Can You Invest? A Little Moral Support, That Is.

Greetings all from Chicago! I am home for the holidays, while Tanya is in PA and Chin is in Boston. As I mentioned in the last post, my mission over the holidays was to pitch Saus to my family members in order to inspire them to invest. Well, my efforts were futile for a while, until I realized that the challenge was to get them to listen first.

Let's start off with December 21st - my sister, her boyfriend, and I drive out to our older sister's house which she shares with her husband and 11 year old son, my nephew. We had gone to a Christmas show, had deep dish pizza (Lou Malnati's), and had our cousins come over after for a small party - overall it was a great time. Finally, the right opportunity arose for me to show my sisters and cousins my business plan. They were all sitting around the table with the laptop smack dab in the middle of it and I opened up my b-plan. "Hey guys, you want to check out my business plan?" Sister 1: "How about later"? Cousin: "Yeah, we'll look at it later." Sister 2 (sees how pathetic this is and comes to my rescue with an oxygen tank full of pity): "I'll look at it, Renee!"

Now let's talk about the morning my mother and I had breakfast and discussed my "situation" in Boston.

Mom: So what's going on with your job?

Renee: Well, right now I'm doing a temp assignment until I can get the business started.

Mom: Oh. So why don't you come home?

Renee: Because I'm starting a business. I told you this.

Mom: Start it here.

Renee: I can't. The market is there and so are my partners.

Mom: Ok. So why don't you work for a while before you start your business?

Renee: Mom, the times have changed. When you were working, it wasn't out of the ordinary to be at the same company for 30 years. There's no guarantee for that now. There is no such thing as job security, or ownership, or a sense of belonging. In my opinion, the only way to go is to start a business.

Mom: Yes, you're right.

(2 minutes later)

Mom: Why don't you find a job in Dubai?

It's tough to explain the concept of starting a business at the age of 22, let alone the concept of the business itself. My parents are pragmatic, conservative, and were brought up with the notion of: get a good education, get a good job, make surefire investments, then retire. Moreover, I am the baby of the family. And I'm not joking - my sisters are 38 and 36 respectively. Ah, yes, I have Youngest Child Syndrome. YCS is a terrible affliction that prevents its victims from being taken seriously...ever. Unfortunately, it is tough to treat and cure.

With a little patience (and some tears), though, YCS can be remedied.

First, I expressed my concerns surrounding support for Saus to my sister and her boyfriend, Rudy, who is a delightful addition to our family. My sister was compassionate and Rudy saw that I was upset, so he told us a story of when he was in Lebanon working for his family's jewelry firm. Long story short, Rudy had some ideas to modernize the company's marketing and operations by striking on a hot opportunity and trend at the time. He cultivated the idea and began to put it into practice, but was ignored and finally, was ordered to leave the factory altogether, by his own cousin, no less. Rudy quit the business, found another line of work, moved to America, became a Gemologist, and is now pursuing his career in jewelry...oh, and he has a kick-ass girlfriend with a great family. Wow. My point? He took rejection and used it to motivate himself. Oh, and he also suggested I watch Rocky as inspiration.

But then, something happened on Christmas Day. I was feeling down about myself, like I had failed somehow. I tried to bring myself out of this self-pity, but I was upset and angry that I didn't have my family's support for the endeavor. My mother saw that I was upset and I explained to her why. She then had my father sit down at the table with us and asked me to discuss the business. I gave them the details, everything from the concept, to my partners, to our financials. I answered their questions and to my surprise, they were impressed. They asked how they could help, and I told them I wanted their emotional support first and foremost...this, they granted. This support alone meant everything to me...more than the Sperry Topsiders and Brooks Brothers leather gloves and Jo Malone perfume I received as gifts the night before (you think these retailers will one day give us free stuff for the mention? I hope so). It means more to me than any monetary investment they should decide to make.

So, as a Christmas gift to our readers, all 8 of you, we give you a little inspiration, encouragement, and support. I believe in our idea, the seedling it is, enough to evangelize it to others, even the most doubtful. After all, isn't this what the season is all about?

Merry Christmas

-Saus.

Dear Santa

So as Chin mentioned, it's back to the drawing board for us. Do not fret, dear readers, for we are entrepreneurs (sort of), which means we can adapt quickly. We are also entrepreneurs (again, sort of) in that we are willing to exhaust all outlets for potential funding. Chin and I are going to visit some banks this week to see about a loan (gulp, loosen collar). But how about some non-traditional fundraising? The holiday season is upon us, no? So here is the wish list we will be sending to our families and to Santa:

Dear Santa and Family,

How are you doing? Hopefully well. I have been very nice this year. As you may know, I graduated from school, alas without the fancy gold banner thingy that hangs around your shoulders to indicate excellence in academia and strict adherence to Aristotelian virtue ethics, or something like that. However, I did give a dollar to that man who hangs out in the commons and sings: "Does anybody have any chaaaaaange, change, chaaaaaange?"

