Zooming ahead

It’s all happening. We have identified and won our first site at St James Park station. I say ‘won’ because we had to fight off two other juice bars to secure this site. It was a combination of the rent we were willing to pay, the business concept, and the operational infrastructure. It really helped having Mikael on board, he’s the guy that owns the other juice bar chain. One of the other juice bars was another new start up as well, with the backing of the owner of an Australian juice bar. It was tough, but we pushed the fact that through Gogo, we had established UK juice market experience and operational infrastructure in place. I think that sealed it.

So we’re now pushing ahead to complete the deal, and sign the lease. My property surveyor is taking care of the negotiations, while I push forward with all the other stuff. And all the other stuff is a helluva lot of stuff. Luckily, I managed to find a good business banking manager early on through my brother-in-law, and they’ve agreed to fund everything secured against my assets, including USD savings…phew! I didn’t want to move that money over with the current exchange rates. Now there’s a few other things to take care of - shopfittings, designs, logos, website, EPOS, cup design, accountants, lawyers, etc. And each of these things has a host of other requirements, both technical and operational. For example the shopfitting requires us to carry out asbestos surveys, electrical wiring, get our plans approved, etc. While I can get other people to help with parts of these, for example the shop-fit related stuff, it requires me to be on top of it all, as I’m the one who’s screwed if something gets left out. So now I’m kind of a project manager, as well as text writer and editor for the website, IT services manager, and everything else you can imagine!! There are so many things that you don’t even think about before you start a business that are now coming to light. Nevertheless, it’s great fun!!!

Given how long this is taking, we have started focusing on our second site, much more in the heart of the city. That is the ultimate goal, and although the rent is astronomical, if my maths and planning are correct, that’s the one that will really hit the core of the market I’m after, and will catapult this business onto a new level. While St James Park is a good site, it is not out in the open at the heart of the office area. Nevertheless it will give us a chance to learn and then apply what we’ve learnt to the next site.

So things are pretty crazy right now. But I’m enjoying and that’s all that matters…