Franchise Owner Stirs Up New Business Deal
Jimmy’s Boulevard Restaurant of Pasco County
When given the chance, Stuart Raymond, decided to act on a unique opportunity to keep an iconic New Port Richey eatery, Jimmy’s Boulevard Restaurant, open for business. Already a franchise owner of other entities, Raymond was intrigued, but hesitant.
“I’ve been in business for a long time,” he said. “At the present time I own some other restaurants. I own some franchise businesses and I was wanting to expand. I had enough franchises, and I really did not expect to buy another restaurant, but I was familiar with this restaurant, and it was a convergence of circumstances. The deal was appealing to me for a number of reasons but primarily because it included the real estate as well as the restaurant.”
Needing help with his financial projections to secure a U.S. Small Business Administration loan, Raymond reached out to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at University of South Florida (USF) for specialized assistance. “I was in the process of setting up a Small Business Administration loan, but we had reached a stumbling block,” he said. “The financial projections that I had put together were not in a package that was acceptable to the SBA. So, Anthony from the Florida Business Development Corporation recommended to me that I talk to the SBDC, and he put me in touch with Brad Mix.”
Once paired with Florida SBDC at USF business consultant Mix, Raymond received the guidance needed to prepare his loan package in a manner that would be realistically appealing to the Small Business Administration. This ultimately led to the SBA loan being approved, allowing Raymond to purchase the restaurant.
“The SBDC at USF was involved in helping me by helping to get the loan done,” Raymond said. “I mean, getting the business going; it was a pretty substantial purchase. It involved a lot of financial knowledge and experience, and particularly experience in dealing with the SBA, which Brad Mix had plenty of and he was able to get the financials in order so that the SBA accepted the deal and funded the project.”
Moving forward Raymond plans on using the Florida SBDC at USF to maximize the Jimmy’s Boulevard Restaurant website, as well as improve its presence on social media.
“I’m going to be working with SBDC at USF with trying to improve our internet social media presence with Instagram and Facebook and Google and Yelp and all of those things. I’m really excited about that,” he said.
“I truly feel like I am fortunate to have made contact with the SBDC at USF because without it, I don’t think the deal would’ve gone through and with it, it’s gone through and turned out to be as good a thing as we thought it was going to be. I’m grateful for the help that I‘ve gotten,” Raymond added.
