
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104120140
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: AMANDA BARRETT/ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PERSISTENCE KEY TO DRESS'S SUCCESSESS

To name her new eatery, Carolyn Henderson took the first initial of each of her children's names - Dorothy, Rachel, Eugene, Shirley and Steve - scrambled them together and came up with Dress's Chicken Coop.

Dress's Chicken Coop is in the Market Building in downtown Roanoke, where it has operated since October 1987.

Henderson said the building "is a good place to start. A good place to build clientele."

She said there are several advantages to being in the Market building: The place was already equipped, it is affordable and it is usually full of customers. "And I get to know all kinds of people, from children to senior citizens."

The only disadvantage to the location, she said, is that the businesses are limited in what they can sell because the restaurants must sell different types of cuisine.

Henderson said she had wanted to own her own business for most of her life. "I wanted to work for myself."

She gained experience prior to opening her business by working at a Macke cafeteria (now Service America) at Dominion Bank. "I ordered the food and kept the books," she said.

Still, there were many lessons for her to learn. For example, she said it took her a while to know how much food to prepare.

"When I first started, I would cook so much food and end up throwing it away because I couldn't sell it all. Now, I monitor the customers and cook according to what I see," she said. Henderson said there are certain days when people eat more. "On the first and 15th of the month, people buy more since they have more money."

She cautions new business owners to get help with their income taxes. "The first three months," she said, "I thought that since I didn't owe any money, I wouldn't have to file a return. But I was wrong. So even though I didn't owe any money, I still had to pay a late filing fee."

Henderson warns that when businesses are just starting, there are no profits. "But be persistent," she said. "Even though it will be hard, don't give up during the first two years. By the third year, it will begin to pick up."

by CNB