What are my chances of success?

How much money can I raise?

You can raise as much as you need! It is foolish to try and begin a new business venture without the proper amount of capital- in fact this is one of the biggest reasons new businesses fail- not because people aren't coming in, but because the establishment can't get to it's break even fast enough. And, although it may not seem like it, raising a lot is no harder than raising a little! Our financial package will help you easily determine exactly what you will need, and how to structure the most favorable deal on the best terms.

Often, by combining financing sources, you can raise much more than you would expect. For example, in an acquisition deal, you can combine personal capital, plus a bank loan, plus equipment leasing, plus owner carry, plus vendor financing, plus investor money, plus broker commission deferment, plus existing cashflow into a workable deal to get you into a business you thought was out of your price range. If you don't know how to do all that, and it sounds complicated, don't worry! Our information will show you how, and it's easy if you just go step by step.

How long does the process take?

With the necessary information at hand, you can complete a business plan and financial package using our Catering Success Kit in as few as 8-10 hours. How so fast? Because we do all the heavy lifting for you, and give you step by step instructions on what to write and what numbers to enter. Our product does the rest. Now, if you don't have all the information needed to enter, we tell you exactly how to get it and where to go to find anything you don't have. And with that kind of help, gathering your info shouldn't take very long, either!

Why shouldn't I just do it myself?

You certainly could just do it yourself. But a good question to ask yourself is what is the real cost of this? Suppose it takes you three months to complete a business plan and a financials package working on your own, about 10 hours a week (the national average). What is that time worth? Now, what about the cost of mistakes, and mis-steps, and the trial and error learning that happens any time someone does something for the first time?

Now compare that to the cost of using our Restaurant Success Kit:

• It only takes 8-10 hours of your time
• It has proven itself to be successful in raising money
• It contains years of industry experience to help you make smart decisions and avoid the common and uncommon mistakes new catering business owners make
• If it doesn't work for you, you can return it and it will have cost you nothing!

Why is this better than any of the other products available to help me start my catering business?

So what makes the difference between us and our competition? The key difference is that their products are designed to build a business plan for any kind of business- ours is ONLY for catering businesses. What that means for you is that there is nothing in our plan that doesn't belong, and everything in it that you do need. The competition leaves a lot of things for you to figure out if you need or not, and if you do, there is a lot of writing and financial work left to be figured out by you and customized by you in order to make it right for a restaurant plan.

They also ask you to create financials- ones that will be scrutinized by bankers- on your own, from scratch. They may provide a base, but you must figure out how to build the financials into something workable for your specific business. And some things you need for a food service business- like precise food costing and seasonal and weekly sales volume adjustability, aren't really even possible with the financials they offer.

What do I get for my money and how much is it?

The current price of our Catering Success Kit is $89.95. Regular shipping is currently FREE.

What kind of software am I getting?

Our business plan creation tool is designed to work with Microsoft Word, although it will work with any word processing program available. The financials creation software is built on a Microsoft Excel platform, and requires Excel 95 or a newer version to run.

Now you might ask why do we use other people's programs instead of creating our own software like some of the other business plan software companies? There are several good answers:

One is that their (MS Excel and Word) programs have already had literally millions of hours of use, and the bugs are all worked out for what we need them to do. So you are likely to have far fewer problems running the programs and getting them to work. In fact, they are probably already on your computer and working just fine. So you save time and headaches not crashing your computer with new software.

Another reason is that by not having to develop everything from scratch, we can offer our product at a better price because we need fewer programmers and support people. We can concentrate on the business side of what we are offering, and let others worry about developing the underlying code needed to make it all happen.

A third reason is that the Microsoft document and spreadsheet programs are much more powerful than anything you can get with a business plan product. So even though we make them super easy for you to use, we can make them extremely powerful and comprehensive behind the scenes by using someone else's tools to your benefit.

A fourth reason is that many people are familiar with these programs, so they can work much faster than if they have to learn a whole new program. If you're not, don't worry- we make it very easy for you. But if you are, then you can really fly, saving yourself more time and the hassle of learning something new you will only use once or twice.

Still want more reasons? How about these: Many, many people know these programs so you can get help from many sources. If you are a power user, you can really maximize the effort- more than with a stand-alone, limited function business plan software product. You can work on any computer that has these programs just by bringing a floppy disk with you, you don't need to load a special program on each new computer. You can switch back and forth between the financials program and the business plan program easily, and even be printing one and working on the other at the same time- which you can't with other products.

Many people don't understand at first why we don't create our own software from scratch like our competitors. But after some more thought based on our reasoning above, they agree with us that they can't understand why our competitors do!

I don't plan to open a catering business for many months yet- why should I order now?

There are several good reasons to order now, even if you aren't planning to open for some time:

• You can better determine what type of niche to focus on, and how much money you can put toward the project
• You can get things ready ahead of time, so when you do decide to move forward, you will have no delays
• Great opportunities don't always run on the same schedule you set for yourself. One may come along before you thought you would be ready, but now you will be able to grab it whenever it happens
• When you see how easy it is to raise money and open your business with our kit, you may decide to move up your opening date!

What are the system requirements to run the program?

Any computer running Windows 95 or higher with a Pentium or better quality processor is fine, with at least 16MB of RAM. If you're not sure, as long as the computer was made in the last 4-5 years, you should be fine.

The financials program does require that Excel 95 or newer be loaded on the computer. The business plan will work with any word processing program, although it is optimized for Microsoft Word.

Now what if you don't have this, or even have a computer? Should you give up? No! Here are some other ways you can still use our product and achieve your desired goals:

• Use a work computer after hours
• Use a friend's computer
• Use a neighbor's computer
• Use your accountant's computer
• Use a public library computer
• Use the computer lab at the local college/high school
• Use a computer at the local copy shop
• Hire a college business student to help out with their computer
• Put an ad in a free classified to trade for computer time
• Use an Apple computer with a Windows emulator
• Take a computer class and ask if you can stay after to work on your own
• Take a part time job at a computer store!

There are always ways around any problem if you just get creative and don't let little obstacles stand in your way!

What are the ways I can pay for this? What about shipping?