Tuesday, February 28, 2006
It's Worth A Shot
When we first started our planning for Cafe Evoke, an art and coffee house, we dreamed of a house that would be transformed in to our cafe. In the early days, I really like that model of a coffee house but also really like the warehouse feel -- very modern and clean. Since we have moved to Bozeman, we have been pushing for deals in buildings with exposed ceilings, concrete floors, etc. So, what happened to that house?
Yesterday, my wife found an old house (built in the 1900's) for sale in a commercially zoned area of town. This house is located on the western edge of the community we have chosen for Cafe Evoke. There are a few things about the location that might not be prime but it is worth a shot.
We went to look at it yesterday and the things that are nice about it include:
1. Large back deck
2. Nice sized yard (we would need to bring down the 3 car shed thing that is up right now to give us more space)
3. Hard wood floors downstairs
4. On busy street
5. About 1500 square feet
6. 2 floors
Again, this location would need some work and there are also 4 other houses right next to it. I am not sold on this house but think it is something worth looking into as we know we have 7 months at least before we can really do anything. This is all in an effort to keep busy and keep our heads in the game.
We are also working on more meetings with other in the neighborhood for advice and suggestions about Cafe Evoke. We are still excited and keeping positive about our situation and think, by looking around, we will feel even more confident in our decisions with the location and with our business model.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/28/2006 05:17:00 AM
Monday, February 27, 2006
The Coffee and Tea Festival (#2)
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/27/2006 05:33:00 AM
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Update..
Our week ended on a bright note as I met with a person who lives in the north east neighborhood. We had a chance to discuss the area and how Cafe Evoke could serve the people of this community. I feel that our values and goals match up very well. The biggest concern for this area seems to be traffic. We are now working on ways that Cafe Evoke can help minimize the amount of car traffic (or speed of this traffic) when we open.
I decided that the best way for us to talk to the people of this community would be to hold a sort of community meeting. This would give us a chance to share our mission, goals, and values to the neighborhood. We would also like to list some of the issues we feel this area is going to have to deal with and how we can help back them when they go to the city.
We would invite a few people from the City Planners office so if people have questions that are concerns for the city, they can be answered. We would also serve coffee and use this time as a chance to get to know as many people as possible and pass out our informational brochure. We are still weeks away from being able to do this but we will need this time to make arrangements and figure out how to go about setting this up.
We are excited to get out and get our hands extended to this community and we think this is a great start.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/25/2006 06:14:00 PM
Friday, February 24, 2006
Carnival of Entrepreneurship (#4)
The 4th Carnival is up at Jack Yoest's site. A lot of work was put into this edition. Airpot's are full so head on over!
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/24/2006 06:13:00 AM
Submt for the Festival!
It is Friday. Have you submitting anything to next week's edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival?. Please have your posts in by Sunday afternoon as the edition will run here at A Thought Over Coffee on Monday morning. Send in your submissions and I will get them posted to the Festival. If you are interested in hosting this festival, email me.
More information can be found here. You can also submit via the button below.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/24/2006 06:07:00 AM
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Possibilities
One of the ways we can beat the zoning issues in North East Bozeman without having to wait for 7ish months is to find a manufacturing aspect that could go in with us. In our case, it would need to be a coffee roaster, baker, or something else that has to do with Cafe Evoke. Although I am still not sure how this would work, I thought it might be a good idea to make some phone calls.
I received an email not to long ago from a guy that is starting a roasting business here in Bozeman and was looking for a place to call home. At the time, I did not think that this could be our in. I emailed him last night and he seems interested to talk. Hopefully we can set something up so I can figure out how much space he needs, what his interests are, and if we could work together on some level.
I have also tried to schedule a meeting with the leasing agents to see what the owner would think of something like that. If everything sounds good on paper, I will set up a meeting, again, with the city planning department to see how it would need to be arranged to work.
The other problem will be parking but I have some great ideas for this. Parking will take some work but I think we can figure it out. We have once before so why not again?
