How to Organize

The process of finding a lawyer here in Bozeman Montana has been a bit slow. We are waiting to find out where the financing will come from before we make this plunge and in the mean time, I am trying to figure out what is best for our organization. The two forms I have in mind are an S-corp and a LLC. Here is some information I pulled from the Gallatin Development Corporation: S-Corporation --Expensive to start • Get all licenses • Get federal ID • Get corporate documentation • Legal fees --Limited • Owners are liable for their actions only and limited to the assets of the Corporation --Taxed once at the individual rate. Cannot leave money in the business --Money the owners have in addition to the ability to sell shares to investors and what the corporation can borrow Limited Liability Company Less expensive to start • Get all licenses • Get federal ID • Get corporate documentation • Legal fees --Limited • Owners are liable for their actions only and limited to the assets of the Corporation --Taxed once at the individual rate. Cannot leave money in the business --Money the owners have in addition to the ability to sell shares to investors, and what the Limited Liability Company (LLC) can borrow. We are going to hit this full on after our meeting today with the bankers. This will give a bit more insight on where this money is coming from and lawyershe laywers will need to be in order to make this happen. I will explain the thoughts behind this in a few days. For now, I am focusing on getting ready for the meeting which will take place at 4:00pm Mountain time. I will post on how it goes tomorrow. ~~be bold

Congratulations!

I wanted to take a second and mention that two friends, Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends and Dr. Cornwall of The Entrepreneurial Mind received Forbes Magazine Best of the Web: Small Business Blogs. Thank you for all your help in planning this business and congrats on this great honor!

In preparation for Tomorrow's Meeting

I have spent the past 6 months working on the business plan for Cafe Evoke. The working document is around 35 pages plus additions and I am very proud of it. The problem is, now I have to put that information into about 10 pages for the meeting tomorrow with the bank. It will be important to make sure that the full copy is available if requested and that the numbers provided are all middle of the road (mostly likely case) and that other projections are available. Once this meeting is completed, I will pull some numbers and I hope to make an offer on a few of the things that the other coffee shop has available. The man that owns the stuff gave me a price for the entire lot of equipment which I am now looking into. We have also almost completed the lease agreement and I hope to get that turned into the property manager by mid week of next week. Lots of things are happening in a short amount of time. I can tell this is going to be a "red eye" experience. ~~be bold

Meeting Set

We are meeting with the banker on Friday afternoon to discuss what we need and look through some numbers. Our financial planner will be on conference call during this meeting and we hope this can get the ball rolling on the loans we need to open Cafe Evoke. I reported the other day that we had contacts at two different banks. When I called the person I knew with the phone number of the banker that I did not already know, he gave me a guy at the same bank so we are meeting with them on Friday. I will also try and make another contact so we will have some options. Our budget is coming along and I only have a few categories to complete and most of it is riding on the lady that is designing the kitchen layout and equipment. She is also helping us with the serving pieces so when we hear back from here, which I hope is tomorrow, we will be pretty much complete on the start-up budget. Jenni is meeting with the city planner to talk about the parking situation (which I think we worked out!!) and also signage. So things will be extremely busy the next few days as we complete the proposed lease and get the money situation lined up. ~~be bold

What's Hot?

"According to the National Coffee Association USA (NCAUSA), 49% of Americans age 18 or older drink some type of coffee beverage daily, and many of them are waiting in lines at specialty coffee retailers to get their fix." This was taken from this article from Entrepreneur.com. It is talking about what is hot and what is hot is specialty coffee. There was a mention in this article about a husband and wife that quit their corporate jobs and started a coffeehouse in their community. There's plenty of room," said Marty, who added their neighborhood welcomed the alternative. Marty says they try to be the neighborhood favorite, are active in the community and pride themselves in remembering customers' favorite drinks and life events, such as children's births." This is something that we, at Cafe Evoke, are striving to achieve as well. Making ourselves a community coffee and art house will set us apart from the competition as we move forward and support the people of Bozeman Montana and also across the globe. Although they say the trends of new coffeeshops doubling each year might be over, there is plenty of market left and people to serve. With organic sandwhiches, salads, soups, and juices, we see Cafe Evoke being a leader in the coffee market here in Bozeman. ~~be bold

