Startup Dreams and Realities

Have a dream and some cash to spare? Three local entrepreneurs did, and share with Gulfshore Business how they started their businesses. Small-business guru Tom Scott, director of the Southwest Florida Enterprise Center, weighs in on where they went right or wrong.

Veteran vintner

For three years, Michael Bevacqua was the wine buyer for In Good Spirits, a wine and liquor store on U.S. 41 in Naples. When the owners decided to retire and close shop last September, Bevacqua didn't go far. He and his fiancé, Taryn Rivera, leased retail space in the same shopping center to open Wine Knows, a wine boutique, in January.

The couple spent four months getting their licenses and permits, including a waiver of distance. "[It] is a permit you get when you open in an area where someone else has a liquor license. You have to let them know there's competition. We went to the Naples City Council and they approved it immediately, since we were kind of just moving the location of another store," Bevacqua says.

They also got a good break on the rent because they already had a history with the landlord. Then, using their own money, they did most of the renovations themselves. Once the couple had the store how they wanted it-faux-finished walls, high ceilings, concrete floors-they started gathering inventory. This part is Bevacqua's specialty.

"I have a great relationship with a lot of people around the world, with winemakers. We bartered a lot of things along the way," he says.

Bevacqua also maintained his local ties and continues to host five-course wine dinners at the Robb & Stucky KitchenAid Center in Bonita Springs, a regular event he started with In Good Spirits. The gatherings have generated interest in the boutique, which offers a variety of rarer, smaller-production wines that appeals to its affluent clientele.

"The first two months we didn't even have a sign [marking the store] so we started very slow," says Bevacqua. "Now we're doing 70 percent of the business that In Good Spirits did in wine. We feel that's a very good beginning for us."

Prices range from $6 to $250 a bottle; the business marks up wines by 33 percent. A third of its revenue comes from deliveries to regular customers, and the couple saves money by using their own vehicle for wine deliveries and not employing anyone.

Ten reps from wine dealers visit the store regularly with new wines, and the couple travels to Napa, Calif., and to wine festivals all over the country.

"We started this business with not a great deal of capital," Bevacqua says. "All our money has gone right back into the business."

Business analysis

Even knowing what you are doing might not be enough.

With 20 years of experience in the wine business, this owner knows the market he is trying to serve and his customers' preferences for products. His challenge is to reconnect with the customers from his former employer and convince them that he can satisfy their needs. This marketing problem does not seem to have been addressed for this business, while other new wine merchants are advertising heavily.

One wonders what impact being out of business for four months may have had while paperwork, permits, licenses and remodeling were in process. How many customers were lost in the four-month silence? What opportunities existed to let them know you were "coming right back"? Hanging on to a good customer is much more cost-effective than chasing new ones.

The owners supplied upfront money, and not until they were under way did they obtain a small-business loan. The numbers indicate this will be a tough financial road.

Accidental restaurateurs

Ron Kopko and Mark Solomon were looking for office space for their interior design firm when they veered into a completely different business. Kopko noticed a pair of pink buildings separated by a dingy alley on downtown Fort Myers' Hendry Street. The north building was occupied by various small businesses, but the south building, featuring a narrow room with an old bar, was vacant.

"'You don't need an office. You need a bar,'" Kopko recalls the landlord telling him when he inquired about available space. That day Kopko signed a 10-year lease, despite having no prior experience.

"I was just romanced by the whole thing," he says. "I think Fort Myers is going to explode shortly, and I wanted to be in on the ground floor."

It took 10 weeks to renovate the space and get all the necessary permits and licenses, including a permit to renovate a historic building. Kopko shelled out more than $50,000 of his own money to get the bar in shape, and cut costs by making deals with their interior design business clients and associates.

The Bar Association had a successful opening on April Fools' Day last year. Then a local TV news station broadcast a morning segment in front of the alley's black iron gates, calling them "the gates to Fort Myers' downtown redevelopment at the Bar Association Bistro."

The reporter got the name wrong. It wasn't a bistro-yet.

"After that I started serving sandwiches," says Kopko.

Within a year, Kopko and Solomon took over the north side, turning the alley into a courtyard and the building into a restaurant that doubles as an interior design studio. "You can buy anything you see. It's great when people come here for dinner and leave with a statue."

Kopko does all the cooking for what is now called the Bar Association Bistro & Lounge. Solomon, who has 17 years of experience in restaurant management, manages the house. They employ seven people: two kitchen staff, three servers and two bartenders.

Word of mouth, not advertising, brings customers in for their Wednesday "Sax in the City" nights, weekend bashes and unique menu of Kopko's favorite family recipes prepared with food purchased locally every morning.

"If you deal with Sysco, you're paying for the convenience of them bringing it to you, and the meats are vac-packed. I want fresh," Kopko says.

The pair still has their interior design business, run largely over the phone; Kopko does that full-time during the day. "The only thing that relaxes me is to cook, so I think things through in my design business while I'm cooking for the restaurant," Kopko says.

Business analysis

This story has all the markings of a classic impulse buy-something that generally turns out to be a disaster. Neither of the buyers had any experience owning a bar, and neither seems to have researched the bar scene in downtown Fort Myers and how their business would fit in.

In spite of an apparently impulsive leap into a 10-year lease for a property to house a business they knew nothing about, it just might work. Give them credit for believing that all of the investment into downtown Fort Myers will someday pay off. They unexpectedly swerved into serving food and to their credit committed to using family recipes and serving fresh foods from local sources.

Again, the money to get started came from the owners-not a grant, government loan, friends or family. That commitment provides substantial incentive to get it right fast. They are marketing in cost-effective ways with special nights like Sax in the City, and using the restaurant/bar as an extension of their core design business. Where else could you go to dine and come home with the table and chairs?

At this stage, it is not a get-rich business.

Pet project

"I don't know if it is an urban legend or not, but I've heard that if you make it three years [in business], you're good," says Sharon Seevers, owner of Goodness for Pets in Naples, across from dog-friendly Cambier Park.

Seevers opened the gourmet pet food store in September 2004, so she's just about ready to celebrate.

"This business was a dream," says the former banking IT executive. "I wasn't that happy [where I was]. It wasn't adding any value. I wanted to do something with a little more meaning."

When she adopted a golden retriever in 2001, she began researching canine nutrition and saw the potential for a business. "The pet industry is booming," she says.

Visits to her father in Naples led her to quit her job in New York and open a pet boutique here. She signed a four-year lease in a prime location, spent two months getting the necessary permits, hired an architect for renovations and designed the interior with a "homey feel," including wooden floors and display racks. "I wanted people to think that this is someplace they can stay for a while," Seevers says.

She thought renovations would cost $15,000, but spent double. Other costs, however, proved lower than her projections.

"Starting a business is not for the light-of-heart," she says. "You may have spent weeks in Excel figuring out your expected costs, but when you get actual numbers, you have to respond to them."

The store stocks gourmet pet food from five distributors, but there's a low profit margin on food, she says, so she keeps that near the back of the store. Potential earnings lie in selling the luxury accessories, bowls, beds and other pet merchandise from about 150 suppliers, including designers and artists.