Things are moving forward but mostly on paper. Lots of letters, legal stuff, and busy work but all steps in the right direction.
I have my first meeting with someone living in this community on Friday and I am looking forward to presenting our plans and getting some great feedback about how Cafe Evoke and serve this neighborhood.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/23/2006 06:07:00 AM
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Meeting Recap: City of Bozeman
Yesterday was our meeting with the Historic Conservation Planner at the city. The meeting started a bit rocky and I thought I was going to come away with some hard feelings. It really did not end that way however. The planner was very helpful and really liked our business model. She gave us steps we needed to take to encourage the city to review (and hopefully pass) Edit 21 that would allow small-scale restaurants to open on the north east side of town.
It will start with a letter to the commission and steady follow up. They are also interested in what the people of the neighborhood are saying and also our breakdown of volume per hour, etc. We are still going to have a parking issue at the building we are hoping to lease so that is something we will need to be working on as well. We can lease parking as long as it is within 1,000 feet of the building or try for some deductions.
It is still looking like the 7-9 month time line is going to stand. We have quite a bit of work to do so I'm sure that time will go quickly. Right now we are focusing on the following:
1. Market Research -- getting out and meeting the community
2. Edit 21 -- the amendment to the zoning that would allow Cafe Evoke to open
3. Parking
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/22/2006 05:41:00 AM
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Want to Advertise?
I am running a special for the next week. Buy a 1 month ad, and I will email you a code to renew it for another month for free. The ads are cheap and you can find more information here or here.
These ads help keep this blog going. We are also trying to change our "things" to as many fairly traded and organic products as possible and this will help make the transition. Thank you for your support! Remember, this will end a week from tonight. Email me if you have any questions.
...be bold |
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/21/2006 06:29:00 PM
Businesses being Green
Entrepreneur Magazine has a great article in the current issue about being green in business.Poss, founder of Seahorse Power Co. in Needham, Massachusetts, is just one of a growing number of entrepreneurs taking environmental concerns into their own hands rather than leaving the task to lawmakers--and creating or growing entire industries out of a need to enact environmental change. The potential is huge. In fact, the Center for Small Business and the Environment in Washington, DC, identifies green industries--ranging from providing products and services made in an eco-friendly manner to supplying renewable energy--as a multibillion-dollar market. I like the graying of the line that is happening here. Small businesses can bring change because they are flexible. They can change their menus, what they serve out of, the type of paper they use, or their mission from the back office. They do not need to go through several levels of management with proposals and memos. At this point, it is almost expected that businesses will do what they can to produce green products and services.Green marketing veteran Jacquelyn A. Ottman agrees. "A lot of consumers are very conscious of the companies behind the products and will reward businesses that make greener products," says Ottman, founder of New York City-based J. Ottman Consulting. "And in turn, they'll punish the companies that don't." My favorite business featured in this article is Seahorse Power Company who produce the BigBelly. This is a solar powered, cordless trash compacter that is replacement standard trash bins in major cities. This reduces waste volume, keeps collection frequency down, and cuts back on trucks that need to be used to empty each can. It is a bit more expensive up front to use the BigBelly but the long run value very much out weighs this cost.
This article ends like this: No doubt, entrepreneurs are the ones enacting change. "The small guys can run rings around the big guys," says Kennard, who helped organize the original Earth Day in 1970. "We didn't have to encourage entrepreneurs to enter the fray, they were already there--entrepreneurs see an environmental problem as a profitable opportunity." Well said.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/21/2006 05:51:00 AM
Monday, February 20, 2006
The Coffee and Tea Festival! (#1)
Hello and welcome to the first Coffee and Tea Festival! Thank you to everyone who submitted to this first edition. I wanted to try and keep it small with hopes to grow it to 10-15 articles each week. If you do not see your work, please keep sending them in each week. I hope there will be many more festivals out there in the future! Lets get this started..