The Kitchen is in the Works

Yesterday evening we met another resturant supply company at our space to look at kitchen layout and design. She is helping us pick out the needed equipment, allocate space, deal with the Health Department, and pricing. This meeting went very well and we are very excited to work with Bridger Design. Bridger Design and Equipment is going to help us get everything from equipment to counters to serving cups and plate to legal and electrical things. We hope to have a quote by Monday of next week for build out and also equipment costs. I have completed what I feel is a good budget for this but it will be nice to have a detailed map of what this will cost. We are hoping to buy the display case, the register, and also maybe the sink from the group of used equipment I mentioned a few days ago. This will help us save a few thousand dollars for this project. I have 5 of the 9 catagories completed for the detailed capital budget report and I hope to have a great handle on the rest in the next day or so. ~~be bold

We are Rockin and Rollin--literally

I got to experienced my first earthquake late last night while putting some budgets together for Evoke. It was a 5.6 on the R scale and it was crazy. Now, I will admit and I an amateur when it comes to earthquakes as we did not have many in Oklahoma where I grew up. It did feel pretty crazy as the candle on my desk was swaying, the coffee in the cup was moving, and the door was hitting the back of the wall. I thought I was about to get some prophetic words or money was going to fall out of the sky to help pay for the equipment costs I had just gotten plugged into Excel. At any rate, not one injured and no damage to be reported which is the key point that should be made. Earthquake in Montana...yup. ~~be bold

Equipment Discovery Update

The other day I mentioned that my wife had discovered a coffee shop just down the highway from Bozeman that was going out of business. We went to check out the equipment and we made great discoveries. Here is what we found.. --a digital cash register --dual temp (refrigerated on one said, not on the other) 4' glass display case --commercial hi-temp dishwasher --3 compartment sink and accessories --live sound stuff --custom maple cabinets There was also an espresso machine and grinders that I'm not sure if we will take or not. The other great thing about this find is that the gentleman that owned the place said he would be more than happy to help install cabinets and also help with build out as he is also a carpenter. His wife is a baker and we are also talking to her about doing some baking for Cafe Evoke. It was a great find. Right now, I am looking up some more prices and figuring out what I think is a fair deal. The display case is beautiful and would fit perfectly in the space layout we just completed. We are meeting with our kitchen designer tonight who I hope can help me figure the rest of it out. I want to get back with him tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. The sound gear is almost exactly what I was looking for also and I will try and work a deal with him to sell it with the rest of the equipment if we go that route. The cabinets are great so I'm going to see what we can find elsewhere and what we exactly need and get back with him about that as well. ~~be bold

A Bit Disappointed

I have consistently made goals and written out objects over the course of the last year in order to complete business "stuffs." It was seldom a problem for me to complete these tasks in the appropriate time but things have changed. I have set goals and timelines for the past few months and have yet to even get close to meeting any of them. The past goal I had was to complete a detailed budget sheet by the end of the weekend and, well, I just started tonight. So, I have made new goals and I wanted to post them here for accoutability sake. Here are my goals and time frames for completion... 1. Finish detailed capital budget report: To be completed no later than Thursday, 7.28.2005 2. Have build out report complied for contractor: To be completed no later than Friday, 7.29.2005. 3. Have kitchen layout: To be completed no later than 8.4.2005. 4. Research and call back on used equipment: No later than Wednesday, 7.27.2005. 5. Set meeting with 2 different bankers: To be completed no later than Friday, 7.29.2005. 6. Have reformed lease back to property manager: To be completed no later than 8.5.2005 I will stop here as this will fill my plate more than full. Every few days, I will post back on the progress of these projects. We are under the clock on getting the information compiled to sign this lease. I do not want to rush into things but I also do not want to take so long that we lose the opportunity of the perfect location for Cafe Evoke. ~~be bold

