Construction Game Plan for Q4 2021

Hey Happy Saturday, I'm crunched in a seat downtown for River City Pride, listening to the new car seat headrest album, and drinking an Anaerobic Costa Rican from Black and White Roasters. It tastes suuuper strong like cinnamon whole wheat bread and red fruit, delicious!

I feel very fortunate to get the chance to try this coffee for a reasonable price via Brew 5 points. I'd encourage you to read more about it at the link above, Black and White with their signature small bags and panda logo always do an exceptional job sourcing and roasting, but it can be a little pricey to pick up for yourself whole bean.

I met with a few people this week, our highway sign is up, and I've officially got 20 pages of working notes, but today I just want to focus on the big stuff.

This week we worked out a construction game plan for the rest of the year!!!

This is subject to change but I thought it'd be fun to break it down as I understand it now, since the biggest question I obviously get is "when do you open?" Most of that is dictated by our paperwork, so let's dive into it.
The first step is submitting our Architect Permits & Certificate of use (COU, this also acts as a change of use in my case) to the city for review. Which you can do at the same time to avoid scheduling multiple meetings. Once submitted these can take 6-10 weeks to get back. It's not uncommon for a resubmittal to be necessary, or for it to take that full 10 weeks. I'm doing all I can now to avoid having to submit again by going back and forth with our project manager and architect and engineer to make sure our bases are covered, I'm hoping they're ready to submit this to the city next week. meaning we get them back and signed off on, in Early December.

The second step is to begin construction. I don't need city approval/permits to do most of the work so we can start after about 6 weeks near Thanksgiving, and hope we get to the permit-mandatory work about halfway through a couple weeks afterwards in early December. I'm going to begin demolition on my own first, taking down the walls and flooring (leaving the bathroom alone for contractor use). Then we'll have our contractors pick it up from there with plumbing, electric, and bar build-out. Meaning I have a good month and a half to choose our contractors based on what we're quoted. I'm hoping for a 30-45 day build out.

The third step is taking the city's notice of commencement, and providing that to the property for their letter of authorization, which will be on site during construction as we do the work that the city will be checking in on.

After that comes the fun stuff

Bringing in equipment, furniture, decorations. We'll get to demo our menu and workflow. I'd like to train one employee to begin with and get a feel for our pace. I'm working on paperwork for Standard Operating Procedures and expectations now, among other things as we plan out the rest of the year. It feels like I'm finally on pace to having everything read which is really cool. Looking forward to sharing more here as we have it.

Thanks for reading, -Elias

Back to the Architect, First steps with the City.

 Good morning! I'm drinking a big pumpkin spice latte with oat milk and listening to Steve Dinner's Mystery Flavor album today at Brass Tacks Coffee. For the last three weeks I've been shopping for a General Contractor, and waiting to hear back from the property about my architect permits (plans). 

Yesterday I met with the kind of project manager of the building, who reviewed our architect permits and told me we'd need to make a few revisions, because we'd be puncturing the floor and ceiling.

So my final permits were no longer final. 

Something I didn't realize, was that our property managers wanted to review the permits because they might need to make changes. our architect contract included one revision, which I already used on my own comments. What I should have done was write down my comments, wait for the property to review it, then include both in our revision. So now we wait, again!!!!!

On the bright side, our 'life safety plan' is ready.

This is the general layout of the space as detailed towards the beginning of our prepared architect permits; this being ready means I can get started with the city of Jax on a COU (Certificate of Use) and Change of Use, since we used to be a sewing and or pet grooming building, I think. the last owner was an interesting person haha. 

While I can't totally complete those forms now without my final permits from the architect, it's a step towards what's next. And while we wait on those I can keep pushing on some quotes from contractors. Thankfully the property has some in house contractors they can get me quotes from. I would really like to get at least two so I can get a sense of what this might cost.

Since we have a pretty small space, I'm pushing for a small cost.

This has been challenging. Getting someone on board for a project at this smaller size in the area, within the time frame I want it done and within budget, this year. I'm going to keep pushing and keep you updated here, have a great weekend everyone. 

-Elias

Talking to Others

Good Morning, It's Saturday! I'm prepping some Colombian cold brew for the next couple of days, listening to new Sweet Trip album. It's been a difficult week. Things move slow and steady for Tetherball and my day job is exhausting. Looking forward to quitting, not because running a cafe will be easier but because I can focus my energy on one fulfilling job.

Speaking of fulfilling, 

I went down to Setlan on Wednesday morning and met the owners Tyler and Claire. They were super nice and genuine, they made an incredible vanilla iced latte that tasted like ice cream! Which is how I've always described really good vanilla, after years of my dad guarding expensive vanilla ice cream in our freezer. Tyler mentioned he had to do a 3D google SketchUp drawing for his architect on Sago coffee, and I think we were kind of mutually glad that we weren't the only ones having to do that haha. I'm glad I don't live far away, I'll definitely be back.

Speaking of Sketchup Designs,

 I'm planning on reviewing ours + the architect docs with our land owners here soon, who offered to talk about things and help out. I'm worried he's going to say something like "yea this'll take at least 6 months," or "yea this isn't going to work at all, back to the drawing board." In preparation I'm going to put a little more time in to our existing SketchUp design to better flesh out the build, but ultimately he gets the final say. In a way I'm annoyed we have this oversight, but this being my first brick and mortar as an owner, it's also nice to have more input from those with experience. 

Speaking of helpful input,

this week I talked to our roaster, or at least who I'd like to be our roaster. We only had 40 minutes so I quickly talked about my background, and they talked about their values, and how they can add value to their partnerships. I'm hoping to drive out and visit in person to continue the conversation because they seem like good people. I'm hesitant to say who until we've signed and talked a little more.

