First, the weekend...
Tracy opened the shop Saturday and I stayed home with the boys for awhile. I got the things together that I needed to do the videography at the wedding in Green Mountain Falls. Josh, Jonah, Ethan and I went to the shop and I got changed into wedding clothes. I ended up working on the espresso bar for several customers and I was wondering if I would wind up going to the wedding with a few stains. All worked out well, and I was very careful to not get all messy.
Shannon picked me up a little after 11:00 and we headed up to the church. I have done the photography for many weddings, but I have never done video before! I have a really nice camera that is suitable for professional work, but I have never read the manual, or really messed with it too much. I got to the church and set it up on a tripod and connected the remote control. I was all set on the left side of the sanctuary, where I could tape the wedding party coming in, going to the alter, and then tape the ceremony with a good direction towards the bride. The wedding planner came along and said I couldn't set up there, and that I needed to move my equipment up on the alter, behind the ceremony. That's weird... I didn't want to be in all of the photographer's shots... I ended up setting my equipment up center line behind the Unity table where I could tape the wedding party entering the sanctuary, then coming down the aisle to the alter. My plan was to complete that portion, then move to the side of the alter area to tape the ceremony, direction pointing towards the bride (who wants to watch the groom in a wedding video anyway?) I had my spot all picked out where I could video the couple from the front while they did the unity candle stuff. Then, the wedding planner came and told me that they would go around to the back of the Unity table to light the candles so that they would be facing the crowd. So... I once again figured out a new location where I could move to and get the Unity candle stuff, the ceremony, and not be in the photographer's photos. This was tricky because the wedding planner told me the minister does not allow movement once things got started. Well, my plan was to move only once (from center to side). Once I moved from the center position to the side, I found that I was out of view of the crowd because of a large podium on the alter. I was able to move around as needed to get the best angle of the bride for the ceremony, as well as to get both of them when they went behind the Unity table. The minister was kind of irked, but that's OK. He wasn't the one paying me!
After the ceremony was over, Shannon (my friend who was the actual wedding photographer) had to re-enact the ceremony because the minister would not allow flash photography during the real ceremony. It was dark in there, so any images he shot would have been marginal at best. I grabbed my cameras and shot along side of him, as he is new at being the primary photographer at a wedding. I wanted to get some shots to back him up, if needed. Besides that, I am so used to being the photographer... How could I just stand around and watch?
After that, we went to the reception in Woodland Park. Shannon wasn't exactly sure where it was, but we found a building with a marquee that said congrats to Marc and Suzanne. We figured there probably weren't more than one Marc and Suzanne having a reception in town, and we were right.
The couple wanted a low key, quick deal and only paid us to be at the reception for an hour. Well, they served dinner at the reception first, so we had some time to sit around and wait. For some reason of insanity, the reception hall did not have air conditioning and it was pretty stinkin hot in there. Once dinner was over, we shot the cake cutting and the first dance. I did video via tripod, and shot photos, along with Shannon. That was it... We left after taking a few candids. I now have to buy some video editing software. I have Pinnacle Studio 10, but it is total crap. Anyone have a copy of Adobe Premiere they don't want??
We went up to Denver on Sunday with Tracy's parents. We visited her grandfather in the hospital, then went to Kaladi Brother's Coffee shop on Evans in Denver. What a great time that was. Kaladi Bros is a company that was started in Alaska and grew to a huge operation, both coffee shops and commercial roasting for wholesale accounts. It got crazy big, and the owner moved to Denver and started a single shop, with roasting room. He said he just wanted a very small roasting operation, and he is doing 10,000 pounds a month. To me, that is a lot! All the power to him!
Anyway, Mark (the owner) spent a great deal of time with Tracy and I. He took us behind the bar and showed us all of his specially modified equipment. He also has equipment that he and his friend designed and built. I don't have time to go into details now, but it was an AMAZING shop and we are so thankful that Mark took so much time to talk with us, sample his new experimental espresso roast, show us his roasting room, etc. He had his baristas make us a latte, and she created the following work of art for me:
And here are a couple more shots:
Tracy with world famous coffee aficionado Mark Overly of Kaladi Coffee in the roasting room...
If you end up in Denver, make sure you visit this coffee shop (1730 E Evans Ave Denver, CO 80210). I know, there are tons of coffee shops around, but not like this. Take the time to go and you'll realize why I think it is worth it.
As long as you are in the area, the very first, original Chipotle Burrito place is not far from Kaladi's. Yes, Chipotle is all over the place now, but this is your chance to go to the very first one, near Denver University.
Instead of burritos, we went to the chocolate/candy store next door. We got deep fried angel food cake dipped in dark chocolate. That was yummy...
We then went to Washington Park and rode bikes and Razor scooters with the kids (yes, everybody thought I was a freak for riding a Razor scooter with $6000 worth of cameras hanging all over me).
We then went to a place over by Cherry Creek Mall for dinner, then headed back to the Springs. Yes, we told our kids that was Summer Vacation! We were not able to get away this summer with the shop just being open (except for one overnight camping trip in Woodland Park), so this day in Denver was pretty exciting to us!
OK, now for Nemo's shop news...
1 - We set two new records in the shop last week. The first was most customers in a day at 150. The second record was most customers in a week at 682! We missed setting a new weekly sales record by only $18.50... It looked like that record was going to fall, but we had slower than normal Friday and Saturday business. That spilled over into today. It was over 100 degrees, and our sales reflect that. We barely cleared $400 in sales today, which is way, way, way below our recent averages.
2- I built a spreadsheet early on to calculate how oue sales are compared to current budget (without rent, since we negotiated free rent for quite some time), and compared to our budget with full rent ($2800 per month).
Somewhere along the line, I thought I had not subtracted total shop overhead from projected revenues, but in reality, I had built that into the spreadsheet. I have been indicating in previous posts that we made it to the break even point and have been operating there for some time, based upon a budget WITHOUT rent. I built a better spreadsheet and noticed today that we have actually been profitable!! We have been operating at the break even point for the last month or so with rent and all other expenses included! That makes me happy...
Basically, we need to average 225 customers a day to cover our overhead, and pay ourselves enough salary to pay our personal bills. We are routinely hitting the 140's per day, and we still have not advertised, tapped into the commuter traffic (80,000 cars a day on our frontal street), or really done any marketing to speak of. That is very, very encouraging...
I scheduled a Senior Photo Session for Saturday morning, and have a couple more high school kids wanting senior photos done soon... Woo Hoo!
Well, that is enough rambling for now. I need to make burritos, finish closing the store, process photos and upload them to the photo lab, then get home and get some sleep. I am getting up at 5:30 to take the kids hiking before school again...
Gotta run, it is 9:30 pm.
JD
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