The Process - DC Lounge Bar

BeatScience Music Group

2010-02-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

As I mentioned before, we have developed a new business venture. I am pleased to announce BeatScience Music Group. My partner Charles and I have gotten our independent record label off the ground and are full steam ahead. Please go to our new site www.beatsciencemusicgroup.com and follow our progress. Also click the link on our site to see our newest blog. If you would rather link directly, please click the following: BeatScienceBlog

Feel free to post comments and any recommendations.

On Hold For now

2010-01-04T17:15:00.001-08:00

First, I would like to apologize for not updating our blog more frequently. Quite a bit of time has passed since my last posting. As you can tell, our Lounge Bar plan is currently on hold. Since the last posting we looked at a few properties and realized that we needed to build our resources a bit more. With a combination of the economy taking dip in the wrong direction and deciding that we are going to move from Virginia to DC, our business plan needed to take a back seat. With that said, we are definitely not calling it quits and are very excited to get started again.

For the time being, my partner Chuck and I are creating a small start up business that will help finance our bigger plan of opening a bar. Chuck, who has the creative side, has been busy composing and producing music, which is the basis for our new project. Please stay tuned and I will link this blog to our new one. Between the two projects, we will have quite a bit to talk about.

2009-07-08T18:38:00.003-07:00

Stay Tuned

2009-07-08T18:38:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay.  Busy summer.  New entry on it's way Thursday!

Back to the hunt

2009-06-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

As stated in the previous few blogs, Charles and I have been interested in a few properties along the Atlas district on H Street. One in particular caught our attention. It was 4,000 sq. feet (double of what we originally planned for). The building was setup for a business on the first floor and an apartment upstairs, zoned Commercial 1. We realized that this presented the idea of living above our lounge, eliminating the need to pay rent somewhere else. The exterior and frame work was new, new plumbing, electrical, and new roof. That was the extent of the "finished work". It still needed Sheetrock, insulation, fixtures, etc. It was a blank canvas for us to do our work and create a place that suited our needs. Of course it seemed like the best choice and an opportunity that we could not miss.

The key to good a good business is to realize when your dream is out pacing reality. The two of us sat down and crunched the numbers. We realized that with having to leave our current apartment (fines of at least $4,000 for breaking the lease), the cost of renovations to the new place (about $13,000), putting money down or having the option of leasing to buy, and so on and so on... (taxes were over $15,000) a year. We were sad to realize that we could do it but not be comfortable and so why take the risk when we don't "need" to. We asked ourselves, "Why not stay at our current pace, finish all of our planning, saving, networking and keep an eye out for other opportunities". We agreed to stick to the original plan.

In the end, we feel pleased with our decision. This experience was a great opportunity to dive into the business real estate market and learn way more than we had expected. There are many options out there for small business owners, lots of loan plans, tax breaks, legal jargon, etc. We also learned a little about ourselves and how to effectively discuss such large decisions to reach a well thought out conclusion. We of course will continue to look and I will continue to update our progress. The past week has been a very wet week and we look forward to a sunny summer where we can continue our search, continue developing our plan, and save more money! Everyone have a nice weekend, stay tuned, there will be plenty more updates soon.

H Street followup article - and more!

2009-05-25T11:15:00.001-07:00

We have had a busy past few days in the business world. Before getting into the exciting details, I wanted to post a link to Andrea Swalec's latest article with the local paper "The Voice of the Hill". Andrea is the reporter who wrote a great story about our business plans for H Street (a link and copy of the article is posted in a previous blog). Here's the link, please pass it on.

With help, H Street is going green

In other news, Chuck went on a commercial real estate mission this past Thursday. After making a few great contacts within the very helpful H street community he has come across a few buildings and lots for sale. Chuck has met with the owners and over the weekend we made followup calls. One of the properties has great potential, and if the details can be hashed out, we will definitely be taking it quite seriously. The entire building has been renovated; new plumbing, new electrical and studs. The first floor is an open space with concrete floors, ideal for a lounge, while the upstairs is designed for an apartment. Our intent would be to move into the upstairs, after renovating, and making it livable, build our finances, and then create the lounge downstairs.