Ever wondered how the rest of nature feels about coffee? Coffee and Conservation brings us this post about birds and the coffee planation. This blog takes us closer to the coffee and habitate connection. Traditional, shade-grown coffee plantations harbor a diversity of many taxa -- orchids, insects, and mammals, for example. But it is the research that showed the importance of shade coffee plantations to birds that caught the attention of the public, and really kick-started the shade-grown coffee movement. Certified coffees have been on the minds of many consumers lately and this is a nice post about why these bird friendly coffees are so important.
The next attraction of this Festival comes from Elaine Magee of WebMD. She offers her thoughts on a new healthly habit that she has added to her life. The secret to my success? I think starting this habit in the middle of winter certainly upped the odds of sticking to it. It also helped to have several different green tea flavors available that I really like. I kept the tea bags right on my kitchen counter (next to the tea kettle) to remind me about this no-calorie beverage option. You know, tea can be bought fairly traded as well! I think this is an interesting look at tea as it is becoming a very strong market presence. There are tea rooms popping up all over the place. This is not happening quite as quickly as new coffee shops but I would bet that you will begin to see more and more and many teas can be good for you.
We will make a stop with a blogger, Denise, who reports on her home roasting trials. We've had three pots of the TW and Kids Popcorn Popper Roasted Coffee (TWKPPRC is how we'll refer to it from now on, folks) and it's awesome! The lighter roasted beans (the first batch) had a really smooth taste. The really really dark roasted beans was soooo strong, I loved it too! The medium roasted beans were not my favorite of the three but the 1/2 child raved about it on the way to work this morning. You can really TASTE the flavor or some such thing was said over and over again. The word FRESH was also used. Home roasting is a great way to try different beans and test your creativity. This is not an easy process and master roasters will work for years to master their art. Buy some beans and try it out. You will have some great fun.
This concludes this week's edition of the Coffee and Tea Festival. I will be hosting next week's festival as well so please get your submissions in by next Sunday at 2:00 pm so I can get it posted by Monday. Thank you again to everyone who submitted an article to this festival. Keep them coming. If you are intersested in hosting, let me know. You can also find more information by clicking here or by going to the Coffee and Tea Festival's home page here.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/20/2006 05:57:00 AM
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Just a reminder..
For those of you who want to be a part of the first Coffee and Tea Festival, please have your submissions in by 2:00 pm tomorrow as the festival will run Monday morning. You can use the link below to submit. I am also looking for a few other people who would like to host the next several weeks. Thanks!
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/18/2006 04:35:00 PM
Friday, February 17, 2006
CoffeeFest Washington DC
CoffeeFest is coming to Washington DC on February 24th. I went to this show in Seattle back in November and found that it was very interesting and useful.
I posted before about the importance of going to trade shows. I believe that now more than ever. The great thing about them is that you have almost every industry player all in one building. You see what new products have entered the market, network with coffee industry bigwigs, and make deals on equipment and everything needed to run your coffee business.
This does not only happen with the coffee industry. Every industry has at least one trade show and I would encourage you to attend. If nothing else, you will at least get a bunch of free stuff!
I will not be able to attend this show but I hope to get to the one in June and will for sure be attending the Seattle show again.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/17/2006 06:12:00 AM
Thursday, February 16, 2006
It's about time..
I think the one thing most of us would want more of is time. I know that, while I have many things to help control and manage my time, I feel like I always need a bit more. There is a great post over at Jim Estill's blog that talks about 12 rules of time: 1. Have Goals
2. Analyze how you spend your time
3. Keep a to-do list
4. Prioritize your list
5. Control procrastination
6. Organize
7. Delegate
8. Master efficiency tricks
9. It's OK to say no
10. Focus
11. Build your efficiency bank
12. Take care of yourself I think the last point is interesting. I know that I have found that when I get very busy, the first things to go are the things I love -- hiking, skiing, cycling, spending time with my wife, art, etc. It is very important to make sure to take time for yourself. It does not matter how much time you have, how organized you are, or how many things you check off your to-do list if you do not have the energy or desire to go forward. Make sure to set aside days that you put work away.
