Angela Bell

I thought two years spent on planning budgets for my latest project, what is currently referred to as a fast casual restaurant, would have been more than enough time to discover what taxes, licenses and inspections were required. But, I was wrong. On the day that I went to the town offices to apply for a business license, the day before I was due to open, I was handed a pile of forms, forms to be completed and sent in along with my local sales tax of 2% to be collected on every sale and payable ...

It was finally time to open the doors after 87 days of renovations, menu planning, equipment and furniture buying, painting, inspections, licensing and vendor sourcing. What’s next? How about a grand opening event? Or, should it be invitation only? Or, how about just opening the doors and hanging out the “open” sign? This is a decision that every new restaurant owner must make. And, it is not an easy one.

In my case, I chose to hang out the sign. Here’s why.

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I am a new business owner, not an inexperienced one, but the owner of a recently opened restaurant serving what I refer to as “eat smart” food. I opened my cafeteria style restaurant on Friday, March 29, one week ago yesterday. I am now in what I refer to as Phase 6, the marketing phase, although I have been using social networking to spread the word for the past six months. That is how long it has been that I knew that somewhere in the upstate of South Carolina, I would locate the first “eat ...

The push to unionize may just push the profits and the business out the door...
I was approached a few days ago by a man in a black suit who knocked on my restaurant door at 4PM on a sunny weekday afternoon. At 4PM on any day that I am open for business, my team and I are knee deep in the weeds racing against the clock, the 5PM hour when our doors open for business. The neophyte at the door reminded me of one of the men in black complete with dark glasses and sporting a badge threaded through ...