Hoodwinked Escape: Imagine walking in to a themed room, the door closes behind you, and you and 6 other teammates have 60 minutes to solve mysterious puzzles and decode clues in order find the key that allows you to escape

I am a native New Yorker and a single mom to a beautiful, college-bound 18-year-old daughter.

While I grew up around a lot of family and friends, at the end of the day, I have to fend for myself. I worked endless hours to put my daughter through private school and afford her opportunities to explore her passions, like the Spanish language immersion programs, community service, and ceramics.

I received a bachelors degree and earned my CPA. I worked in corporate America for approximately 25 years and I now want to venture out on my own, taking all the skills I’ve developed and create a successful business. My hope is that this business will help me build wealth for my retirement, my legacy, taking care of my mother, and continuing to support the many youth organizations through which I mentor young people.

My entrepreneurial spirit is innate. When I was a teenager, I started a resume writing business at the age of 18 (before computers), managed a modeling career at 20, became a real estate investor in my thirties, maintain a few accounting clients for extra money, and now, I am launching an amazing business concept creating educational experiences that foster creativity and team building in an entertaining format.

Imagine walking in to a themed room, the door closes behind you, and you and 6 other teammates have 60 minutes to solve mysterious puzzles and decode clues in order find the key that allows you to escape the room. No technology, no phones. Just you, your teammates, and problem solving brain power.

I decided that this will be a great business to introduce to my community. It’s a fun venue that takes them out of their daily routines, and offers them an innovative, authentic means to have fun with family, friends, and coworkers. It’s a proven business concept in Asia and Europe and has successfully broke ground in the U.S. I’ve already developed relationships with prospective community leaders, professional, educators, youth organizations and businesses who are excited about contracting to do recurring business.

My goal for the business is to expand to a second location after 6-12 months of opening. In addition, my most heart-felt goal is to bring this innovative way of learning team building skills and problem solving to the people in my community who don’t always think outside the box. For educators, having a venue to share with their students to get them problem solving, team building, and collaborating without technology driving them.

I’m most proud to have taken this leap of faith to start a business that directly benefits my community and that will allow me to establish a not-for-profit foundation (within 6 months) that can provide scholarships to youth in the community.

I have a pro-bono brand strategy team who have developed a great foundation for marketing efforts and branding the business. This loan will help me bring that plan to life which will help me introduce the business on several social media platforms and community campaigns.

This loan will help me create the best experience for my patrons as I will be able to afford TV monitors, computers, and security systems that will aid in the user experience.