A Thought on Ethics

I have really been thinking about how I want to run this business, how I want to go about planning this business, and how I want to talk about this business. Ethics is very important to me and I have learned during my years at Belmont University and also in the The Center for Entrepreneurship that it should be a capstone in your business. I have already encountered situations in which it would be easy to cut some corners and save money and time. I decided that I could not go this direction. We did report that we wanted to have a patio (which takes more parking) even though some people invovled in this deal said I shouldn't have done that. I also will go by the laws when it comes to seating and max capacity. I do understand that the more people you cram into the space, the better for the bottom line but there are reasons for having such rules. Other areas in which ethics will play a big role are... *hiring--I want to be equal and fair with my wages and hiring practices *vendor relations--I will pay bills on time, keep communications open, and build relationships with all our vendors *customers--it is their coffeehouse. We are community based and I want what we do to affect our customers in positive ways. All of these things are going to be important. Being ethical is not always cheap but it is the best and only way I have found to run a business. ~~be bold

Equipment Discovery

I came back from work to hear that my wife had found a coffeeshop in Belgrade (a suburb of Bozeman about 10 miles away) that was going out of business and selling everything. The tables are all gone but the display cases, refrigerator, cash register, espresso machine, cabinets and undercabinet refrigerator are all still there! We are heading there directly after I get off work today at 5;00 pm. Jenni is also heading over to the space this morning to do some exact measurements and plotting it on graph paper so we can get the layout of the space down and head to the restaurant supply store in order to figure out how much space we need for the 'kitchen." We also got a lot of information back from the building inspection department yesterday. They told us that to figure out max capacity (which will be important as this will directly affect our bottom line) you take the total serving square footage and divide it by 15. Ours happens to be around 63 people. Since this number is above 50, we are required to have 2 bathrooms. We also need 16 parking spaces base on our size. I will keep things updated on this equipment we found.. ~~be bold

Business Planning

Dr. Cornwall over at The Entrepreneurial Mind offers a link to a great article about business planning from Entrepreneur.com. He also pulls some of the highlights from this arctile which include the following.. - "Don't confuse cash with profits" - Remember that it is not the idea that is critical, but your execution of the idea. - Don't confuse a plan with business planning - Be honest and be realistic I am having to deal with most of these as we speak. We are constantly asking ourselves if we are being realistic in this plan and if the timing is right (I will post more about this a bit later). It has also been hard to figure out when we will break even, how much we really need to open and sustain until this break even point, and all the details in between. Great article for a business start-up like Cafe Evoke.. ~~be bold

Quote of the Day

"Without my morning coffee I'm just like a dried up piece of roast goat." ~~Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Coffee Cantata

One Step Closer

We met with the property manager and also the owner of the space we hope to grab. The meeting was very productive and I think we worked out the size of the space back to 1200 square feet instead of the 935 that was on our lease. We now have about a week and a half to rewrite this lease as a proposal with what we want and need in this lease and see what they say. This means that we have to get cost estimates completed by then as well. We need to really figure out what it will cost us to get opened and also when we will break even with revenues and expenses. (it looks like about month 6 of being opened) We are hoping to get detailed estimates in the follow areas... 1. Build-Out (bathroom, floors, cabinets, painting, bar, etc) 2. Interior Design (lighting, decorations, etc) 3. Sound System (for the stage, background music) 4. G&A (fax, POS, computer, etc) 5. Equipment 6. Front of House (cups, plates, etc) 7. Marketing 8. Legal (paperwork) We really need to figure out how much it will take just to open. This is going to be a key aspect of how we write our proposed lease and we need to have the planned backing for this lease. I am meeting with the banker the first week in August but we will have to see where the money will come from for opening. The process will take several weeks once I meet with the banker and we are inside that time already on getting something signed. Our new hopefully open date....January of 2006!! Buckle up for the next week and a half! ~~be bold