 Often roasters will try and hold cafes hostage by making them unsustainable without help; Things like providing cheap equipment rentals, syrups and regular training on teams with high turnover. I get the impression this roaster has my best interest and doesn't intend to take advantage of us for anything.

That's all for this week, keep kicking butt. You personally, you reading this, rule. :]

- Elias

Picking a Location, and Announcing Ours.

Good morning, I'm drinking Gao Wen Black Tea at home, listening to the new album by Parannoul, who are a great South Korean shoegaze band. I just went and saw our new sign above the building one more time to grab photos for Today's post. In the daytime it has our two main colors, a dark blue outline with an peach fill. I think they look great, and at night they're backlit to be a bright white with a blue outline. Some people were reading the sign on the front door when we pulled up which was also super cool to see. 

Our shop is in Mandarin, 12200 San Jose Blvd Suite 18, Jacksonville FL 32223

you can get there in at most 30 minutes from anywhere in the city

Let's talk about why it's there, and what I looked for in a location. 

I started by creating a map of every coffee shop in Jacksonville. Unfortunately I don't have it here for reference, but I'm sure it's out of date by now anyways. I was looking for minimal, if any, nearby specialty cafes, and areas that had roads that weren't all major highways. I thought I'd be able to just browse city feet and pick a location, but that felt like I was working backwards when the area was so important.

I began to drive through and get a feel for the areas, deciding if this was some place I would want to drive to grab coffee, or spend most of my time in once I started working there. I was looking for nearby grocery stores, restaurants, parks, community events etc. I stuck to Jacksonville because that's where I lived, and I didn't want to displace myself along with my partner while also looking to start a business. 

I settled on Mandarin because it seemed to check all the boxes

What I found was, it had state parks, baseball and soccer fields. It had a farmers market, a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, it had major chains and everything was strung together by San Jose Blvd which is medium speed road with beautiful overhead trees. Something else I noticed was a ton of McDonalds's, Dunkins, and Starbucks's nearby but not any specialty coffee. To me that said there was a place for it. 

Our closest neighbor would be Twisted Compass, and now Brass Tacks opening over the bridge in Fruit Cove, which was announced after I'd already signed a lease. To me those are still pretty much in another area, most of our competitors that weren't chains would be 5+ miles away. I think it's stupid to worry about your competition before yourself, but it's also stupid to pretend you have no competition. 

So finding a building

This is going to sound silly but the first thing I looked for was a place facing east. Having natural sunlight in the morning is super important, and of the few places available in Mandarin, many of them faced west or had a large overhang that blocked out the sun. I would ask to tour in the morning or afternoon.

That said, I spent months just contacting leasing agents and companies to try and tour places. A lot of buildings had been empty for a long time, or had landlords who don't live in this city or state that were difficult to get ahold of. It got to a point where I was going on LinkedIn to try calling the personal numbers of people listed on the building. I started searching in late March and didn't actually sign a lease until July, to give you an idea of that time frame. 

Go Big or Go Small?

All I wanted was an empty building so I could put in a bathroom and a bar top. This was actually pretty hard to find. Most of the buildings were twice the size I needed and required a ton of demolition work or modifications just to simplify them because they used to be restaurants or stores with lots of partition (non load bearing) walls. I was thinking I wanted a 1200 sq/ft building, but realistically when it was all gutted I needed about half that. So I started going small, and it was still crazy the price variation I found in Mandarin.

Buildings near each other that all basically had the same quality of interior at 800-1200sq/ft were renting anywhere from $1200-$3500+ a month. At one point I just had to leave a meeting because the price I was given was so much higher than I anticipated. I was going to completely remodel anyways, so I picked a small place that had seen better days, deciding that saving the money on rent would be worth the construction costs. 

At that point things started to feel real, and it wasn't too much more work to sign. We've had this building for about two months now and while we haven't gone far with construction, we're on the way. 

Thanks for reading,

- Elias

Pumpkin Spice Season, Architect Workflow.

 It's Saturday and I'm having my second pumpkin drink of the season at Brass Tacks Coffee. I can't believe we're entering fall! We don't get much of a weather change here in FL, but I'll be heading north at the end of next month and I'm looking forward to hot drinks in cold weather. Hot ciders and chocolates growing up in Minnesota were some of my first coffee shop memories.

We live in a Post-Third-Wave world, and people are ready to start making fun of cafe's doing pumpkin or apple drinks in autumn. Personally I see them as tradition and love them, I always look forward to silly Halloween drinks in October too; Drinks named after candy bars and pumped full of chocolate. I'm 100% going to have those drinks when the time comes, and I'm 100% going to give candy to anyone in costume Halloween week/end.

As for the shop, we're tasting Tea and waiting on the Architect.

I'm a huge fan of tea, at my first serious café job we had a wall of 30 teas at any given time. The owner liked the weird stuff like Yerba Mate, Rooibos, smoked and dried ginger tea; She made me like it too. A few years later I helped a kombucha company with tasting and ordering teas, we would also grow and dry a lot of our own ingredients there. It was all really interesting and engaging.

I had a few suppliers in mind who sourced nice tea, but they were mostly from outside the country. Hugo Tea from Kansas, US messaged me and sent some samples this week that I've really been enjoying. I'll have to give more thoughts on those next week as I'm still working my way through. 

The Architect told me he'd have plans ready from the engineer by Friday. He did not.

 I know better than to expect something that "should be ready by the end of the day Friday", to actually be ready on Friday, and not Monday. In this case it was especially disappointing however, because for one we're already a week behind schedule, and for two it's a three day weekend. Ideally we speak on Tuesday and I can have a general contractor in line by the end of next week. 

