Opening the second store - The snowball effect that runs in your mind
It started a long, long time ago. That is, thinking about opening a second store, though certainly nothing serious. Then we found out Layla was going to have a baby brother or sister so all those potential plans were put on hold as a very conscious decision that this time, it was all about the family.
Then in 2013, Christian arrived, and he was about 6 months old when I was playing with him and I looked in his eyes and thought, ‘okay, let’s go.’
This is what I would call the very, very start of a very, very large snowball in the lead up to opening a new business. (or a large scary storm, but a snowball is nicer).
Because once that conscious decision was made, then all the steps start to take place. They start slowly at first, gaining momentum, getting faster and faster as the process moves along, until the final end of it when you (hopefully) open the doors and you’ve made it.
It starts with writing the business plan at night, and searching for properties through the day, either walking the streets, or signing up to numerous estate agents email alerts, or checking websites. Then it is planning the equipment, the costs, the potential revenue, the expenses, the staffing, the menus, the decor, the fit out, the builders, the designers. Then it is applying for funding, if you need to, and making sure all your necessary documents are in place and going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Then funding is approved, or it is rejected so you work on it again, then it is approved, then you find a site, then you apply, present to the landlord, they accept, you go to solicitors, negotiate the lease, go back to the solicitors, again, and again, and again and you finally get the keys and the builders are ready and the designers are set and the fit out begins and the pressure starts to rise then all the smaller, in many cases really important decisions, start to mount up as the snowball (or storm) starts to get bigger and bigger and you are not even open yet and then there are more decisions to make and things to plan or problems to solve or staff to organise and recruit and interview and induct and then the builders say, ‘um, we have a problem’ then most people in the process say ‘um, we have a problem’ and you have to deal with it as you have to deal with everything as the snowball gets bigger and the storm gets wilder but you are all calm and collected because your detailed planning is detailed and planned and there is no going back now and anyway, that which does not kill you makes you stronger.
Then what I call the critical path analysis, with all your critical dates and important things to do is pretty much left alone as the snowball is singing ‘don’t stop me now! I’m having a good time, I’m having a ball’ and is going absolutely full pelt down the path taking everything with it and you have just a few more weeks or days to go and it is all coming into place but every decision you make (and there is SO, SO many), is just making the snowball get bigger and bigger and then you finally, after all this, open. Phew.
It is seriously massive. This giant snowball has caught you up in it’s path and then finally throws you out to the wild.
18 months later 15 Eastcastle street opened and Christian had just turned 2.
It really is quite a ride. Seriously quite incredible. Then all you have to do is operate it and not stuff it up.
Note: Another post altogether is about the SO, SO many decisions you have to make and the actual/possible consequences of these decisions.
Peter Dore-Smith
Director
Kaffeine Ltd
66 Great Titchfield st.
15 Eastcastle st.
