Today we completely scored! I made enough today to pay my quarterly taxes that I needed to come up with. There was no possible way I could have done it, except we just got featured in the Dixon Living Magazine with a 2 page color spread and some VERY kind words! I mean, we couldn't afford something like the thing they put together for us, but we got it for FREE! Thank you to Sauk Valley Publications for the most beautiful piece of work on our restaurant and the rave reviews!
So yeah, tomorrow night we go to 3 am! Tomorrow, if it is anything like today will be another record setting night! I am back to feeling confident in what we are doing here. GOD PROVIDES! My mom and I have totally been praying for that, and it has totally been provided. The timing was just golden. I was like, completely at the end of our rope, and just like in Matthew, when we are at the end of our rope, if we let go, He will catch us before we fall. That is when we know what an awesome God He is!
Anyways, long day ahead, so keep praying for me, and thanks for that. I love you all!
PS Happy Halloween!
:-)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
WHAT A CROCK (OF CHILI)
I had the chili cook off today. There were a grand total of eight chili cookers including myself. I was excited, thinking I had a pretty good chili. Not to mention that people were commenting that mine was the best they tasted. Well, we didn't win. Now, I'm from Chicago where we buy votes. So I was giving away free fries with my chili, and where I even bought 300 extra tickets so that I could win the people's choice award! Well when all the tickets were sold, after selling about 28 quarts (liters for those of you on the metric) of chili, they said I only had 450 tickets in my jar from tasters. I don't really believe this. The first place person (a local bar) had 675. Anyways, I didn't feel really good about having lost after spending a great deal of time and money in the competition. But I won't be bitter about it.
Small towns are difficult to maneuver in. I just let go of a really good employee. But he had a short fuse and I couldn't have him flipping out in front of customers or other employees. So despite his really good heart, and despite his "bust his ass" mentality for the job, I had to ask him to leave today. He cried, and I felt so badly. He is expecting a kid, and we hung out a few times together. I just couldn't keep him the way things were going. So that, is one of the few things I just don't like to do when I am a business owner, letting go of people who you grow to care about.
I don't know what else is going to happen this fall/winter. I just printed another 250 menus for the November 1st break out. We changed some of the prices, and I deleted those things that just weren't working for us. I changed the hours. But now I am out of printer ink (again). My laser printer is really getting used well. I still have a couple thousand dollars in bills coming due between rent on the house, insurance on the business, the federal tax bill, the payroll, the mortgage. But I still have one week to go for some I have two weeks. This coming weekend is Halloween and we are staying open later at night on the weekends for the bar crowd. That is both scary and exciting. I hope we do really well. I can completely use the thousand dollar days on Fridays and Saturdays, and I hope that will be the case. It will make up for all the winter months coming up. I can also use some more delivery business. I have some people who drive in from the neighboring towns now because of my french fries. And one lady who has a lovely English accent told me that she can never call them fries, but rather CHIPS. I smiled, thinking of New Zealand again, and of course, the hope of building this business over the next few years and selling to move there.
I still think of JL. Fool that I am. And I hope the dance academy coming up this year will feel proud to have one very gifted addition to their new class.
I'm off to bed. I need sleep. Long day today, but then, all of them are longer now. I can't wait for spring and summer to come back. Love you all!
Small towns are difficult to maneuver in. I just let go of a really good employee. But he had a short fuse and I couldn't have him flipping out in front of customers or other employees. So despite his really good heart, and despite his "bust his ass" mentality for the job, I had to ask him to leave today. He cried, and I felt so badly. He is expecting a kid, and we hung out a few times together. I just couldn't keep him the way things were going. So that, is one of the few things I just don't like to do when I am a business owner, letting go of people who you grow to care about.