The progress is quite exciting and I will be sure to update as we find out more. Anyone know any investors??? Click here for our e-mail

Hope everyone is having a great extended weekend.

Back to work

2009-05-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

We are now moved into our new home and ready to get rolling on the business development. The break in blog updating has been the result of packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, getting situated, but now we are back in the swing of things. This week we are registering our LLC. We are still trying to think of a name for the LLC, separate from that of the lounge name. The lounge name is also in the process of being trademarked. Also, during these two processes we are developing our financial plan. Hopefully the first two will be done and submitted by the weekend while of course the financial plan will take some time.

Moving to our new location, we are looking forward to getting part time jobs with the bar/restaurant businesses surrounding our home to gain some necessary experience on how things are done. Everything of course looks great on paper but having the actual experience is a must. During the next two years while developing our plan and gaining financial support, we will continue to add to our hands on experiences. We are hoping to not only work with fellow business owners but also shadow the managers to learn helpful hints and tips. Our home is within a block of at least 10 bars/restaurants (very convenient).

As the week progresses I will update as to what our LLC name is and how the process is going for us...as well as describe the difference resources we have come across.

Meeting with Susan - Business Advisor

2009-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Otello's website: www.otellodc.com
1329 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036

Tonight we met with our business advisor, Susan Campbell, over a tasty dinner at Otello's in Dupont. Dinner was great and conversation was even better. As I have said many times in the past, Susan has been an amazing resource, helping us bring our dream of opening a lounge bar into reality. Tonight's focus was catching up and figuring out how to materialize our financial plan. As a quick summary, we basically need to create a list of everything we can think of that will cost us money from silverware to lighting. From this list we will then create an outline and then the ultimate plan. This step is obviously exciting since it will lead us to understanding how much money we will initially need as well as how much money it will take us to operate. As we come across resources that we find in accomplishing this task the blog will be updated to reflect our progress. Stay tuned, we are full speed ahead.

Green Meeting... and more!

2009-04-22T19:13:00.001-07:00

We have had the great opportunity of attending the DC Green Works meeting at their office on H Street. Many members of the business community who either own a business on H street or are in the process of opening one attended. It was a privilege to speak with fellow entrepreneurs, sharing ideas and stories of progress. The basis of the meeting was to promote environmentally friendly ideas and services focusing on "green roofing" which helps not only the environment but also business utility costs. The pictures shown in their presentation were very impressive. Courtesy of DC Greenworks website, here's the link: http://www.dcgreenworks.org/ .

They install layers of drainage pipes, gravel, dirt, and plants to create a self sustaining "green" roof that diminishes the overall radiating heat reaching the structure, filters the water through the soil and plants, as well as slowing down the overall drainage process lowering the amount of pollution reaching the connecting water outlets. Being environmentally friendly/aware is a main focus in our business plan as described in our previous blogs. Organizations like this one will help us do our part to protect the environment.

Throughout the meeting, Chuck and I split up to try and meet as many people that we could. To give you an idea of how many people we spoke to, we actually ran out of business cards only an hour or two into the meeting. I would like to personally thank everyone that we met. It was refreshing to meet such down to earth business owners. As a followup to the meeting, we are planning on having lunch with one business owners within the next week to discuss possible purchase and leasing opportunities in the area. Another business owner has invited us to his business to give helpful tips and advice. Others are actually building retail space and would like to discuss our required dimensions and progress. Networking, as I am sure everyone knows, is a wonderful thing. Even the great reporter Andrea Swalec who did our story in The Voice of The Hill (see previous entry) was there. She was the one who told us about the meeting. Good luck to her with the followup article.

Ultimately, the entire night was a success.

Tomorrow we will be meeting with our business advisor over dinner with the intent of jump starting the last part of our business plan. Having so many more resources from the other night will definitely help bring ideas to the table.

