Blarg. ß This is how I feel. My brain has emitted this noise—albeit
internally—ever since my brother and I began writing the business plan for a
coffee house that might eventually one day be a reality. I can feel my forehead
growing wrinkles. I say that because I haven’t been able, literally physically
capable, of unknotting those muscles. My expression is one of perpetual
perplexity. It doesn't help that I’ve misplaced my reading glasses.
Writing a business plan, starting a business, is not only
scary, it’s humbling. Because you realize how dumb you are. And boy, am I dumb.
I haven’t used the dictionary this much since I took geology in college. White boxing.
Build out. Financial projections. Demographics. Market analysis. Triple net
lease. SBA. Term sheets. It’s terrifying diving into something that is so
financially threatening when you don’t know anything.
It’s as if you’re staring out across a lake and see an
island you’d like to swim to. But there is no nice, easy, soft, sandy beach to
ease into the water. The lake is surrounded by cliffs. Sheer drop offs. The
water is full of terrors. And you don’t know how to swim.
Dotting the cliff tops are tents. The labyrinthine tent
hands out free lifejackets, but you find they have heavy weights attached. The colorfully
striped “professional” tents give expensive verbal and written lessons on how
to swim, but no practical swimming lessons in water are to be had anywhere. And
in the other tents—some grand and impressive, some less so, and some lean and
drab—you find swimmers, folk who have taken the plunge and survived to tell the
tale. These experienced swimmers will sometimes share tips they learned from
their experiences, but some do not. Some are more helpful than others. And some
speak so much jargon you can’t glean a single inkling from the conversation.
Since the dive and swim are so perilous, you feel you need
as many lessons and as much equipment and as much information as these tents
have to give you. But you only have so much money. The advice can only go so
far. And to frustrate you even further, the counsel you receive is
contradictory and vague. There isn’t an end to the tents. You’ll never feel
fully prepared to dive in, and you’ll never run out of tents to visit.
To conclude, right now I feel overwhelmed, stupid, and
utterly out of my depth. And repetitive. I feel rather redundant as well. There’s
so much I don’t know, and there’s so much information to be had, learned,
assimilated, and forgotten.
Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, and for some part of it I
will be revising the front page of our business plan to focus on concept so that we can move forward in
our bid for a sweet location for the coffee house. A not-for-profit association
bought the building we hope to lease from them. So board approval is involved.
By the time we get an interview with the big britches, we’ll have talked to
bankers and have a firmer idea of how
we’re going to fund this song and dance. That’s when we’ll have a proposal that
focuses on finances. (Oh
here’s a laugh. When I asked our accountant when we should get the loan, before
or after signing the lease, which order do they go in? He answered, well
ideally simultaneously. I had no response except to knit my brow together.)
I am so impressed that you're working on starting a business. This is nowhere near an aspiration of mine, but I say, Go for it! Right on! Besides, the fact that it's not an aspiration of mine is not an indication of anything except that I only aspire to middle-class mediocrity.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you've already learned quite a bit, and I'm so proud of you. Good luck in your continued journey, and I can't wait to hear more!
-A
PS I don't know how long I'm going to last on here with your word verification. It's extremely difficult. You know that spam isn't THAT common, don't you? If you MUST have verification, probably just the one would suffice; you don't need double... Just a suggestion from a frustrated non-robot user who finds them very difficult to read. :)
DeleteI had no idea it was on. How do I get it off?
DeleteHahaha. I don't know. In your settings somewhere. Ask Reese, I complained to her about this same thing once. I'm a WordPress user, I can't help you Blogger minions. :)
DeleteIf anyone can do it, you can. I'm at your disposal.
ReplyDeleteGood. Because I have it in my head to do some upholstering with coffee sacks. :) And we'll need some free baristas, of course.
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