Huddled in a cramped storage closet surrounded by towering shelves of Froot Loops and Lucky Charms, Kenneth Rader was breathing a little easier. It had taken nine months, but The Cereal Bowl -- the company he launched with his twin brother Josh and best friend Michael Glassman -- was on track to turn its first monthly profit.

To top it off, The Bowl was featured in the latest issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

Things didn't always seem so promising for the restaurant started by the three 25-year-olds.

The first time a press release for The Cereal Bowl was forwarded to me, just over a year ago, a colleague had typed across the top: ''How ridiculous.'' After all, luring customers to a café offering little more than off-the-shelf breakfast cereal didn't seem like much of a business plan.

Sure, The Bowl would give clients the chance to mix and match more than 30 different kinds of cereal and 40 different toppings, but would people really pay $2.99 to see what Trix and Sugar Smacks taste like covered in Gummi Bears and sprinkles?

For the past year The Miami Herald has been following progress at The Bowl, tucked away in a strip mall at 1560 S. Dixie Hwy. near the University of Miami, in hopes of giving readers insight into what goes on in the life of a typical start-up business.

Over the months, we've watched the men find their stride -- not so much by forging ahead as by learning to side-step.

When they realized many of their customers were far younger than the college crowd they were aiming for, they started offering birthday parties and marketing themselves as a summer camp destination -- filling deadly midday lulls in the process.

Seeing volume sag on weekend nights, they launched concerts that have turned into steady money makers.

And, perhaps most importantly, they found a fresh stream of revenue through catering. Now, out-of-store sales account for about 10 percent to 15 percent of business.

IN THE MONEY

Despite The Cereal Bowl's penchant for tweaking and flexibility, profits were always just around the corner. But thanks to a boost in weekday sales and a record-setting parents' weekend at UM, the business is on track to pull in between $35,000 and $38,000 this month.

That would cover all the partners' costs, including their whopping $7,000-a-month rent, payment on their 15-year SBA loan and the considerable legal fees they are racking up as they hammer out franchising documents. And still, they're expecting between $5,000 and $8,000 in profit.

ROCKY START

When we first checked in with the three friends from Kendall last October, they were struggling with permitting hassles and construction delays as they tried to turn a cavernous 1,700-square-foot store into a cozy café full of plush couches and flat-screen TVs.

The recent grads had five degrees between them but zero real-world business management experience. And their education got off to a rough start when -- before they ever made a dollar -- they were forced to hire lawyers to respond to a menacing letter from the competition. Chicago-based Cereality, considered the pioneer of the cereal bar concept, warned them that if their store looked too much like a knock-off, they could expect a lawsuit for copyright infringement.

Hurricanes and other snags ultimately delayed their opening for three months, and all the while The Miami Herald was dissecting their foibles in the pages of the business section.

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