Not Thursday Survey

I know it is not Thursday but since it is new years I want to know:

What beer will you cheers with at midnight tonight? 

Cheers!

A Peek at the Construction Site

We got a little peek inside the construction site today.

It was really exciting to see what’s behind all that plastic.

Turns out we are closer the the movie theater side than we thought. The wine shop will be right next to Gertrude Hawks and then us. 😊

Cheers!

First Distributor Meeting

I met with a distributor this past week. It was very interesting. They are very loyal to their breweries and eager to share little tid bits about the ones that have burned them. It appears that each brewery has a contract with a distributor (which makes sense) but if the distributors don’t have that contract I have to go find another distributor. Like right now I need to find a distributor fro Stone brewery. Here are the craft beer highlights from meeting with Spirit & Sanzone:

The one we are very excited about and what will give us all the unique and interesting beers is Remarkable Liquids. Check out that list!!

Cheers!

 

Thursday Survey – 12/22/16

I have a few days off for the holidays coming up and during some of those days Joel and I (and anyone else that wants to join in ) are going to come up with a list of breweries and beers that we MUST have at our shop.

What beers do you think MUST be in our store? 

Can’t wait to hear what you got! Please share!

Cheers!

Confusion With the Feds

I got a call from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). A young woman named Angel informed me that all of the crazy (and extremely odd) forms I filled out on their website are unnecessary.   As we have paid a couple thousand dollars to a consultant to help with the liquor laws and regulations this made me very upset. Angel explained that if I was not a wholesaler than I did not need to apply for whatever I was applying for. If I was just retail than I didn’t need to file anything.

After fuming for a little while (almost a day) I sent a candid message to our consultant.  Her standard type of response followed – about 3 to 4 emails responding to the same questions all disjointed and passionate. It was almost as if we were texting.  CAPS were used everywhere and poor grammar. She is adamant that we need this and previously she had told me she just completed the same process earlier this year for the same type of shop. I believe her but I do not know how to sort that out with the TTB.  Our consultant has left a voicemail for Angel and I hope it all gets sorted out real soon.

Cheers

Financing Submitted to SBA

I just got word from Community Bank that they have sent all of our information / application to the Small Business Association in a nice pretty package with a bow on top.  They said it will about two before we hear back from them… good god every step in this process takes forever! I am getting to a point where I really need some more money… contractor, architect, more legal fees for obtaining said money!

Cheers!

Small Business Tax Accounting

Thanks to our good friend John, I met with a great small business accountant this week.  He was very busy but agreed to meet with me since I have the CPA and he knows he won’t have to act as a glorified book keeper.  We will really only need him for tax questions; not debit and credits, and not to explain an asset or expense. Anyway, the meeting went well. I got some of my questions answered about how to keep track of our expenses and if it matters that the money right now is coming from our personal account and a business account.  Looks like we are to keep track of EVERYTHING we spend money on that could in anyway be related to our business (including trips to other bottle shops, car expenses, cell phones and everything).  Then when it is time to do our taxes we will evaluate it all together.

He also said to make sure I save at least 40% of our net income for taxes…. that is the saddest thing I have heard in this whole process. I knew it all along but having it said out loud just makes me want to cry.

Cheers anyway 🙂

Contract from the Contractor

Finally got a contract from All Wall Builders for our architectural work and construction. I sent it along to our lawyer already but I am going to spend some of my day reading over the 15 pages myself. Once we get this signed we can start to see all the ideas they have come up with and maybe even some drawings!

Cheers!

Thursday Survey 12/8/16

We are looking into many different pieces of technology for the shop (which I wish we had narrowed down before black Friday).  We were thinking of having a small tablet available for the customer to use while shopping.  It will have Beer Advocate on there and Untapped so people can look up descriptions and ratings of the beers on the shelf.

Recommendations for a relatively inexpensive tablet for the customer to use? 

Have to keep in mind that it may be broken so I don’t want anything too pricey to replace.

Cheers!

Submitting to the SLA

After a little finagling I got a letter from Community Bank saying they approve us for the loan conditional on the Small Business Associations approval.  Our State Liquor Authority consultant said that we could submit our paperwork with this letter and then just update them with the full approval.  So away we go! Honestly I thought we already had submitted with the state online with the TERRIBLE Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau but apparently not. There are SO many moving pieces and that is just for the stinking state!!! And we aren’t even buying the license from the state!!!

So Crazy

Cheers!