Progress

As anyone who has started a new business already knows - there are about 15 things that need to happen (hopefully concurrently) before a business can really be up and running - there are legal issues, finance issues, accounting and book keeping issues, marketing issues, inventory, sales, purchasing, etc.



We are slowly but surely crossing things off our list.



This past week was the "dealing with the building and health departments in the city of Plano" week. No fun. The city has never dealt with a coffee roastery before, so they are not quite sure how to classify us. We are not a coffee shop. We aren't serving coffee by the cup - or any beverage - or any food items. But coffee is obviously ingested, so sanitation is very important. Pinpointing the exact requirements has been a bit of a puzzle for the city. In a way it's good that the city doesn't know what to do with a roastery - it means there's not a lot of local competition. But, we have had to adapt to several building requirements that we weren't expecting. Some of the requirements aren't too costly. Others, however...



The biggest requirement we have had to adapt to was the health department saying we had to install a 3 compartment sink (like in commercial kitchens), a hand washing sink, and a mop sink. That's all on top of a sink we already have in our bathroom. In case you are keeping score - that's six sinks.



Six sinks.



And - all those new sinks have to be in our prep area where - you guessed it - we did not already have plumbing. So, we have been doing our best this past week to keep area plumbers employed during a down economy.



On a brighter note - our big new roaster came in. It's hooked up and our vent stack is installed. The gas company is coming by today to check everything out and turn the gas on. We will start calibrating and seasoning the machine this week.



Very exciting.