I don't know what else is going to happen this fall/winter. I just printed another 250 menus for the November 1st break out. We changed some of the prices, and I deleted those things that just weren't working for us. I changed the hours. But now I am out of printer ink (again). My laser printer is really getting used well. I still have a couple thousand dollars in bills coming due between rent on the house, insurance on the business, the federal tax bill, the payroll, the mortgage. But I still have one week to go for some I have two weeks. This coming weekend is Halloween and we are staying open later at night on the weekends for the bar crowd. That is both scary and exciting. I hope we do really well. I can completely use the thousand dollar days on Fridays and Saturdays, and I hope that will be the case. It will make up for all the winter months coming up. I can also use some more delivery business. I have some people who drive in from the neighboring towns now because of my french fries. And one lady who has a lovely English accent told me that she can never call them fries, but rather CHIPS. I smiled, thinking of New Zealand again, and of course, the hope of building this business over the next few years and selling to move there.
I still think of JL. Fool that I am. And I hope the dance academy coming up this year will feel proud to have one very gifted addition to their new class.
I'm off to bed. I need sleep. Long day today, but then, all of them are longer now. I can't wait for spring and summer to come back. Love you all!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
TAXING! CHILI? WINTER BLAHS!
It is getting darker earlier. It comes with the season. The sun sets earlier and earlier every day. It sucks for me especially because I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is a mild depression which is caused by vitamin deficiencies when there is not as much sunlight. So come winter, I get down in the dumps. That with the uncertainty of life, and the future of the restaurant's success. I get to that funny feeling now and again like, not so much energy pumping through my veins as just the "winter blahs." It leaves me once the spring hits and the sun starts coming up earlier again, and staying later. And once again, I have a new "spring" in my step.
A couple days ago, I went to the accountant's office to pick up my payroll and find out how much was due on my taxes this month. It came to about $2,700 and I was flat broke. My mom TOTALLY helped me out this month. But she is also helping my brother out with the down payment on his new house. And I am happy she helped me out (AGAIN) and all. But I would like to get this restaurant to be self sufficient. This was the first quarter, and the first quarter is always the hardest. And the bad thing was this quarter was only through September. So now the next quarter taxes due will be in January for the months of October - December. I have some time and stuff, but then again, the next 4-5 months are going to be slower than usual. I need to pace myself and get my sales up.
We are going to be open starting October 31, until 3 am to cover the after bar rush. That is exciting! I also went over to the county jail trying to get a contract for one or two days a week of feeding inmates! That would be like an extra $300 - $700 a week in sales just from the JAIL! But those inmates would eat really good! Right now they get pizza, McDonald's, and other local restaurants. So we would be like a weekly or a twice a week treat for them.
We make our soups fresh, and the other day, I had my soup chef's wife drive them around town to the office buildings to give out, to advertise our daily soups. We also have a chili cook-off this Sunday! So hopefully I will win the people's choice for chili! Next month we have a cup of chili and an order of fries for $4.00 including tax! What a deal!
The other thing is we are getting more and more delivery orders, which is REALLY good! It is just a word of mouth right now with the advertising. We have tried radio, and news paper ads, but those just don't seem to work. And our telephone book ad looks really nice. So I hope that will work a bit for us. Deliveries and the whole variety we have on our menu should help us survive over the winter. But it is all just a long forecast that I hope will bring us over the top by next summer. When we are doing over $35,000 per month! I will be HAPPY! We need some hooks! If anyone has any ideas for marketing strategies that I may try, send them to me in a comment or something.
Until next time, love you all!
A couple days ago, I went to the accountant's office to pick up my payroll and find out how much was due on my taxes this month. It came to about $2,700 and I was flat broke. My mom TOTALLY helped me out this month. But she is also helping my brother out with the down payment on his new house. And I am happy she helped me out (AGAIN) and all. But I would like to get this restaurant to be self sufficient. This was the first quarter, and the first quarter is always the hardest. And the bad thing was this quarter was only through September. So now the next quarter taxes due will be in January for the months of October - December. I have some time and stuff, but then again, the next 4-5 months are going to be slower than usual. I need to pace myself and get my sales up.
We are going to be open starting October 31, until 3 am to cover the after bar rush. That is exciting! I also went over to the county jail trying to get a contract for one or two days a week of feeding inmates! That would be like an extra $300 - $700 a week in sales just from the JAIL! But those inmates would eat really good! Right now they get pizza, McDonald's, and other local restaurants. So we would be like a weekly or a twice a week treat for them.
