Greetings all! My first post on something crazy we have been talking about. It started on a whim in December, then a follow up call in February, really started our brains. Right after we made a tour….. LOCK DOWN. What a great time to sit, and think, and fret, and be scared…..

Deep breaths….

We want to open a LIVE ORIGINAL MUSIC venue. We are 75% yes that we will move forward with it, but still have that tug asking if this is right for us. We have decided to take steps and act as if we are going to open this year. The real decision point will be when it is time to sign the lease. There is lots to do prior to that real commitment point.

We are thankful for the people we have met. We reached out to some good friends. People who have the experience that we do not. Our first discussion was encouraging and nerve racking. Listening to the how’s and what our new lives could look like. This past week we reached out to two others. We are very thankful they are in our lives. Their support certainly helped us.

We have started the paperwork adventure. First, was starting our company, a simple process along with a simple fee. A nice introduction to the world of fees. I tried to think of as many as I could when putting our initial numbers together. I am sure there will be bonus licenses and fees I didn’t think of. Hopefully those potholes aren’t so deep as to pop the tire.

We decided on a logo. Soon we will get it posted here. Letting it sink in for a few days prior to pulling the trigger on it. We are looking at going to bartending school! Our main plan is to hire properly qualified bartenders, however, to help us be more useful during busy times it would be good to have some basic knowledge. The added bonus is my wife and I learning a skill together. The last time we took lessons together wasn’t too long ago when we did several months of dance lessons.

Our business plan is almost complete. We are missing menus and I need to lay out the financial pages better. The spreadsheet I have built is getting a little unwieldy. Startup costs, weekly projections, yearly projections and places to try to run ‘what if’ scenarios. This is the part that is most frightening. Can the venue pull in the dollars I am projecting? What expenses am I missing? What have I overdone? Am I being too optimistic with income? How much will it cost to survive the first year? Can we make it through the first year?

Up next this week is continued work with the business plan. I am hoping to get it finished except for the food and drink menus. Then we will put our project list together and start looking at each. I am amazed how easy it is to get stuck down a rabbit hole. We have to learn how to best manage our time and decision making to be as efficient as we can. Until next time….

J