I talked about vacation a few weeks ago (here and here). This vacation will be a time to put the computer and cell phone down and just spend time having fun. I am also heading to Crested Butte, Colorado for a weekend of skiing in my old backyard in a few weeks which will also act as a vacation.
Time is money but if you burn out, the money is out the door. Yes, we all have a lot to do but remember Jim Estill's 12th rule: Take care of yourself.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/16/2006 06:06:00 AM
Carnival of Entrepreneurship (#3)
The third edition of the Carnival of Entrepreneurship is now up over at Working Solo. Grab your coffee and head over for a great read.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/16/2006 05:58:00 AM
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Coffee and Tea Festival
We are looking for a few more articles for next week's, Coffee and Tea Festival. Send in your submissions and I will get them posted to the Festival. If you are interested in hosting this festival, email me.
I think this will be a great festival. More information can be found here.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/15/2006 05:18:00 PM
About our meeting..
Yesterday was our meeting with the area planner of the Bozeman Mill District. This meeting was basically to help us prepare for our meeting with the city next Tuesday. Because this planner has worked with the city on so many projects, he knows what they are looking for and how to get information from them. We got some very helpful information which will need to be handled before Tuesday. Below are some notes from the meeting.*Our main objective is to try and get the city to do a text amendment on the already submitted Edit 21. This edit basically says that a 1500 square foot space or 20% of the gross floor area of the building can be used as a restaurant. This edit went to the city in August but has never been approved or voted on.
*We need to find out what permits the coffee kiosks have as some are located in HMU zoning which is the same as the area we are looking. HMU zoning is a combination of M-1 and R-2.
*The city would like to see numbers on customer volume per hour, day, and week. We have projections for the day and month so we will need to boil it down a bit further.
*Parking will always be an issue which is why we will present our volume per hour. Hopefully that will help limit the amount of space that is needed for parking.
The two biggest concerns that the city will have will be our hours of operation and the parking. The area planner thinks it will not be very difficult to have them amend the edit in a time frame of about 5-7 months as long as we can get past the hours and parking. One solution to the hours of operation will be to close early when we first open (maybe 9:00 or 10:00 instead of midnight) and slowly push hours back. I am not totally against that as we are going to be located in an up and coming area of town that might not have the late night traffic. It would also help us fit in our budget better, etc.
We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the meeting with the city. We have completed the text for the brochure and also created a document that talks about our visions, goals, and business model that we will also hand to the city. We hope to schedule a meeting with the NENA (Northeast Neighborhood Association) next week which will give us a chance to talk with the community. This will be a big part of our planning as we want to make sure we are giving the community what they want.
Over all, the meeting went well. I am a bit intimidated with the work load and creating the right presentation for the city but that will subside. Back to work we go. It will be busy for the next several weeks before it will smooth out again. Because of the timeline being about a year, we will end up back in our holding game.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/15/2006 05:56:00 AM
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Quote of the Day...
"A passionate interaction between coffee, art, and the community" --Jenni Duncan of Cafe Evoke
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/14/2006 06:29:00 AM
Monday, February 13, 2006
Update for the week..
My wife and I spent the weekend moving our stuff from one house to another. We really like the new place and think it will be a great place to call home until we can buy a house (which could be years away). We do have some major things going on with Cafe Evoke this week and next so we had to stay up late last night getting our home office up and running. We have a lot of work to get done tonight before our meetings begin.
The meeting tomorrow is with the area planning of the Bozeman Mill District". One of the spaces we are looking at is a part of this new development. The main idea for this meeting is to look at our business model and see how it fits with their ideas for development. This planner has been working with the city for years with other plans so he feels like he will be able to shed some new light on our situation and hopefully give us some information that will help the city jump on board with our ideas.
