Starting a new business (Small Take out Restaurant)

Yoki3072

Hi Everyone:
My bf and I just moved to GA from New Jersey.  We are thinking about opening up a small restaurant (mainly take out) and we need some guidance about the first step.  We`ve been told that the first thing we need to take care of is the legal side, for instance, creating a corporation so our personal assets are not at risk...Is this true?  Also, How much money would we need to open a small take out restaurant in the state of GA?  We also heard there are government grants?

keycon

Whoa - slow down
Just curious ... where in GA are you living? What brought you here? What have you been doing for a living prior to moving here? (I live in ATL)
Incorporating is a good thing. Yes, some grants are out there. But before we go there, tell us a little bit more about you and your vision and reasons, etc.
Just curious.
R@

Yoki3072

Thanks so much for all your responses and ideas.  First of, I will tell you a bit about myself.  In New Jersey I used to work full-time as an A/P rep for a privately owned small company and at night I went to school on a part-time basis as I am studying Cosmetology.  My bf had to jobs, a part-time and a full-time; each of us owned a house and sold them; with the money we were able to put a large down payment for the house we own today in Douglasville County, GA.  We will be putting aside some money for our future business.   The main reason why we came to GA is because the cost of living is less expensive than in NJ and know that if we open up a business, we will do very well here; my bf and I are Latin and we know for a fact that Latin food restaurants are very popular in this country.  We noticed that in the area where we live, most of the Latin restaurants are Mexican but I am Dominican and my bf is from Panama, thefore, we have a different style of cooking and I think it would work to our benefit in this area, what do you guys think about it???
We`ve been here for a little less than a month so the thought of buying a place for business hadn`t crossed our minds.  

Yoki3072

We were told about government grants but never told that they were only available for government reasons, we definitely want a business to benefit us directly. 
We have been thinking about cooking from home and handing out flyers to test the market in the area and see how many responses we get; the food I cook is very flavorful and think that the test will be a success before we go ahead and start looking for a place to rent or buy but these are just ideas for now.
Please keep replying, I know I can learn a lot from all of you...