You know when you finally have some money, the first thing you have to do is: spend it!
So, we finally got a list of the equipment that we needed. That was a bit tough at first because we weren't sure what all equipment was mandatory to past initial inspection, but were able to get a requirements manual from the local Health Department, which helped. Once the list was in hand, we went shopping. We checked the internet for used restaurant equipment and local auctions. We were dead set on getting everything as cheap as possible, but still clean and reliable.
When you start surfing the web for restaurant equipment, you find out quickly that you only thought you had your complete list. There were things that we never even thought of that we still needed to get. We were fortunate to find a restaurant closing and were able to buy some used tables, as well as prep tables, a 3 compartment sink and many other things. Those are the places you want to find. Talk about some good deals!
So, we purchased most of the things we needed, and saved the biggest expense for last...the chairs. We looked at some used furniture but with mine and Melinda's (well, we call it a slight case of OCD), but since there weren't enough chairs that matched exactly, I just couldn't bring myself to buy them, no matter how cheap they were (and they were going to be a steal).
Looking through the internet, I found some plain black metal chairs for fairly cheap, brand new. I actually found them on two or three different websites, some at different prices. And then I was enlightened on what my hidden talent was: haggling. Price guarantees are awesome, by the way. When one company will give you a better price, the other company will give you free shipping, and then the last company will give you a better price PLUS free shipping. It was marvelous, and I think I got high on it.
Probably the funniest story (at least for Melinda) is my experience with Ebay. I've always had a strange fear of that website. (Something to do with buying things from people I don't know, and paying them online. How can you be sure it's not some kind of scam?) Anyway, one day I got tired of asking Melinda to buy everything for me, and did it myself. I bid on a package of forks, and remained the highest bidder throughout the life of the auction. I watched it to the last minute, and noticed some sly little foxes trying to outbid me. I had my auto-bit set up higher, so I'd refresh my screen to see if they outbid me. 30 seconds, 29, 28... My internet connection was slow, too, taking some 15 seconds to reload. They were still upping their bids, trying to win it, but as low as possible. The final refresh, and the screen told me I won! I WON! I was elated, had to call Melinda immediately, not only to gloat, but also ask, "Now, how in the heck do I pay this guy?"
Tiff
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Let the Paperwork Begin!
Before you can even open a business account, you need to decide on what type of business you will form. A partnership, a corporation, a sole proprietorship, etc. and for that we needed the help of a lawyer or an accountant to explain the differences to us.
We met one Saturday with a local accountant who was very helpful and didn’t charge us anything for the consultation visit. (We will definitely be doing business with her once we are actually open for business). She suggested an LLC (Limited Liability Company) and urged us to create a Partnership Agreement.
I didn’t even know what that was, but especially because Tiffany and I aren’t related, she expressed to us how important it was for us to formally agree on what we expect from each other as it related to the business and what would happen to the business if one of us wanted to leave, or retire, etc. These were things we hadn't even thought about.
We searched online for a template form we could use to draw up this contract and went from there. It took us several hours and was eye opening. We had to hash out things we had never considered. Going in you think that everything is going to be sunshine and roses, but what if Tiffany and I started to hate each other? What would happen to the business if we could no longer work together? Who would get control of the company? Would the other partner be able to compete in a similar business if they left? What if I wanted to buy her out what would be the rules set for that? If one of the partner’s retires or becomes deceased, will the business revert to the other partner in total or will our heirs be able to assume our share in the business? What role or claim, if any, did our spouses have in the business? These were tough questions that we had to work through, but hours later we had an agreement on paper and we had it notarized and each got a copy.
Then we had to actually apply for our business name and file the paperwork with the Secretary of State. This is required unless you are a sole proprietor. The Arkansas Secretary of State website has lots of helpful information under the Business and Commercial Services tab:
There you can search for business entities by name to ensure that the name you wish to use for your business is available and download forms required for business filings. With my paperwork in hand, I went to their office in Little Rock and filed for roughly $50.00 and we were officially in business!
Now we could file for our federal tax id number, open a bank account, get a lease, etc. and we had found a place we really and truly were excited about. The FOR LEASE sign went up almost as soon as we agreed to be partners. I took it as a sign that we were truly meant to start this business. Now if we could just afford the rent. We had to seriously and realistically identify what we thought our potential earnings would be and what, at the bare minimum, we would have to sell each day/week/month to stay in business.
I had negotiated a good deal on the rent partly because our husband’s would do much of the renovations inside to make it ready for a bakery so that our new landlord would not have to do them himself and then charge us a higher rent to cover his expenses. This proved to be a blessing and a curse.