This is in preparation for our meeting next Tuesday with the City Planners. I hope to find out what permits we need and also what chance there is for us to open before the 9 month time frame they gave us. I will be putting together a short version of our business plan that will include an appendix for this meeting. I will also include 'press' that we have received since we started.
This will be a big two weeks. We are excited.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/13/2006 06:07:00 AM
Reason to love it (small business that is)..
Well, tomorrow is the big V-day where roses, candy, and other stuff can be seen on every corner. In the spirit of this day, The Entrepreneurial Mind offers this post with 10 reasons to love small business.10. Small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all United States employers.
9. Small businesses create more than 50 percent of the American nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
8. Small patenting firms produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
7. The more than 24 million small businesses in the United States are located in every community and neighborhood.
6. Small businesses employ 50.1 percent of the United States' non-farm private sector workers.
5. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses.
4. Small businesses are 97 percent of America's exporters and produce 26 percent of all export value.
3. United States saw an estimated 580,865 new small firms with employees start-up in the last year measured.
2. There are approximately 4,115,900 minority-owned businesses and 6,492,795 women-owned businesses in the United States, and almost all of them are small businesses.
1. The latest figures show that small business creates 65 percent or more of America's net new jobs.
...be bold
(Top 10 list came from SBA Office of Advocacy)
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/13/2006 06:01:00 AM
Friday, February 10, 2006
Introducing The Coffee and Tea Festival!!
Hello everyone. I wanted to introduce you to The Coffee and Tea Festival. This is a weekly festival that will feature articles all about coffee and tea including: 1. Roasting
2. Cafe Openings
3. Fair Trade Topics
4. Recipes
5. General News..and more! Below you will find the information needed to submit your works or to host this festival. This will be a great way to introduce your site and share your thoughts with everyone that has a passion for coffee and/or tea. You can always email us for more information and to sign up to host.
Want to submit your work?1. Please have all posts submitted to blog@cafeevoke.com by 2:00 pm Mountain Time each Sunday evening. The carnival will run every Monday. (You can also submit your post here.)
2. Please included a link to the site where the article can be found.
3. Please included a heading for your articles so they can be filed correctly.
4. Each post must be current and contain information about coffee, tea, or these industries.
5. Please do not include posts that sell your product. This is an informational festival.
Want to host the Festival?1. Please email blog@cafeevoke.com if you are interested.
2. Please read through all submissions and pick the ones that you feel are best for the week. Try and limit the selection to about 15 so the festival does not get overcrowded.
3. Included commentary about each submission as it provides a much more enjoyable reading experience. Be creative about it.
4. Be sure to link back to this page so others can get the info needed to host/submit.
5. Please have your edition of the Festival up by 6:00 pm Mountain Time on Monday's.
The goal of this Festival is to educate and enhance the coffee and tea experience. There is a lot going on in both of these industries and this is going to be a festival that will help keep us informed. This is great way to bring traffic to your blog if you are a host or want to submit an article and a great place to learn as much as possible about the two industries if you are a reader.
I want to post the first edition of The Coffee and Tea Festival on Monday, February 20th. If you are interested in hosting this festival, please email me. If you would like to contribute to this inaugural event, send your post to me before the 19th. Remember, we are only taking up to 15 entries so get your posts in early.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/10/2006 07:03:00 AM
Networks..
It is amazing that once you get off the bench and into the game again, you feel refreshed and alive. As I said before, there has a been a lull in activity for the past couple of months as we have been sitting back to watch the game tick away. Now that we have gotten our hands dirty again, we are finding more and more things to keep us busy. The main thing we have been working on is the city stuff and we will continue that until we get our doors opened but there are other things that we have really been working on as well. (I finally got in touch with the leasing agent yesterday! We should know something in two or so days!)
We fully believe that a group of businesses here in Bozeman and around the country can, together, impact our local and global communities. Because of this, we have been looking for businesses in this town that are locally owned and operated that share our vision for change. We want to build a network that evolves around a passion for people, relationship, and change. We have been in touch with two such businesses and are excited to start working with them.
