Renovations and Rejuvenation

The past 4 weeks have been spent re-modeling EVERY aspect of the store. Every inch of that place has been cleaned, painted, sanded, molded, vacuumed, lysoled etc. It's amazing how much work has been put into that place in such a short amount of time.

Looking back we originally planned to close for 3 full days to complete our renovations. We are now on week 4 and have pretty much finalized everything we needed too. I'm glad that all of the labor intensive part is over and that we can focus on generating revenues, calculating profit margins, strategic selling, etc etc. I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and the challenges and surprises that seem to spring up every day.

Things to remember when starting a business:

* Task lists are IMPERATIVE: It is way to easy to become overwhelmed when you are at the bottom of the mountain looking up. By planning and prioritizing you can set goals and achieve milestones. When you look back at the day you have a detailed list of what you accomplished

* Set a bank account up, get a business credit card, checks and make sure your credit card machine is in your name and with the bank you want IMMEDIATELY!! What a hassle it becomes when you try to make changes to your financial aspects when you're up and running. I recommend settling all of this as soon as you get started!

* Decided on a name, email address, website , logo and business cards together. Have a good idea of what you want to call your business, what your email address etc will be. It's much easier to incorporate as the name you want from the get go so that you don't have to change your bank information, etc when you've already been operating.

* RECORD EVERY TRANSACTION!!! This is the ONLY way you will be able to have a clue where you stand from week to week. In order to project revenue for future periods, calculate margins, estimate your COGS and report taxes you MUST know where you stand financially at all times!

* Store your Tax ID#, Business Checking Account # and any other important often needed information in a readily accessible location it will save you a lot of headaches when your consistenly prompted for it.

Until next time: Don't waste time or time will waste you!