February 15, 2012 was an exciting day for Elgin Oklahoma. It marked the opening of the China Garden Restaurant. I suspected the food would be good. I was wrong, it is excellent. I thought it would be "well received", however I was wrong again. The town "flipped" over it. The restaurant ran out of food in 3 days, due lunch and dinner crowds waiting in the parking lot for lunch and dinner. Yes, they were properly prepared, but noone or no "thing" forecasted this amount of "pent up" demand.

It is personally exciting for me to witness true "economic development". Call it what you will, synergy, or the perfect storm? But this I know, success comes in many different flavors and has little to do with luck, but the fundamentals are always similar.

• A growing community
• An excellent location such as Owl's Nest Plaza (approx. 10,000 cars per day pass with in 70' of their front door)
• A business with a "needed product" such as China Garden who serves hot delicious fresh food.
• A long - term business plan - strategy.
• A determined - focused work ethic.

Elgin has been passed over by a few "corporate cubicle robots" who count roof tops for a living in determining a site's viability. I trust that their methods of "demographic - location approval" keep their mortgage and car payments paid. However, large rewards can not be enjoyed without a measure of risk (realizing the strength of Elgin). Their safe - low risk method insures that their new franchises are parked safely within the perimeter of 10 other businesses offering the same goods and services. What their "safe" methods do not take into consideration is that being the "only game in town" effectively increases your share of the pie by a factor of 10 (provided their franchise has 10 other competitors found in a larger city).

Yes, I have available space in OWL'S NEST if you have a business you are passionate about with similarly sound fundamentals.
Once again I am always glad to bore you to tears with my limited knowlege of "All things Elgin".

Respectfully,
Brent Hulen