ForumsStarting a Business

Burger Joint Startup, Welcome, It sounds interesting

How soon do you need to come up with the money??

Bridge had an interesting idea "it is sometimes easier to get a loan for a franchise"

You will need to develop a Business and Marketing Plan.

And thing about SCORE. SCORE is FREE.

Good luck, LUCKIEST

If you're really passionate about this, my advice would be to get as close to the nitty gritty of owning and running a restaurant as you possibly can, for as much time as you can as soon as you can. This may mean going to work a few hours in the evening for an existing burger joint, or providing a restaurant owner in your neighborhood with whatever skills or assistance you can offer in exchange for some mentoring.

The purpose of doing something like that is so you gain relevant experience and expertise -- and learn "insider" things about runnning that type of business (for instance, how effectively you deal with suppliers in your locale can impact your operating costs by as much as 60 percent). You'll also begin to establish a network of contacts you can leverage later.

A solid plan and financial projection are the prerequisites for consideration by any potential lender, investor, or other partner -- but the ultimate decision to fund your enterprise will be based on what you bring to the table. They want to know that you know what you're doing, and that you have already learned all the potentially costly lessons on someone else's time and money.

Hope this helps. Welcome to the community and best wishes.

It seems the general theme here is that I lack experience and all of the ideas above unrealistically true. Currently I live in NYC and work 8 - 7 to support myself from which finding time to work at some restaurant is just unrealistic. My interests for this business comes from within my family. My dad has been chef for 20 years, food and cooking has been in my family as long as I can remember. I have absolutely zero doubt that I will dislike what I'm trying to get myself into. The business model I am striving for is complete in all aspects with mediocre experience in business plan writing and experience in the service industry. There is no need to reinforce my passion with experience at this point and I know experience speak miles over passion with any investor but the advise that I am looking for here is how to find funding with all that I already have.

Thanks in advance.

Excellent! now that's a passionate answer.

The extent of my restaurant experience is working as a busboy while in high school. Outside of finance I have work in event planning for nighclub for about 10 years.

I appreciate all the help from anyone here even though I am at times stubborn and opinionated. There is good and bad in that.

Your response sounds as though you know all you need to and are ready to roll -- just need the funding. Given the amount of money you're seeking, and the additional information you provided, I honestly believe you'd be wasting your time approaching banks. Find an investor who believes in you as much you do and wants to buy in to your success. Good luck.

Of course -- and convertible debt is usually a better choice for seed funding anyway, provided your business plan spells out when and how the next round occurs.

Private Placements are expensive. Probably cost prohibitive for what you need.

regardless, you are probably more interested in having a note drawn up by an attorney versus a true "private placement".

Remember the more investors, the more cooks in the kitchen. Silent is usually never silent.

Put yourself in the investors shoes, you can't expect them to drop a bag of money at your doorstep and say trust me, I'll pay you back now leave me alone.

your might try looking at:

www.virginmoneyus.com (this is the old circle lending)