There are also many organizations that we hope to team up with including One.org, Invisible Children, Global Exchange, and Coffee Kids. Teaming up with these groups, and others, will allow us to reach a broader community.
I think it is very important for small business to create these networks. This not only gives you an extended "board of advisors," but also helps you grow. You work for each other and off each other. "Eat a nice dinner at XYC and receive a coupon for buy one get one at Cafe Evoke." "Rent a movie here and receive a free espresso drink at Cafe Evoke." These type of deals will also happen when people come to Evoke.
There is a lot that needs to be done before Cafe Evoke can be opened and we are taking baby steps in the right direction. We are continuing to prepare for our meetings with the planners and will work as hard as we can to find legal loopholes that will allow us to open our doors as we work with the community to make sure they approve of our business model.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/10/2006 05:39:00 AM
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Carnival of Entrepreneurship (#2)
The second edition of this great new carnival is up over at Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends. I am still very excited about this new carnival. Seems edition two is packed full of great stuff. Enjoy.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/09/2006 07:58:00 PM
Back to better content..
Ok, I will get back to business here. I apologize for yesterday. I just could not get the chicken out of my head. Anyway, I made a few goals on Monday that I wrote about here. We have made some progress on that list in the past three days and it is good to see us getting out there and getting something done for a change.
We have set up two very important meetings for the next couple of weeks. Our schedule is below. Not only are we meeting with the Bozeman city planner, we are also meeting with the new development planner for the area of town we are hoping to call home for Cafe Evoke. The good thing about this meeting is the area planner has a great relationship with the city so hopefully it will give us some insight for our meeting with the city and also help us prepare for the kind of information the city will want from us.
I emailed our leasing agent on Sunday night telling him I needed to hear from him with some answers within a week. No response yet. I am going to follow up both by email and phone today as we need to get this done. The problem here is that Sarah (who I consider our leasing agent as she has been fantastic!) has been out of town and I am left with trying to deal with Chris, also a great person and leasing agent. He is very busy and has a hard time returning calls, etc. I have been putting up with this for months now so I am not going to deal with it anymore. If I have to, I will drive down to his office and wait for him to have a minute to talk to me.
I also plan to schedule the meeting with the Northeast Neighborhood Assoc. presidents and board members for sometime next week as well. These three meetings could help shape the future of Cafe Evoke and I am excited to get after it.
Our meeting schedule:
Tuesday, Feb. 14th @ 3:30: meeting with area planner
Tuesday, Feb. 21st @ 4:00: meeting with Bozeman city planners
Next week: meeting with NENA presidents
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/09/2006 05:57:00 AM
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
WAY off topic (forgive me)
From CNN.com: A retired nurse saved her brother's chicken, Boo Boo, by administering mouth-to-beak resuscitation last week after the fowl was found floating face down in the family's pond.
Marian Morris said she hadn't had any practice with CPR in years, but she was interested to see if she "still had it."
"I breathed into its beak, and its dadgum eyes popped open," Morris said. "I breathed into its beak again, and its eyes popped open again. I said, 'I think this chicken's alive now. Keep it warm."'
She said she did not know how to find a pulse on a chicken.
Boo Boo's owners, Jackie and Becky Calhoun, put her in a large cardboard box containing a grain feeder and water. They also placed a heater nearby.
The chicken is called Boo Boo because she is easily frightened. The Calhouns thought Boo Boo was startled and flopped into the pond.
Enough said...
..be bold |
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/08/2006 08:37:00 AM
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Why not ask?
To gain information, you have to ask questions. To really find out what you have to do, you have to ask the people who know. Lets face it -- we do not know everything. Doesn't it make since to ask those who have more information than we do for that information? We have been working on a list of questions that we want answered by the city planner and also the health department so nothing is a surprise when we go to open Cafe Evoke. I feel that the best way to figure out what we need to pass code is to ask. Yes, I can go to the legal writings and read for myself -- which I will -- it will be much easier to understand with the help of the ones who enforce the laws.
