Welcome to the Madness

Welcome to D.P. Dough Normal - target opening date (subject to change) January 11, 2008. My name is Ryan. I'm a 26-year-old ISU alum who enjoyed his time down here in Normal so much that I didn't want to leave. Being too hyperactive to sit at a desk all day, my only appealing option was to go into business for myself. So this is where I find myself: two months away from living, breathing, and more than occasionally eating calzones 24/7. Every day is a chaotic ballet of dealing with whatever circumstances require my attention, as well as filling out all the right paperwork and paying all the right people so that everything falls into place in time for the opening.

In the following months, I will post in as much detail as possible the day-to-day happenings that go into the opening of a new business in a college town. I am already pretty far along, but have a long way left to go. I'll do my best to touch on everything significant that has happened to date, mixing it in with all the latest developments. Hopefully, in doing so, anyone interested in starting their own business will have a better idea of what goes into nurturing a business from a seed planted in the mind to an opening date when (hopefully) everything comes together harmoniously.

Before I forget, you may want to know a little bit about the store I'm opening. For those who don't yet know, D.P. Dough is the Original Calzone Company, established in 1987; I will be opening the twentieth store nationwide. For those who need to know everything, click on the link to the company's website on the sidebar; for those who prefer just the basics, D.P. Dough offers delivery, dine-in, and carry-out options, and is famous for five things:

- Calzones and cheese sticks
- Salads (including Build-Your-Own)
- Homemade fresh-baked cookies
- Ben & Jerry's ice cream (if I can manage to track down the local distributor)
- Wings and chicken tenders

So, with the background now out of the way, on to the latest in current events:

Yesterday was an eventful day. Not only am I now allowed to proceed with my plans for the storefront (see above), but I also managed to score some high-quality restaurant equipment on the cheap. Since this project is already costing me far more than I had initially projected, every opportunity to save money without sacrificing quality is viewed a major score.

So anyways, I found two things down in Lincoln, IL (30 miles away) by religiously scouring the ebay listings. The first is a 40 quart mixer that I managed to pick up at a very steep discount - I had originally budgeted for a 30 quart mixer, but my brother convinced me that was too small. The second was a six-foot-wide refrigerated salad prep table, also sold to me at about one-fifth of what I could have expected to pay for an identical item on its own.

A tip for anyone looking to go the ebay or craigslist route: buy relatively local, so that you can view the products in person before purchasing. I bought 20 chairs and 13 tables for my store last weekend from a guy who was storing them in his basement; being able to see them in person, take measurements, and then physically measure in my store where and how they could best fit allowed me to determine exactly how many I would need (including a few backups/replacements).

This has been a rather long post, but I'll end it with what will probably become a recurring theme in this space: place your trust in people who know more than you do. I have a contractor and architect who have good working relationships with the building and health inspectors, as well as signage and awning professionals who have dealt with the Uptown Design Review Commission, without whose approval nothing can be done to a storefront. When my HVAC subcontractor said that the exhaust hood for my ovens may be insufficient, my job was to simply email the equipment vendors with the updated specs so that they can make the necessary adjustments.

There's a ton more to come, but for now I have to turn my attention to picking out my favorite shade of grey for my storefront. I need to paint the exterior of the store before winter sets in - wish me luck!