The three day weekend is almost over, and I must say that Michael and I have enjoyed it immensely.
I regret to say that I have tree blood on my hands. There were several small trees along our fence line that were obviously overgrown things that should have not gotten as big as they did. I have tried to make peace with the action by using the woody parts to build a rose trellis and I will also stake my tomato plants with them.
We have two tomato plants and two green pepper plants. The seeds that I thought didn't take are starting to sprout! Unfortunately, there are several weeds that are trying to come in with the seeds. I have to weed gently around the seedlings, or wait for the plants to become more established and pull the weeds then.
I am soooooo tempted to get herbicide. Grrrr.
I picked a small bowl full of strawberries from my strawberry patch, plucked off some spent buds and I imagine that there will be more strawberries in another week. They are quite good. A little tart, but a very nice treat. I think I'm going to make strawberry scones tomorrow morning.
I need to remember to put on sunscreen before I go out. My arms are getting darker than the rest of my body and I really would like them to lighten up before the wedding.
Tonight, Michael and I will work on the invitations. We are very excited. We are thinking to have a barbecue the night before ( since a rehearsal isn't necessary)
and the wedding will be on a Saturday Evening. We are still trying to figure out where we want to have it. We plan on a small reception, but the reception will be a potluck... no presents... we have everything we need... and possibly in the building that we are hoping to have the coffee kiosk in. A lot of people (in his family) are sort of freaking out because we don't seem to be making a big deal.
In the mean time, we garden a lot. I've been out of love with working out as of late, and so I've been trying to use the garden to get my work out. I chopped a patch of grass with the hedge trimmers today and actually broke a sweat. I think that I might regret it tomorrow, but at least I'll have great arms :P.
We still don't freakin' know. It's gotten a bit hairy too. We actually decided that we were tired of people not returning our phone calls. We showed up in the bank office. Our loan is hung up on a technicality. My Dad is the cosigner and does not live in the bank's 'footprint'. That's the technicality. He lives in a state where there are none of this particular branch. So, someone else has to get the permission to waive this and we will be all set.
However the coffee cart and the truck that we were going to buy are possibly not available. (We were getting a used truck with the business so that we could work expos and small events, especially in the fall when the weather turns cooler)
The process has been trying on the relationship between my father and I because after the fact there are some stipulations and some misinterpretations.
I could wax spiritual about it. But I figure I will spare you guys the long cosmic explanation and offer the summary.
Everything has a reason. We felt this was the right thing to do. We are still going ahead. We believe this experience has taken it's own path and that we are at the limit of the amount of work that we can do on it pending a decision. So we wait.
And that decision has been a joy. It's hard for us to imagine how things were prior to when we took this path, but it's a refreshing 3 day weekend to get back into our old routines and some quality time for us.
I finally faced my garden today. My potted plants haven't been doing so hot. Mostly because I've forgotten to water them here and there, but also because the soil that I mixed doesn't seem to be the right mix.
Plus, I think that the critters may be the reason that so few of my seeds have come up.
Michael bought me a flat of flowers last night I chose petunias for their resilience. So, I took the surviving plants out of the pots and put them in the ground, then I started on putting the new plants, but I am finding that the root system is too soft. I am probably going to resort to cutting the planters to get them in the ground.
I was hoping to save the planters so that I could try and grow some from seed in a more controlled environment. I was really hoping for something pretty for people to see this fall.
I've stolen a few moments here and there to go to the basement and work on my pottery. I've been practicing the wheel again. It's a bit frustrating because I can see where my skill has faded. I used to be able to make a coffee cup in a minute, (I actually used to get paid to make coffee cups and bowls on the potters wheel) Now, I struggle with centering. I can almost get it, but it's just a hair off, and the perfectionist in me absolutely screams.
But I've been enjoying the smell of the white stoneware and the feel of the mud and the whirring sound of the wheel. I've made a few pieces that I might keep. We'll see.
I think I'm gonna take a nap.
All right, I've been putting off this entry for as long as I can tolerate it. Originally, we were supposed to know, and I would have posted the following as a surety.
