ok, so ya, i vented a little bit in that last post... hopefully i'm allowed and hopefully i didn't upset too many people.
i'll try to keep things more positive and upbeat... but fact is, sometimes this job is bloody hard and there are days when the thought crosses our minds to just stop... go get real jobs and have a paycheque again... and benefits (hm... i've never had a job with benefits... dunno if i could cope!)
thankfully, those moments are usually short-lived, and tempered with the knowledge that we actually do love what we're doing...
that whole line about doing what you love and the money will follow... i guess they never promised how close behind the money would follow... :D
but we're not really here for the money... i mean, it'd be nice if we didn't have to WORRY about how things were gonna get paid, but we're keeping our heads above water and it gets better every day... generally.
anyway - i just wanted to apologize for venting a little ... and reiterate how much we truly love and appreciate our customers - particularly the ones we see all the time who support us so amazingly, and help us out with honest feedback and helpful ideas... and the NEW ones who are just discovering us! Thanks for taking the trip off the beaten path and coming in our door!
Happy Sea-Cav!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
bistro or bakery...
so, we knew when we made the decision to go for our vision that we might end up annoying a few people...
a few of the people who only come here for bread, specifically...
we knew that when we changed our hours and started achieving our goals that some people might not find that to their liking or convenience...
mostly those are the people who only come here for bread.
DON'T GET ME WRONG... we LIKE those people who only come here for bread, and we're grateful that they DO come here instead of going somewhere else... but we really do apologize for creating the concept that we are a bakery first... that was never our intention and from the get go - march 1, 2006 - we have been working at dispelling that myth.
yes, we bought a bakery... a bakery that happened to have fantastic recipes... and a ton of potential to become the bistro/restaurant that we'd spend the previous 6 years talking about and trying to realize...
now... if we'd been able to buy said bakery with a ton of extra cash available, we'd have gone directly to bistro without passing go, and we wouldn't have even needed the $200... but we didn't. We mortgaged our entire lives to scrape together enough to get us open and running... with just enough to manage on for the first few months.
this has been both a blessing and a curse.
as some of you may notice... restaurants that open with a big bang and a ton of capital outlay, don't always succeed... in new york city, for example, 1000 new restaurants open EVERY YEAR... and only 1 in 5 are still open at the end of that year...
we have been forced to grow only as quickly as cashflow has allowed - in many ways not a bad thing.
The curse: This resulted in being perceived as a bakery for a lot longer than we intended...
The blessing: it also gave us a long time to earn fantastic customers who come regularly for their bread and baked goods... and lunch... and NOW, dinner,too.
The curse: we've had to "make do" with old equipment, flatware we think is a bit ugly & pedestrian, 69cent mugs from the dollar store... etc
The blessing: we HAVE made do with old equipment, less than magazine quality flatware and 69cent mugs from the dollar store that have a certain funky charm about them...
The curse: we had to wash & sanitize dishes (which included, of course, muffin tins & cake pans & bread buckets & mixing bowls - all stainless, all requiring scrubbing with steel wool... every day... ) by hand for the first 18 months, which physically wore us out and severely limited how quickly we could grow
The blessing: we learned the importance of taking some financial risks to buy a dishwasher and other equipment... and that the adage of spending money to make money is very true
The curse: we often can't take advantage of sales on equipment that would really make our life more simple and/or efficient
The blessing: we don't buy stuff that we don't really really really need just because we can get it on sale
Even just today... i learned about an amazing financial management tool that could really help us improve cash flow and guide us thru the maze of when to spend how much on what... it's truly an incredible tool, which i would jump at... except that it costs a lot up front that i just don't have - even THO it could pay for itself in a few months and help us get AHEAD in not many more months further down the road...
but we don't have that big deep pocket backing us up... we dont even actually have a change dish beside the bed to back us up...
we've got our wits, our drive, our love of what we're doing, and our wicked-ass, amazing, loyal, supportive and delightful customers to keep us going... and slowly, bit by bit, we claw our way up and out of the pit, and eventually we'll build a little hill of "extra" cash (is there really such a thing as extra cash??) that might allow us to buy that new fridge or pay for an ad, or heaven help us, take a vacation, even!?
Anyway, the point i was getting to... and yes, i'm sure if you've read more than one post here, you've noticed it can take a while to get anywhere... we have strived for 3 years to become a bistro and are finally there in our eyes, while we now can probably count on another 3 years trying to convince everyone else.
