Ugh. Can't get an inspection because of the rain. I know that sounds funny...keep reading....
Waiting on the insurance adjuster to come and look at the leaky roof tomorrow. This little delay is setting us back again. If it hadn't rained, we would be done and ready to open this coming week. Will go into this more once I meet with the adjuster tomorrow. I should be able to predict an opening date once we find when the roof is being fixed.
Signed up to be a part of a local charity event. I won't make anything off the event, but it will get word out about our business. I really wanted to do this and met with the organizer today. Will be filling out the paperwork tonight and dropping it back off tomorrow. Gotta work on my menu tonight. Have to figure out what to serve and how much to buy for 500-600 people. The event isn't until November 21st, but that is only 47 days away from now. Got lucky because today was the last day to sign up and still be part of their marketing....so I will still be in their ads, on their website, and on the invitations.
Have a meeting set for early December regarding a local event in March. This event should make me some money and be HUGE for promotion of the business. I will be selling dogs outright and not being hired to cater. Will post the info once we get all the agreements in place....which will be in December.
The hot dog eating contest is on....for now. Still in the planning stages, but the charity involved has changed and the date has changed. Looks like it will be in March. That is all I know for now, but will be meeting with the charity to shore up everything. The nice thing is that there will be tons of people there and will have plenty of volunteers to help. This fell into place today and is more like my original vision for the contest. I think that having it during a main charity event is the way to go....this not only does it add to their event, it also shows how much we care about this charity (which we do, a lot!). More info to come.
Got an offer to buy my way onto GPS and In-Car Navigation systems. The company will put my location on as a restaurant and will put a small ad. It doesn't cost very much and your business stays on there until you ask them to remove it. This would be great for people driving down the highway and find out that we are only a couple blocks away. Not sure how many people would stop, but it is worth the price.
Had lost the business cell phone for about 3 weeks. The wife found it for me 2 days ago. Thank goodness I have her! Checked the voice mail and only had 2....and had already spoken to both people. Glad that I didn't miss hundreds of calls!
This business has been very hard to get up and running. Everything was going great at first and then the setbacks starting coming up. I think this is par for the course and will make us all wiser about the next location. If this had just been a cart and I just used someone else's kitchen, then we would be up and running....but the rain would have shut us down for a few days and we can't afford to be open and then not be open....people won't come back if you are closed all the time. Being patient and waiting until I can open indoors has been the right path.
Everything is a lesson...good or bad. It will all work out and we will be open and running very soon. I have faith that what I have learned so far will not only improve how I operate, but will also give me the strength to forge on when things get tough.
Will I ever want to expand and go thru this again? Sure. I think that our Austin expansion won't be anywhere near this difficult....I'll already have the commissary and will only need to drag the cart to Austin each day (unless I work a deal to store it in Austin). The only hard part will be having someone either run the Bastrop location or run the Austin location...I can't be two places at once....or can I?
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