Turning an innovation into a business success, is a long game and should not be seen as a "get rich quick" plan, the owner of a rapidly expanding chain of bistro restaurants has claimed.

With just two weeks left for innovators to enter this year's Rowan Best Business Innovation (BBI) Awards, Chris Kelly, co-founder of Metro Bar & Grill, said too many people believed a chain of businesses could be created quickly if the first is successful.

But the 47-year-old said entrepreneurs should be under no illusion that it was a tough job taking an idea to a wider market.

He said: "I think you've got to be single minded in what you do and realise it is a long game.

"Too many people think that if an idea works great in six months, you can go back to the bank and expand quickly. It's just not true.

"There is a long profile to these things. Metro has had different trading patterns as the city's changed. It has not been a get rich quick scheme."

Together with business partner David Cappendell, Mr Kelly founded the first Metro in Birmingham in 1997. Celebrating its tenth birthday in November, Metro is now on the path to rapid expansion. It has a three-year-old site in Solihull and is on track to launch a third in Kenilworth later this year. A fourth, two-floor restaurant in Coventry's exclusive Belgrade plaza is due to open early 2009. Each site costs approximately £500,000 to develop.

The business is now on the hunt for more sites across the Midlands in areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Northampton and Worcester.

Mr Kelly, who launched Pizza Express in Birmingham before selling the restaurants back to the company, said the ultimate aim was to see ten Metro Bar & Grills across the Midlands.

He said: "That would be manageable for us without losing the personal touch.

"We plan to grow them from the Midlands outwards.

"We've often been asked whether we would take Metro to the capital and I think we would if we found the right site. But we are aware that the brand would not carry the same weight as it has done here."

Mr Kelly added that the original plan had not been to develop Metro into a chain.

He said: "We never thought it would become a chain, we just wanted to provide a good quality eating and drinking place in Birmingham, that would stay privately owned.

"Back in 1997, Birmingham had no Brindleyplace and no Mailbox and was pretty badly served by eating and drinking places.

"We founded Metro reflecting the style of a number of well-known bars in London. We chose to site it in Newhall Street, which we thought was Birmingham's equivalent to the City of London and it became popular with business people quite quickly - particularly those in the property industry."

But Mr Kelly warned fellow entrepreneurs that the market position of a business could change dramatically in a relatively short space of time.

He said: "Now, we do less ordinary business in the evenings as people have been drawn to these new destinations and we now focus more on corporate business.

"We are not part of an entertainment complex, so we have had to be single-minded and make it a destination."

Mr Kelly also added that the possibility of franchising the Metro chain in the future has not been ruled out.

He said: "Franchising, although popular in the US, is often frowned on here in the UK.

"But during my time developing the Pizza Express outlets, I thought it worked very well.

"We would certainly consider it in the future, but first and foremost we would like to give our people a share in the business.

"By providing them with share options we can make them feel part of the business and offer them a financial incentive to stay with us. In such a highly competitive industry, we need to do something to make sure that we retain our talent."

The duo have also recently ventured into the pub business with the opening of the newly refurbished White Horse in Balsall Common - the venue for this year's final of the Rowan Best Business Innovation Awards, which are supported by The Birmingham Post.

Mr Kelly said: "We looked at retaining the Metro branding for the White Horse, but we quickly realised it didn't fit.

"Metro is a modern, urban concept and the White Horse is a country pub so we decided to renovate it separately.

"What we liked about the White Horse was a great pub in a great location - every now and again one of those will come up and, although our main thrust is Metro - we would be foolish not to take these opportunities when they come."

Mr Kelly encouraged entrepreneurs with an idea for a new product or service to enter the Rowan Best Business Awards and demonstrate the talent the exists in the region for spotting a niche.

He said: "It never fails to amaze me how sometimes it can take hundred of years to come up with a simple but ingenious idea, even in a well-established industry.

"How many hairdressers throughout the years have cut their fingers? Yet it took Tracey Budd from last year's BBI Awards to do something about it.

"The great thing about the BBI Awards is that they prove that if you have got a creative mind and you apply it to business, there are lots of opportunities out there for you."