The magic number was $616.32 on 133 sales! We had two bible study groups here tonight and that drove our evening sales, along with Intellitec night students who have started coming in regularly...
Also, it took us 35 days to surpass $10,000 in revenues, but it only took 22 days to get from $10k to $20k. I'd love to keep working it until we are achieving 10K in a week instead of three...
Tomorrow should be another good day. I have a photography group of 25 using the studio tomorrow night from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The key to continuing growth is to build our evening customer counts.
Our bank account has been maintaining a steady value for the past several weeks. I track our daily sales, vs. a 'rough' break even budget in spreadsheet. I know that we have been at the break even point for several weeks, based upon our current situation of not paying rent (free rent negotiated for 7 months, and extended by the electrical service upgrade deal with the property owners). I'd like to see sales continue to build so that we will still be breaking even when we do start paying rent. It is nice to not be shelling out money to cover operations, but we still have a huge challenge in front of us to maintain or get back to the break even point once our higher budget takes effect regarding rent. It would also be nice to pay ourselves... Our personal bank account is suffering, and I really want to avoid drawing on our capital budget for personal income. Getting this rental house remodeled and sold will contribute to our capital budget, but the amount of work to be done is wearing on me. These are tough days... Keep us in your prayers, or wish us luck, whichever route you prefer (we believe in the prayers 100%, and not so much in the luck concept).
By the way, I believe in the bartering trade system, but we don't take goats. If you have a professional service to offer, or just some really cool stuff, let us know. If you have livestock, go to Starbucks instead, or a cafe' in Jakarta...
Here are some table tent cards I made for our live music Saturday:
If you are local, be sure to stop in. He is bringing the whole band this time! Heck, even if you are not local, come on in anyway... Jeff was born at St Johns hospital in Anderson, Indiana! That is my home town, but different hospital than me. He graduated from Anderson University and then moved to Colorado Springs. How cool is that to meet someone from my hometown????
Check out his site at: http://www.jeffcaylor.com/
If you like to re-mix songs, he has uploaded two of his songs, as multi track files, that can be re-mixed. He also has some fresh commentary on toothpaste and kitty litter, not to mention all kinds of other odd random stuff.
We have been B-U-S-Y!! The shop obviously keeps us hoppin', and I've continued work on the rental house.
I had to wait on sheetrock for the shower walls due to the fact that the existing shower shut off valves were leaking. The inside of the wall was rotten and moldy. I fixed all of that, then tore into the plumbing. For some utterly ridiculous reason, the previous owners ran the water lines to the shower and washing machine in 1/2" CPVC (chemical resistant PVC). You should never apply pipe dope to plastic threads, but use Teflon tape instead. Those idiots used pipe thread compound on the CPVC to brass transition for the valve body. I was able to get the hot water valve disconnected without any problems (very, very, carefully), but the cold water line shattered due to the plastic being brittle from the compound. I had to run off to Home Depot and get parts to replace it. Unfortunately, CPVC is not a common use item in residential construction, and Home Depot had a limited amount of CPVC pipe and fittings. They didn't have ANY 1/2" pipe, so I had to buy a stick of 3/4". That meant the existing plumbing layout would no longer work, with regard to where the HOT/COLD valve body sits in the wall. I had to cut back the 1/2" CPVC even further, do a Frankenstein transition from 1/2 to 3/4 and back to 1/2 and get the dimensions correct for the wall layout. It also included silver soldering new transition pieces to the plastic/brass coupling. In all, I did 29 CPVC fitting glue joints, and four soldered connections, once again with no leaks! I shoulda been a plumber, except I don't have any butt crack to share with the unsuspecting world! I weighed 170lbs when I started construction on the coffee shop last Winter. I weighed myself the other day and I was at 149lbs! I bought some new cargo shorts and pants from Old Navy with a gift card I received for my birthday and the 29" fit the best. I haven't been able to wear 29's since I was about 25 years old! I bought 30's, instead, though, just in case I eat too many cream cheese danishes at the shop!
OK, back to reality... I framed a new closet in one of the downstairs bedrooms and sheetrocked it. I am now in the process of doing the mud and tape on the sheetrock for this closet, and in the bathroom. I can honestly say I am horrible at this... No natural talent there...
I also started painting the downstairs bedroom, and I ordered hardwood flooring for the downstairs living room and one other bedroom (typically gets used as an office or for storage). If you have never checked out www.lumberliquidators.com, you should do so! I got engineered floating laminate for 78 cents a square foot. I would have chosen a higher quality for my own house, for for a house I'm going to sell, this will work great. It was marked down from $2.79 a square foot, so it is comparable to Pergo laminate...
I have schedule my first senior portrait photo session! We are going to do the formal studio shots on Monday July 16. We will also be doing an outdoor shoot after my portable power supply for my studio lights gets here towards the end of July. This girl has participated in the mock trial program for the last three years and will again her senior year. She has gone to state all three years, and she will be attending law school after she graduates. She received an invitation from Harvard last week! The local trial competitions were held at the Pioneers Museum, which has an entire court room from the late 1800's on one floor of the museum. We are currently working with the museum to get permission to do a photo session in the antique court room. I'm hoping they will let us...
I also have a photo shoot lined up for the Dale Street Cafe. They want about 20 professional shots of their outside facade, inside shots, staff, and product shots. I have also lined up my first studio lease, for the end of July. There are no other photography studios available to other photographers in Colorado Springs. I also have the studio reserved for the Colorado Springs Christian Photographers Guild next week. People are starting to find out about us and things are coming to life!!
If it seems like I am rambling, it is because I am very tired. I'm going to try to get to bed by midnight tonight...
Gotta run,
God Bless Everybody!
JD
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