The workflow of Architect to Contractor goes like this. 

The Architect gets you legally in line, he adapts the ideas or plans you give him into plans that will work for the state, the health dept, and contractors doing the work. Before finalizing, if he's not confident or wouldn't like to be liable, he will speak with an engineer who will approve the MEP (Mechanical electrical plumbing.) 

Then the business owner approves the plans, then the property owner approves the plans, then you can get started. Depending on your contract, the Architect may hold onto the work until completion; Meaning they'll do construction administrative work, and do the bidding to hire contractors. But more than likely you'll need to hire a general contractor who will do the bidding on individual contractors for water, electric, etc. 

Right now, I'm still waiting on the final draft of the plans, to bring to the property manager and then a general contractor. I'm not confident my Architect has been listening to me, I've only managed to get him on the phone twice. However I'm the type of person who reads the EULA, so we'll have a long talk on Tuesday :^).

Have a great long weekend everyone - Eli

Do your homework, Sleep on it, Do it again.

 It's Saturday afternoon, just hit up the farmers market and now I'm having espresso and cake at 'Brew' in Downtown Jacksonville. I'm listening to Belle and Sebastian's 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' album. A nice folk-rock Saturday, I was offered sparkling water with the 'spro, which is always super appreciated, one of the best regular gestures in coffee. This week I got moved into a house nearby and am finally mentally back on track. 

It's been a couple weeks since sending back the first Architect draft. As of Thursday we've been in communication for a month now total, and I was told we'd be ready to go in 3-4 weeks. So I email the architect to ask what's up. I ask if they're considering a carbon filter and a grease trap, I ask if I should be reaching out to the state or the Dept of Agriculture (as a cafe, I'm in their jurisdiction, whereas a restaurant would fall to the health dept.). He said he's working with contractors to get the 'MEP' (mechanical electrical plumbing) ready, and needs the manuals of all equipment. 

Suddenly, well before I expected to buy it, I need to decide on all my equipment.

This is a big deal. Equipment means the menu the cost and the workflow are mostly in stone. I had this impression that once the counters were built, I could decide on what makes sense. Like, a month or two from now. Realistically we need to consider equipment in advance to be ready for the build size, plumbing, and electrical. Luckily I had done all this, but sending the model numbers would have a sense of finality that I wasn't ready for. 

So I used this opportunity to do my homework one more time.

This is the fourth time in the last 6-7 months I've looked at all my equipment, compared it, price matched it, thought about it practically. Every time I do this I feel like I come away more confident and learn a little bit more. The first time it took me actual weeks, this most recent time it took about 8 hours. I wonder if I should do more, if I should finally get that barista hustle subscription or buy that new book Sprudge is promoting so that I feel ready. Ultimately you have to step away from the rabbit holes and have confidence in yourself, but as a good rule of thumb, sleeping on decisions does a lot for your perspective. 

This week I was given the vinyl samples for our sign above the building and was told they'll likely fade out if we don't choose other colors. Looking at our other options, doing some mockups, sharing them, and sleeping on it; I chose to stick with our original colors anyway, because they felt like the best fit faded or not, and that felt like a hard call! But our vinyl guy respected it and I appreciated him stopping to ask. Sometimes you have to say no to preserve your vision, remember your collaborators on your side and you're working towards a common goal. 

Another reason it's important to do your homework and take your time >>> If you're working with professionals and you aren't ready to make a call, they will make it for you. Tell them you need a day, talk to your friends or your partners, think about it every step of the way. DO THE HARD WORK NOW, IT'S NOT GOING AWAY!

Okay, have a great weekend!

 - Elias

Make the Worst Drink Better!! Book Recc #3

 Good morning! It's Saturday! It's pouring rain! I'm home drinking the rest of this Colombia Mildred-Munoz coffee from Relampago in St. Augustine. It's almost a month old now but has really maintained it's vanilla/guava flavor. This week has been pretty productive! I had cavities filled on Tuesday, I got locked out of my Facebook account which has kept me off my phone (I had no Idea how many apps need a Facebook login), we got the keys to our new house, and I got the first draft of the architect's plans! 

Essentially these plans include an overhead layout and fire rating of all the walls, demolition plans for the floors and partition walls we want to take down, and the look/build of the coffee bar. There are also plans for the "finishes" of every surface, meaning flooring, painting, tiling, and countertops. I was really surprised at how much they were able to draw without an in-person visit, but I had a few notes on what was missed and now we're waiting on a second draft. Next week assuming we have that draft I'll go over this process more in depth. 

This week we're talking about Consistent Drink Quality! 

There are some layers to this, but what it comes down to is making sure you have bomb espresso before you worry about that seasonal latte. Think about how the majority of your menu affects the majority of your customers, and how you're more likely to deliver a consistently great experience if you can nail those simple every day drinks that often get taken for granted. 

That's Making the Worst Drink Better.

Today I'm referencing the awesome book "What I Know About Running Coffee Shops." This has to be the most comprehensive book on opening a café that I've read so far, unfortunately the physical edition with shipping is like 70$ here in the states at the time of writing. I'd recommend the kindle edition so you can flip back and forth. 

My three favorite lessons from this book so far are 'go big or go small' (keep the space simple rather than taking half measures), the weird 'milk bottleneck' (if you're busy, try having someone constantly just on milk steaming), and of course 'make the worst drink better'.

