Paralysis

It doesn't get much worse than this.


I knew there would be lows involved in starting a business, but watching time go by with no progress whatsoever is severely unnerving, to put it mildly. I am patiently waiting on the building inspector to take a look at my plans, so that my contractor can get his building permit and start carpentry work. We had optimistically hoped that this would be a formality, but reality blew it bitter and fierce on that one. The new timetable for the commencement of work is Friday or Monday - pretty much just in time for the holidays to distract everyone. I should also mention that the building permit does not allow for us to do any electrical, HVAC, or plumbing work; those inspectors may need a few more weeks to sign off on our plans. I am starting to think that Super Bowl weekend is out of the question - I am just not ready to admit it to myself yet.

Continuing along the depressing theme, my landlord is trying to imply that I should pay to have the roof temporarily patched, which falls under his responsibilities in the lease. His argument is that he was willing to put the new roof on the place before winter set it, but I had stated that it would make more sense to have the new roof put on after my contractor had put his hole in the roof for my exhaust hood and made temporary patches around that, with the understanding that the roof would be redone soon thereafter. Thankfully, the roof does not visibly leak - even after the recent ice storms - which means that it probably won't require temporary patching, and that my landlord will be able to put a new roof on the place come spring.

Were that my only landlord issue, it would be enough. Unfortunately, I'm not that lucky. What I had believed to be a formality, he's to some extent stonewalling. I need him, as landlord, to sign some perfunctory papers so that my loan funds can be released. These papers give the bank first lien on my equipment in the event I default on my loan. When I explained this to him, he asked, "Well, what about me?", implying that he believed the equipment to be his. What about him? At most I would be on the hook for however long remained on my initial three-year lease, or - if down the road - my four year option. At $1250 or $1300 per month, my indebtedness to him would not be insurmountable. Considering that I am putting almost $100,000 into a building he paid only $64,000 for a few years ago, I don't think we'd have much trouble finding a sublessee to reap the benefits of all my improvements and hit the ground running. What if he refuses to sign? Then I never gain access to my $200,000, and everything gets flushed down the toilet unless an angel descends from the skies and deposits said amount in my upturned hands.

And what if the landlord does sign? Then I can ALMOST gain access to the funds; there still remains the issue of insurance. You see, no one wants to insure me for delivery, since I have not been in the delivery business for a minimum of three years. It's the ultimate catch-22. Hopefully they can look at D.P. Dough stores that have been around for that long, and extrapolate from there the level of risk my deliveries present and underwrite a policy in accordance with that. In any event, with sands of time pouring through my fingers, I've instructed them to go ahead and price me a policy without the delivery covered for now.

I promise to post more frequently going forward; recently, I was just waiting for some good news to mix in - there just really isn't any. "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all" works great for little kids, but if I were to abide by that, I may go months between posts.

I'll try to whip up something encouraging in the next few days - but no promises.