So, we apologize if the bread isn't ready at 10am... seeing as we're not open til 10:30 we're ok with that... we apologize if the bread isn't ready at noon... in fact we apologize that we're not making bread every day...
fact is... we're not a bakery. we've never wanted to BE a bakery... we're a bistro that happens to bake enough bread that we have some left over to sell...
and we'll be super happy when the general perception of who/what we are changes out there too... we know it will take time, and sadly it also means we'll likely lose some customers who are not prepared or willing to change along with us... but hopefully they'll find somewhere else to get what they want when they want it, and the folks that ARE willing to come along with us will do so and allow us to continue living our vision and enjoying it with us.
a few of the people who only come here for bread, specifically...
we knew that when we changed our hours and started achieving our goals that some people might not find that to their liking or convenience...
mostly those are the people who only come here for bread.
DON'T GET ME WRONG... we LIKE those people who only come here for bread, and we're grateful that they DO come here instead of going somewhere else... but we really do apologize for creating the concept that we are a bakery first... that was never our intention and from the get go - march 1, 2006 - we have been working at dispelling that myth.
yes, we bought a bakery... a bakery that happened to have fantastic recipes... and a ton of potential to become the bistro/restaurant that we'd spend the previous 6 years talking about and trying to realize...
now... if we'd been able to buy said bakery with a ton of extra cash available, we'd have gone directly to bistro without passing go, and we wouldn't have even needed the $200... but we didn't. We mortgaged our entire lives to scrape together enough to get us open and running... with just enough to manage on for the first few months.
this has been both a blessing and a curse.
as some of you may notice... restaurants that open with a big bang and a ton of capital outlay, don't always succeed... in new york city, for example, 1000 new restaurants open EVERY YEAR... and only 1 in 5 are still open at the end of that year...
we have been forced to grow only as quickly as cashflow has allowed - in many ways not a bad thing.
The curse: This resulted in being perceived as a bakery for a lot longer than we intended...
The blessing: it also gave us a long time to earn fantastic customers who come regularly for their bread and baked goods... and lunch... and NOW, dinner,too.
The curse: we've had to "make do" with old equipment, flatware we think is a bit ugly & pedestrian, 69cent mugs from the dollar store... etc
The blessing: we HAVE made do with old equipment, less than magazine quality flatware and 69cent mugs from the dollar store that have a certain funky charm about them...
The curse: we had to wash & sanitize dishes (which included, of course, muffin tins & cake pans & bread buckets & mixing bowls - all stainless, all requiring scrubbing with steel wool... every day... ) by hand for the first 18 months, which physically wore us out and severely limited how quickly we could grow
The blessing: we learned the importance of taking some financial risks to buy a dishwasher and other equipment... and that the adage of spending money to make money is very true
The curse: we often can't take advantage of sales on equipment that would really make our life more simple and/or efficient
The blessing: we don't buy stuff that we don't really really really need just because we can get it on sale
Even just today... i learned about an amazing financial management tool that could really help us improve cash flow and guide us thru the maze of when to spend how much on what... it's truly an incredible tool, which i would jump at... except that it costs a lot up front that i just don't have - even THO it could pay for itself in a few months and help us get AHEAD in not many more months further down the road...
but we don't have that big deep pocket backing us up... we dont even actually have a change dish beside the bed to back us up...
we've got our wits, our drive, our love of what we're doing, and our wicked-ass, amazing, loyal, supportive and delightful customers to keep us going... and slowly, bit by bit, we claw our way up and out of the pit, and eventually we'll build a little hill of "extra" cash (is there really such a thing as extra cash??) that might allow us to buy that new fridge or pay for an ad, or heaven help us, take a vacation, even!?
Anyway, the point i was getting to... and yes, i'm sure if you've read more than one post here, you've noticed it can take a while to get anywhere... we have strived for 3 years to become a bistro and are finally there in our eyes, while we now can probably count on another 3 years trying to convince everyone else.
So, we apologize if the bread isn't ready at 10am... seeing as we're not open til 10:30 we're ok with that... we apologize if the bread isn't ready at noon... in fact we apologize that we're not making bread every day...
fact is... we're not a bakery. we've never wanted to BE a bakery... we're a bistro that happens to bake enough bread that we have some left over to sell...
and we'll be super happy when the general perception of who/what we are changes out there too... we know it will take time, and sadly it also means we'll likely lose some customers who are not prepared or willing to change along with us... but hopefully they'll find somewhere else to get what they want when they want it, and the folks that ARE willing to come along with us will do so and allow us to continue living our vision and enjoying it with us.
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