Trends in Small Businesses

Anita Campbell over at Small Business Trends talks about the trends laid out in the white paper. "This white paper originated from an observation and a supposition by Jim Baum, a highly active and successful Morris, Illinois small, independent retailer. His observation was that macro and micro trends affect the small independent entrepreneur differently than their large competitors. His supposition is if small independents could just step back, take a deep breath and think about what's really happening, what's changing and what's just over the horizon, they might act differently. They might change how they do things. They might experiment more to take advantage of new emerging opportunities. They might see solutions more clearly. They might find new ways to connect more closely to their marketplace." This paper maps out several trends including a few that are major points in Cafe Evoke.. 1. Personalization--knowing the customers name, birthday, etc. Being able to make this their coffeehouse and shake their hand each time they come in. 2. Community Activism--protecting the values in the community There are many others that are listed. Head on over and check out this list.. ~~be bold

Just When Is The Beginning?

I have been talking about this business and opening times etc. I was talking with friends last night over a bottle of wine about "my business" and began to wonder when exactly you can say you have started a business. I feel there are a couple of ways to look at this... 1. Obviously opening the doors and bringing in money..(or at least trying to) or, 2. When the idea is created, the identity complete, phone calls made, space located, etc. I decided that really it is number 2. The fact that we are yet to open the doors seems like it would hender us from actually being able to say that we have started a business. The thing is, we have done a lot of work in this direction. We have completed all the identity for this business, the business plan has been written and rewritten several times, we have made contacting with most of our vendors, we have talked with the city and state governments, and we are in final negotiations with the property manager of the space we think will be best for Cafe Evoke. So when can you say you have your own business? I think the second your idea is put on paper and you have jumped in with both feet...not when the doors have opened. ~~be bold

Ultimatum

Tomorrow will be a big step in gaining the location that I have been talking about for the past 6 months. Our financial planner and board of advisor member, my father, is in town for the weekend and he really thinks we need to get this location nailed down or our and move on with the plans. I have called the property manager who should be back in town today and left him a message saying we need to meet no later than Tuesday afternoon on this. The problem is with the square footage. I told them at the get-go that I needed roughly 1200 square feet at a minimum but asked for 1400. The owner said they would work it out as such but when I got the lease, I only had 932 square feet and 30 of that is shared electrical space that I cannot use. So, I told him that I would love to come look at the layout for 932 square feet and talk some things through tomorrow while my dad is in town. We will see if he wants to call back.. Other news is that we have decided on coffee and tea choices and have been collecting quotes for the marketing tools we plan to use. We have also located one house and have hopes of others that could be future home to Cafe Evoke. We will need to talk with the city planners about zoning and hours if we are in a house. Right now I'm really just working on securing this space and collecting quotes for marketing. We are meeting tomorrow afternoon with my dad to work out all the financial things and set ourselves up for the meeting with the banker that keeps getting pushed back further and further. I think this newest meeting will be around August 1st. Right now, details are key and getting this space is the front runner. I will keep you updated.. ~~be bold

I Think I'll Take One!

Well, it has been difficult to keep the posts coming over the past few weeks. I seems to have a pretty set schedule... 6:00am-- Wake Up 6:30am-7:40am-- Eat breakfast, have a pot of coffee, watch Le Tour De France, get some Evoke stuff worked on, go to work 11:00am-12:00pm--lunch 5:00pm-7:00pm--bike ride or hike or run or play some tennis 7;30pm--dinner 8:00pm-11:00pm--Evoke Stuff (repeat as necessary) As I was reading through some of my friends blogs this morning, I came across one over at Dr. Cornwall's site, The Entrepreneurial Mindthat looks pretty good. "Mr. Younkle, 31 years old, is president and chief technology officer of TurboTap, a company marketing a finger-sized nozzle that attaches to standard beer faucets and pours draft beer at least twice as fast as traditional systems do, and with less spillage." Can an Oklahoma boy share in this please, Cornwall? I think I need one! Things are actually going pretty good for us right now. We are working on getting quotes gathered for our marketing tools including T-shirts and stickers. We are also trying to get our stationary and letterhead printed. I will have a report with the companies that we decided to go with and what we are doing hopefully early next week. I will also report in on where the first dollars will be spent and how we will use them. ~~be bold