M
We met one Saturday with a local accountant who was very helpful and didn’t charge us anything for the consultation visit. (We will definitely be doing business with her once we are actually open for business). She suggested an LLC (Limited Liability Company) and urged us to create a Partnership Agreement.
I didn’t even know what that was, but especially because Tiffany and I aren’t related, she expressed to us how important it was for us to formally agree on what we expect from each other as it related to the business and what would happen to the business if one of us wanted to leave, or retire, etc. These were things we hadn't even thought about.
We searched online for a template form we could use to draw up this contract and went from there. It took us several hours and was eye opening. We had to hash out things we had never considered. Going in you think that everything is going to be sunshine and roses, but what if Tiffany and I started to hate each other? What would happen to the business if we could no longer work together? Who would get control of the company? Would the other partner be able to compete in a similar business if they left? What if I wanted to buy her out what would be the rules set for that? If one of the partner’s retires or becomes deceased, will the business revert to the other partner in total or will our heirs be able to assume our share in the business? What role or claim, if any, did our spouses have in the business? These were tough questions that we had to work through, but hours later we had an agreement on paper and we had it notarized and each got a copy.
Then we had to actually apply for our business name and file the paperwork with the Secretary of State. This is required unless you are a sole proprietor. The Arkansas Secretary of State website has lots of helpful information under the Business and Commercial Services tab:
There you can search for business entities by name to ensure that the name you wish to use for your business is available and download forms required for business filings. With my paperwork in hand, I went to their office in Little Rock and filed for roughly $50.00 and we were officially in business!
Now we could file for our federal tax id number, open a bank account, get a lease, etc. and we had found a place we really and truly were excited about. The FOR LEASE sign went up almost as soon as we agreed to be partners. I took it as a sign that we were truly meant to start this business. Now if we could just afford the rent. We had to seriously and realistically identify what we thought our potential earnings would be and what, at the bare minimum, we would have to sell each day/week/month to stay in business.
I had negotiated a good deal on the rent partly because our husband’s would do much of the renovations inside to make it ready for a bakery so that our new landlord would not have to do them himself and then charge us a higher rent to cover his expenses. This proved to be a blessing and a curse.
M
Friday, August 20, 2010
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!
Before we really knew what we were doing (like we do now?), we were so enthusiastic about everything. We set up a spreadsheet and made estimated sell projections to be sure that our income would be enough to pay the bills. We added an item listing with the prices versus cost. What the profit dollars and profit percentage would be. I personally love working with numbers so it was the high point of my day. We were so consumed with the money we supposedly would be making, that we put off finishing the list of necessities' expenses (materials, equipment, etc.). If we would have done this first thing, that would've been a light shed right there on what our estimates were rather than actual cost.
Melinda had been using a bear and honey pot as a logo, but felt we should have something more original...something we could call 'ours'. So, I offered my limited artistic abilities, and drew up a few different pictures: a bear peaking behind a honey pot, a hive with honey dripping out of it, and a few more. We stuck with the bear and the honey pot, and tweaked it a bit. Found the perfect font that looked like honey dripping to add our company name to the pot.
The most fun of all was looking for the perfect place for 'Our Store'. Don't you just love the ring of it? Melinda and my visions were very similar about a storefront. We actually preferred being on the court square. The thought of foot traffic was intriguing and we knew we'd get a lot of business during Timberfest or Christmas-on-the-Square. But the place we wanted most was already rented out, although being used more as storage than anything, and other spots just didn't seem to fit our setting. So, we ventured out looking for other places, hoping to find somewhere big enough, but affordable.
All of this, and we haven't even started the actual business process yet!
Tiff
Melinda had been using a bear and honey pot as a logo, but felt we should have something more original...something we could call 'ours'. So, I offered my limited artistic abilities, and drew up a few different pictures: a bear peaking behind a honey pot, a hive with honey dripping out of it, and a few more. We stuck with the bear and the honey pot, and tweaked it a bit. Found the perfect font that looked like honey dripping to add our company name to the pot.
The most fun of all was looking for the perfect place for 'Our Store'. Don't you just love the ring of it? Melinda and my visions were very similar about a storefront. We actually preferred being on the court square. The thought of foot traffic was intriguing and we knew we'd get a lot of business during Timberfest or Christmas-on-the-Square. But the place we wanted most was already rented out, although being used more as storage than anything, and other spots just didn't seem to fit our setting. So, we ventured out looking for other places, hoping to find somewhere big enough, but affordable.
All of this, and we haven't even started the actual business process yet!
Tiff
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
We need some money honey!