We may be approved. They are willing to give us a loan, but there's a problem with my father being out of the state that the business is in. It's a technicality that we are hoping can be remedied by changing our business to an LLC. I don't know why, but this is supposed to help.
With any luck at all, I'll be getting a call within moments that tells me to get my pink hiney downtown. At which point we will open up a business checking account with the bank that is (hopefully) going to approve us. Then, we will go to the Secretary of State's office (Thank God it's right next door) and file the LLC. Then we will go back to the bank and (hopefully) close on this freakin thing.
We are so close right now that Michael and I are both absolutely no good for anything. I've resorted to cleaning the house in a rather OCD manner. And I wait for the freakin phone. I would say it's more excitement than anxiety.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Today we sold cookies and matted photography at a local herb festival. We did well. Well enough to have to bake again tonight for tomorrow's festival. Another local deal. We are trying to get our name out there and get some product circulated around.
I could really use a nap, but silly me, I am too excited about trying a new recipe for fat free sugar free cookies that everyone seems to be wanting.
I really need to stop eating my cookies.
Really
Need
To
Stop.
Now.
So, what was extremely trying at the time is now turning into a miraculous thing.
The lady has sold the kiosk, she will be moving, leaving that space blank.
All we would have to do is show up with a cart, coffee, soda, muffins... and we
will get all of her business.
So, I decided that this opportunity was just good enough to swallow my pride and ask for help. I asked my Dad to cosign. He agreed. I really thought that he would say no. He said yes! My dad has really great credit and we should have funds by Monday. I think that's super early, but the financier seems to think that it's probable.
So, now we are waiting for this woman to move out of the spot... Which is scheduled for May 30th. She has said that she will be packing June 1st.
I believe that we can move our stuff in June 2nd.
We were going to buy a cart, espresso machine, and supplies from a woman who is moving to Boston. She decided that she wanted to try and play a bid war against her 'other buyer' which we don't know if they exist or not. We decided against it.
It's not even the butt crack of dawn right now, and I am up writing out stuff. It doesn't matter, when I was sleeping, I was dreaming about espresso machines and coffee carts.
It's really funny because my cat was meowing at me and reaching his paw up at me, and wouldn't stop. I think he was trying to tell me to go back to bed. He's settled in next to me now. And I think I've written out enough that I might actually be able to catch a couple of hours of sleep before I get up and bake cookies all day.
Here goes...
P.S. We had to move the wedding date to August 4th. Hopefully people can make it.
So, After I wrote all of that scathing....
It seems as though she does have a buyer.
The buyer is simply buying the collateral, not
actually coming in and taking over the business.
It seems as though we may be offered to vend
for ourselves from that location. This is a most
interesting development because we would be
able to save thousands of dollars.
On the mobile vending front:
We are going to a couple of different happenings
in the local area.
Michael has a friend that let us borrow her most
awesome vending tent.
We bought baking supplies in bulk for the first time.
Crazy.
Today, I am going to be making prep bags (Where
I measure out my ingredients first. Kinda like making
you own boxed cake mix.) Then tonight, I will be
mixing up cookie dough and putting it in the fridge.
We are trying to 'plan for success'. It's hard when
you've had to be conservative with money for so long
to put even more money into a business, and just keep
plugging it in there. Ugh. Right now, I'd be happy to
sell enough to cover what we are putting weekly into
this business. I'd be ecstatic to make anything more.
Well, I've got to get to 'work'.
I would like to start this with, "I should have...."
"I wish that I would have..."
"I feel ignorant..."
But none of those are helpful.
We didn't get the coffee shop.
The woman decided to sell it to another buyer because she got tired of waiting to hear back from our financier. She decided to be ignorant (which she has been this whole time) and call our financier so that she can personally check on the status of our loan.... after she'd hassle us daily with her anxiety about us checking the status.
Alas. I'm really not upset for the reasons that you would think that I might be. That kiosk was always going to be a stepping stone. A way to get from nothing to having a bakery/coffee shop of my own.
