HERE WE GO

Well my building is all done. All the utilities are hooked up and my contractor is basically done. I have started receiving my equipment and supplies. We are going to start training this coming week. I have four people to work for me, which two are family so hopefully that don't come back and bite me. I will try to write again soon, but it has been very busy and hectic. I really don't know when I will be available to. I know that I want to track my weekly monthly sales for future reverence so I should be back hopefully with some good news. Till then!

Robert

Bear Creek Coffee Has Arrived

My building has finally made it here. It came on Tuesday around 12:15pm and by 1pm the building was sitting on the foundation. The building came in two pieces. Basically the building and the roof was in two different pieces. They used a crane to set the building on the foundation and then lifted the roof on top of it. The building comes complete with all the electrical complete and plumbing. The only thing you really have to do once the building is set in place is run electric, water, and sewer to the building and tap into the main connections that are already ready for you. Like I said before my building came on Tuesday October 30th and by this Tuesday November 6th my building will be complete with all the utilities hooked up and turned on. Not to bad I don't think.

My equipment is coming Wednesday or Thursday. The refrigerators, espresso maker, panini grill, blenders barista tools, etc. I am starting to become very excited to get things going. I have purchased a blender, meat slicer, and a neon "open" sign off ebay. I am trying to decide on an ice maker now. I am going to try and purchase that this evening so I can get it on it's way here. I could have bought one through bear creek, but have found some things you just need to purchase outside of the company and you can save some money. I have saved quite a bit between the meat slicer, blender, and ice maker.

I will be uploading pictures of the installation of the building. It is pretty neat to see a foundation and then next you see a building sitting there so look forward to those in the next few blogs. Well I gotta get this ice machine ordered and review some tax information before hitting the bed not to mention my boy is having a party at home tonight and there is 10 boys here playing guitar hero and halo 3. They had a half day today and have been at it since 1pm and they probably wont stop till around 3 or 4 in the morning. Man what it's like to be young. Anyway that's all for now.

Robert

Robert

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

O.K. here we go. I got my foundation poured the other day for the building. Here is a photo of what the foundation looks like. My building is set to deliver on October 30th. Yep it is only 3 days from now. I am getting very excited and somewhat nervous. The building is brought in on a truck and they use a crane to set it onto the foundation. The people who bring the building are responsible for unloading the building and setting the building up. This is all part of the delivery charge. I paid $2,700 dollars to have it delivered and set up. I didn't think that was to bad. There is metal plates in the foundation that will be welded to the building to attach it to the foundation. That reminds me that when we were digging for the foundation we hit bedrock. It is very unusual to hit this in Richmond according to my contractor. I mean we have a lot of bedrock in what we call the gorge where everybody walks on trails and such, but it isn't that common in the center of town. We dug down about 1 1/2 feet and hit it which was like trying to dig up concrete. It wasn't happening. We had to go and rent an attachment for the bobcat that was like a jack hammer to get through the bedrock. Anyway my building we be almost impossible to settle sitting on this rock. The crawl space is bigger than anticipated also. I guess I really didn't pay attention to that when initially looking at the plans or I would have probably poured a concrete pad in the bottom and used it for storage. I still thing I will be able to keep some emergency stuff stashed there, but it could have been a lot nicer.

I have been in the process of starting to get my equipment and inventory. I have purchased a meat slicer off ebay for 350 with shipping and it is a twelve inch slicer which I am told you need. There is 7 inch meat slicers you can get new that are about 300 to 400 dollars, but I am told you will be buying another one in less than a year because they cannot handle the use. Anyway this unit is an Anvil meat slicer and it seems to be in good shape. I have been talking with Mike from bearcreek and he has sent me the price for the starting inventory on supplies, some of the ingredients, shirts, hats, aprons, and barista equipment. The total for all this was around 4,200, which I didn't think would be that high. I have cut some of the quantities of some of the items such as shirts, polo shirts, hats and have taken a 465 credit on a blender they were going to send me. I have gotten it down to around 3,000 which is a lot better. I took the credit on the blender, because I wanted to purchase my own. I am looking into getting a Blendtec blender, which can be programmed for drinks, can hook into syrups and has a ice hopper and a water line. This will dispense the right amount of ice, water, and flavor to make a drink pretty much by itself. The blender I was going to get was just a blender. Anyway I am bidding on one at ebay now and will let you know if I get it or not.

