Menu

Today I worked on my menu for the coffee shop. The area I concentrated on today was the sandwiches. I have added the menu I have came up with so far.

Grilled Panini’s

All sandwiches are made with Boar’s Head Deli Meat and Cheese

Reuben-- Corned Beef Top Round, Baby Swiss, Sauerkraut, Thousand Island Dressing on Swirl Rye Bread
Roast Beef—Top Round Roast Beef, Boar’s Head Provolone Cheese, Sweet Vidalia Onion and Mayo on ?????? bread.
Italian—Genoa Salami, Ham, Pepperoni, Provolone Cheese, Lettuce, Onion and Mayo on ?????? bread
Classic Club— Sweet Sliced Ham, Roast Breast of Turkey, Swiss Cheese, Lettuce, Onion and mayo on ????? bread
Ham & Cheese—Sweet Sliced Ham, Cheddar Cheese on grilled white bread

Soup—Vegetable, Chili--------Cup---$$$$, Bowl----$$$$

Combo --- Panini, Deli pickle, and chips-----$$$$
Combo--- Panini and Cup of Soup----$$$$


I ran across this blog from Eric Deckers and thought this website was interesting and the comment below for buying local instead of buying from the big guys.
Remember, if you want to help the local economy, buy local. For every dollar you spend at a local business, $.40 stays in town. For every dollar you spend at a national chain, only $.13 stays in town. So, support your local independent coffee shops.

Robert

Merchant Card/ Quickbooks/ Book

Well I got in touch with the bank today about the merchant cards. My quote from them is 10 per month plus .10 per transaction and a percentage between 1 and 4%. Qualified transactions will be 1.98%, Mid-Qualified will be 2.48%, and Non-Qualified is 3.48%. Which one you are charged depends on the following. Qualified they run the card through once and it is approved. Mid -Qualified which are transactions that need to be keyed in and Non Qualified which is higher risk then above. So I should average around 2%. So here is an example of monthly costs based on 400 transactions @ $4.00 each. The total monthly cost would be $101.00 10 per month for the service, 20 per month for the card machine, and .10 cent per transaction plus the percentage points. Hopefully that all makes since.

I got a call from this CPA in greenwood, in that teaches quickbooks pro and is wanting me to meet with her to set up my business. I plan on doing payroll and tracking what exactly it is costing me to make each product that I will be offering. Her services are 95 per hour and she thinks it will take three hours to set up my company, payroll, and all of my individual items that I will be purchasing and training me on the software itself. So basically it is going to cost me $300.00 to learn what quickbooks can do for me. I would try and do it on my own, but I think if I want to keep accurate information and be able to track everything correctly I may need to shell the money out to be on the safe side.

I got my new Panini book today. It is called Simple Italian Sandwiches and it should help me decide which types of sandwiches I will be serving in the coffee shop. I will let you know more about the menu after I research the book some more. Well tonight is pool league night---Gotta go

RObert

Boar's Head

Today I took a trip to Indianapolis to meet with a distributor for Boar's Head deli meat. After I got there I was told that the salesmen that was helping me had only been there for three weeks and he wasn't allowed to sell to me because a distributor in Ohio has the Richmond area. Anyway it was a wasted trip. I will have to contact this guy in Cincinnati, OH to get my information. I did talk to the guy in Indy and got some brochures and he told me they deal with with small companies and large companies. Before I made the trip over there I was thinking that I may be to small for them to do business with me. He explained that they have 100 dollar week customers and they hope to make them 250 dollar a week customers. I don't know if I will be able to even do 100 dollars a week. I guess we will see. I will fill you in more tomorrow when I call and talk to the guy in Ohio. Till tomorrow.

Robert

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday and I don't have a lot planed. I will probably go out to eat with my family and maybe go see a movie or something. Anyway back to business. I finally got in touch with bear creek and they are getting the drawings sent to me fed ex on Tuesday. I am sure this will make my contractor happy. Well I also got my new cell phone for my business. It is called a Helio. It is a very nice phone and it does a alot of amazing things. You can visit it at helio.com/page?p=join& If you decide to get a phone give them my number when ordering and I will get a months rent free. My number is 1-765-977-7297. If I can get twelve people to join I will get a year for free. Wouldn't that be nice. Till tomorrow.

Robert

Quicbooks, State approved drawing and Lease

Well I continued getting training on the quickbooks. The terms is what is difficult. The program itself does all the work for you it is just understanding the accounting part of it that is hard.

I called Bear Creek Coffee today to try and get in touch with someone about my state approved drawings for my contractor.. I have been trying to get them now for a couple of weeks. I cannot start any site work until I have these. I am afraid I will have the building done and the site work wont be done for the building. Anyway I had to call and complain somewhat. I also had to get my purchase agreement wrote over again, because when we purchased the coffee shop we put it in our names, because we didn't have a corporation established yet and for tax purposes my accountant said we should get it switched into our corporate name.

I also had to get a receipt from where I paid the real estate people 5,000 dollars for their service. They were responsible for finding a site, negotiating a the lease, and preparing all the paperwork. I ended up getting a five year lease for a set price not to go up the whole five years with the option to renew for another five years with an increase of 100 dollars. So basically I am set for the next ten years with an increase of only 100 over the last five years so I think they did pretty good. One thing I will caution you on when getting your lease worked out is to make sure your utilities are within a short distance. After my lease was signed I found out the sewer hookup was several hundred yards away unless I wanted to go uphill to one that was about 50 yards away, which required me to put a lift station in. It ended up costing me 6,000 dollars more than anticipated. My lease said the landlord believes that utilities are present at the location and I really didn't question it since it was in the parking lot of a grocery store. Anyway make sure you check this out. Well thats all for today.

