Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin

Elevator pitch: Finale is an upscale dessert-focused restaurant concept that provides people with an alternative to bars or coffee shops, where they can enjoy a sensational dessert experience. Our goal is to become a national chain. — PC

How I got the idea: I was managing call centers for insurance companies but wanted to switch from telephonic to face-to-face service, so I decided to focus on restaurants. I spent the first year at HBS researching the industry and settled on desserts. They are the highest margin items on the menu. Desserts can be produced centrally, frozen, and distributed to multiple locations, thereby allowing quality control, reduced cost, and consistency. Most importantly, customers have an emotional attachment to their favorite desserts — they come back for more, and they tell others about them. — PC

Best decision: The name. It connotes upscale, and it’s associated with the end of something whether it’s the finale of a fireworks display, the finale of an opera, or a season finale. Finale desserterie provides you with the end of your evening. — KM

Another great decision was making Park Plaza our first location in 1998. We’ve been here almost eight years, and a dozen restaurants have opened within a quarter mile since then. — PC

Biggest surprise: The amount of stuff that needs to be acquired to get a restaurant open — tables, chairs, carpets, cups and saucers, forks and spoons, etc. — PC

What we’d like to do over: We would raise more money up front, if it were even possible. — KM

Another would be hiring staff based on entrepreneurial spirit as much as skill in the industry. — PC

What keeps me up at night: What stresses me most are the things out of my control, like the general economy and whether it’s going well or not and how that will impact us. — PC

On deck: We’re opening two new Finale desserteries this year, in Brookline and in Providence. The longer-term plan is to expand across the United States. We believe we can open 200 locations in the top 75 U.S. metropolitan markets. — PC

— Margie Kelley