Bear Creek Coffee

HERE WE GO

2007-11-10T21:29:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-27T09:32:00.001-04:00

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

2007-10-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-12T14:30:00.001-04:00

Getting Busy

2007-10-11T08:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-01T16:21:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2007-09-25T15:57:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-24T21:15:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-22T09:14:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-20T19:18:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-19T20:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-18T15:03:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-17T12:21:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-17T08:55:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-16T16:34:00.000-04:00

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