We make our soups fresh, and the other day, I had my soup chef's wife drive them around town to the office buildings to give out, to advertise our daily soups. We also have a chili cook-off this Sunday! So hopefully I will win the people's choice for chili! Next month we have a cup of chili and an order of fries for $4.00 including tax! What a deal!
The other thing is we are getting more and more delivery orders, which is REALLY good! It is just a word of mouth right now with the advertising. We have tried radio, and news paper ads, but those just don't seem to work. And our telephone book ad looks really nice. So I hope that will work a bit for us. Deliveries and the whole variety we have on our menu should help us survive over the winter. But it is all just a long forecast that I hope will bring us over the top by next summer. When we are doing over $35,000 per month! I will be HAPPY! We need some hooks! If anyone has any ideas for marketing strategies that I may try, send them to me in a comment or something.
Until next time, love you all!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
DEATH AND TAXES
The two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. I know what they mean when they say that now. This month, I have about $3,000 in tax liability due. So I am nervous about that today. Actually, I have been nervous about that for the past couple weeks. For now, we have completely been stocked since we opened. We never once ran out of ANYTHING since we opened. Which is a good thing. I never want to inconvenience anyone by running out of stuff. I have worked at places like that before. And honestly, the way people leave when you run out of stuff is horrible. So we have consistently been getting compliment after compliment every day on the food. I had a couple hiccups along the way with some staff, but those things are going to happen.
I have a new roomate (border) who has a puppy pit bull. I have no problem having the puppy, but damn thing pissed on my carpet a couple times and on the couch once. That was enough to keep her OFF THE FURNITURE completely. I love dogs. It's been a while since I have been able to have one. I grew up with dogs all my life. But then I moved in an apartment when I was 15 and couldn't have one since. Although we did sneak one in at one apartment complex I lived in when I was in Marietta, Georgia. It was a beautiful black and white Siberian Husky with beautiful blue eyes. Her name was Dakota, and she was our baby! I still think of Scott Lorfing once in a while. Last I heard he is living in Florida with a wife and who knows. That was a long time ago. And some memories are better left in the past.
Today I need to go to Sterling to talk to the accountant about these taxes and pick up my payroll checks. I am still nervous about writing those checks. But for now, I am good. Business is a bit slower now that it is getting colder, but we are still steady. Indian Summer is coming up on us hopefully soon so we can get one more boost before the winter months. We have Halloween coming up and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Following that, we have nothing until March or April. Which is why I am looking into this Pool Hall thing. It is full of possibilities. I just need to find the additional $60,000 in financing if it takes even taking a partner on so that we can make it work.
It will work. It is a good location for this type of business. But for now, I need to get going. Have a good day. I know I don't get to get on here as often as I like. Please stay tuned! :-) Love you all!
I have a new roomate (border) who has a puppy pit bull. I have no problem having the puppy, but damn thing pissed on my carpet a couple times and on the couch once. That was enough to keep her OFF THE FURNITURE completely. I love dogs. It's been a while since I have been able to have one. I grew up with dogs all my life. But then I moved in an apartment when I was 15 and couldn't have one since. Although we did sneak one in at one apartment complex I lived in when I was in Marietta, Georgia. It was a beautiful black and white Siberian Husky with beautiful blue eyes. Her name was Dakota, and she was our baby! I still think of Scott Lorfing once in a while. Last I heard he is living in Florida with a wife and who knows. That was a long time ago. And some memories are better left in the past.
Today I need to go to Sterling to talk to the accountant about these taxes and pick up my payroll checks. I am still nervous about writing those checks. But for now, I am good. Business is a bit slower now that it is getting colder, but we are still steady. Indian Summer is coming up on us hopefully soon so we can get one more boost before the winter months. We have Halloween coming up and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Following that, we have nothing until March or April. Which is why I am looking into this Pool Hall thing. It is full of possibilities. I just need to find the additional $60,000 in financing if it takes even taking a partner on so that we can make it work.
It will work. It is a good location for this type of business. But for now, I need to get going. Have a good day. I know I don't get to get on here as often as I like. Please stay tuned! :-) Love you all!
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