As we're constantly worrying about what's next, and having FOMO on nitro cold brew or whatever's popular, we need to keep in mind that a really good simple drink will do a lot more for your reputation in the long run. I had a conversation with someone last month who I hadn't talked to since before starting this project, and there first comment was something like "I'm sure you'll make really high quality drinks." Which I spend a lot of time thinking about. 

I'd much rather have a small excellent menu, where you can taste every piece of the pie. Where my Barista's are psyched about the quality of the chocolate in the mocha, or the sourcing of the milk in our lattes. Where we are more worried about having the best vanilla latte, than we are about having surprising seasonal drinks every month. We'll get there for sure, but it is so super important that we're paying attention from the bottom up to really knock it out of the park when we reach the top.

That's all for today, thank you everyone for reading, 

- Elias

What the Hell, Dream Big Man! Book Recc #2

It's been a steady week, I'm at home buckling down with some V60 brews and piano soundtracks by Sakai Asuka, trying to get ahead of schedule while the architect works on our building outline, and before I have to move houses this month. I got some dental work done (ow!), wrote some outlines for upcoming blogs, and I'm generally getting my life together before it gets really chaotic.

In last week's blog we talked about one lesson from an awesome book on re-evaluating your relationship with customer service, which was "Setting the Table" by Danny Meyers. The lesson being that you and the customer are on the same side! Again I would recommend that anyone working with or for people check this book out, it's a very easy read full of stories and simple concepts. In contrast this week, we're going  with a heavier book.

This week I want to talk about taking on the world!

Not too long ago, I finished The Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki, which is described as "the time tested battle-hardened guide for anyone starting anything." It is a book about creating a bullet proof business, bleeding with the sentiment that you could be the next Google if you only try.

This was not a fast read, but it was absolutely worth the time. It covers everything from the typical MBA concepts you see repeated in every business book like defining your niche and creating a profitable structure, to the importance of creating a mission you can believe in then evangelize for, and how to take care of those who believe in or work for you. 

It has some fun stuff like stories of when each concept went right or wrong, and some dull stuff that may never apply; The ultra specifics of bootstrapping fundraising pitching and building your team, along with Q&A, to the ultra ultra specifics of pitching from within a company and what to do when things go wrong. 

One line that stood out to me was "What the Hell, Dream Big Man!"

I've had to repeat this to myself over and over again like a mantra while working on this business. There's a lot of feeling like "I shouldn't do this, it would be too hard or it's not for me, I have no idea how to get started." Almost like you won't be ready until you're ready! The truth is you're never ready! Who's stopping you?! You have to envision that high goal post and start taking steps forward. 

This book is ultra practical for doing just that, it's assuming you're on the way to being fortune 500, and laying out your battle plan. It's been inspirational to work my way through as I continue tackle projects over my head. 

The literal interpretation is more like "Behind every great business is an idea, and if your idea won't change the world then maybe it's not worth doing. So what the hell, dream big!" 

In my case, the idea was to "give people the energy they need to take on the world." To me that is a valuable goal, and I'm going to build on that goal to take it as far as I can. 

That starts here with this blog, where I'm hoping to share the process of everything I'm doing. It extends to our tiktok where I try new coffees and share the love of that ritual. Eventually I'll get to make those daily positive connections, hopefully hiring employees so I can create jobs that pay a living wage and have a positive impact on their lives. I'd also like to make a seating area for groups and individuals working on what's next. 

Ya know? it goes it goes it goes, limitless. believe in yourself and believe in your goals, set them as high as you want. have a great week.

- Elias

You & the Customer Are on the Same Side ! Book Recc #1

 Good Morning, what's up! I'm crushing some espresso over ice, listening to Kanye's Graduation album. I'm glad it's Saturday, what a week. First a little shop update.

We settled on an architect who'll be covering the game plan. Last week our quote was 6k, by this time we've got it down to about 4k. Our contract includes a revision, so once we get back our translated 3d plans next week, we'll talk about what makes sense and what needs to change. From there I should have a good idea of what the shop will actually look like. 

This week I want to talk about people

It's been a good and a bad week for people. On Tuesday I picked up some "big drip" beans and got to talk with @904coffee, on Friday I got a super sweet care package from @valor.coffee , and later that night played poker with friends. That said it's been a stressful week at my day job, lots of getting yelled at. We file taxes and it was a tax filing deadline, go figure. 

When you're getting frustrated at a job where you help others, it's easy to feel like the people coming in the door are the enemy. like they're coming in with a problem and it's your job to solve it.

I try to remember my favorite lesson from an awesome book, "setting the table." that the customer and I are on the same side.

When people are mad at you they're normally frustrated by something out of your control, they're pissed at something that has nothing to do with you, and you don't need that burden in your life. So don't worry about it. they're coming to your business, they're going out of their way to have an interaction with you, this is an opportunity to be there for them in a positive way and even make a connection. 

This is an opportunity to help them out and be on the same team! if they're coming in to complain about something at your work, own it! Like hey did we mess up your order? cool thanks for letting us know let's make it happen. have a great day! I'll see you tomorrow and we'll be on the same side. 

Perspective is huge, and no I don't think I'm kidding myself.

Listen, some people are going to be dicks, obviously. But if you make the mental decision that you're on the same team and working towards the same goal then they're allies, not enemies. They can't take that away from you! If you're both really trying to get them to that awesome cup of coffee, and you can't make it happen for them, then no sweat. they'll find another shop and you'll feel fine.

Being on the same side means that every person walking through your door is a friend, and that's a great place to be. I hope you liked this blog, this will be one of three in a series referencing books. See ya next Saturday.

