Monday, November 7, 2011

Journey of a studio owner....Research 101 - take two...

By now, we know we want a studio. We want it to be nice, we want it to be pretty, we want it to be GRAND! So much fills our minds with music, mirrors, and pretty wall coverings envision our minds. Oh! as we think of the joys and hours of dance we will fill up in our new studio home! Our minds race with excitement and then we thought, what else do we need aside from finding a location? Oh yes, research the area, market, yada yada yada.
Getting a business loan?? "Piece of cake" I thought. "I can do this for sure", as I confidently thought. You see, I had worked for a major retailer that specialized in precise customer service - I was a manager there and I am used to superior customer service, making my sales goals, making business plans, and putting on events on a regular basis. I also worked as a marketing specialist for a radio station and knew what it took to market to a tough audience and to tie in other marketing venues together. My business partner has experience running her father's church business and keeping it afloat, my mentor is just a uber genius that she can whip up a solid business plan for all of us to follow. With our experience, we should have no problem getting capital.
Imagine the shock we came across when we were systematically turned down for loans and such to open a business. It's like all that knowledge & experience made me feel like I was back in little league again. I felt like I knew nothing and certainly, I was feeling quite small and insignificant. One small detail I forgot to realize was the fact when I worked in these other industries, I was backed by a powerful corporation who had the money to make things work and go through. Yes, unfortunately money does make the world go around...and especially if you are a large big box type of business. My business partner and I do not have much by way of liquid assets nor do we have much capital. Since this is a new business with no other experience in the past of a similar business put us at a high risk. Banks are simply not doling out money loans like they used to. Five years ago the story may have been different, but today, you pretty much need the up front capital or assets to prove you need a loan - but doesn't that sound like an oxymoron to you?
You can thank the economy for that...and people wonder why small businesses cannot get off the ground.
We were lucky to get some donations...some freely, some with a repayment, and our continued support of current students taking classes and feeding the studio kitty. Unfortunately some loans had to be reimbursed quickly and some did not fall through. Nonetheless, we had to get really creative in this process and continue to donate our salary to make this happen.
Next, we need to file for another business license and permits because we plan on selling things at the studio in the future. Reseller's permits easy. Business license filing, not so much more time, money, and delays...I am filling out forms to my eyeballs :0 This process proves to be the least painful of what we are going through, but we just didn't notice until later...
The last thing on the "adjusted" agenda is to find a location again. We already did our extensive search and research in our town with some futile results. This meant we had to go out of the area. It really seemed scary to think of another area because of what we 'hear' of that happens in other communities. Crime statistics are very important because our student's safety is important. As we searched and searched, we were shocked on the statistics....the one city people "warn" about as being high crime is actually considerably lower in crime than the town we live in. The area where we are renting has a violent crime rate four times higher than the area we were considering. Aside from the crime statistics, we also looked at population demographics, commuter vs. domestic traffic, age, education, police to resident ratio, and more. Seems that some cities have a better pubic relations campaign than others. Shame on them for making other communities look so bad.
Our decision has been made. We will search for our studio in Moreno Valley CA.

...next blog, Finding home in Moreno Valley....

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