Slowing our roll
Good Morning! It’s Thursday and I’m working on this at the cafe, it’s not too busy so I’m sitting down to eat some pasta. Listening to Covet’s math rock album efflorescence. For my birthday last week we went to a few major cities in the southeast. Savannah GA, Greenville & Charleston SC, Asheville NC. We went to a bunch of cool cafes I’ve really wanted to visit, mainly Methodical’s first location, and Pollen. I’m going back in January so maybe I’ll write more about why they were cool then. But for now!
I was impressed how much they were doing in a very tight space. So I’ve been thinking about how we can do better with what we have, both in terms of literal space and the budget we’re working with.
We’ve been taking in thousands more in gross revenue without really seeing any of that at the end of the month.
The big issue is that I’ll spend carelessly on growing with new tables, gadgets, stickers, whatever! When that extra money is there. But when it’s all in one place it’s easy to think that money is available when it really isn’t. You need to define the purpose of your money to really think critically about why it’s there.
So I picked up “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz. Which I’ve been recommended and gifted over the years. I actually bought it again after checking out the audio book. Really good book! IMO. It suggests you create a bunch of checking accounts and allocate money in to them after each deposit using your current spending goal. Then slow increase the percent allocations over time until you reach your target. I’m trying to put a real chokehold both on our spending, and our savings towards taxes and loan payments. We’ve always been perfectly on time for payroll taxes, but sort of hacking away randomly at our other tax goals.
This year we should kill a couple of significant loans, and I’m hoping to be so efficient where we are now, that the extra income launches us in to the stratosphere; By that I mean, allow me to take time off and get married in January mainly haha. I would also like to have my first full time employee by the holidays, which I think pumpkin spice season will really help with, assuming we stay on top of those goals.
As we need more storage, we are stuffing things anywhere they’ll fit.
Suddenly my wet ingredients are taking over my cup area, or I’m running out of space for napkins; Just strange issues that come from growth. I needed to know when the excess should be in storage, or in it’s place on the shelf.
So my solution to that is homogenizing our storage in to a few containers. basically tall plastic bins for dry goods, and quart containers for wet. Date and label everything. On top of that, install some more cup storage underneath our counters and move things around so that we dedicate each area of our operation to a type of storage.
So far just putting things in boxes has really opened up our storage, but I’m hoping that soon I’ll be confident in each location and can label those too. Doing this means, I’ve had to get creative. When things have always been in one place, it’s hard to imagine them anywhere else. Just taking an hour after close to move things around and think critically has done wonders for my sense of space. I’d also recommend sketching, talking to employees. Moving stuff, staring at it. Think critically.
That’s all for today
I just wanted to note that this growth has caused us to roll down a hill like a wagon with a loose wheel, shaking but moving in the right direction. Sometimes it’s better to tighten the screws before buying bigger wheels.
: ) - Elias
