Client Success Video: Toast | Video

My name is John Reuber, I’m the president of TOAST, Four Corners. I was inspired to jump into entrepreneurship after being laid off from a career in the financial services industry. After almost 20 years there, I decided that my passion was not in corporate America anymore. I wanted to open up my own business and start something where I can be my own boss.

I was inspired to open a Southern-style restaurant because I spent five years down in Florida attending Florida State University. It was there that I really developed a taste for Southern cooking. And when I moved back to Connecticut, it was not something that I could find anywhere else, so I thought that I might have a niche, and be able to bring some of those flavors back up north.

Working with Guidant Financial has been such a great undertaking, from the initial contact to create the corporation, to helping me fund my organization, it’s been outstanding. They’ve been tremendously supportive. All their staff is top-notch, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Toast is unique because it appeals to all the demographics in the area. On any given day, we have students from the University of Connecticut. We have seniors from a retirement center down the street. We have families, and everybody has something that they can enjoy here.

It’s been performing way above expectations. We were profitable in month two, which I didn’t expect. And I would absolutely recommend Guidant Financial to others. The fact that I was able to utilize their ROBS transaction to fund my business was outstanding. It enabled me to have an advantage over a lot of other business start-ups.

The fact that I was able to utilize my own 401(k) money, and not have to take a loan from a bank or another financial institution really eliminated a lot of the stressors — I never had to worry about being able to make a monthly payment to the bank.”