Our attorney is still reviewing the lease, and we should have that finalized by Monday. We are unable to do any demo work until the lease is signed, so it is slowing us down. I have walls to tear down!!
COMPUTERS - We need five to start with...
SITE WIFI:
I was going to build a new computer for the kids area, which will be the host computer for the free site WIFI. I found a good deal at Dell Small Business, so I ordered a computer for this function. I got everything for $500 and free shipping. To build an equivalent computer would have cost me $800 just for the parts (it has a 19" LCD monitor that retails for $200 by itself).
POS (Point of Sale):
I am modifying an existing computer that I built for the kids last year to use for our POS system. I just need to put a better motherboard and CPU in it, and add some RAM to go from 512K to 1 GB. We will have to buy a bar code scanner and thermal printer, and we are getting POS software from our tax accountant.
OFFICE SERVER:
We need an office computer that will act as a server for the POS system. The database will be housed there, and will prevent employee access to accounting records not needed to process transactions. We will be using our new laptop in this function...
POS Display:
I have an idea for increasing sales that I have not seen anywhere before. I am going to have a second computer at the POS (under cabinet-hidden), with the monitor (19" LCD flat panel) facing the customers. I am going to do high quality studio photography of our espresso drinks, blended beverages, etc and have them shown on the monitor facing the customer. They will loop via a DVD movie, and we can also advertise retail merchandise, the photography studio, upcoming live music events and art exhibitions, etc. The idea is to sell a $3.50 drink to someone who came in for $1.50 coffee. I will also show photos of pastries, lunch items, and even Cokes and candy bars! I'm interested in seeing how a visual aid at the POS will affect customer decisions!
PHOTO STUDIO:
I will need a high end computer for photo and video editing. I have been buying individual components over the last several months, as I see components on sale, or have large rebates. I will end up building a $2000 system (retail price) for about $750!
CUSTOMER USE COMPUTERS:
It is not a priority for now, but we intend to have 3 or 4 computers free for customer use. I will either keep my eyes peeled for good deals/rebates, or just wait for screamin' deals at Dell.
We have had several days to try out our new Mazzer espresso grinder and Pasquini Livea 90 Auto espresso machine. I am so happy to have a quality machine at home! We went through several machines from Starbucks over several years that were junk. I will post some photos of 'the good stuff' soon...
Intel asked me several times to stay on through the end of the year. We worked it out today for me to be here until December 21 instead of leaving December 1. This may push our opening date to February instead of January, but that's OK. Since we do not have a lease signed yet, we were already at risk of pushing into February anyway.
Tracy has been trying all kinds of product samples and is making decisions on what we will carry. She is trying to find products that are all natural, and do not contain a bunch of preservatives, hydrogenated muck, and other chemicals. Various coffee rosters carry products we are interested in, but they are very uncooperative and sometimes rude if we choose not to use their coffee. That's a bummer, because most of the roasters in Colorado Springs are horrible. We are probably going to go with Equator coffee out of San Rafael, California. Their product is excellent, their wholesale prices are fair, and they are friendly.
Here is their website:
http://www.equatorcoffees.com/
On a side note, I found a house this week that we can buy (HUD Repo) for around $65,000 and appraised last month for $122,000. It is clean and needs very little rehab work. We have a partnership with two of my colleagues at Intel to 'FLIP' houses. This one may be our first... We haven't had much luck landing our first investment property for rehab, but this one looks promising!
That's enough for now...
Gotta run.
JD
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