Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

I would love any opinions and/or advice regarding my chances of admittance to Harvard Business School:

Personal
27 year old white male (single)
Lived 2 years as a religious missionary in Venezuela (from 2002-2004)

School
730 on the GMAT
Graduated with a degree in accounting from BYU (Provo, UT) with 3.71 GPA in 2007
President of 200-member choral group for two years during college
Recipient of University Award that recognizes 3 students/year for outstanding service, integrity, and honor.

Work
Worked as a financial analyst for four months before starting a mid-end sit-down restaurant
Have owned a restaurant that produces about 400k/yr in revenue since Oct 2007 (1 year of construction, funding, etc., 2 years of operation)
Restaurant has a current net income of about 30k/yr
Member of 3 business networking groups

Questions and Concerns

Will the fact that I have only owned my restaurant for almost two years (by the time I apply) seem to premature to HBS
Admissions?

By how much will my chances improve at getting into HBS if I can retake the GMAT and hit 760+?

I have been completely invested in my company for the past two years, but had strong leadership experience during college. Will the fact that I have not had strong post-college community involvement be a big hurdle to gaining acceptance to HBS?

Will the fact that I my restaurant has not been extremely profitable show weakness?

Any ideas for who to use as referrals/references? I have a choral director whom I worked with for 4 years who can write about my college leadership experience, but being self-employed, I don't have a boss or even "clients" whom I feel could address my strengths and weaknesses well.

Thanks in advance for the help!

HBS is often a numbers game and a general craps-shoot, so who knows for sure, but I see several potential weaknesses in your application. BYU is good, GPA is good, GMAT is good, but what you have done to leverage your brainpower will be pretty heavily scrutinized. Harvard looks for leadership above all, and they may balk at your pursuit of a single unit restaurant endeavor, especially one with such low EBITDA. You have to realize that you will be competing against other applicants who have started and run restaurants on the side, while simultaneously pursuing another full time career ( I have worked with two clients in the past two years with such a profile). As a white male, your applicant pool is huge, so standing out in the crowd will be difficult. Your religious diversity is something to help distinguish yourself, but you should work hard to tell a compelling story around the restaurant and how you have honed and developed unique leadership skills in the process if you want to impress the HBS committee. Spin up the entrepreneurial drive angle and convince them you have the potential to do bigger, better things with an MBA. Your post-MBA vision will be a critical component. Hope this helps.