Finally… but!…

A lot has happen since my last post, but at the same time not a lot.

Yes, I know. You’re probably thinking, “how’s that possible?” Well, my landlord has already received the check for my space, which covers my first month’s rent and a deposit – which I can probably kiss goodbye ’cause how often do you ever get your deposit back?

Anyways, I do not have full access to the place because, A) State Farm is still in there, and probably won’t be out until March 1st, and B) Blockbuster needs to approve my business with a written statement. A verbal “yes” isn’t gonna work. This is just killing me! I just found out about this two weeks ago.  Yeah, this is beginning to get VERY annoying. Otherwise the space is mine.

As for my lender, I already sent a copy of my lease last week, as they need to “bless” it.  And, they also need proof of insurance. I think the insurance should be taken care of by this week.  I’ve received a few quotes and found a company that seems to be comparable to other providers, at a reasonable rate. After that’s done, I get my SBA loan fully injected into my account.

Now that most of the logistics and immediate paper work has been ironed out, I’ve got one big task to take care of… getting a general contractor, an architect, and builder permit(s) in the next few days to two weeks. I may already have a general contractor though.  A co-worker of mine – her husband is a general contractor and does great work.  Talked to him and he’s willing to take a look at the space and put in a bid. He also knows an architect that can probably stamp a design for the city to approve. From there, I guess he just needs permission from the city to do work in Westminster – and pay some sort of fee. That’s another thing… there are all sorts of fees in starting your own business at a brick and mortar location. This is something I definitely didn’t take into consideration.  Anyways, if I can get a builders permit soon, and once State Farm leaves, we can start doing the demo and make finalizations to my place. I think I’m now looking at late March, early April.  About 6 weeks behind schedule, but I guess I can’t complain, right?

As for talking to my manager about starting my own business… well that went really well.  She’s quite happy for my decision, but some changes have taken place at work, so this may become a difficult transition.  This is a topic I can not talk about… mainly because I want to keep everything in my blog about The Dojo.

Well, I hope I make more strides this week!

 

It’s been awhile

It’s been a couple of weeks or so since my last post, plus I figured that I should update everyone about the latest and greatest news.

First off, the issues that I was experiencing at the beginning of the year with one of my lenders decreasing my line-of-credit – well that couldn’t be resolved due to the school not making any money. It’s kinda tough to generate revenue when YOU’RE A START UP. But, the banks don’t want to hear that… as it’s no excuse in their eyes. Whatever the case is, this hasn’t stopped me from what I’m suppose to be doing.

With that said, I sent my leasing agent a check to secure the location, so I should be golden. All I’m waiting for now is to get insurance for the school and get approved from the city of Westminster for my business license. Once that’s done, I can access the premises, receive my SBA loan, and probably hire a contractor to do my build-out. Which brings me to a great question… what do I need to do to get a contractor? Do I go through my landlord, or do I need to find my own?… I’m hoping to get an answer here shortly, so I can at least put in my building permit application. But, it’s tough too ’cause my space is still being occupied by State Farm. So, all of the logistics hasn’t been ironed out quite yet.

As for when will The Dojo of Karate open… It may be a long shot, but mid March looks somewhat realistic now. It’s so close, yet so far away. Then summer will be creeping up, which will make it tough for business. I feel like I’ve prepared myself to get this far, but then I’m sorta lost now too. Crazy…

Now, I think my next biggest task/priority is talking to my current manager and telling her about my future plans. I don’t know how she will take it, and/or how the company will take it. Something in me says it will be fine and she will be happy for me, but at the same time I’m scared to bring it up, and possibly loose my job. As people say, timing is everything, so I’m just waiting for the right time. I hope the talk goes well, and it does not affect my job and my future there. I do want to continue job there, and leave on good terms – but I don’t want to drag it out either. I almost have to be very diplomatic here – and I’m really not that kind of person. If all goes well with the location, I will be talking to my manager this week.

Paper work

Well, I’ve got good news as far as the lease is concerned. The landlord has accepted my changes/additions to the lease and sent me an executable copy of the lease on Monday. I’ve signed my life away, or it at least seems that way, then made copies of required documents they requested, and put them in a file. I’m hoping to send the leasing agent everything by the end of the week, if not, maybe early next week. They wanted to have everything signed by the end of the month, but that ain’t happening, especially with the problems that I had to go through (and still going through) the past couple of weeks.

I then went through my checklist of documents the SBA loan department requires, and didn’t realize how much information they needed from me. Maybe I should read ahead more often… Well, they need proof of insurance (which I knew, and delayed due to timing), copy of sales/business license for the city of Westminster, (which I just learned takes 3 weeks for approval and I don’t have that kind of time), copies of my lease terms, and a few other things. I basically spent 5 hours yesterday finding documents on the state and city websites, printing applications, and filling them out. I don’t even know if I have everything! I’m not looking forward to getting a building permit either, ’cause from what I hear, this is a long process too.

At times, I almost feel like these establishments make it so difficult to start up your own business it stops those with a great idea, yet you hear that the government is all for start ups, entrepreneurs, leaders of the free enterprise, etc. I definitely am not feeling the love when it comes to getting my business off the ground. But, it’s like the old saying… “no sacrifice, no victory”.

I keep telling myself, “stay positive…” “things happen for a reason…” I just hope I learn what that reason is sooner, rather then later.