I was on my daily blog tour and found a couple of great posts about asking questions. One was here at Business Opportunities and the other here at Start-up Guide. They come different stances but boiled down to the same point: it doesn't hurt to ask when you are prepared to face the answers and ask more questions.
I think the hardest part is getting over the fact that you don't know. People like to give advice and share their opinions. I have written about this before and I think it is an area that all who are in the start up phase must learn. The more you ask, the more you will find out. The more you find out, the better off you will be. This does not show that you are not prepared.
Take the leap and make sure to ask questions on the way.
..be bold |
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/07/2006 04:57:00 PM
Back to the City
My wife spent some time on the phone yesterday with the city trying to figure out what it would take for us to open sooner than the 12 month time frame they have given us for zoning. We got some great information and we think it could be a good thing. She also set a meeting up for the 21st of February at which the city planner will look at our business plan, site map, floor layout, etc to see how we will use the space and what we would need to make it legal.
Because of this, we need answers on the space we will be leasing. I have emailed our leasing agents to explain that we no longer have time to just talk -- we need action. I have given our first choice building a week to get back with me and if they do not, I will call the second choice building and get it worked out. There has been to much sitting around and waiting for word in the past month or so. It was time to put a dead line on them and see what comes out of it.
We have had good luck so far with the city I feel that we if ask questions until there is no doubt what it will take, we can get Cafe Evoke opened. We want to make sure that everything is clear about our model and that there are no [huge] surprises. If we can get the city planner to give us a checklist of things that must happen before we can legally open, it will give us a road map over the next several months.
We have to keep going..
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/07/2006 05:57:00 AM
Monday, February 06, 2006
Regrouping (Update...)
I have felt a little passive the past several weeks regarding Cafe Evoke. I seem to be sitting in the gallery watching building owners and developers do the work for me. I started to think about the fact that no one wants this business up and going more than I do so why am I letting them do all the work for me? It is time to regroup and begin to think about ways to get this place opened.
While trying to lease the first space back in May, we were calling the city to work permits, etc and did not leave a thing up to the building owner. We talked to the city and got them to cut back on some of the requirements -- which was great -- but had no addition help from the owner or leasing agent. The last two deals we have worked on were different. We let the building owner go to the city for us -- which is different and nice -- but the passion for our model was not there. Over the weekend we began to think about ways to get through the current system so we do not have to wait 9 months for the city to re-zone everything. We came up with one great idea and a few others that might work. So today we are going after the city.
If we want to get the doors opened, we have to put ourselves out there and do what we can. We have found that our time line is much shorter than the one the building owners have shown. Market research has gone well so far and we think Cafe Evoke will be a place that the community embraces (more on the market research project a little later).
So our goals for the week are:
1. Check with city to see how a catering license would change our ability to open in that area now
2. Get firm answers from our first choice in buildings
3. Get market research document out for editing
4. Find out (from city) what else we can do to make this process faster.
If we can get these four things completed this week, we will be off to a nice start. It is about being aggressive with the city and getting things done. I will post throughout the week with updates on these goals.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/06/2006 05:54:00 AM
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Friday, February 03, 2006
Carnival of Entrepreneurship (#1)
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/03/2006 06:21:00 AM
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Make it a 20 oz
I have been debating (with myself) about the sizes of drinks we will sell. I am very interested in going back to the traditional days of great coffee in reasonably sized cups. With the emergence of our friends in the Mermaid Castle, the 20 oz drink has become second nature to American specialty coffee drinkers. I know there is money to be made when people will come in once, sometimes twice, a day for a 20 oz (Venti for the mermaid fans) triple-caramel-vanilla-latte-with whip topped off with some sweet-n-low but does that go against tradition?
I do not want to make these drinkers angry but do we really need to be drinking that much sugar? I think there is enough in one of those jugs to last about 3 years. There is a local coffee company in town that has done away with this size and has now begun to offer 8-10-12-16 oz sizes. This seems to be better.
