Sleepless in...Cliche?

So here it is, almost 2am on Tuesday morning.  The alarm will go off at 7am to get the kiddo ready for school.  I will be dead tomorrow.  What is keeping me up you may ask?  Well, I haven't been sleeping great lately anyway.  Worry about my new business, a lazy sleep schedule from being off work for over a year, and not eating right are contributors.  Tonight, though, there's something more.

I know everyone has things in life that they think back on and wonder if they did the right thing or the wrong thing.  I would think that once in a while, everyone has a moment where they remember something dumb they did or said that caused unintended consequences such as straining a relationship or even completely destroying one.  Well, sometimes I feel that I have an overactive conscience.  I try really hard to be a nice person.  To be a good person.  But I can remember things going back to high school, and in one particular incident, before, that weigh on my mind.  Yes, I know that I should let these things go, but I know that I have hurt people, and in turn friendships...in a few cases even destroyed them.  All because of a lack of control over my mouth.  In the case of the pre-high-school one, a lack of control coupled with a somewhat charismatic friend.

Some people I know for sure that I said something stupid and hurt them and possibly ruined a friendship.  Worse (at least I think so), there are things I remember saying in which I think MAY have hurt someone...but I'll likely always wonder if that thing that I said or did really did hurt them or if I am just feeling guilty.

Maybe I can sleep now 2 hours later...

Reconnaissance - Boulevard Coffee

So I talked about Tea Exotics a while ago.  I have visited several local tea and coffee places over the last year and found that my vision is at least somewhat unique.  That's good right?

We have Boulevard Coffee which is probably the closest to me if you discount Starbucks and Dutch Bros which are both within a mile of me in any direction.  Boulevard is run by a guy named Cliff and his wife.  Lisa, my partner in recon, and I went over there one day and she, being a lot more brave than I am, asked the guy to come talk with us.  He did at length and I got a really great story about how they had a location, decided to move and expand, and how they built their place from a shell, just like I am planning on.  I encourage you to go say hi to him and even ask about how he found and built the place.  He's gruff, but really nice.  I also got some good advice from him.  Let me say that I get advice from everyone, and you know what they say about advice, that it's often worth about what you pay for it...well, he gave me some that I had never heard before: don't just define who you want your customers to be, but also define who you don't want.  This was interesting to hear, because I always figured you might define your target demographic, but be happy with anyone who came in.  His example is that he does not provide WiFi.  He doesn't want people sitting on their phones or computers.  He wants his place to be a social place where people talk to each other rather than stare at a computer screen.  And he also said he would kick someone out if they were sitting too long and not buying anything.  I can see him doing that.  I have made the decision to have WiFi at my place, but I now know that maybe I should look carefully at who I want...and who I don't.

Reconnaissance - Tea Xotics

So over the course of the year, I have tried to visit some of the local coffee and tea shops in the area and if they were willing, chat with the owners about their experiences starting and running their businesses.  This has been a lot of fun and there have been a couple I have visited multiple times.  I'll list them here with my impressions and thoughts and I'll start by saying I haven't had a bad experience anywhere, but I have had great experiences along the way.

I found Tea Xotics at the St. John's Craft fair last December.  Renee owns the company and she is very nice and personable.  I asked her about wholesaling and she was interested and I decided I would go up to her place in Shingle Springs.  Lisa has been my partner in crime at many of these excursions and the first time we went up, both she and Mike came.  We ordered our tea and sat in the cozy conversation nook.  The place is primarily a coffee place, but Renee has been doing the tea line for over a year.  Her place is big, but she serves a light lunch as well as the coffee and tea, so that makes sense.  It is open with a counter in the middle and both tall and regular tables.  A lot of the art portrays different stages of the coffee roasting process, and makes for a comfortable warm atmosphere.

I contacted Renee later since she wasn't there to talk to at the time and over email, she invited me to come up and see how she ran things and talk about her tea.  What an amazing invitation!  I went up one day and she took me behind the counter, into the kitchen, gave me advice on dishwashers, etc., and then sat down with me to discuss the biz.  Apparently, when she decided to buy, she closed the sale on a Friday, did a few things over the weekend, then re-opened Monday morning.  She didn't want to lose the customer base she already had and has added to it successfully since.  She now roasts her own coffee and in addition to the tea, I hope to carry her coffee as well.  Her advice was to not overthink it which will be difficult for me to follow.  LOL

Lisa is now a regular stopper on her way to her parents' place and has decided that I need to make my own version of one of the drinks there.

To New Friends Through Tea

So when I went to the World Tea Expo (blog post pending) in June, I met all kinds of wonderful people who were in various stages of starting their own tea ventures (and a couple who were already in business) and from all areas of the map.  I have kept in touch with several of them and this weekend got to connect with two of them.  I spoke to Jennifer on the phone for about an hour and got to hear about her adventures in Tucson.  She has located a space and is now working on logistics of the build-out and it was great to share our plan to make our dreams a reality.

This morning, I got to meet with Lan and her family.  Turns out she has family here in town and an aunt that lives maybe 5 minutes from me, so she is in town occasionally.  I met her at a company here in town that sells organic (and non-) spices and teas where she had an order to pick up then we had a nice breakfast.  We talked a lot about how we were moving ahead and a little about our respective lives.  It was really nice.

Today just reinforced what I have been discovering through my journey this year.  The tea world is pretty small yet and most of the people I have met have been more than willing to talk and give advice.  I have visited or talked to many of the local shops and have discovered a really nice community of people.  I am very glad for Lan and Jennifer and all the shop owners and Bob (my broker) and even the county workers who have been so helpful. It all should come together very soon!

Term Papers and Business Plans

I am working on my business plan right now and I am finding about as fun as a term-paper.  In actuality, it IS like a term paper...but I have to turn it in to me...and my investor.  I guess like all of them I will just have to suffer through...this one, at least, is relevant to my life, so I actually have a desire to complete it.  Still not fun but at least not one of those things in school that would have no lasting importance on my life.  :)

A Break from Business Planning...

So this year is our tenth anniversary, so I told Mike a while ago that I'd like to have a honeymoon for our 10th anniversary.  So we decided on Hawaii and I started polling friends and family on where the best place in Hawaii would be.  From what I heard, it sounded like we really couldn't go wrong.  But knowing how Mike is on crowds and touristy things, we narrowed down to Kauai and I decided to start looking into lodging.  Teri put me on to VRBO.com (vacation rentals by owner) and I looked at a few, then found a little house near Poipu.  I sent in an inquiry and got a response yesterday.  So, it looks like we are going to Kauai for 8 days in May!  Woohoo!  I am so excited!  Funny enough, I will only be home for a week after that before I am off to Las Vegas for the World Tea Expo.  May and June will be busy!

Business Class #8 - Invoice and Expense Tracking

Last class in the series and last one with the SBDC for a while.  Nehal was here again and after talking to him, we found we have a mutual friend that works at HP with him.  Very nice.

So this was on invoicing.  This was somewhat useful but I think I may use a program like Quickbooks.  That will be the next class I sign up for with the SBDC I think.  And I'll drag Mom along with me.  She can help with my bookkeeping.  :)