Huddled at the back of The Cereal Bowl café on a slow Monday night, the three owners of the venture were paging through plans for their next big gamble.

Spread out on the coffee table in front of them was a 56-page questionnaire that will become the basis of a franchise agreement.

For more than a month they've been debating questions such as: How much control will they give to franchisees? If disputes arise, will they mediate or litigate? How much will they require in royalties?

Done right, the document could help turn The Cereal Bowl into a national chain and make the trio rich beyond their years. Done wrong, and it will mean they've plowed some $30,000 in legal fees and countless hours into a pipe dream while they could have been tending to the fledgling venture.

When twin brothers Josh and Kenneth Rader and their childhood friend Michael Glassman, all 25, started kicking around the idea of opening a fast-food restaurant that would specialize in serving more than 30 different kinds of breakfast cereal along with an exotic array of toppings, their aspirations always stretched beyond the café they opened in a strip mall at 1560 S. Dixie Hwy. ``When Kenny started the company he said, `We're not doing this small; I don't care if we have to act bigger than we are for the first few months, we're just going to wing it,' '' said Josh. ``If you go in and say, `We'll start small and then grow, you may never make it.' ''

Thinking big is the reason they've poured so much money into the look and feel of the place. And it's the reason they invested in cups, bowls and napkins emblazoned with their logo when they could have picked up generic ones for a fraction of the price.

``People may think it's stupid for one [single] store to have its brand on everything,'' Josh said. ``But that's what you have to do to build the framework for a franchise.''

The Miami Herald has been following The Cereal Bowl since last October when the three college grads were struggling to turn an empty 1,700-square-foot space into a hip café with flat screen TVs and plush couches.

After months of delays, they opened their doors in February.

Next month The Miami Herald will be printing the last article in this year-long series, which has given readers a peek into the workings of a start-up company.

Over the past eight months, The Cereal Bowl has seen business slowly ramp up as harried commuters, school kids and college students with time to kill have been won over by the simple allure of mixing cereals and topping them off with everything from fruit to chocolate chips.

After surviving the summer lull, The Bowl has recently seen record-setting weekends, with almost 400 clients walking through the door on a good Saturday or Sunday.

Birthday parties, catering events and weekly concerts also have helped pull in customers and boost revenue.

The trio can now boast of being operationally profitable - meaning they pull in more money than they pay out in day-to-day expenses and payroll. But when one-time equipment fees and payment on their 15-year SBA loan are factored in, they are still not in the clear.

But that hasn't slowed down their franchising efforts.

Fueled by positive press reports - particularly a segment on CNN's 360 with Anderson Cooper that ran last month on the twins' birthday - franchise requests have been flooding in.

Earlier this month a pair of investors traveled from California to check out the store and the team. Josh said the meeting left him feeling very optimistic.

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