What are your thoughts about sizing? Would you come to a place that does not serve 20oz drinks but that would give you first refill for cheap to nothing on drip coffee?
Let me know.
..be bold |
...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/02/2006 12:16:00 PM
Marketing Research Update
It has been a while since I posted an updated about our market research plans. The pictures have been taken for the brochure and we are just waiting to get a copy back from the designer. As soon as we do, we will revise the type and also make some changes to the wording then send it off to about 5 people to review and adjust.
I said a day or two ago that I had not heard back from the North East Neighborhood Association. I got a call that very day from the president's business partner. They say they have heard rumors of a cafe going in their community (which is a good thing to hear!) but did not know any details. When the president gets back in town, we are going to sit down and talk -- probably after Feb. 8th.
This is good news as I was becoming a bit nervous. I thought a no response was a bad response for this situation but then I found out they had been out of town, etc. Things should be moving forward again -- slowly. I talked with our leasing agent yesterday and she did not have any new news. She will also be out of town for the next week or more so I will have to play "fly on the shoulder" with the leasing agent that is representing the landlord. My goal is to get answers:
1. Is there going to be enough parking?
2. Can she divide the space to fit us in?
3. Can we get a Conditional Use Permit?
4. What is our timeline?
With these questions answered, I can make some big decisions about our home. Until then, we will be shuffling around with are marketing plans, trying to meet as many people as possible, and getting into position to serve this community. It is tough to wait but I think it is making us stronger than ever. I have come to think of our journey so far as a work out program. You break down your muscles (which hurts all over) which builds them up. The more you break them down, the stronger you get. Although we must be muscle competition contestants at this point, (you know what I'm talking about), we will continue.
...be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/02/2006 05:49:00 AM
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Proper Forecasting
I have talked quite a bit lately about our budgets and getting them in order. I have been going over expenses and trying to figure out what we can afford. Have I been spending to much time on the expenses and not enough on revenue? The Entrepreneurial Mind offered this post yesterday about this exact thing.Accurate revenue forecasting is one of the single most important steps an entrepreneur takes in planning for a new venture. And yet, we find that most entrepreneurs do not spend enough time determining how much revenue will come in their front doors. Although underestimating expenses is a common mistake in business planning, missing the mark on revenues can be catastrophic.
If sales fall way short of expectations, the business can fail due to lack of adequate cash flow. And if sales wildly exceed expectations, the business is not prepared for demand and customers will abandon the new start-up due to inability to meet their needs with products or services in a timely manner.
Some estimates indicate that entrepreneurs spend only about 20% of their time forecasting on revenues and 80% of their time on expenses, when they should spend most of their time trying to gain an accurate forecast of revenues.
I think we have done a nice job in a few areas of our planning. One of these areas is our equipment. Here was our thought process:
We know we have to sell a certain amount of coffee, tea, etc each day to help cover our expenses, we have a certain amount of space available for seating, and we will need to create the work area to accommodate all the equipment that we will need. We have added equipment that will help up our chances of reaching our sales goals. Yes, these will add costs that we had not thought about before but you have to look at the impact it will have on your bottom line (in a good way). These new machines will allow us to serve more people and also expand our menu without costing us to much more money each month. Our menu plans also impact our equipment needs. The more time we can focus on the amount of money we will be able to bring via our marketing plans, etc, the better our expense budgets will work out.Experts on reading business plans, such as investors and bankers, usually do not read a business plan in the order it is written. They will often read the marketing plan and then go back to the revenue forecast to see if it numerically represents what is said in words in the marketing plan. That is the backbone of any good business plan. If the revenue forecast does not make sense based on the marketing plan, the investor or banker will usually read no further. I am going to begin working on the revenue forecasts to make sure they line up with our marketing plans. I will need to begin to re-work this as I get more information about the location at which we will be opening.
..be bold
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...a thought by Cafe Evoke Coffee Catering at 2/01/2006 09:24:00 AM
