Week One! Infinite amount to go!

Hard work is not without reward. Between the diligence of my volunteer team, and the many hours I have been putting into the growth of the shop, I'm really satisfied with the results. Granted, I would be way in over my head if I actually had to PAY the people helping me. But everyone has been working extremely wholeheartedly and has accepted nothing but my gratitude as payment. Occasionally, if I can, I'll spring for lunch. Local groups that have offered a lot of help and advice include Psi of I, Look At My Junk and Crawford County Computers. Thanks guys! Several other people have donated other items of great value and expected very little if anything in return. The list goes on.

This week has been a huge success though, not just from the people helping build shelves or donating chairs/tables/stools, or what have you. But just the traffic that has been coming into the store and showing their appreciation and hanging out with all of us. It's very gratifying to see a community of such diverse people coming to my store and finding common interest. I've also made a lot of new friends in the process, and gotten the pleasure of networking and meeting several new people. Even old acquaintances have slowly started to come out and show their faces, so that's really refreshing too.

Now as we move forward and trying our best to stay accurate to the original vision, many obstacles approach soon. The electric bill should be in anytime now and I do not look forward to seeing the overbearing numbers that will inevitably draw my excitement to a halt and instill twenty times more stress than I am truly ready to deal with. We also need to isolate several of the outlets. One thing we noticed was that the circuitry can't seem to handle a lot at once. And of course, once we get the cyber part of the cafe running, we can't have surges happening on a regular basis. Overall though, none of these obstacles can compare to the biggest one. And that is just me being me! I've got the eye for business, I've got the knack for it, and I know what I'm selling. But working 9 to 2 at my other job and then going straight to my store with no days off in throughout the week is bearing down on me. Despite the willingness for others to volunteer their time to give me a break, I'm just not ready to put faith in anyone else to run the shop for an entire day or two. It's not that I don't trust certain people because there are a couple people I'd trust with my life. I just haven't figured out all the kinks of running the business yet, so it's hard for me to justify letting anyone else run a business that's still in beta.

We'll have to get past that soon though. March is a busy month. I'll be gone Mar 2-3 for a State Pool tournament, and then Mar 6th for an acoustic set I'll be playing in Indiana. Then possibly again on Mar 10th, and possibly do something to celebrate my birthday on Mar 18th.

So March will be a long road, indeed.

Currently though, I'm outlining plans to launch my "Grand Open Weekend". We will see how that goes!