This blog was going to be titled: "And Now, The Rest of the Story;" but I think that guy on the radio has the phrase trademarked - if he doesn't, then he should!
But I think I'll continue on with my "Dream" theme; it's working well for me. If you didn't know, I borrowed these titles from Nora Roberts. She wrote a trilogy in 1996-1997 about three women in California who started their own business together. I put my titles in a different order than she did though; it makes more sense to me to "Hold The Dream" after you go through all the trouble of "Daring To Dream" and then "Finding The Dream." On the right is the link to these books on Amazon.com. Go ahead and click on them... but make sure you come back!
OK, back to me... ;)
So, I started writing my business plan on May 1, 2009. It was such a long process!! I spent months on my first draft. Months!! Even though I had my college business plan to look at! Remember in my first post when I told you that "college taught me nothing." Well, there ya go! I only used about half of my college business plan. And the half that I used wasn't even the most important half! Everyone in business knows that the financials are the most important part of any business plan. The banks want to know "how and when are they going to get their money back?" It's a darn good thing I married that accountant; he came in quite handy - let me tell you!! And before you get all snippy and tell me that I should have paid more attention to the other half of that class (the math half), let me tell you, that the math that was covered in class dealt with mark-up percentages. (At least what I remember of the math part.) So Ha!! See: "college taught me nothing!"
Well now, after the months that I spent writing my business plan, I spent weeks revising that plan. Weeks!! Finally, it was deemed "good enough" on September 28, 2009. That's when I took my plan to the UPS store to get it bound. How do I remember all these dates? I keep my receipts. Everyone in business knows that you keep every single receipt - no matter what you bought or what you paid for it! I had also scheduled the first of 4 meeting with bank lending officers for that day at 1:30pm. (Checked my calendar!)
So, I met with the Bank of Bolivar on September 28th; Commerce Bank at 11am on September 29th; Region's Bank at 9:30am on September 30th and Bank of America on Thursday, October 1st. I presented my plan, asked my questions and answered theirs. And then the waiting game began.
Slowly, offers began to trickle in about two weeks later: Bank of America was willing to up my credit card limit to cover my requested loan amount - but the interest rate would sky rocket! "Noo thank you," I told them. Regions Bank never got back to me - screw them! Commerce bank wanted us to put more of our own money into the business than we were willing - so that was a no-go. And I was still waiting to hear back from the Bank Of Bolivar. Several emails back and forth to the lending officer I had spoken with sounded promising though...
Finally!! My loan was approved on Tuesday, November 3rd!! The Bank of Bolivar came through for me!! It was definitely fate! I had just walked out of a final interview with a company in downtown Springfield, MO when my phone rang. During the month of waiting, I had been keeping my ear to the ground for back-up plans in case my dream was crushed. This particular company wanted me to run the Springfield location of their clothing company while they oversaw their Kansas City, MO locations. Sounds good, right? I just wasn't excited about it; I didn't want to enter into another demanding retail career - unless it was my demands being demanded of me. And surprisingly, Aaron felt the same way - we had discussed my going back to school to teach if this business didn't pan out.
But, the backup plans weren't necessary after all! Someone besides family (and they're required!) believed me!!
Now for the scary part: Holding onto The Dream - for dear life!
No comments:
Post a Comment