April 2017 | Business View Magazine

114 115 Taco Rico Tex-Mex Café to our concept –what we felt was our spin on Mexi- can food.” Since then, Taco Rico has opened up four other corporate locations in southern Florida –Miami (Tropical Park), Miami Beach, Pinecrest, and Doral; and two franchises -West Kendall and Davie. “We thought about franchising as far back as ten to fifteen years ago,” Neal remembers. “Somebody approached us, but at that point, we didn’t feel that we could standardize and duplicate the way that we knew we would need to because of our style of cooking–we cook fresh, from scratch, every day. It was, also, very expensive to set up to franchise back then. You were looking at paying a lawyer some- where between $100,000 and $200,000 to set you up. In 2015, somebody from an organization called Franchise Creator contacted us; he was a regular customer at our Doral loca- tion, and the fee that they charged at that point to fran- chise was $35,000.He guided us through standardizing and duplication, and being able to, ultimately, teach somebody else our concept.We simplified themenu some; we coordinat- ed colors and equipment and seating and that type of thing; andwhenwewere ready,we pulled the trigger.We felt wewere a lot more experienced at that point and had a greater ability to teach and standardize everything.” Now that it has begun franchising its concept, Neal says that Taco Rico, with the help of key partners Marcelo Ortiz and Marlon Palmer, is looking for more potential franchisees.“Ulti- mately,we’d like to do three this year, and then expand to five, next year. Right now, we’re just looking at the state of Florida, even though we have the ability to move anywhere in the United States,”he says.“We’d like to expand into Orlando and Jacksonville on the east coast, and on the west coast, to Ft.Myers and Tampa.Those are all giant areas for potential expansion.Anywhere from six to ten locations can AT A GLANCE Taco Rico Tex-Mex Café WHAT: A Mexican cuisine restaurant and franchise WHERE: South Florida WEBSITE: www.tacoricotmc.com