An Update

In the absence of our property manager and footprint of the space, we have pushed on with other parts of the cafe. We are making contact with the vendors we hope to work with. We have received the coffee and tea samples to try and pick from. We plan to have a tasting this weekend with some people from the community. We have also spoken with the COOP here in Bozeman and they are very excited about what we are doing and are working to see if they can take us as an account. What this will mean is this: We will have fresh, organic salads and sandwiches daily (without having to have a kitchen), fresh pastries, and hopefully weekly specials. The reason the COOP is such a great fit for us it that they use organic, "green", ingredients which fits nicely with our Organic, Fair Trade ideas. We have talked with the reps of the furniture companies for Evoke who is sending us a bunch of catalogs. He also got us in contact with another rep for restaurant supply stuff--coffee machines, cases, refrigerators, etc. He also reps for modern design flatware/serving stuff as well. He is going to send us some samples. I want to get a pretty detailed pricing sheet compiled by this weekend as I am meeting with our financial planner to talk some things through. The meeting with the banker that was scheduled for the 19th has been pushed back to the first week of August due to some vacation time the banker is taking. Things are looking good here and we are still very excited. More to come later.. ~~be bold

Where it Begins

Business Opportunities Weblog posted a few days ago about generating ideas. He took this from The Punditpreneur who was writing about how everything starts with an idea. He says... The difference between someone that comes up with a great idea and an entrepreneur is that an entrepreneur is willing to do what it takes to implement the idea. The idea process is key. Following through with these ideas is business. I will take this back to a post I made a few weeks ago about business plan writing. This is what helps sift through the good, the bad, and the ugly of idea generation. The more ideas that can be created, the better prepared the entrepreneur will become for the ever changing competitive landscape. ~~be bold

Notes on the Lease

I finally called the property manager, on his way out the door for the next 10 days, and got the lease. The total square footage that they say we will have if we pick this location is 935. This number does include 16 square feet of shared electrical space. Here is where it get interesting. There is no bathroom on "our" side which means that will eat up some square footage. The serving bar will take up some square footage, the stage will take up some square footage. I am thinking that, once the construction is complete, we will be left with about 500 square feet at best. This brings an interesting thought for us though. What if we created a patio with the outdoor tent style sidings that could be rolled during the summers and let down in the winters and armed with space heaters so it could be used all year around. This would increase our serving space and would not affect the amount of bathrooms we need. That is what we are working on right now. There are many things included in the lease that we will need to hash out with the owner but we are moving that direction. This meeting will probably not happen for the next 2 weeks due to the absence, again, of the property manager. We are also hopeing to meet with the banker on the 19th to discuss the loan amounts that are possible. We also had some great feedback from a handful of staff at Montana State University and I hope to have a meeting with some of them to discuss how we can get invovled. I will talk more about this at a later time. ~~be bold

It's About Your Customers

I am going to start with what I call the "quote of the day" which I haven't posted lately.. "The only way we avoid it is by making an open and firm commitment that we will treat all of our customers the same way we treated them when we were trying to land their business in the first place." Norm Brodsky said this in his acticle, Street Smarts: How to Lose Customers, in July's issue of Inc Magazine. He uses the decorating industry as his example and talks about how, when we customer begin to feel locked in, they get turned off. While I'm writing this, it seems like an easy fix. Don't lock them in. However, this also goes back to the relationship with the vendor in any business or industry. Customer to don't expect the service to change. Keeping customers, especially the good ones, takes alot of time, money, and attention. These customers are well worth it however. These are the customers that will qauntify your service and pricing and know when they are not getting the good deal that they used to. I want to say that at Cafe Evoke, I hope to run the place in a proactive state. I do not want to react to upset customers but keep them excited about what we are doing and where we are going. I think this will keep us from losing our customers. ~~be bold