(Courtesy of DC's Great Streets Website. Here's the link: http://www.greatstreetsdc.com/)

Chuck has also been busy contacting representatives from the Great Streets initiative (The department who has the responsibility of reviving the streets of DC). Of which, the prominent figure, Derrick Woody, the project manager, has contacted us offering his help. We look forward to speaking with Mr. Woody along with the many others involved to discuss our plans.

Lastly, we will soon be looking for investors. Anyone interested or knows someone that may be, feel free to contact us. Our e-mail is chuck81.eric84@gmail.com We will be updating our e-mails with our recently purchased domain but will only start using it after our trademark quest is complete.

Give Back!

2009-04-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

As we are finishing up the business plan this week and moving to the marketing plan we have decided to add a new category: Give Back to The Community. We have been interested in this idea from the start but were not sure how we could keep it in focus. Susan has offered the idea of just giving it a separate section in our business plan all together. This could in the long run not only help us think of more ways to contribute every time we glance back at our plan but also incorporate it into our overall business mindset. With each leap we take we should always remember that we are moving into a community of people and not just an empty building. We have thought of a few ideas such as becoming part of the United Way Campaign, having a few days a year where employees are paid to clean the streets instead of working inside, host local charity events, sponsor sport teams, and so on. As we think of more we will be sure to plan ahead and eventually, but most definitely put it into action!

Planning timeline..........

2009-03-31T07:58:00.001-07:00

The lack of blog updating has been due to another planning phase. We currently received a final draft from Susan and will be making necessary changes. The draft will then be sent back with a final deposit making this part of the business plan (executive summary) official and "complete". This is of course quite exciting. We will be moving onto the marketing plan and ultimately the financial plan. Marking plans are not easy... It will take hours upon hours of research to get it complete and presentable. Susan has been an amazing resource. We hope to meet with her in the near future to discuss our next steps, bounce around some ideas, and figure out the best way to begin. I will also be attending a SCORE seminar next month which focuses on the business plan, ultimately to obtain resources for our marketing plan. I also have obtained the contact information for the DC SBA (small business association) free counselor, which is organized through SCORE as well. With these resources and the ones I have mentioned in past blogs, we will have a great jump start to get the next steps complete. Chuck and I will also be traveling quite a bit in the near future to scope out sites (more pictures!) for our business. Obviously we are not at the stage to lease or purchase but we must learn all that we can in order to make an educated decision when we are ready. We have been part of the mailing list for the 6A ward (H Street Atlas district) for quite some time. In the future, we are hoping to become a more integral part of their processes as our dream progresses into a real working plan. This is important, as shown through recent news, since they will be giving the final approval of opening our doors. Our immediate steps are to pay for the trademark (using Legalzoom.com) and create and LLC for ourselves (DC government web site). As a hint, never pay someone to create a Employer Identification Number (EIN) for you. It is a free registration and quite simple. Updates are coming quickly so I will be posting more frequently. Stay tuned!

H Street Comes Into Focus!

2009-03-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

(Image courtesy of the Washington Post, the Atlas Disctrict)

Since our last adventure of having a newspaper article published, Chuck and I have been quite busy with a wedding and traveling to see family. Now that we are back, I can finally update our blog explaining what we have been up to. Recently Susan sent us a revised draft copy of our business plan and everything looks great. We will be sending her the final payment and our final copy which will mark the end of the first phase of creating our plan. Our next step is to get into the marketing and financial plan. These two sections will again require countless hours of research and brain storming on our part. We have been seriously diving into the H street Atlas district in DC learning all that we possibly can. We have contacted the DDOT (DC Department of Transportation) in regards to the H street overhaul which should be completed by July 2011. The biggest and most exciting part of this project is the Streetcar which will go from 3rd street to several miles down H street, Benning Road, and Oklahoma avenue. This will of course create an easier way for customers to have access to our establishment. DC has already purchased a few street cars that apparently take a few years to build. Currently a few businesses pay taxis to bring people from the metro to their part of H street, free of charge for the customers of course. In another blog, probably posting later tonight I will go into more detail as to what is in the works and how we are finding this information. We also have found contacts for acquiring a liquor license. Unlike 17th street, that has had some issues with creating new licenses, we have been reassured, though it will be a long process, that we will be able to acquire one. I will also in our next entry go into some detail about the H street corridor. It has a pretty remarkable history.