The reasons that I am upset is that the woman has truly made this whole process more aggravating than it truly needed to be.
Truth be told... we don't believe that she even has a new buyer. She decided that she couldn't wait to hear back from our financier/potential lender so she decided to try and push things through.
Confused?
Let me try and put it in a better way
* March: Michael does web service for a coffee shop owner in
exchange for lattes.
Michael tells coffee shop owner that I bake.
Coffee shop owner asks why am I not baking for her.
Coffee shop owner then asks, 'why don't we just buy it, she's
too busy to run it... her other business is falling behind....
she's stressed.'
Coffee shop owner tells us that she's willing to owner finance
if we can't get the loan.
We tell coffee shop owner that we can't act on things until May
because we want to save up more money.
Coffee shop owner says 'ok, I would need 1000.00 to start owner
financing if we don't get financing, i think you'll be able to get financing because there are programs out there that help with small business. blah fricking blah.'
An hour after talking with her she calls and says she needs to be
out by April 19th. She's stressed, blah blah blah.
We (because we were willing to compromise) decide to proceed with our end.
*April
We put together crazy hours of baking
We invest crazy hours working the coffee shop... learning how to make
lattes and mochas, blah blah blah.
Instead of it taking two weeks, it only took me three days to learn. I still
worked.
Meanwhile, coffee shop owner got caught up on her stuff, isn't so stressed out
and then says, "It'll take 4,000.00 to start owner financing." Not to mention that she feels that we should pay her 8 percent on the loan.
(Damn, should have got things in writing.)
She says she won't have an owner financing agreement without an aggressive default clause.... as in her default clause says, "If you default, I can sue you for interfering with my ability to run my other business, and I can come in and take everything that you invested, and pursue whatever means necessary to get the rest of what I think is owed to me, meanwhile, you get nothing back that you invested."
Every single day she is badgering us with 'Have you heard from the financer, the bank?' Trying to transfer her anxiety, and get us to jump through the hoop. We stopped responding to her.
She's going on about all the bills that are up and coming that she has to pay, like insurance and parking and blah blah blah blah.
HELLO BITCH... I don't have a fucking job. Shut the fuck up.
We got turned down for the first loan.
We apply for the second loan.
May:
We continue to be harrassed by this woman, calls emails, blah blah blah..
We kept telling her.... you have to do what you have to do... we will call you when we know something.
Now mind you we've taken about 12 points worth of dings on our credit scores because you get dinged every time someone has checked your credit, what a crock, but it's what's happened.
We begin to be impatient and feel like there's not really a chance of us getting this loan... we start pursuing selling my baked goods.
She decides that she's tired of waiting, can't wait any freaking more and so she calls our financier tells him that she needs an answer by 10 a.m. because she 'has another offer'. So, 10 a.m. Friday comes. No answer. No coffee shop.
Meanwhile, she decides to do this on Thursday afternoon. We are in the middle of getting ready and traveling down to WV for the weekend for mother's day. We aren't available, we don't have time, and we don't have our information with us. So in the middle of our 'mother's day weekend' we are being forced to do business.
Now, I hope that you can understand, I'm not really mad that we didn't get it. We sorta had come to terms that it was a very high possibility that we weren't going to get it. But we are pissed at the woman because she truly made this an aggravating experience.
My advice:
Get everything in writing before you do one single thing that could compromise you in any way.
I've got to get over the anger. I have a notion that verbally filleting her would help. But it wouldn't work. She's the type that is truly clueless as to how she is.
I'm waiting for her to call about not having a buyer.
I'm waiting for her to try and ask me to work for her.
Not because we would change our minds about it.... but because I want to laugh at her.
Sick? Maybe. I really wish I could send her a bill for the time that I was 'training'.
Now to add:
We are happy to continue with the path we are on. I've been tempted to tuck tail and run back to my 9-5, but I'm not doing it. We believed that we were on the right path, I have been quite a deal happier, and we both know that starting a business is hard coming out of the gate. The experience has taught us, and it has helped us really and truly prioritize. We could be much worse off.
So, yay for that much.