Sigh…

No sacrifice, no victory. I’m now thinking I should put that on my first school t-shirts. At least it would have significant meaning, you know.

Not a fan of legal language

In order to save some money for hiring an attorney to look over my lease, a buddy of mine at work talked to one of his friends that is a 3rd year law student. He was willing to read through the lease, break down the legal stuff, and tell me what some of wording really meant. Anyways, I sent it back to my broker for him to pass on to the Landlord. I know this may be to optimistic this late in the game, but hopefully they can make the changes and get back to me by the end of the week. We’ll see…

As for the issues that took place at the turn of the year. I’m making an attempt to remedy the situation by reapplying for the business loan, as suggested by the bank. I haven’t heard anything back from them, but I’ll keep you guys posted.

Legal mumbo-jumbo

I forgot to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hope everybody had a wonderful Holiday season. I sure did, and enjoyed my mini vacation. Probably my last for a very long time.

So I finally got the lease in my hands on Friday. I guess it was ready on the 18th of December, but with the Holidays and stuff, things got a bit delayed. Anyways, I need to take the time to look over the terms and make sure they seem fair and legit. I’m debating on having a lawyer take a look at it too. Don’t wanna pay the money, but it may not be a bad idea.

There have been some… set backs on my end that I just found out the other day. I can’t go into detail about this, but a portion of my loan money to start the business has been taken away from me. I hope it is temporary, but we’ll see. Very discouraging to say the least, especially starting the new year, but I’m praying for things to work out. I feel they will, as this is just one of the many challenges I believe I will face. I will not let something like this hold me down, as I am determined to get this school opened in the next couple of months.

FYI – Be in the look out for a new website!

Godspeed

How hard is it to write up a lease?

So… I’ve been waiting for this lease to be typed up and ready for some Herbie Hancock’s, but nothing. I got a phone call from the firm that is writing the lease terms. They had some questions, and what not, and were hoping to get me the lease by the end of Tuesday. It’s Wednesday night now.

Out!

What’s a few more days…

… of waiting gonna do anyways? Well, I showed up on Tuesday, but apparently the Landlord and his broker didn’t get the memo. He flew into town from California and took a look at the shopping center to refresh his mind, as there are several investors involved with the location. It was a waste of my time, but I got to meet my broker in person finally, so we just talked a bit more about the space. Anyways, we’re shooting for a conference call on Friday morning.

I’ll keep you guys posted…

Meeting tomorrow

That’s what was in the subject line of my business email address, “Meeting Tomorrow”. My broker emailed me saying the landlord (don’t know his/her name yet) wants to get together tomorrow at the site at 11am. If all goes well, I will be in an even deeper amount of debt. Who would have thought being in debt was a good thing…? Anyways, I’m hoping I can take a good look at the place, make some final changes to the LOI, and possibly start drawing up the lease for me to sign. Hey, I even get to meet my broker face-to-face for the first time too.

Well, you guys will be the third or forth… maybe even fifth or sixth – depending who I tell first – to know if all went well. Keep positive thoughts, pray for me, cross your fingers, or whatever superstition you have so things continue to move in the right direction.

I’m baaacckkk!…

I know, I know, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update on the progress of my school and finding a location. But trust me, there hasn’t been anything new, until recently. It’s mid-night right now, I can’t sleep, and something in me is calling for this new post tonight… errr this morning.

Well, here’s the lowdown. Safeway, the anchor store for the location I have been trying to get into, has finally approved my business. They were obviously not motivated to move any quicker, but I guess I can’t complain ’cause I feel it’s working out for the best. Once I found out about the approval, the Landlord submited a counter offer from my previous Letter Of Intent – but it was ridiculous. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I was under the impression that they wanted to get this deal done quickly. With an offer as ludicrous as the one they gave me, I was tempted to just walk away. Anyways, my broker and I came back with a more reasonable counter offer to their LOI and I’m hoping they take it ’cause I do not want to waste time going back and forth.

They are hoping to get this deal finalized by December 15th, which I believe is realistic, if all goes well. Once I sign my Herby Hancock on the lease, I’m thinking they will begin to move State Farm out of the unit I’ll be taking over and start demo-ing the place. My broker and I feel that The Dojo can have its doors open by mid to end of January or early February. If that’s the case, I need to come up with some catchy marketing ideas for Christmas Specials as gifts and New Year Resolution Specials. Not a bad time to start the new year with a new business!

I should probably try to get some shut eye, but until next time…

Oh so close

So I’ve got some really good news. Better yet, I’m glad I had to wait for this opportunity to present itself.

The landlord of the shopping center I’m looking to start my business has been going back-and-forth with Safeway in allowing him to split the 3400 sf unit. From my understanding, Safeway would prefer to not split the unit, and keep it for a larger tenant. Hence the delay in getting back to me. Well… there is another tenant (State Farm) that wants to move to a smaller space, which is great. That means, I can take over the space that is occupied by State Farm, which is perfect. It’s less then 1900 sf, and the location is PRIME!

I’m looking over the letter of intent, provided by my broker, so I can make an offer. Once I get that back over to him, the negotiations process begins. If things go smooth, and State Farm is flexible enough when they can move, I’m hoping to be open by the end of October, or early November. Come to think of it, it may be a bit tighter then I thought, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the beginning of the year – which ain’t a bad thing. Gives me time to finalize a few things with my curriculum and promote my grand opening special.

I’ll continue to keep everyone posted on the updates.