Business plan is, for the most part, complete. Still waiting on actual insurance quotes, and we need to start calling our target market and see what kind of interest we can drum up (hopefully in the form of letters of intent). Still very excited about the possibility, from the standpoint that it's something we can pour our hearts into, it would truly be a labor of love, and from the standpoint that it could be good for the community (community being our new hometown as well as our friends and family). It's also scary, because in order to proceed we need approval from the franchise and the bank. A lot of approval. A lot of money.
We've thought about the idea of investors, but it's a scary thought. What do they want out of it? When do they need to be repaid? What happens if they want to be bought out? We don't want to give up control of our business. We don't want all the money due at once. Still, we are cash poor, and on paper we don't seem like a good risk. It's the business that's a good risk, it's my job to convince a bank of that, and in today's financial climate I'm not sure they're as willing to take chances. I have to hope they want to revitalize the town, bring it back to life, make it interesting.
As promising as it seems, there is a chance we could fall on our ass. In some ways we can't be much worse off than we already are, and as an LLC our personal assets should be safe, but still - banks look at your assets, they call it collateral. They must know something we don't...
I've never actually owned a business before. None of us have. I believe we have the skills and the drive to do it though. And we have people rooting for us, people with influence, and people with knowledge. I have to keep thinking about the positives and believe that we can overcome everything else.
Well... it's time to start thinking about the pitch. If we can convince the bank that we have customers, I think we'll get the loan. At least I get a positive impression from the banker I spoke with. So now, it's time to convince some customers.
