Success Stories

Salt Room Las Vegas

Throughout the first half of her life as a student and a recent graduate, Ava Mucikyan worked with non-profit organizations such as United Nations, USAID, Catholic Relief Services and Youth For Achievements. She even obtained her second Master's in Intercultural Communications hoping to take assignments abroad and get a diplomatic career. However, as they say, "you can plan all you want, life just happens to you.” So life happened to her and Ava moved to Las Vegas after graduating from American University in D.C.

Not being able to pursue her dream, she ended up in banking, and moved up to VP, only to realize that corporate America and 6-figure salary didn't make her happy. So Ava followed her  passion to help people in natural wellness. After many hours of research and thinking, I realized that Salt therapy is a very growing industry. Considering the allergies and respiratory issues that are on the rise in Las Vegas and in my family, and the serious side-effects of... Read More

Food in boats in Thailand

For Chatree and Shannon Soisoongnoen, opening their very own Thai restaurant was an eight year long process filled with trials, speed bumps and successes.

It all began when Chatree Soisoongnoen moved to the United States from Thailand at the age of 13. When he eventually went into the navy, Soisoongnoen found himself missing one thing above all else: his mother’s cooking. While travelling abroad, he tried to fill this void by visiting various Thai restaurants, but none quite matched up with his mother’s authentic recipes. This experience is what sparked Soisoongnoen to want to open his own restaurant when he returned home to Pahrump in 2006.

Initially, Soisoongnoen’s mother was completely against the idea of opening a restaurant. This created a stalemate, for in order to open the quality restaurant he had in mind, Soisoongnoen needed his mother’s recipes as well as her expertise in the kitchen. Soisoongnoen’s mother finally relented in July of 2013, and Chatthai... Read More

Egg Works Logo

"Huge Plates of Comfort Food"

Brad Burdsall has been in the restaurant business for over 25 years. In 1998 he purchased the ‘Egg & I’ in Las Vegas. A federal trademark already existed, so Egg & I became Egg Works – a natural for someone named ‘Burds’all.

But the family restaurant, open for breakfast and lunch, had no recipes, no menus and no operating structure. Brad spent the next eight years, as a hands-on operator/owner/kitchen manager, developing   his own recipes, menus and putting operating procedures in place. As a result, the business sales tripled!

Once he had perfected the business model, Brad was in a great position, along with the support of SBA financing, to begin the expansion of his chain of restaurants. The restaurant’s décor reflected his brand, with an open kitchen, country style décor and rolling farm land murals.

In 2005, Brad was ready to expand and he opened his second location with the help of 7(a... Read More

Westside Cafe Reno, Nevada

Sandra Rentas, a business development advisor at the Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSBDC), was the first to offer the NxLeveL training course for aspiring business owners taught entirely in Spanish – a first of any SBDC in the country.

Jesus Anguiano, owner of Westside Café & Coffee Company in northwest Reno, took one of Rentas’s NxLeveL training courses.

“Being from another country, I didn’t even know the resources I learned about in this course exist, even after being in business for 16 years,” Anguiano said. “SBDC interns came to look at the restaurant and suggested changes to signage, our menu board, promotion through social media and even offered ideas for interior design. Social media really helped to increase the traffic to the restaurant. I’m also in the process of changing the legal structure of the business and greatly benefited from learning about the importance of having a will, trust and exit plan as a business owner.”

But the proof... Read More

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