- Elias 

Architect Hunting

It's Saturday night, and I just got back from Orlando. I was there earlier today to visit the sick design studio @hellcats.usa for their 5th anniversary, and had an awesome Onyx Tanzanian coffee from @theglassknifewp , it was warm and well balanced, dark roast but a little fruity as it cooled down. served in a decanter so I could pour as much as I wanted and it keep it hot. good stuff. I was listening to Outkast's Stankonia on the drive and finished up "the art of the start 2.0" which is a great business startup book. shout out to Guy Kawasaki.

After a week of playing phone tag I'm waiting on one more quote.
Like a lot of things right now as we approach post-covid, Architect's are backed up with work. So the front desks and website help forms were a blessing when it came to getting a foot in the door. I managed to get one rock solid quote, and I'm hoping for at least one more this Monday. I'm going to break down that process.

First I needed to find an architect, I thought I could just look up businesses that were well reviewed on google but I mostly ended up speaking with giant companies who pointed me to other slightly less giant companies. Eventually I found a smaller guy who could hold a conversation.

That person asked me a lot of questions and together we outlined what I would need. My expectations were just consultation on what was legally required, for example a permit to remove a partition wall (a small wall that is not floor to ceiling), but we also needed a complete floor plan for the state and for MEP work (mechanical / electrical /plumbing).

I asked him, is this quote fair for a build out of my size?

the answer was a sort of "ehhh, you could do better or worse." His minimum price for all this was around 6k, and that minimum size was 1500sq/ft , more than double my build out. I thanked him for the quote, but told him I would like to get another one before moving forward.

Thanks to him I know knew the right questions, and I took those questions to more architects. I probably contacted ten more and I did my best to cut to the chase on exactly what I needed. this helped me identify who was a bad fit.

I asked my property manager if she'd recommend anyone, and thankfully she had someone who had done work for other tenants and was a bit smaller. This person took my drawings and size in to consideration, so I'm interested to see how our work intersects.

Now we wait

These plans could take about a month to get back to me, and in the meantime I'm more or less sitting on my hands. I'll have to think about what I can work on, I've spent the last 6 months planning on paper so I feel like I've covered my bases haha, but there's always more to do. Thanks for reading everyone,

- Elias

Two New Pairs of Keys

 It's Saturday night! these posts are getting later and later. I'm listening to the sort of country jam album "an old smile" by Macabre Plaza. On my second(?) coffee of the day. For me like 6oz of drip coffee in the morning is normally enough, it's been a long day haha. It's been a week of getting up early and staying up late.

On Tuesday I met with our sign maker

I went out and met the owner of Shark Signs downtown, he was a super nice guy and we talked about Zaba's!!! a little coffee shop on the beach in St. Augustine. I used to live down the road and knew the owner so we connected over it. I haven't gotten up early and had a friendly professional conversation like that in so long, it's what I love most about doing small business and it filled my soul. The sign is a little ways away, we should have a temp "coming soon" pylon highway sign soon.

On Wednesday it was my birthday, I got keys to the building. and found a house. 

I took the day off and met with the property manager early, the place is a mess and they couldn't even sweep the bugs up before handing it over.  but it felt really nice to be in there at last. I've been working on paper since February so to actually be in the space was refreshing. especially after weeks of saying "next week" or "sometime soon" 

Later on that day I toured a house with my partner and it was perfect. we're going to move in next month. For the last 6 years I've moved at least once a year, via apartments or friends kindness, for one reason or another. So this is also a surreal resting place. the lease is 2 years. the cycle is over.

We got breakfast at Brew Coffee in downtown jax, and i went to go have more coffee with my mom later that day then visit friends. it was a long and excellent birthday.

Today I went in and put down some tape.

I paid JEA and got the lights on, then went out this morning to sweep the shop for the first of many times. it was pretty rough, the worst part was thinking I could pick up some fake wood boards laying on the ground, only to find out they were covered in undried wood glue. after cleaning my hands I tossed them in the trash bag, which they immediately stuck to and ripped apart -_-'''

once the floor was clean I taped out where things would go based on my 3d model. It definitely looks a little different in person, thankfully we're going to have more space for seating because I made the bar too long haha. I want to do one accent seating piece, so I'm thinking of building a bench area and then having some tables and chairs too. 

Here's the print I was using today to space everything out.

The space is about 600 sq/ft

i'm going to shorten the bar vertically a bit, and have that bench on the bottom right wrap around almost like a mirror image, two L shaped tetris pieces. I'd like a mural on the right hand wall, and some more seating on the left hand side. 

Unfortunately I have double doors (thankfully they open out) meaning my seating has to be creatively compressed towards the walls.  

Designing in 3d has been a lot more work than I anticipated, but not at all impossible for a beginner. For anyone interested I did this in google SketchUp. I promise that if you're looking into beginner 3d like this it works great, just be mindful of importing too many big models as it runs off cloud. 

I'll be happy to share some more images once I'm more confident in the space, right now it looks nothing like this and has a bunch of partition walls, it used to be a dog grooming spot haha.

 Now that I have the space and an idea of the layout, next is trying to pin down an architect to advise me legally. I'm excited for what's to come, this next month is going to be super busy! thanks for reading!

- Elias

The Sign Above the Building Reads "COFFEE"

Happy Saturday y'all, after a few hours of driving around to banks and UPS stores I'm at a cafe, listening to the 2020 Yves Tumor album and drinking an iced vanilla oat milk latte. In a much better mood, should never have slept on Yves. Plus this shop Brass Tacks is playing skate videos on a flat screen again which always make me happy. they haven't had these in months!