Once Tiffany came on board with the idea, things really started to move swiftly. First things first, we needed start up money. While small business loans are available, don't be fooled into thinking that you can simply finance your entire business and not have to have some money of your own to invest. And you can forget right now the idea that somewhere, somehow you can get a grant to start your own business. I don't care how many sites out there say there are grants available and that Uncle Sam just has money available for the taking; you will quickly learn that the government is not giving away free money, or at the very least, you won’t qualify to receive it. Don’t pin your hopes on this or fall for the scams out there telling you to order their tell-all guide/e-book/exclusive membership for the low low price of $24.95 and get your FREE MONEY today! If you really want to start your own business, you’ll have to have some skin in the game as they say. So, back to what I was saying, we needed money and there was no hope of grants or business loans.
In the History page, I stated that my husband and I were coming off some difficult financial times and certainly didn’t have piles of cash stashed around so we had to get creative. Since my husband was no longer in the drywall business and he was going to trade in his sheetrock mud for sugar and flour, we decided to sell most of his drywall tools. We also sold two older vehicles and some other odds and ends, mostly on Craigslist but also through the local paper. It turns out we had more cash available than we expected to have which was a good thing since the actual expenses for getting this business off the ground were more than we initially anticipated.
That is really the first warning I need to give you (well besides the grant money scams which I hope you weren’t foolish enough to fall for). It will cost about twice as much as you initially estimate to get started. I know you don’t want to hear it but in our case it was absolutely true. There are so many additional costs that just blindsided us but we’ll talk about those in another post.
The second warning or bit of advice I will give you is to go ahead and open a business account and put all your startup money in this account and not your personal account. We ended up spending some of the money earmarked for the business simply because it was in our personal account. Operating even before the business opens with a business account makes all the expenditures transparent and easy to track.
Now with our funds in place, we were ready to begin right? Not quite…
M
In the History page, I stated that my husband and I were coming off some difficult financial times and certainly didn’t have piles of cash stashed around so we had to get creative. Since my husband was no longer in the drywall business and he was going to trade in his sheetrock mud for sugar and flour, we decided to sell most of his drywall tools. We also sold two older vehicles and some other odds and ends, mostly on Craigslist but also through the local paper. It turns out we had more cash available than we expected to have which was a good thing since the actual expenses for getting this business off the ground were more than we initially anticipated.
That is really the first warning I need to give you (well besides the grant money scams which I hope you weren’t foolish enough to fall for). It will cost about twice as much as you initially estimate to get started. I know you don’t want to hear it but in our case it was absolutely true. There are so many additional costs that just blindsided us but we’ll talk about those in another post.
The second warning or bit of advice I will give you is to go ahead and open a business account and put all your startup money in this account and not your personal account. We ended up spending some of the money earmarked for the business simply because it was in our personal account. Operating even before the business opens with a business account makes all the expenditures transparent and easy to track.
Now with our funds in place, we were ready to begin right? Not quite…
M
Monday, August 16, 2010
You've Got a Friend in Me
Sorry about the title, but for some reason at the end of your post, the 'Toy Story' theme song just popped into my head.
It's funny Melinda should mention faith because honestly, that's exactly what it was and still is. Throughout my life, God has placed certain people there at a time when I really needed them, and many blessings have come from it. I truly believe He put me here to help Melinda fulfill her dream. Emphasis on her. My dream has been to own a Bed & Breakfast or an Inn of some sort when (if) I retire. When I decided to go into this, I didn't do it for my sake. Not for me, not for the money (although that is a small bonus), but for Melinda.
I, too, worked at a bakery for about 6 months, my very first job, but I wasn’t hands-on like Mel (She hates people calling her that, btw, but I do it anyway). Although my husband and I have decent credit, I still consider us poor stewards of money. I can make a mean budget and stick with it, living paycheck to paycheck with no overdue bills, but saving anything for the future is completely out of the question.
So, when Mel asked me to go into business with her, I was initially dead set against it. It seemed out of order to me. I don’t even own my home home yet, and I’m supposed to start up a business? No way! But I went home and presented the craziness of an offer to Clayton (husband) anyway.
Much to my surprise, he said, “You know…if you really want to do this, we can do it.” Deer caught in the headlights! Wha?
Again, no money saved, so where were we going to get this money? Well, a line of credit and a little help from Dad and we were well on our way…
Tiff
Cookies!
My mother had a recipe for honey cookies that was my favorite growing up. She didn't make cookies very often but when she did, these were the ones she always made. It was a family recipe that was handed down to her. I don't really know it's origin but you can search the internet for a recipe like it and not find it.
When I grew up, married and had children of my own, this was the only cookie I ever made. Friends asked for the recipe all the time. They really are good. So when I was looking for a new source of income I could do part time, I thought of these cookies.
