Progress

Progress. Why is it taking so long to complete a post about all the progress we are making (which we are, thankfully)? I think it's because there is more interesting material around the errors, woes, and setbacks that come with an undertaking such as ours. The triumphs are more difficult to write, because we haven't officially achieved them or learned from them for that matter. The best we can do now is give a short update:

Food: Chin is collaborating with a talented chef to create our final menu. We will discuss further if and when Chin ever decides to join Saus blogdom. We are planning a tasting for anyone (of you 3 out there) who is interested, so let us know -- you can help us decide what to include on our final menu.

Location: We are thisclose to securing a Letter of Intent with the property owners (fingers crossed...if you take anything away from this blog it should be this: anything can happen). But if we do get the LOI signed, we can begin applying for permits. By the way, as our lawyer advised, we first checked with the Inspectional Services Department to make sure the area is zoned for food retail (I suggest completing this task first if the space in question was not previously used for food) . By the way, our lawyer is incredible, so please contact us if your business seeks excellent counsel and we will be happy to point you in the right direction).

Design: We have enlisted the help of a soon-to-be-architect (finishing studies at the Boston Architectural College) who recently spent over 3 hours in our maybe/hopefully/if-it-doesn't-work-out-we're-screwed/potential retail space taking measurements, which will soon result in floorplans, which will be handed off to our contractor. But we didn't hire Brandon solely based on his CAD skills. He is a creative interior designer dude, who will hopefully bring "flavor" to the non-edible aspects of our space (although I hear delicious, Willy-Wonka-esque edible walls and lighting fixtures are the latest trend in food - or was that just another news story on lead paint chips?).

So, on an ending note I would like to express the team's ongoing commitment to progress - not only of our business, but of this blog.

Courtesy of guest blogger, Melissa Kenyon

There once was a man from Nantucket, he wanted McDonalds but F*** IT, I'm going to Saus where Tanya's the boss and he never ate one more mcnugget

**Note: we are not, nor are we trying to be, in direct competition with McDonalds... Also, Chin and Renee are also bosses

Enjoy

On the Ups and Downs

On some days, I feel like a rock star entrepreneur- slapping on my heels and grown up jewelry and having a very important, jargon-filled meeting with the Saus corporate attorney. The meeting is of course filled with long talks about equity division, investor returns and licensing and permits that we require. I feel very smart and important.

Then there are other days. We don't have an office, so I work from home. I pad around my apartment in my pajamas with my laptop in hand, searching for the room with the strongest wireless signal. (It's the kitchen.) So I pull a chair up to the kitchen counter, turn on pandora and get to work. It's a glamorous life I live.

There are days where nothing seems to go right. You can't find the information you need. You don't even know where to start looking. You want to walk into an existing restaurant and ask them to hold your hand and just tell you what they do.

Then on other days, you feel amazing and get through your entire to-do list. Nothing can stop you. You get samples from a farm, research various PR platforms, get some possible investment leads and write witty web content. Days where you make significant strides make it all worth it.

Go Team!

Asking for Money

...is always a bit awkward (like this fragment). Like we have mentioned in previous posts, the only outlet for fundraising at this point is through family and friends. Seems easy enough - I mean, we're a small quick-service joint and compared to other start-ups, we don't need much. So we put together a nice little package detailing the terms of the investment and planned to distribute to everyone we know in hopes that they would then distribute to everyone they know in hopes that somewhere along the email chain spectrum, someone would be interested in investing. Why did we do it this way? For one, mass emailing is efficient and allowed us to cover a lot of territory. Second, we were able to include important information for easy forwarding. Third, we could put off making awkward phone calls and let the email do the talking. This method, however, has not worked for us. I will be candid - it's a very uncomfortable conversation to have (close family members excluded) because it just seems impolite to ask for money.

What we have had to remind ourselves is that our investment proposal is a potentially profitable one - it's the whole reason we decided to execute this concept in the first place! Of course we think it will be profitable and wildly successful - but for whatever reason we cannot help but feel we are desperately asking people to take a risk. Here's the Saus lesson of the day (something we still have a tough time with): getting on the phone (or meeting in person) and selling your idea is a necessary evil. In entrepreneurship classes they make it sound so darn easy. You sit down in class, which should be called Entrepreneurial Strategy for Idealists 401 and the professors make raising money sound like just another item on the checklist to be crossed off as easily as bananas (what?) on a grocery list. We have raised a decent chunk from family and friends (fairly easy portion) and once we have raised the rest we will share with you how we did it (and I can tell you right now that unless there's divine intervention the SBA won't be repairing itself for a while).

Perhaps making money will be easier. Let's hope.

May we take your order? We don't have one...

We do, however, have lame one liners in abundance. Seriously though, I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a right order of events when starting a business. What to do first, next, or later? They never really tell you this in the books. It's not as easy as idea -> business plan -> fund raising -> execution -> nirvana. Throughout this journey, we have found ourselves in catch 22s where order was not even possible. For example, we could not raise money until we had a location and we could not have a location until we had money! Currently, while we do have a location in mind for the shop (nothing signed off on just yet), we don't know whether to start with architectural plans to give to the contractor, or to have the contractor tell us what to incorporate in the design so as to lower costs. And how do we plan for equipment when we're not sure about an exact layout?

How have we dealt with this so far? Well for one thing, we have stopped being so hung up on having all our investment money before we took action. Once we obtained a portion of the total required start-up capital, we hired a lawyer and actively pursued a location. Now that we are approaching actual renovation, we'll need a second round of investment money before we hire a general contractor. On that note, there is no order, just a natural evolution of events. The way we have dealt with it is thrown the notion of "perfect planning and timing" out the window and have accepted just being able to handle chaos well, often followed by a lull period of intolerable inactivity, and once again followed by pure chaos.

We hate lull periods, and you'll know when we're in them when we don't post on the blog. But being the true food entrepreneurs we are, we utilize this down-time well. Two words: field research.

Quench Your Thirst

So for those who took our last survey, we are on the brink of another! (This one will be much shorter. Promise.)

As I was getting my ideas for the survey together, I thought maybe this forum would be a good way to get people prepped for it and get some initial feedback. (I do realize I'm talking maybe two responses.. but you never know.)

The Saus team was discussing what kind of beverages we were going to have, soda wise. Traditional American sodas, ie. Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, Mountain Dew, etc. Versus imported European sodas to lend to our Euro vibe, ie. Orangina, San Pellegrino, etc. Or perhaps more natural offerings, such as Steaz (which is organic), Fuze, or Izze.

These are the three directions we have been debating. But YOU tell US, which would you rather drink???

Just a quick update

I figured since I lately couldn't shut up about my farm research, I'd provide an update. Especially since I'm feeling euphoric about it.

I've made progress! Thanks to some great friends who were not only there for me so I didn't quit, but also pitched in with research (that'd be Christine!) I now have a long long list of farms that I'm going to spend today emailing- asking for prices, if they deliver to restaurants in Boston, and if they can handle our volume.

I'm going to buckle down and get some real work done and then I'm going to spend the weekend knowing I accomplished something. Can't wait.

Maybe I'll make some lunch before I get started...