Short Week

I hope all y'all had a great Thanksgiving! It was a short week for me, both because of the holiday and because I'm running low on things to do. A lot of the near-term tasks are out of my hands: our lawyer is making a few changes to our operating agreement, Jane is updating her bio for the business plan and our real estate agent is searching for buildings. Once the operating agreement is ready, another attorney will review our investment offering for compliance with securities and tax laws. In the meantime, I scheduled meetings with an accountant and an architect - as well as a couple of property showings - for next week.

Jane and I know what architects do in the general sense, but we're pretty clueless about the specifics. We know that Madison won't give us a building permit without facility drawings that are signed by a registered architect or engineer, so we'll probably need to work with one at some point. Some of the things we don't know are when we should start talking with architects, whether or not they can help us evaluate sites, and how we can approach them without sounding like idiots. This website was a huge help:

American Institute of Architects: How Design Works

In other news, my wife is pregnant! Her due date is early June. I could write pages about how excited I am, but that's not why you're here. As far as it relates to the business, it basically means that I'll have to be making money by July. Daycare alone will cost more than my wife's salary will be able to cover. The brewery won't need to be open by July, which isn't remotely possible anyway, but I'll either need to have raised enough money by then to start paying myself or I'll need to get a part-time job. The responsible future parent in me is screaming "get a job now!" while a more optimistic part of my psyche is saying "you're too far along - you'll have to quit any job you take in two months." If I knew what I know now, I'd have looked for a job as soon as I got back from Vermont. I'd be much farther away from opening the pub, but I'd be in better financial shape and I wouldn't feel nearly as weighed down by urgency. How naive was I to think that I'd be renovating a facility several months ago? Am I still being naive in hoping that I can raise $600K and find a location before next summer? Jane could have spent the last year working abroad instead of lingering at a job that she hates. I could have gotten another year of commercial brewing under my belt, or I could have learned to bartend, cook or wait tables. I hope I won't be saying the same things at this time next year.