I also recall allowing an expecting mother with a toddler in tow the last square foot of space on a crowded T, writing thoughtful facebook "happy birthdays" to formerly socially awkward kids I went to high school with, and saying things like "thank you" and "have a nice day" to strangers (which we all know merits a spot in Heaven if you live in Boston). Now that I have convinced you of my being nice--did I mention I was late to my American Sign Language class when I let that pregnant woman on?--I have enclosed a wish list for your consideration:

1. Ugg slippers (yea, that's right - they're comfortable)
2. Wii Fit
3. A surplus -- like the one we had when Clinton was president.
4. Lost dvd set with director commentary that might actually explain what's going on.
5. Finally, an investment in Saus. Any size investment would be greatly appreciated - whether it's $20,000 or $200,000 I would be grateful either way.

Thank you!

Seriously, though, to all our family members reading this: for Christmas the team would like some money to put toward Saus. We also want to keep our readers updated on our funding progress. Therefore, we will post the amount of money we need in start up capital and detract from it each time we get more money until we (hopefully) get to $0.

Good luck to us!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Frustrating Realtors Pt 4

So you're probably thinking, man these guys (especially Chin) are really going overboard with the amount of posts they write about frustrating realtors. Granted, the realtors themselves are not actually that frustrating. And granted, we've hit sort of a rut with the frequency and creativity of our posts.

In all fairness, finding a location is our number one priority. It's just that the process is really frustrating and I'm choosing an opportunity to vent. I'll explain what I mean and pick up where we left off last with our star realtor, Irene.

Irene's got resources, a large network, and a nice website that provides listings that cater to our needs (including the right price, sq footage, location area, etc.). After one of our standard meetings going over priorities and our lists of things to do, we chose two spots on Newbury St and one spot in Kenmore Sq we wanted to visit (originally there were three spots on Newbury, which got us really excited, but somehow one spot was listed twice with two prices, and the excitement level dropped a tad).

Well, a little before thanksgiving weekend we emailed Irene with the places we wanted to visit and played the waiting game. The week following thanksgiving came around and there was no response. So we called Irene to follow up, she says she didn't recall any email from us, and starts looking in her email history. Sure enough, she searches by my email address (please, send fan mail to ckuo@sausinc.com), finds the elusive email with our coveted listings, and says she'll see what she can do and get back to us.

The next day (Friday) we get a call from a lady named Sharon who tells us the two Newbury listings are...... well not listed anymore, and Irene has passed us down to her- what a downer. Bummed as we are, we thought it would still be a good idea to check out the one Kenmore listing left. So Sharon schedules to meet with us at the location the coming Monday at 2:15 pm.

I mean, even though we missed a couple prime spots on Newbury, and the Kenmore area wasn't exactly at the top of our lists, at the very least we could make a make a learning experience out of it right? You know, inspect the location, see how our floor plan might fit, maybe talk about zoning the space for food retail?

Lo and behold, Sunday comes around and we receive an email from Sharon telling us the listing for the Kenmore location had been removed over the weekend. Funny how the process turned out to be a learning experience either way, just that the learning experience was more so about how fast real estate listings can turn over.

On the bright side, these listings apparently update every day, so who knows, maybe the right place will pop up tommorrow?

or maybe we'll just find more realtors

P.s

Sorry this last post was so brief and lame. I was offered gossip in exchange for a new post and this was all I had at the moment. It was a rush job!

Mixing Business with Pleasure

Let me start this post by saying that if you come up with a suggestion for our last post, please still use it. We are still checking the comments left. Or email me, as a few people have.

At our last meeting, where we briefly discussed the aforementioned suggestions, we also discussed a ski trip. I have an "uncle" in Vermont who has a successful restaurant and salad dressing business. Shameless plug: check out River Garden Kitchens. So... why not mix a little business with pleasure, we decided.

We are planning a trip up there to learn as much as we can from a restaurant veteran. We have questions on everything from tips on how to build a loyal client base to efficient kitchen inventory.

And of course once we are there, we have big plans to hit the powdery slopes, relax by the fire in the lodge, and sample local maple syrup! Mmm... I loVermont! haha, so lame.

Ho Ho Ho

The holiday season is upon us, and aside from twinkly lights and presents, to me it means delicious seasonal foods. 

So to all our loyal readers (all three of you), I'd like to invite you to make suggestions with your favorite holiday flavors so we can use them as inspiration. (If you know what kind of food we plan on serving, please keep your suggestions vague. Focus on flavors. We are still building the suspense!) 

Some flavors that I love and look forward to each year, that sadly will probably not mix well with our food, are pumpkin, gingerbread, and peppermint.. or then again, that just may be delicious.... hmm... 

Alright, I'm looking forward to the one response this post gets. Make it good!