Things are falling into place...

The contract is signed and I will be going back to Intel full time starting on Monday. I have been here at the shop until 1:00 or 2:00am every night this week trying to set systems in place or to wrap up loose ends before I go. I could use another full week, at least, to get all the things done that need to be done...

Here is what we have made progress on:
We hired our nephew James to work here, but he has too much of Starbucks ingrained in his way of doing things. It is our intention to serve a better product than Starbucks, and to treat people better than they get at Starbucks. We tried to teach him our way of doing things, and he decided to quit. That's OK, it was worth a shot for both of us.

With me gone from the shop next week, we were seriously needing to find a new employee pronto. Robert suggested a friend of his that has some coffee house experience. Her name is Vanessa and she has worked at Starbucks, and at Peete's Coffee. Prior Starbucks employees have the "McDonalds of Coffee" mentality and have lots of bad habits that need to be broken, but Peete's is a great environment, and used the exact same espresso machine that we have (La Marzocco Linea 3 Group). She came in and filled out an application. Tracy and I sat down and talked with her for a few minutes and we hired her on the spot. Our initial impression is that she is 'the perfect coffee house employee'. She is very pleasant and friendly, very laid back and east to talk to, very pretty, etc, etc... Just close your eyes and picture the person you want to buy your coffee from and it is Vanessa! We are looking forward to having her as part of our team. Hiring Vanessa takes care of our biggest issue with the schedule, but we probably still need one more person. Our morning business is growing, as is our lunch crowd, as is our bulk lunch catering. We did a lunch package for 17 people today for the Health Department. I still need to discuss food service deliveries for Premiere Global, which could easily account for $300-$400 in additional sales per day. If that is a good concept, we will definitely need another person on during the day.

We have been open on Saturdays from the start, and this location is just not a good Saturday spot. We are here from 6:00am to 3:00pm, and we do about $200 in sales on average. We really don't want to continue to ruin our weekends for such a small return for our time invested (not to mention the kids have to hang out with us all day on Saturdays). I believe it would be easier to build Sunday sales, as there are lots of churches within a one mile radius. I think we are going to hold off on that, though. We'll see how our daytime staffing works out, and if anyone steps up to the plate and shows promise like Robert has, we may go back to being open and have them run the store... We have events scheduled in the studio on Saturdays through mid October, then it is lights out for the weekends...

We wanted to put in a video surveillance system from the very beginning, but I didn't want to spend $1700 on a four camera system at Sam's Club. I got some quotes from local security system companies and they were expensive as well. I finally had time to do some research and found a four camera system with security software and a 4 camera capture expansion card for $770. I have extra computers, including a flat panel monitor to display out front, that I can use to operate the system. Basically, the unit at Sam's is very similar, but they are charging an extra $900 or so for a crummy Celeron computer and generic 15" flat panel monitor. That's crazy! It will take some time to install the system, but it will give us permanent video records of all activity in the store, and it will give us remote viewing capability. Tracy and I will be able to check on the store from home or anywhere else with Internet access.

I ordered a new convection oven and it is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. That will actually be a big help since we cook so many things here...

I have a million more things to do, so I'd better run...
Take care,
JD