Voice of the Hill Article!

2009-03-15T15:30:00.001-07:00

As you can see our article was published. Click on the images below so you can see them full size. Enjoy!

Hot off the presses!

2009-03-12T05:45:00.001-07:00

I have yet to see the article on the Capitolhillvoice.com website so hurry out to capitol hill and pick up a copy. Chuck will be heading out after work to grab a bunch. Here is the link for pickup locations. Click Here

I will post a new blog once I get to read it!

Interview Followup

2009-03-08T17:29:00.001-07:00

We had the interview Friday in China Town with a very nice reporter from Voice of The Hill. We had dinner at Nando's Peri Peri, an African-Portuguese restaurant. The food was great! You are seated at a table, get a number, order your food and it is brought to you. Sort of like Panera, but much healthier. You also get to choose how spicy the food is. I had a lemon and herb chicken wrap with a side salad. The salad was fresh bell peppers, onions, olives and cheese. I have always wanted to use the light/fresh salad idea eventually with our lounge. Very tasty. I also was recently thinking about incorporating a cheese platter into our menu. Everyone loves cheese!

So enough about the food. The interview was a neat experience. It is our first time doing anything like this. Our interviewer was great. She asked a million questions and filled about 5 pages of notes. She asked everything from where we got our ideas from to what advice we have for others who are thinking about starting a business. In the end, almost two hours later, I believe she got the information she needed and we had a great time! It was nice to get into the city. We have been hibernating a bit because of the snow, cold, and random colds that we have caught. Our interviewer is trying to figure out what picture to attach to our article. We were thinking of doing a picture of ourselves surrounded by our favorite business resources; our books and our business plan. She is going to let us know early this week what the final picture will be.

The article is going to be published on Thursday. We will be sure to stop up on the hill after work and grab a copy. The article I believe will also be posted online. Be sure to check out http://www.capitolhillvoice.com

Interview with local newspaper

2009-03-06T10:20:00.000-08:00

A reporter from The Voice of The Hill (capitolhillvoice.com) has asked us to meet with her in China Town tonight for dinner. Apparently our blog has gotten some attention recently and she would like to do a story about us and our adventure with opening a bar. This is quite exciting as you can imagine. I originally got the idea of starting a blog through the SCORE counseling seminars and from Susan, who is creating our business plan. It seems to be working, we obviosuly have people following. Also our blog has been linked to major websites throughout DC. Wish us luck and I will be sure to provide the link when the story hits the presses! Will give an update when tonight is over letting everyone know how it goes.

Business plan Draft One - Sent!

2009-02-24T18:12:00.000-08:00

After weeks of research and headache, we have finally sent our revised/edited draft of the business plan to Susan! We originally had one created but had minimal information to give. Susan did a wonderful job at creating something great from almost nothing. Chuck and I have really put our heads together, and as you know, created a name, designed a theme, and have concrete ideas on the look and feel. We even threw in great ideas on how to be eco-friendly (one of my favorite parts). We are currently working hard at our financial situation as well. Chuck has had a few calls about his car for sale (yes, he is that dedicated that he is giving up his baby). For that...I give him a gold star.

Name game!