I’ve seen at least two articles of women who have turned to baking to keep themselves out of foreclosure. I was in a similar situation. I thought, why not me? I have a product that I think beats anything on the market. I can make money at this. One brand of cookie though wasn’t enough so I started to develop other cookies, mostly using the same basic honey cookie recipe my mother used. I modified it slightly then began adding items like chocolate chips and toffee, pecans, white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, and instant coffee and caramel chips. I sold them to family, friends and co-workers and then on ebay. Soon I started getting requests for specific types of cookies like ginger and oatmeal raisin. That’s when the real inventing began. I was no longer simply adding onto my mother’s recipe, I was developing my own unique recipes. As a result, the ginger and oatmeal raisin cookies have become two of the most popular flavors I sell.
It continues to expand and I recently added a peanut butter cookie, brownie cookie and a banana nut cookie and I’m working on a lemon one. All of the cookies have to have honey as a key ingredient. They need to be soft and chewy too. I am not interested in a hard, crisp cookie. It can be really frustrating throwing out batch after batch of cookie dough that doesn’t turn out quite right but I really enjoy the challenge and the process of coming up with a new cookie recipe.
Now I was selling cookies pretty regularly and it was a nice added boost to my income but it wasn’t paying my rent. It bought my gas maybe, which would be fine if it was simply a hobby, but I wanted it to be a career. A business that I could develop and grow, that I could make money at, which could employ my husband and later my children if they wanted. So it was time to get serious about this.
The next question was how do I start? I knew what I wanted but had no idea how to get there. I searched the internet with search terms like ‘how to start a bakery’, ‘small business startup guide’, etc. Some of the information I found was helpful but most just pointed me to a site where I could purchase their book(s) which would give me all the tools and information I needed to start my business and be successful. It wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted someone to tell me what it was really like getting started. What they did, step by step. What worked and what mistakes they made along the way. I didn’t find it.
So, I decided I would write it myself. Maybe someone else will find it useful.
Tiffany and I will both be contributing to the blog with our different points of view and tell our story from our respective sides though the beginning was mine to tell. Tiffany comes in when I decided to get serious about jumping from hobby to business. It was an act of faith on her part and I am very grateful she threw caution to the wind and decided to take a chance on this. She gave me the courage to believe it was possible. She is a truly a great friend. Here’s hoping we can stay that way!
M
When I grew up, married and had children of my own, this was the only cookie I ever made. Friends asked for the recipe all the time. They really are good. So when I was looking for a new source of income I could do part time, I thought of these cookies.
I’ve seen at least two articles of women who have turned to baking to keep themselves out of foreclosure. I was in a similar situation. I thought, why not me? I have a product that I think beats anything on the market. I can make money at this. One brand of cookie though wasn’t enough so I started to develop other cookies, mostly using the same basic honey cookie recipe my mother used. I modified it slightly then began adding items like chocolate chips and toffee, pecans, white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, and instant coffee and caramel chips. I sold them to family, friends and co-workers and then on ebay. Soon I started getting requests for specific types of cookies like ginger and oatmeal raisin. That’s when the real inventing began. I was no longer simply adding onto my mother’s recipe, I was developing my own unique recipes. As a result, the ginger and oatmeal raisin cookies have become two of the most popular flavors I sell.
It continues to expand and I recently added a peanut butter cookie, brownie cookie and a banana nut cookie and I’m working on a lemon one. All of the cookies have to have honey as a key ingredient. They need to be soft and chewy too. I am not interested in a hard, crisp cookie. It can be really frustrating throwing out batch after batch of cookie dough that doesn’t turn out quite right but I really enjoy the challenge and the process of coming up with a new cookie recipe.
Now I was selling cookies pretty regularly and it was a nice added boost to my income but it wasn’t paying my rent. It bought my gas maybe, which would be fine if it was simply a hobby, but I wanted it to be a career. A business that I could develop and grow, that I could make money at, which could employ my husband and later my children if they wanted. So it was time to get serious about this.
The next question was how do I start? I knew what I wanted but had no idea how to get there. I searched the internet with search terms like ‘how to start a bakery’, ‘small business startup guide’, etc. Some of the information I found was helpful but most just pointed me to a site where I could purchase their book(s) which would give me all the tools and information I needed to start my business and be successful. It wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted someone to tell me what it was really like getting started. What they did, step by step. What worked and what mistakes they made along the way. I didn’t find it.
So, I decided I would write it myself. Maybe someone else will find it useful.
Tiffany and I will both be contributing to the blog with our different points of view and tell our story from our respective sides though the beginning was mine to tell. Tiffany comes in when I decided to get serious about jumping from hobby to business. It was an act of faith on her part and I am very grateful she threw caution to the wind and decided to take a chance on this. She gave me the courage to believe it was possible. She is a truly a great friend. Here’s hoping we can stay that way!
M
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