Reflections on 20 Years Pt 4

It's great to have an idea for a small business, but sometimes making it a reality can be a bit overwhelming. The planning is easy, it's the execution that offers so many pitfalls for a first time potential business owner. There is a Catch-22 in opening a new business.  Banks don't want to lend money for a brick and mortar business if you don't have a location & landlords don't want (& actually neither do business owners) to negotiate a lease if everything isn't in place, which includes money to open the business.

Luckily for us we found an amazing resource through Montgomery County's Department of Economic Development (http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/dedtmpl.asp?url=/content/ded/sbs/toolbox.asp). While I'm sure certain aspects of the program may have changed, in 1993 the assistance we found was a saving grace. We might eventually have found our way, but I suspect it would have taken us much, much longer. This free service to residents of Montgomery County provided us a counselor who helped us hone our business plan so that it was "bank ready". The Small Business Development Center also served as a sounding board to make sure that whatever the business idea was, it had a high potential to be successful.

We had purchased a computer program that walked us through the steps needed to create a business plan. It asked the questions we would need to answer, but didn't really provide information on how to get those answers. I think we would still be brainstorming to this day! I wish I could remember the names of the wonderful people at the SBDC who answered our questions, lead us to the information we needed, edited our BP & kept us on track. JoAnn, Nan and I were great in the planning, but sometimes got hung-up in the details. Lofty is easy!

Once they determined we had a business plan ready to present, their support continued in a very concrete way. At the time, the SBDC presented a monthly "speed dating" event for potential small business owners to meet with banks looking to loan money. Copies of our BP were presented to the banks most likely to be interested in our venture. Then on a single day all of the parties were brought together. Brief introductory meetings were scheduled between banks that had expressed a return interest and the hopeful entrepreneurs, allowing the banks the opportunity to ask for clarification and size up the loan applicants. In addition, during the lunch break, banks set up small tables so that loan seekers could meet with banks that might not realize that yours' was a business they should invest in, so hadn't requested a meeting. Montgomery County's "Shark Tank".

We met with 3 banks. In some ways a strangely informal introduction, but I think the easy atmosphere took much of the anxiety away, so we were able to clearly present our idea to the scary bankers and loan officers. We also met with a couple of other banks during lunch and ultimately were offered 3 loans (2 we had meetings with and 1 from lunch). We accepted Potomac Valley Bank, establishing a long term relationship which we maintained until they were absorbed by PNC and lost the small bank qualities we had come to appreciate.

Waygoose Redux & it's earlier iteration The Waygoose are micro businesses. So whenever you hear politicians, pundits, journalists talking about small business, they generally are not talking about us. A small business typically has over 50 employees, the closest we got to that was when both Rockville and Bethesda were open when we hit 25 (summer & holiday help & many very part-time employees). It is often very difficult to get anyone to pay attention to the micros, much of the time an owner is the only full-time employee, making it difficult to join local organizations or lobby for attention. I suspect that most of the small businesses you patronize are really micro businesses and need your loyalty even more. To have the kind of resource available through the SBDC is an invaluable tool and we were lucky to find them.

Reflections on 20 Years pt 3

JoAnn, Nan and I started our search for space many months before we opened. Since we weren’t using a commercial real estate agent to help us, we spent a lot of time driving around calling landlords. I really can’t remember how many spaces we looked at, but JoAnn brought us to a space in Rockville in the Magruder’s Shopping Center by the Courthouse. Formerly a men’s clothing store, it had been empty for over a year and the landlord was planning to use it as a staging site for the planned renovation of the shopping center’s façade. At 4000 sq ft (average home size is around 2,200), with a raised mezzanine in the back it was scary and dark. In addition the space was essentially 4 or 5 areas, the front had dark green carpet, dark brown wood “federalist” style shelving lit with narrow strips of florescent fixtures in front of each & 2 brass chandeliers, then a small vinyl floored area with narrow cubby holes along one side. The sales counter was in this section backed by a truly excellent hunt scene. Then there was a very large beige area with more dark brown wood cubbies on one side and a lot of beige walls and carpets. The back section (also huge) was raised almost 36” & while it had lots of beige shelving, three way mirrors and reverted to the lovely green carpet! Behind this was tons of storage/workrooms, dressing rooms, break room and 2 bathrooms. This area was larger than many 2 bedroom apartments! Don’t think we didn’t consider it’s potential as rental space! 

But the deal was too good to pass up. The one major condition was that we would have to adapt the existing build out to suit us. That meant no removing walls, shelving or painting the dark “federalist” style woodwork. It was also really dark inside, especially in the front third which had dark green carpeting, lots of dark wood stained shelving and was lit with narrow florescent fixtures built into the overhang above the shelves and a couple of lovely brass chandeliers. What were they thinking! The middle section was lit with fluorescents only and was a lovely shade of off white with one flanking side covered with cubbies (to display shirts or slacks?) and off white carpet. Not very warm & fuzzy! Oh and there was a small vinyl covered section between the front & center (the counter was in this space with a lovely backdrop of an excellent hunt scene!).

Luckily we had JoAnn with her amazing eye for anything having to do with display. To solve the problem of the shelves (not everything will show up in front of dark brown), she figured out how to cover the shelves and backing with heavy canvas duck (like for sails). She then convinced a number of friends to come in and help her cover the walls with a lovely terra cotta after teaching them how to quickly add a sponge painting technique to keep them from looking too boring and flat.

The lovely chandeliers were quickly removed and an electrician installed huge rectangles of track for additional lighting that would give us a lot of flexibility when setting displays up all around the store. Four rolling walls were built for the huge center section and provide us with much needed wall space. Remember the cubbies I mentioned earlier? All it took was yards more of the same duck used on the shelves and voila someplace to hand Joseph Craig English’s original serigraphs. 

 

We wanted to be open for the 1993 holiday season, but couldn’t begin to do anything until the exterior renovations were completed, so luckily everything JoAnn suggested could be accomplished faster than you can say “Bob’s your uncle!”

Too bad it wasn’t that easy to get inventory in! (To be continued…)