So this week I got insurance on lock, i got a line of business credit on lock, i've got some sign proposals lined up for above the building and out on the highway. Progress.

still can't actually enter the building because they're working on some HVAC fixes, which I super appreciate but it's another week I'm at a standstill. thankfully the property manager was cool with me reaching out to sign contractors. I was fortunate to find the exact guy who did the last tenants sign here and he waived inspection fees. he's also been great to work with generally.

The sign above the building is just going to say "COFFEE"

The first time I saw this and it looked good was on the side of the building "High Five Coffee" in North Carolina. This spot rules. They do new Barista-designed specials all the time with crazy ingredients, even bringing in collabs on stuff they wouldn't normally carry to make it happen. they have a transparent training program and a farmland aesthetic. makes my heart sing. anyways check out this building graphic. I love it. and it just says "coffee". I was like "woah you can do that???"

It got me thinking, It doesn't matter if you have dope aesthetics if you can't find your audience. My mom was the first to say "how are people going to know tetherball is a coffee shop." referring to the name. So I've made it no small mission to make that happen. I want people driving by to know it's coffee, and from there let the place speak for itself.

And we're not the only industry doing this, a lot of shops that exist to fill a roll will use this idea to get a foot in the door. A tattoo shop sign may just say "tattoo" and get a ton of walk ins. but for most repeat customers, the people working there are incredibly important once they check it out.

To a lesser extent, plenty of Chinese food or pizza places have the same name and will get me in the door once that way, because I'm nearby and can quickly recognize that's what's up. i'm grabbing food. the same goes for coffee.

Here are a few of the designs we tried out

So we're part of a shopping center, meaning we have a rectangular spot on the highway sign, originally we were thinking of going with a white background, but that posed two problems. First it blended in with many of the other signs. Especially those that had clearly withered away as the weather got to them. Second the pink all looked like white, so with such a thin outline you could barely read it from a distance. The strong blue is truer to our aesthetics and looks great.

To maintain our appearance as it aged, and be spotted from farther away we settled on the dark blue with pink lettering for the highway.

For above the building we stuck with the original design, I like this one for a few reasons. Mainly it matches it's neighbors, I didn't want to go boxy in this location and stand out in a negative way. I'm sure the 3d lettering will help the blue outline pop.

Plus our logo really stands out in this one, more so once it's backlit. The ball on a string or pole here is also a really cool way to allude to our name. we'll likely have a vinyl "tetherball" on the windows in front.

All this said, we're still pending approval from the land manager! so who knows, but this is the plan.

Once these go up i'll be transparent about exactly where we are, right now I'm playing coy. I don't want to make anyone feel like this is happening sooner than it is haha, I still don't have the keys! But it's coming along, thanks for reading and have a great weekend everyone ✌

- Elias

Another Week of paperwork

It’s noon and I’m eating cake

at @brewfivepoints coffee in Jacksonville, it’s their 7th year anniversary. I’m listening to what sounds like their party mix over the speakers, and there are balloons on the floor. I’m Out here to tour houses nearby, and pick up their collab coffee with @theflamingojax for the event. I’ll post a tiktok pour sometime soon. It’s got a really interesting taste and a cool bag by @deedoersch 

Didn’t expect to be house hunting while building out the shop this year, availability is scarce and I’ve already got a lot on my plate; But much like moving during the height of the pandemic last year, we’re rolling with the punches. 

Last blog I mentioned that we should be in a building by this weekend. But I ended up being the middle man for a week of back and forth insurance related phone calls and emails. No dice. Funnily enough my insurance agent and property manager have the same name. 

So I still don’t have keys to the building

Which has given me some more time to move money around and learn things like quickbooks and square. I even made a Pinterest account to start collecting reference material, But I’m still at a standstill on everything else.

I’m going to work on a 3d concept in google sketch up this week and I might share that here if it turns out legible. But I’m hesitant to decide on too much, because a lot of how I feel about what should go where will be affected by me standing in the space.

Thanks for reading everyone, have a great Fourth of July weekend 🎉

- Elias 

Branding! We're Insured! We're almost standing in a space!

 It's Saturday and I've got almost a full free day to work on the business. listening to the new Tyler the Creator album, the one that looks like that ODB 'return to the 36 chambers' album cover. I think my favorite song right now is WILSHIRE, this is a post IGOR album cycle but that uncomfortable relationship stuff is still fun to listen to and i'm glad a little bit made it's way over. 

this last week the business got insured! I got quickbooks!  we've got a brand guide in stone to start planting seeds on the look of the business. we're putting some money down and getting into things.

Just to touch on the Branding quick!

This has been a month or two of going back and forth with Mike Csorba our designer. I gave him pages of honest comments and he responded with pages or redesigns, alt colors, and a brand bible. Even going above and beyond to flesh out themes and concepts. Can't wait to put these to use!! with anything creative it's fantastic to have two or more people to discuss with. Also Google cloud FINALLY has a drag and drop folder system, so that's been hella helpful. anyways, 

Hopefully we are physically standing in a building by next week

meaning I can get some contractors in the place to get started on a sign out front, I can get permission to destroy the weird half partition walls that made the building whatever it was before. put some flooring down, paint the walls, replace the moldy drop ceiling. all that good stuff.

We went with a pretty beat up space so we could get some decent rent, the area we're looking at is a little expensive, but the neighborhood is cozy and I wouldn't have it any other way. we're gonna clean this place up and make this work. 

Next we're diving in to the expensive stuff

I want to do as much as I can by myself. I want to build the bar, put the floors down, and paint the walls. But the reality is, going through a stiff leasing company means I need to use an architect, specific contractors, and take careful documentation of everything. which is going to cost a nebulas amount of money even for my tiny space, and take some things out of my hands.