Robert

Quickbooks training

I purchased a mac book about a month ago with the intention of getting quickbooks pro. Today I loaded the software on my computer and started messing around with it. For a first time user it seems to be hard, because there is a wealth of information that it can provide to you at your finger tips. I will be working with this over the next few days to try and improve my knowledge. I think it seems difficult because I have no accounting background other than a simple checking and savings account. Hopefully when I get finished I will be able to do payroll, file tax payments, track inventory, do sales and marketing comparisons. If you are interested in training the following link should help realworldtraining.com Well I had a rough night last night so I am going to call it a night and try and get some good rest.

Robert

QUICKBOOKS PRO/ BOAR'S HEAD DELI

Today I just received my software of quickbooks pro. I have never used accounting software before so it is going to take me some time to get used to everything. I purchased it through sam's club and it came with a learning Cd. I got everything for 165.00 including the learning cd. Anyway most of the day will be spent learning this. I will let you know later what I think.

I went into town today to try and purchase a panini grill, but couldn't find one that I was interested in. I plan on serving panini's at the coffee shop and was going to do some experimenting with some different types. I wanted to locate a good recipe book for this, but haven't found one of these either. I think the paini's wiil do go for lunch time. I stopped by this new small Italian market today and had one of there panini's and it was really good. I noticed the meat was Boar's head so I got on the internet and did some research and found a contact. I gave them a call and they have a distributor in Indianapolis that is about an hour away from here. I am going to meet with them on Monday to see what type of program they can offer me. I just hope that I am not to small and not worth their time. I will let you know more about this next week,

I also contacted our local newspaper which is Palladium-Item and found out what type of deal I could get with them. I want to carry the paper at the shop. I can either pay 42.5 cents per paper and sell them for 50 cents and they will take back whatever I don't sell or I can get a certain amount everyday for 25 cents a copy and they will not take any back for credit. I am thinking about going this route and try to establish a good daily number once I get going and sell them for a cheaper price for the custormer. I also contacted USA Today, but have not heard back from them yet. Well back to quickbooks.

Robert

Merchant cards

Today went and visited the bank. Had to fill out an application to be able to offer credit card transactions at the coffee shop. I can either lease the equipment for $25 per month or I can purchase it for $175. I am leaning on purchasing it, but the only advantage to leasing is that they come by monthly and check everything out and also fix anything if it goes wrong so I am still undecided. The bank also gives you a card imprinter in case the system goes down you have something that you can take cards manually until the system gets back up. As far as the cost goes it will be $10 per month plus .10 per transaction plus a percentage ranging from 1% -4%. So at 4% a $4.00 transaction would be .26 cents and a 1% transaction would be .14 cents. Hopefully I qualify for the lower percentage rate. I will find out Friday what this will be. I am also checking on gift card availability.


Just got finishing tearing drywall out of my basement bathroom. It seems we had a leak somewhere and when it rains it makes the whole house smell like mildew. I tore all the drywall and trim off the walls in the bathroom and put a dehumidifier down there to dry things up. Another job to do around the house. Well I am outside to mow.


Robert

Busy Day

Okay here is what I have on the agenda for today. Check on menu itmes that I will be serving at the coffee shop, mow grass, tear some drywall out in my basement that got moldy and of course continue to get as much information on my coffee shop as possilbe. With that bein said where I left off yesterday.

My coffee shop will be a double drive thru store that is called Bear Creek Coffee. I researched this franchise as soon as I was discharged from Smith Diary. I really didn't know what I wanted to do exept I knew that I wanted to work for myself. After alot of research on franchises this seemed to be the best. I guess I shouldn't call it a franchise because there is no franchise fee to get started and there is never any royality fees. Most franchises charge you around 15,000+ anywhere from 3to 8% royalities every year. Basically all I am doing is purhasing the building, equipment, getting my location and lease, and getting training. After that I can purchase product wherever I like.

Okay this is where I am in the process now. the purchase agreement for the builidng works like this. You pay a deposit and then once you have your location you send what they call a second draw. At this point the construction for your building starts. It is suppose to take two months to build the building and have it delivered to the site. This building is a pre fab and will be hauled on a trailer and set on a concrete foundation. After you building plans are cleared through the city and state and your building is 50% complete then your final draw is due. And once the building is done it is deliered to your site. Okay this is where I am today. I have paid the final draw, I have my location and have a signed lease, I have financing through a local bank, I have found a contractor to do all the utilities and mechanicals to the building. Now I am trying to narrow down what exactly I will be serving.

I will go into more detail on each of the above process in the next several postings.

Robert

First Blog

After being inspired by Nemo's Coffee blog I decided to start my own blog to hopefully help someone when they go to open their own coffee shop. I am going to open a drive thru coffee shop sometime in November after working as a production manager of a dairy processing plant. I worked at this facility for 16 years and we got a new division manager in and he decided to get rid of every manager at the plant. I was the last manager to go and three weeks later he resigned and went back where he came from after only 5 months of employment. Anyway it forced me to make a decision in life and although it is scary I decided to go into business for myself. I told myself I wasn't going to put my future in someone's hands again. So that is where I am at today. I will start tomorrow with giving you the background on when I was let go and where I am at today. I have alot of blogging to do and I cannot stand to take the time to type. Anyway until tomorrow!

Robert