Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I've got some concrete numbers. 114% collateral. 33% equity. Business plan, articles and bylaws due Sunday the 15th for a preliminary review by the lender and sister consulting company. On August 24th, I submit the paperwork officially, having corrected anything that caught their eyes. How long's it been? Over two years. I know by the number of busy seasons I worked at my last job, and mostly, I specifically remember vowing never to see another because my cafe would be up and running. I love deadlines.

The biggest task ahead is turning my colossal spreadsheet of doom into multiple, manageable spreadsheets with pretty graphs. My lender liked my original business plan, but disliked my use of a different font on every page and title. I believe I used 28 artistic fonts on a 14 page write-up. That's gotta count for something. Regardless, I'm going to rewrite it into something less like a sales pitch to sell my partners, and more like a matter of fact financial package. You know, more like my AT&T bill, and less like my kindergarden art project.

I suppose this means a late September opening. I've got no shortage of friends who're insisting on helping me build shop when things get there. Pizza and beer all around. I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure this is especially important, but it's nice to move past generalities like "I should be open soon - in a few months or so" to, "Loan deadline August 15th and 24th". Got a good location with a manageable rent. Got backups if it gets bought out from under us.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

The bank wants 200% collateral - a side effect of being willing to accept a greater variety of forms of collateral than other institutions. It was rough, but I've scrounged up that much plus a few hundred to spare. Actually, I shouldn't say they want 200% collateral, they want all listed collateral to be valued at 50%, which is the same thing. I just found it easier to think "Borrowing 15,000, need 30,000 in collateral," rather than, "This sells for 1560, so I can add 780 to the collateral." Anyway, I'm still alive and not giving up on this. My consultants and my lenders looked at my loan app and business plan and came up with a handful of revisions. We've also discovered we might be eligible for a grant, but there's no point getting detailed on that front till we're sure. Needless to say, we're already friends with a professional grant writer. Lately I've been reformatting my business plan and including some chapters that they'd like that my original template didn't include. I'd like to be set by December, but who knows. If I'm not set by January, I'll have tax returns helping me out again, so it's a win win. I'm thinking the worst case scenario is I save every penny myself over the course of the next three years. I've got way too much ego invested to give up. It's been 3 years so far, and I'm certain I'm viable. No turning back. Hope the loan and the grant pans out. In the mean time, I'm just saving.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.