COSI Restaurant Illinois SBDC Success Story
Although the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University is only two years old, one of its clients, COSÌ®, has been selected as the state of Illinois’ entry in The Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) annual Best Client Success Story competition sponsored by Bank of America. A three person judging panel will be chaired by Jim Blasingame, author and nationally known host of the Small Business Advocate radio show.
Cash awards and professional development materials will be awarded to the Small Business Develpoment Center, counselor and client finishing in the top three. In addition, winners will be interviewed on the Small Business Advocate radio program. Every state’s entry will be compiled in an ASBDC Success Story publication which will be distributed at the ASBDC Annual Conference in Denver in September, on Capitol Hill, and used in other association marketing initiatives.
Francisco Petinga, or Chico as he is known by his customers, was only 9 years old when he moved from Portugal to Canada. As an adult he worked in restaurants in Toronto for 9 years and owned his own small restaurant for a year. Petinga moved to Bloomington late in 2004 with his wife who was born and raised here. He dreamed of opening another restaurant and turned to the Illinois SBDC at Illinois State for help.
“Chico was referred to us by a local bank who knew that he was financially prepared to open the business, but there were serious concerns about his business plan,” said Illinois SBDC at Illinois State Director, Elizabeth Binning.
It was a long road, but after more than a dozen revisions to the business plan, COSÌ® opened in uptown Normal in December 2006. Inspired by a small Parisian café, COSÌ® offers breakfast, lunch, coffee drinks, dinner, and a dessert menu full of creative, fresh, flavorful foods and beverages. The first COSÌ® is doing so well that Petinga is in the process of negotiating a contract for a second location in Bloomington. This is a far cry from the nascent client who began working with Binning a year-and-a-half ago.
“I myself don’t know how to do a perfect business plan,” said Petinga. “The Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State staff – they did a great job. Without them we actually couldn’t do this. The Illinois SBDC at Illinois State helped a great deal with putting together our business plan. We would recommend SBDC to any organization – I know we wouldn’t be where we are today without them. Special thanks to Elizabeth Binning and Autumn Laube.”
Così (www.getcosi.com ) is a national premium convenience restaurant chain that has developed featured foods built around a secret, generations-old recipe for crackly crust flatbread. This artisan bread is freshly baked in front of customers throughout the day in open flame stone hearth ovens prominently located in each of the restaurants.
