More kudo's

I had another meeting with another SCORE counselor last Friday. He looked over my business plan (almost done), my spread sheets, and said everything looks good.

Mr. Penn is very familiar with the food industry. He has several investments of his own and is involved in counseling several others. He even has a couple clients with vegan fare so he is familiar with that as well. He made a couple of suggestions, fixed a typo (would have caught that in one of my future reviews anyway) and basically said everything looks good.

Now I just have to finish up the paperwork, cross the i's and dot the t's, and look for an investor. I think I'll be ready to launch in a few weeks.

More smoke

I've been thinking more about my earlier consideration of starting this on the super cheap. I now think it's a bad idea. I'm going partly on gut feeling, and partly on past experience.

After reviewing all my numbers & research, including advice from what I've read, to do this right is the only way to do it. I've come up with a scenario of starting with $5,000, but even that makes things very tight and puts way too much pressure on all involved. Also, from what I've read, it's easier to find $100k of investment than it is to find $5k. Investors just aren't interested. The best scenario calls for $40 startup. I guess we'll see what the investors have to say.

Well, better anyway

Ok, I was a little off on the $300-$400 estimate, but I got it under $700. Not bad! I did it by planning to sell only packaged salads for 1 show, borrowing 2 coolers and emptying mine to use, using my food stamp money to buy the food (this will have to be returned to me after the second show so I can eat), using only the 1 table that I already have, and a few other nips & tucks here & there. Most of it is government fees. Now it's only $700 more than I have.

The plan includes how to manage the second show, presumably the next day or two. The first show should generate a gross in excess of $600. Purchasing a 1 year permit to sell packaged food for $250, the cost of setting up the second show should be around $500. Subsequent shows will be less and the income will be the same. Within six shows (2 weeks) of operating this way we will be able to purchase the rest of the equipment and $500 permit to go into full swing. This assumes a net of $400/show with neither of us taking a wage until later.

This is getting so close I can taste it!!

I've been thinking...

A dangerous prospect I know. People around me have been asking why there's smoke coming out of my ears.

By modifying the original startup plan a bit, ok, heavily, I may be able to start this thing for 3-4 hundred bucks. 2 things may make this possible. I mentioned earlier that the health permit is $500, but that's for a full year, unlimited locations and prepping food on sight. They actually have 4 different options. The cheapest is for 1 show running up to 3 days & selling only packaged food - around $65. We could sell just packaged salads, in deli containers, for 1 show, no site prepared food and make several hundred just doing that. That would be seed money to go a little bigger, then a little bigger. I need to call the health department and clarify a couple things regarding that, run some numbers and talk with Pamela about it.

This could work!

I got it!

I went to the BOA office yesterday to get t temporary permit to sell my bowls on Harbor St. (tourist area) and at farmers' markets. Pamela was kind enough to let me use her address on the permit since I don't have one. The very helpful lady said I should get a permanent one and just change the "what you are selling" part later when I start the food booth. So I did. Step one complete. I have the first permit. Just two more to go.

Speaking of permits, I also went to check on the health department permit yesterday. A little bad news there. It's $500. Ouch!! Oh well, it'll come.

One more piece of side news. Pamela suggested I keep a blog of what it's like to live on the street. So I started a blog about that and the personal side of starting this business. Check it out!

Well, so much for that idea

As planned, I went to visit 3 government offices for permits. As could be expected with government offices, 2 weren't there. They moved. With one, even the entire building was abandoned. Go figure. I'll try again later in the week. At least the seller's permit is free.

Better late than never

Well, I made it. I'm finally in SD. My first night was spent on a residential side street in Ocean Beach. It was quite comfortable actually. The picture to the right is of OB. Living on the street, "homeless", isn't so bad when you're in a nice place like SD and you have a truck to stay in. Sure, it's a little cramped inside, and you have to move 3 boxes to get what you shouldn't have put on the bottom, but I really prefer to spend most of my time outside anyway. And this is a nice place to spend time outside. Right now I'm laying in bed, parked outside a McDonald's taking advantage of their free WIFI. And no, there's not a chance in hell I'd be eating anything here.With my extreme sensitivity to MSG I'd be dead by tomorrow if I ate here. But they have free WIFI and clean washrooms.

I ended up leaving Jacumba about 24hrs. later than expected, waiting for money. He's a decent guy, and generally quite reliable, but this time was about 3 months to pay me. Made things a little tight for a while.

So, I won't be doing much work on the business over the weekend. Other than working on the business plan. Doing a business plan right takes many hours. I want to get it right. Early next week I'll be visiting government offices to check out permits, etc.

More LOA stuff. The money I was waiting for yesterday wasn't much. Enough to get me to town and keep me mobile for a few days. What was I expecting to do after that? I don't know. It doesn't matter, it'll show up when I need it. When I arrived yesterday I met with a friend, Lorelei. I was taking care of her place in Jacumba since I lived across the street. She said she wanted to give me some money for doing that, even though I had told her previously it wasn't necessary. She ended up giving me more than I was expecting. Nice surprise.

One of the things I was planning on doing here to raise some money to live on was sell what few bowls I have left at farmers' markets or flea markets or something. I told Lorelei what I had in mind and she said she didn't know I did that kind of thing and wanted to see them. She's going to buy a couple next week. So, I guess money is coming in as I need it, just as I expected.