2009-02-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

So, it has indeed been a while since I have last posted. Since meeting with our SCORE counselor a few weeks ago I have been doing some serious research and contacting a bunch of people to help us fix up our business plan. I am hoping to get the draft edit back to Susan by the beginning of next week after having the weekend to do some more work. Chuck and I have picked a name for now. The idea is to have a lounge that takes customer/consumer comfort and enjoyment to the max. This is quite exciting. Picking a name (of course not set in stone yet...) has sparked many ideas on design and a theme. We are also interested in finding "green" vendors to be environmentally friendly. As a microbiolgoist, in the science field, being friendly to the environment is a must, espeically with a business I will be owning. Our next immediate step is to finish up our draft of the business plan, etching out the details related to our chosen size (about 2500-3000 sq. feet), location (H street corridor) and theme.

We are also looking into using legalzoom.com to do our trademark work. Lawyers can charge hundreds of dollars per hour to trademark a name, do the research and submit an application for trademark. Legal zoom costs under 200 then 350 is the normal charge for submission of forms. They will also not submit if they find the name is taken/trademarked already. If done on your own, you take a huge risk of paying the application fee without knowing for sure, 100%, that the name is not taken. We also have to trademark our logo/brand/theme which is covered in the cost. Finding cost cutting places like this are key in the beginning and throughout our whole process. I will post more about the name more soon along with more ideas as we think of them. Please post comments with any ideas you may have as well. We also have the facebook page DCLOUNGEBAR where you can also post ideas. If the name is available, and we trademark it, I would like to eventually change the name of this blog, our facebook page, and the twitter account to reflect.

The picture posted is one of a million neat designs of furnature for a bar on the market. So much to choose from!

SCORE Counseling

2009-02-04T05:24:00.001-08:00

So tomorrow is the start of our counseling sessions with SCORE. Since Chuck has been busy with work, I am meeting with Joe Clark in Ballston, VA, tomorrow. It is so great having so many resources so close to home, it's only a 5 minute drive. Tonight, we will be making a list of ideas and questions so I can get as much information in the free hour as I can. Our major concern is where to go next. Susan has created a rough outline of our business plan and we are not sure what comes next and where to get specific information for the plan. We were very impressed with Susan's work. She was able to turn our vague and limited information into a very well written business plan. Our job now is to fill in the blanks with as much information as we can for her to then create the final draft and eventually final copy. I will post info tomorrow on how the meeting went and what comes next!

Wish me luck.

New post coming soon,,,

2009-01-04T17:16:00.001-08:00

The holidays are officially over and we are seriously back to work... I will be posting soon with our progress and what we have been working on over the holidays. We will be contacting Susan (business plan writer) very soon to begin creating the business plan. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington

2008-12-10T06:37:00.001-08:00

I have very exciting news! I had e-mailed RAMW (Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington) about two weeks ago. We learned through Susan and Ernesto that we should attend the meetings or try to join. This Association is a membership based group in DC where all restaurants and bars join to network, learn about the community, meet vendors (who will give discounts) and so on. Going to the meetings will give us a great inside scoop on how to make a business work. Who would be better to talk to than those that are already running a business!

Membership for new attendees is $175.00, which may sound like a lot, but this will be a great resource. This is very exciting and will definitely keep the blog updated to when we are joining and what happens during the meetings.

SCORE Online Courses

2008-12-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

After going to the SCORE seminar a while ago, I decided to dive into the recommended online courses. I will admit that I was pretty hesitant. I figured, being free, they would be boring, outdated, and just not helpful. I was completely wrong. I would recommend these courses to anyone who is even thinking about one day starting a business. My biggest complaint to Chuck is when we talk to business related acquaintances I will have a hard time following the business jargon. The courses are definitely giving us an advantage. Now when we meet with people I can be confident in what I know and ask important questions. I have taken three so far which only take about 45 minutes. With each one I end up with at least a page of notes and hours of researching online.

You can click the link below to check out SCORE. I sound like a TV ad...but it is truly a great service.

http://www.sba.gov/services/training/onlinecourses/index.html

Business Cards - Done!

