked, what didn't, what would you do different, etc. Also try to identify why other restaurants in the area have failed. Definitely take advantage of your local SCORE (www.scorenyc.org) or SBDC(www.nyssbdc.org/Locations/locations.html). Define a target market- don't try to be the Wal-Mart of takeout: trying to offer everything to everyone. It sounds like you're going to locate in a very pricey area- can you price your food high enough to justify the high rent? What kind of volume can you expect to do? How many employees will it take to handle that? Just a few questions that I hope will get you thinking. Good Luck- let us know how things go. Message Edited by TR_OK on 04-14-2009 03:19 PM

Also, something i forgot, do not forget about your supply chain, if gordon ramsey taught me anything, its buying locally from farmers markets, and if you are doing sea food, buy from the piers, or the fish monger markets, you will save a TON of money, and you will have locally fresh meat and vegtables for your restraraunt, its essential when you are starting out, to have a minimal overhead on supplies and environment, so you can make sure most of your money is spent on LOCATION, no decor, or food will save a place situated in a bad location with no parking, or hidden in the middle of nowhere.