Creative Business

Daniel Scott has a knack for seeing opportunity in the most unlikely places. For example, when Scott noticed the lights were off at a Tallahassee Greek restaurant, he wondered why, given that a long line of people waiting to get into a nearby music venue were standing in front of it.

Scott, 33, made his first step into the entrepreneurial world when he seized the overflow of business from that venue. “There were always people lined up in front of this gyro place,” says Scott of the daytime restaurant, “so we rented it from the owner at night.”

Scott says the makeshift nightclub changed the way Tallahassee bars operate. Instead of encouraging bouncers to keep the bar exclusive, Scott brought his tough guy in on the profit. This made it more attractive for the bouncer, one of his fraternity brothers, to maximize capacity.