Short Summary

The Miller Guide (米乐) is a restaurant review guide and culinary magazine focused on the gastronomical tastes and preferences of the Chinese people. The focus of The Miller Guide is twofold. First, we will offer an expert restaurant review guide for Chinese restaurants, much in the same way that the Michelin Guide is an expert source for European restaurants. Second, we will offer beautiful articles and photographs on the food, chefs, restaurants, and wines of China. The Miller Guide will begin as a website, and will quickly add a printed magazine and a compact restaurant guide.

The Miller Guide offers the following services to customers:

1. Expert restaurant reviews by trained professionals.

2. In-depth articles and beautiful photographs dealing with China's food and wine.

3. Delicious, expert recipes for readers to try.

4. Easy internet access to all of these features.

To be specific, Miller Guide will avoid offering restaurant coupons online, as is a current trend in Kunming. Our goal is to provide objective criticism and reviews of the gastronomical world, and not to merely attract customers through discounts. Furthermore, by avoiding these sorts of deals with restaurants, we will be able to offer our critiques without fear of losing them as customers.

China's rising middle-class has purchasing power, and is willing to spend it. The traditionally-conservative and money-saving Chinese are becoming wealthier every day, and desire to spend some of their wealth on improving their lifestyles and their prestige. And as China continues to open to the West, Chinese consumers are becoming more-and-more interested in learning about the Western lifestyle, especially in terms of food, wine, and leisure. A very large part of this element of prestige includes food and wine. There are very wealthy people in China who have traditionally had little access to learning about gastronomy and world cuisine. But now, these same people have almost unlimited resources and access, and they have a strong desire to explore the culinary world.

Thus, Chinese consumers are interested in expert reviews and information regarding food and wine. The Miller Guide fulfills this need by providing such, from a collaboration of experts in the fields of gastronomy, Chinese culture, and writing. By meeting this consumer demand, The Miller Guide will capitalize on China's booming economy, and growing importance on the international scene.

Evidence of this booming culinary interest can be found at www.meituan.com and http://t.dianping.com. This booming website offers coupons and discounts for prepaying restaurants online for a meal. While this is not the niche that Miller Guide seeks to fill, nevertheless these websites' popularity indicate that China has changed drastically from times of need to times of affluence.

The Miller Guide's marketing plan involves four facets:

1. Traditional advertising, including signs, online advertising, distributing flyers, television, radio, and word of mouth.

2. Selling our guides in restaurants: this not only increases revenue, but acts as widespread advertising.

3. On our website, we will offer a great free section, but a much more in-depth section for paid subscribers.

4. Holding public, food-related events to showcase restaurants that we have rated high. In China, public events attract great attention and large crowds. They are a proven method of advertising that only costs the rental fee of the space, and they reach tens of thousands of people.

Milestones:

1. Business opening: we plan to officially open the business in June of 2015. In order to do this, we will first have to conduct hundreds of restaurant tastings and reviews beforehand.

2. Website fully functional: the free website, including restaurant reviews and articles, will be online in July of 2015.

3. Website reaches 100,000 hits: December of 2015.

4. Sales of printed guides begin: the printed restaurant review guides will be placed for sale in restaurants across town in January of 2016.

5. Subscriber section fully functional: the website's subscriber section will be available in March of 2016.

6. Magazine begins publication: our full-color, printed magazine will publish its first issue in August of 2016.

7. Expansion: with success and positive revenue, the Miller Guide will expand into other Chinese cities, beginning with Beijing in 2018.

Miller's Guide will begin at startup with two equal partners:

1. Matt Miller:

Matt Miller graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City in 1995, completing both the savory and pastry programs. He has worked in professional kitchens in New York City, including Dakota and Verbena, as well as in Louisiana, including Mike Anderson's Seafood Restaurant, The Chimes Restaurant and Oyster Bar, and The City Club at River Ranch. He has a decade of experience in professional kitchens, and is an expert on gastronomy and wine.

Matt also holds a Master's Degree in Languages from the University of Louisiana, and is proficient in six languages. He has been living in China for almost three years now. He has taught languages at all levels, including at the university level, for over a decade. He also has two years' experience writing for food and wine websites.

2. Yan Xiaoqing:

Yan Xiaoqing is a native of Guangdong Province, and has been living in Kunming for a decade. She graduated from Yunnan University with an English major, and has lived in the US. She speaks English at near-native fluency, and has taught English in private schools for years to all ages, and has worked as a professional translator in English and Chinese. She has a deep knowledge of Chinese culture and Chinese gastronomy. She is also fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and her local Shanwei dialect.

Together, our two partners have the culinary, linguistic, cultural, and editorial expertise needed to make the guide a success.

What We Need & What You Get

Break it down for folks in more detail:

• We need $5,000 to be spent as follows: (1) A good DSLR camera for our photography: $1,000. We are interested in the Canon 60D. (2) Website hosting and domain registration for the first year: $150. (3) Business registration costs and legal costs. (4) Advertizing for the first year.
  
• All investors of any amount will be invited to our food tour of China video event, to be held after the first year of business. This will be a culinary tour of China and her great cuisines, to be filmed and broadcast on Chinese television. As an investor, you will be able to be a part of this tour and to appear on the show!
  
• If we do not reach the entire $5,000 goal, then whatever funds that we receive will be used toward our startup needs. We will hold these funds in escrow as we try to raise the rest.
  

The Impact

The Miller Guide will be the first such comprehensive, pure culinary guide and review in China. This project will bridge culinary worlds on opposite sides of the globe. Just as the Guide Michelin has done so much to unite the culinary world in Europe, and take great food to everyone, so will the Miller Guide do in China and Asia.

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