I've done my best to use some home building sites to get rough quotes on everything, and spoken to some other business owners online. but ya never know what it'll cost until you're paying for it! I spoke with Lobos coffee roasters in Orlando and the owner told me he got hit with a grease trap installation at half my business cost because he had a dish washer. I don't have a dishwasher (sorry future employees). But I do probably need a grease trap.

And I'm afraid of the unexpected costs, but I'd rather be psyched out now than on opening day.

Just gotta remember that two months from now i'll have a better idea of the costs, they're not gonna kill me, I'll have homies behind me, and 3 months ahead of me to open doors before I need to pay rent. 

Once we're there it's going to feel great, can't wait, peace

 - Elias

Signed the lease, baby steps

     It's Sunday morning, I'm drinking some Colombian La Chiquita Coffee from Brandywine out of Delaware, this coffee tastes a lot like orange juice! they have a barrel aged natural on their site that is probably even more intense.

I'm listening to the newish album "Devotion (Deluxe)" by Planet 1999. Kind of Reminds me of  "vegyn" or some other bubbly escape room / IDM. I'm going to start linking these here. Check it out!

So we signed the lease on a building last Wednesday!

my next task is to get insured and get the plans reviewed by the state, permit holding peeps, and the property manager. well actually, I have a whole bunch to do.

After signing, I have a no rent period of about 5 months, so I thought i'd have more time, but...

I have 30 days to get all the things listed above done, to show that i'm working on this actively. A lot of it was listed in a long dense lease, so it wasn't super easy to parse what was mandatory and what was filler or didn't apply to me specifically. Thankfully our property manager has been super nice about answering questions and pointing me in the right direction. Professionals are just people, but that's a topic for another day.

Here is how I manage myself when I have a lot to do. 

Break everything down into broad bullet points. Then as you work on these things, add notes below each bullet point. In this case, the property manager helped me define what needs to be done, so it was time to take those things and separate them. Time to eat the elephant one bite at a time. It may end up looking something like this:

1. Sign the lease

6/1/21

- talked to the leasing agent, i need x, x, and x,

6/8/21

- now that I have x,x,x, I met with the agent and signed the lease

2. Get insured

6/13/21

- I am meeting with an insurance agent tomorrow.

3. Now you can physically enter the space, go inside and write out exactly what you want to do.

4. Draw the bones of these plans in google sketchup, and talk to an architect. (construction, water, electric)

5. once they've given you a floor plan + life safety plan, submit them to the city for a certificate of use.

You get the idea, anything can be simple once it's broken down into smaller parts. 

if you're not sure how to get started, talk to someone else or look up the specific questions bit by bit until you've formed a bigger picture. That's what i'm getting started with now. 

wherever you are in you plans, good luck! I believe in you! if today's not your day off, enjoy the next one you get! 

- Elias

The First Couple Things I Did to get Started

It's the middle of a day on a Saturday, I'm drinking an espresso and listening to the new EP by my favorite punk band "drinking boys and girls choir." Think classic TonyHawksProSkater NOFX or SUM41 but most of the vocals are sang softly in Korean. getting pumped up

Right now I'm trying to appreciate the time I have off before really jumping into everything.

Last week we became official in FL, and this week we have an EIN with the IRS. we are real we are a business!!! I'm planning on signing a lease this Wednesday, meaning once we deliver proof of insurance, they deliver the space. 

This took a ton of fumbling around very slowly with some things I thought I needed to do, but had no way to do quickly and effectively, because they all kind of touch on each other. It was a learning process with a lot of back and forth, and that was okay. Baby steps count, they’re progress, there is a correct path you’re waddling along.

Getting started I assumed I would need to do three things first.

1. Find & Read a lot of books, hope they point me in the right direction

Pros: In almost every case these cover the general business owner stuff you should be told. Mainly how to be a good leader, how to define then sell a product that will make you money, and how not to let your emotions get the best of you. Stuff I probably needed to read at least once.

Cons: I wasted a lot of time reading irrelevant and identical information. These books are mostly the same broad basic concepts, and when specialized cover mostly topics that will be specific to their scenarios or regions. 

• But hey that’s okay. No books are a magic bullet that will tell you exactly what to do. Drilling some of these common ideas into your head will put you in a good mindset, and help the really special stuff stand out.

Flat out the most helpful was "What I know about running coffee shops" by the owner of the Dublin Cafe 3FE. A couple of important pieces of info I took away were "make the worst cup better, go big or go small, and milk is slowing you down". that said, still a lot of excess. 

• Unfortunately the legal stuff was Ireland specific, and I do not live in Ireland. So when I started tossing terminology around I sounded like an idiot haha. Thankfully I did figure out where those lessons applied pretty quickly.

2. Write a business plan / cost excel / cost companion guide etc.

Pros: these docs will come up again and again, these are your id badge that say "i've thought a lot about this idea." Both you and the people around you will want to see these constantly. So yes! they are crucial.

Cons: these will not be something you write once and reference forever. You don't know what you're doing right away and these are going to feel like guess work the first few times, but don't worry. These are a combination of all your other documents and hard work.  These will always be evolving and they will come together in the end.

• Ultimately these will be more useful to you when you have a location picked out, so don’t sweat them too much in the beginning. Just remember they will be useful and keep using them. 

• Keep a dated notebook so you can keep track of everything and brain dump once in awhile, you’ll feel better if you do.

3. Get a lawyer and make sure I was legal

Pros: This will guarantee that your butt is covered, and get you in touch with people you might need help from later. You will be able to ask them questions and they will either know the answers, or know someone else that does. They will be sympathetic to your plight and be honest about their thoughts. 