It's Crazy

I am already feeling the effects of 50-60 hour work weeks. It is not as easy as it seems.. We still have no word from the landlord or property manager about the lease agreements. I am taking this with the mindset that we will not be ready to rent until later in the fall anyway so maybe this is a good thing...at least I hope this is not signs of whats to come. We have reconstructed two different forms of our capital budget and also worked with the financials a bit more to reflect what we think the space amount will be (this would be the information that the porperty manager said we would have). We are meeting with a resturaunt service company on Friday to discuss leases on the equipment we do not plan to buy. I also hope to schedule a meeting with the first banker the week of the 18th. Other than that, we are still working away with the information we have. We will have the "cupping' (ok, so it is really just having friends and others over to try out the coffees and teas we are thinking about serving) so we can get the costs recorded. More information to come... ~~be bold

Update..

After a weekend away with no laptop and no cell phone, I came back to no word from the property manager on the lease he said he was working last Tuesday. He had left a message for us last week saying we should try for a meeting at the end of last week but never returned any calls. This has been a bit stressful I must say. We received the samples of the tea we hope to use and the coffee samples are on the way. The reason we are hitting this early is because we need to assess the costs of each company that we thing we might incur. We will have a "tasting party" with some people here in Bozeman to pick the coffees and teas we think we will serve. My father, who is acting as our financial advisor on our Board of Advisors, will be in town in a handful of days at which time we will meet with our banker to discuss the loan amounts, terms, and feasibility. Other than that, we are being patient and waiting for contact from the property manager. I have an email and call into him and am just waiting for a call back. No luck on a laywer yet but I have some calls with some friends that I need to make that could lead to this meeting. We are taking this one step at a time and not rushing. We had talked about taking the lease over in September but, since we have heard nothing to this point, we do not want the landlord and property manager to push us at the last second to get in there. "...wax on, wax off..." is the focus and patients we hope to have in the next few weeks as we near that time... ~~be bold

"...it's the most wonderful time of the year..."

This might be one of my favorite times of the year. Not only is it our anniversary, we also see my favorite grand slam. Wimbledon, and my favorite event each year, the Tour De France. The tour is off and running in it's fourth stage, a team time trail, and Lance is on the way to his record breaking (his own record I might add) 7 straight victory. Good luck Discovery Boys.. ~~be bold

A Weekend Away

It has been almost a year since I married my wife and we are heading to Big Sky, Montana for the weekend to celebrate. It seems like only a few weeks ago that we were celebrating our wedding on 7.3.04. A year later many things have happened...I have graduated, we have moved to Bozeman, and we are very much on our way to owning our first business, Cafe Evoke. I will be back Tuesday with an update on the progress we have made this week. Until then.. ~~be bold

Culture

Bloggle: The Coffee Odyssey posted a few days ago about cafe culture. He links to this article from Portafiliter.net talking about culture of a coffeehouse. This is a very important subject to me and I have been working hard to try and create this culture even through the planning stages of Cafe Evoke.. They talk about the lines that are seeming to increase as the popularity of coffeehouses and specialty coffee increase. They give great advice on running the lines around the place and maybe by art to keep the attention of the waiting friends. Even taking the "to-go" orders at an outside window. All this is trying to preserve the inside for people taking there time and enjoying each sip. Another thing was the tables. Many cafes go with a hand full of small 2 or 4 toppers. They say that this creates an individual atmosphere. By using 1 or 2 large tables, 6-8 tops, it creates community.. These are all things we need to continue to think about as we get into the layout and design of Cafe Evoke. Go check out the article and also Portafilter.net if you are interested in reading more great posts from the coffee world. ~~be bold