O.K. the only thing else I have been working on lately is getting my paperwork filled out for state taxes, which here in Indiana is called a BT-1, which lets you collect sales tax and lets you deduct taxes from employees paychecks. It is really kind of mind boggling at first. I mean you have federal taxes, state taxes, local taxes, social security, medicaid. There is a percentage for each and as an employer you have to match the contribution on the social security and medicaid. You alos have unemployment to deal with and workers compensation insurance to deal with. I got my workers comp plan started it is calculated by the number of employees you have and the payroll you will have. For us since we are a corporation I also have to figure the salary I am going to pay myself also. Anyway what I figured was three employees including myself and a payroll of $70,000. I know the salary I am going to pay out for the employees, but mine is just a guessing game. I plan on having one full time 40 hour week @ $8.00 an hour for 320 for the week and one part time at 20 hours per week @ $7.50 an hour for 150. So my employees labor should be $470 per week and $24, 440 for the year. The payroll really determines you workers comp insurance rate. Mine will be around 1,350 for the year or around 115 per month. We had 116 budgeted so we are right there. My insurance agent is who provide me with this and he also got me insurance on my building and liability. My insurance will be 720 per year or 60 per month. We had 83 budgeted so we came in under that which is good. Well I think that is enough for know.

Robert

Site work, Permits, Building

Well I got news yesterday that my building will be delivered by October 31 which is great news. I was somewhat worried about my building being done on time. The only thing I have to worry about now is the site being ready for the building once it is delivered. We are suppose to start the foundation work the week of 10/22, which gives us 9 days to have the site ready for delivery of the building. My contractor doesn't seem to think it will be that difficult getting the foundation work done by 10/27 so hopefully everything goes well.

I got a new coming soon banner and found out that you have to apply for a permit from the city to post a sign on your property. I had no idea you had to do so. I went to the city building today and meet with a planning technician. I had to show them where on the property I was going to have the sign, what size the sign was,what it was made out of. The permit was free and it is good for 10 weeks. I think once I get past the grand opening I will take this sign down and use the permit for specials till the end of the year. Now as far as the main sign goes you can only have one per site, which there is already one there that that goes with the main building, but the landlord said I could use this sign until the spring, which he is going to replace it with a big digital sign. He said I might be able to get my information for my business put on this sign and he didn't know if he would charge me for it or not. I will have to wait and see on this.

My landlord wanted to add some landscaping around my building, which included curbs and another entrance to the parking lot. I like the other entrance, but wasn't to crazy about the curbs being put in. I agreed as long as there was another exit put in on the right side of the building, which is where he wanted the island to be. I didn't want cars to drive in and get trapped in there if we had a lot of customers at once so I asked for a opening at the end of one side of the drive through for cars on the right hand side to exit. Well that is all for now got to get in touch with my contractor.

Robert

Getting Busy

It's been awhile since my last post so I have quite a few things to talk about. I meet Mike Scheuler from Bear Creek Coffee. He is responsible for training me and my employees on everything to do with the business. I talked with him in depth the other day for about an hour on the phone and he really seems to know what he is talking about. He is in charge of vendors, supplies, equipment, food, drinks, and preparing the menu. He has sent me some training CD's that has everything from state and federal paperwork to how to make an espresso. For the past few months I have been worried about a lot of things and have put a lot of time in the above things that Mike is going to help me with. I didn't know that they had someone that helped me with all this. I thought I had to wing it on my own. I knew I would be getting training, but I didn't know they helped with all the other items so this was some great news.

I also talked to Jeremie Johnson, which is the president of Bear Creek. He told me that my building was 80% done and that it should be completed by the end of October and that he would get with me on a firm delivery date sometime next week. This is the news I have been waiting to hear for several months.

I also am going to see my contractor today. He has the site plan drawings done and I need to review where my building is sitting exactly in the parking lot. He is getting the permit from the city and he should be able to start the site work by next week hopefully. It is suppose to take him three to four weeks to complete the site work, which is pouring the footers, digging the trenches for the utilities, etc. Hopefully by the first or second week of November my building came be delivered and sat on the foundation and then it will be a matter of hooking up the utilities. Gotta go meet the contractor!

Robert

Bear Creek Logo/ State drawings

Today I also got my Bear Creek Coffee logo. I am going to try and attach it to this blog. If you see it then I was successful.

Today I received my state approved drawings from Bear Creek. I don't know what took so long but I finally got them. I took them to my contractor and he told me he should have a drawing where the building will be located on the parking lot by the middle of the week. I also contacted bear creek to find out when I could expect delivery on my building. The contractor seems to think three to four weeks for his work so hopefully I have my building by then. I am wanting to be in business by the middle of November, but I just don't know yet.