Cons: They cost a decent amount of money to do things you could ultimately do yourself, and they will take more time to do so. I've lost at least a month of time waiting on parts of the process. They also add another barrier between yourself and gears in the machine, which may cause unnecessary stress in my experience. 

Ultimately it’s nice to know these people, but if you really don’t want to spend the money, I honestly don’t know that they would have been necessary to my work so far.

Basically all these things worked out for me, BUT

I wouldn't say they were all totally necessary. It's hard to know the right questions to ask in the beginning, and through doing these things I was able to find those questions. My advice would to be stick to what you know you NEED. If you need a space, go talk to a leasing agent. If he tells you to get a business plan and an EIN, go write that and talk to the IRS. Eventually you'll find your way through. Anything is possible! You got this! Forever!

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend

- Elias

Welcome to Tetherball, and Why "Tetherball"?

Welcome to our website, and sincerely thank you for being here.

This post is going up on the first day our name and social media is public. We're official with Florida as of yesterday after months of work, and hopefully with the IRS too by early next week. So it feels like a good time.

I'm at Brass Tacks Coffee, where a large amount of the work so far has been done via my 5yr old Chromebook and the google cloud. I'm drinking an espresso on ice, and listening to Equip's Cursebreaker album. I come here every Saturday morning with my boyfriend Dakota, and we work on personal projects. Dakota is actually doing his first public art event at the Vagabond Coffee Flea this Sunday, please come and buy us out or at least say Hi.

the point of this blog is to chronicle the journey. To show what it takes to open a coffee shop or your own small business, and my thoughts along the way.

Since I just announced the name let's start there. Why "Tetherball?"

It started with the mission. Two things I wish I would have done before starting any of this, that are super central to everything:

1. decide on the mission

This is your why. It's not because you want to make money or because you want to make coffee every day, as cool as those things are. Your friends, family, and followers don't care about you making money or having coffee. they could go to McDonalds for that.

They want to stand with you because you're doing things that are great, and changing the world. you're making great coffee and being great company. you're being their rock or being their rocket fuel.

in our case the mission is just that. we want to give people the energy to keep hitting that ball, both literally and emotionally. The tools they need might be coffee, a good conversation, or this blog to tell them what the difference between and LLC and an S corp is; so they don't give up when they hit a specific wall.

2. decide on a name and theme that go along with that mission

So what makes sense for our mission? Well I want to be relentlessly positive, fun, colorful, energetic and a little punchy. I don't want to be too serious but I want to keep it simple and effective.

I spoke with family, friends, and eventually a friend who happened to be a designer to outline a brand (Shout out to Mike Csorba)

Eventually I was split between "love yr" and "tetherball", but there were a few reasons why "love yr" couldn't work out. It was actually the favorite of just about everyone I told, I think having "love" in the title really helped haha. but it was difficult to google (thanks auto correct), it was too mellow, and I didn't love the color or branding prospects of red, hearts, etc. Too bad, I liked the idea of having branding slogans like "love yr friends" / "love yr coffee" / "yr gonna do great things".

So I stuck with my gut, to me the yellow tetherball is smiley face, it's getting knocked in the head, it's jumping up and hitting back, it's jumping over and over again to keep hitting back until you win the game, even if you're Napoleon Dynamite'ing it alone. It's stupid fun in the best way, it's energetic, sporty, authentic, and you can always walk away if you get tired.

It's not easy to get these things down

What I did originally was layout the spaces and aesthetics that inspired me in a long list, and then wrote out why I liked every space, and then narrowed it down to a top 10. (We are currently following all these Inspirational shops on Instagram if you're interested) Once I had the look I liked, I worked backwards towards a mission. This was really hard, it was like trying to pluck a balloon out of thin air. What I'd recommend you do instead is start with a couple of ideas that are important to you as the owner, and try to turn them into a goal that you can work towards. a mission!

this mission can be super short, one of my favorites is Cat and Cloud Coffee's old mission of essentially "leave people happier than we found them" (I think they've updated this)

this should not come before the ideas that make it up in my opinion, but everyone has their own process. TLDR Your mission and your name are hella important to the rest of the process, more posts to come.

thank you for reading, have a great weekend. Peace

- Elias

You Are Who You Want To Be

Good morning! i'm drinking the rest of some counter culture (los charapanos, Zumba Ecuador) I picked up at Varietal Coffee in Sarasota FL. They recently closed their location as part of the Overton, but it looks like they're gonna keep going, they rule so please go follow and support them forever. they were the only place I could find in Florida to try Kuura tea. a brand i've been buying as a gift and for myself, that sources some of the best Chinese tea period.

Anyways..

It's Thursday, this coffee is way dark but I made some chocolate chip muffins so it's pairing well. I hope you're also having a good day. I'm feeling pumped up. I'm going to write the first post here as an introduction to the mission and the attitude.
You know what's more important than remembering "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take?" Deciding that you're the type of person who takes those shots all the time. and not worrying about it if you forget to shoot.
If you say to others and to yourself, that you're a healthy person who loves vegetables and doesn't really drink soda; you're going to feel that pressure socially and when you're alone, to make those good decisions when it comes time. Even if you're actually eating poorly like 4 days a week, if you're making an effort to see yourself as someone who can do better, you will! you will! you already are.
You're making an effort to see yourself not as an unhealthy person who never works out anymore, but as someone who works out, and has been missing more days at the gym lately. Or can only go once or twice a week. Don't let go of the parts of yourself that are important to you, or think they've gone away because you can't make progress every day.
If you're doing something for yourself, you don't need to prove it to anyone. you're kicking butt at your level. and if you're not physically on it, you're mentally owning it.
- Elias