2008-12-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great turkey day, I know we did. After traveling to Baltimore and Delaware we are definitely worn out. The holidays were great but now it is time to get back to work. Last week we finally finished our business cards (actually passed out a few in our travels). Today we e-mailed Susan, who I spoke of before, to let her know we are definitely using her to create our business plan. We are looking forward to doing business with her. She has a lot of insight and seems to really know her stuff. We are going forward with that process after the holidays, most likely the first week of January. So, as I promised, I will attempt to post the business cards, at least one of them on our blog so our loyal followers can judge, just don't steal them!

(Ignore the random white lines...the print screen function seemed to mess with the pictures...)

FRONT

BACK

Templates never do their job...

2008-11-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

To save some cash Chuck and I decided to make business cards for the both of us. Chuck, being more able to create a neat design, and I being better with computers allows us to do these sort of things pretty quickly. Chuck's part of the business card process was quick, easy, and painless. He created a few really cool ideas that work well and are quite unique. Not sure how he did it, but I'm impressed. We went to Office Depot, bought the ink, the paper (not cheap) and went to work. Avery stinks, the templates simply never line up. I have had this issue in the past but this time it was personal. After hours of creating a great business card through Open Office and MS word (to compare and see if it was a software problem) they just wouldn't come out right. Either there were random white lines along the edge, where the ink didn't carry far enough into the margins, or the text was smudged to where it wasn't legible. Chuck is amazing, kept his cool, trying not to tease while my hair is being pulled out and my nerves on edge. He was very supportive and in the end after wasting our precious expensive paper (must be laced with gold for that price) we have our final product. This is a great thing. Now when we meet with people, even though we do not have a name for our Lounge Bar at the moment, we can at least hand them something to keep in contact.

Mission: Explore U Street

2008-11-22T19:02:00.001-08:00

We have learned through a great source that H Street would be a good place to start looking for a potential site of business. This weekend Chuck and I created a list of things to do. At the top of our list was to drive around U Street, in Ward 7, 6A, where gentrification is slowly taking place. We did just that Saturday morning. This area is definitely not your Dupont or Georgetown but seeing the area as potentially a spot to open a lounge bar, we could see it. The area is spotty, you will see a place like "sticky-rice", a nice sushi restaurant which appears to be doing well 50 feet away from a condemned building. We also noticed a few "newer" looking bars or cafes that have recently been closed. Talking to a real estate agent in our apartment building we have learned that one of those newly established bars, that was recently closed, did not have a good customer base and decided to move in the direction of a comedy club venue. We'll keep that in mind (don't do comedy) :) I'll post a few pictures of what we have found. The first picture is of a building for lease and the second is a wonderful concrete wall, (very classy) advertising an empty lot.

And.......Go!

2008-11-22T18:37:00.001-08:00

Hello blogging world. The next couple blogs will be me introducing who we are and what we are doing. Chuck (my partner) and I are in the process of opening a lounge bar in DC. We are still in the beginning stages but have decided to definitely go forward.

This might be jumping ahead, but I need to give a shout out to Susan Campbell and Ernesto Gluecksman (both can be found on facebook, twitter and the blog world). We met with them last week. They are business partners working to help small businesses. Susan, who specializes in marketing, business plans..etc and Earnesto, who specializes in internet based assistance, met with us for dinner at Boca di Bepo in Dupont. Dinner was excellent as always, huge portions for a good price, and conversation was of course the highlight. We truley appreciate the insight and advice. We are looking forward to doing business with them in the near future.

So back to what we are doing...
Chuck, who has traveled the world with the Navy has seen a wide range of bars/clubs/lounges, noticing what he has liked, what he hasn't, and what he would change. This sparked the idea to one day open his own. Chuck and I have been together for two years, living together for one. Now that we are settled in our home, getting along great, he asked that I join him on this dream. I have agreed and so the jouney has begun. We started by doing as much internet based research as we could. We even bought books, top rated on Barnes and Noble of course :) . Through all the information we found, we still did not feel comfortable and felt we needed to talk to professionals who have already started businesses....

Day One: Dive into the Internet Social Arena!

2008-11-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

Coming soon:

An intro to who we are, what we are diving into, and how we are getting things in order for opening day!