Crazy Calendar

Justin wanted to take a picture of our calendar this month because it's never ever been this full. We've had so much going on and September is beginning to look like it could be the same way.

We've been helping our friend Betty out at the Street of Dreams on the weekends. It's really fun and we like being able to do this together. If we can get paid and still be together, then even better.

I got three new clients in the past week and have set up meetings with two other people for next week. I love being able to help all these people. I have a problem sitting still, so the busier I am the better. This issue has been illuminated this summer as we wait for our location to pan out. We've been trying to find the balance between continuing to focus on our record store while at the same time being patient. Keeping our calendar packed has been a great way to pass the time.

About a week ago we were watching TV and ended up sticking to the Portland Public Access channel. They were having a meeting about Small Businesses and how Portland was trying to be a player in the global economy. There was one lady that owned a green building company and she said a lot of things that rang true to me, like how if you don't need venture capital from the OEN they don't know how to help you. I had a similar experience. So anyways, she just happened to come by the Street of Dreams last weekend and I jumped at the opportunity to introduce myself. But I will give Justin credit; he recognized her first. So now we've been emailing back and forth and I'm meeting with her next week. Seems like she's building a mentorship program that I might want to be a part of.

When you live the life of an entrepreneur you have to jump at opportunities like that. Probably only 25% of the opportunities lead somewhere, but that's a pretty great statistic for me. I'm excited to see where it may lead.

Justin is DJing at the Jade Lounge tonight. We have a bunch of friends coming out and we're looking forward to it.

Local First!

We decided a long time ago that we wanted to be a part of the Local First movement. It's important to us to be able to help perpetuate the local economy.

One of my clients has a day job at a restaurant that gets all their produce from the Farmer's Market. It got me wondering about how that works in the off season. From what I can tell, there are only two year-round farmer's markets; the People's Farmer's Market and the Hillsdale Farmer's Market. One is on Wednesdays and the other is only twice a month on Sundays in the winter. I think I need to do some more investigative research in to how this whole thing should work. It seems to me that we'd need to re-stock produce at least twice a week.

We're also trying to figure out what we're doing with coffee. Originally we intended on selling Stumptown Coffee but the location we are looking at has too many other other establishments selling Stumptown. So we may want to go another direction. Our friends at the Little Red Bike Cafe use Courier Coffee Roasters and they're mighty delicious.

We're big fans of Grand Central for bread and Sunshine Dairy for milk and cheese. But in terms of bread, we're open to suggestions because GC seems to get stale after a very short amount of time. But then again maybe I just need to start using some Debbie Meyer Green Bags :)

What I am MOST excited about using are Earth Cups.


They're made from a company in Bend and are not only made from renewable resources but they're completely biodegradable!

Can we please just open already?!?!?

Cash & Carry

I'll start this off by saying, I love what I do. I love creating businesses and helping others to create their own. I currently have three clients, all of which are in the food industry. Every time I go through the business planning process with them I get to re-live my own business plan and tweak it as we go.

Last week I took one of my clients to Cash & Carry for research. The first time I was ever in this store I was like a kid in a candy store. It actually rivaled my kid in a candy store experience of working the American Music Awards in '05 and being surrounded by celebrities everywhere I went. I was in heaven.

To anyone familiar with Smart & Final, Cash & Carry is their bigger, stronger, smarter older brother. It's the go-to place for restauranteurs in Portland. They have everything from produce to paper products to basically anything you can think of that goes in a restaurant.

I brought my client there because not only is it a feeding ground for great ideas, but it makes you think of things that you hadn't thought of before. We brought notebooks and pens and I had her write down everything that she wanted. This will all go in to her budget. We spent about an hour and a half in there bouncing ideas off of each other and having a blast.

I highly recommend anyone thinking about opening up a place to go on an exploratory mission to Cash & Carry. It's the most fun you'll have in a grocery store.

Logo Design Process

Thanks to some amazing friends, we have been able to somewhat figure out what we want in a logo. Justin and I are by no means graphic artists so we enlisted the help of some friends. Each has helped us narrow down what we're looking for and we are eternally grateful.

I wanted to share with you some of the examples one of our friends did for us. It's pretty cool to see them all in one place.

When we went to him we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted based on previous efforts. He just wanted to show us some other options. I quite like how witty the third one on the top is. He's incorporating a sphinx, which plays off the whole Hall of Records pun.

The second one on the top is most like our original idea, only before we had seen it in a wrapped computer font instead of hand drawn. We're going to play around with the letters and add embellishments. Justin really likes the stars in the bottom left drawing. We're basing them off another logo we found online.

I'm excited to see where this goes. We're expecting another round here soon.

Night Owl Blog

Two times a year, vinyl lovers from all over the world come to Portland for the Night Owl Record Show. Justin sold records at the last one and we're happy to be a part of the upcoming show on October 17th.

They recently started a blog and this week they featured Justin! So nice!

Beat Off Video

Justin made a new video of last night's Beat Off at Holocene! We had a blast!

Beat Off Beat Battle: Portland, OR 8-5-09 from Justin Meyer on Vimeo.

Beat Off Part Deux

Tonight we're selling records the Beat Off at Holocene. This is the second time we're doing it and we're looking forward to it. We met a lot of really cool people last time.

We were supposed to also sell at Rock the Runways on the 15th, but something happened with the city and they aren't having any vendors this year. But we just got a call about a record show up in Seattle in September that we're probably going to go to. I'll jump at any chance to go see Seattle again.

I'm going to my first women-only networking event next Tuesday. It's more for my business consulting business than the record business, but since both are growing, I'll talk about it. I just finished ordering my business cards, signing up for LinkedIn and creating my own website. It's free, so it's not much, but hey, it's better than nothing!

Sammy's

Right now I am in Post-Sammy Heaven. In our house, Sammy's = Sandwiches.

We just had the most amazing lunch we've had in a long time.

Today is the day we start testing spreads for our sandwich menu. We're keeping our menu simple with soup, salads and sandwiches. And we know that any restaurant can get the top quality bread and the top quality meat, but the real difference is in the spread.

So I went to the store and got Grand Central Como Bread, Deli Turkey and all the ingredients to make Chipotle Mayo, Pesto Mayo and Homemade Vegan Mayo.

After two attempts to make the Vegan Mayo, I'm sad to report that I may have to figure out another recipe. No matter how slowly I poured the oil in it just did not thicken! So oh well.

But the Chipotle and Pesto Mayo's were amazing!!!

We're thinking Pesto Mayo on Turkey and Chipotle Mayo on Oven Roasted Chicken or on a BLT. YUMMY!!!!!!

Okay, now I'm going back to my food coma :)

The Great Heat Wave of 2009

I wonder if people in Portland will look back on this week and remember what they did during the great heat wave. We've been alternating between beers and wash cloths, just trying to stay sane. And today is going to be worse; 108 degrees. All this in a city that doesn't believe in air conditioners. Despite the heat, we've managed to still have a lot of fun.

This past weekend when my parents were in town we went to the Oregon Brewer's Festival at Waterfront Park. My Dad had been looking forward to it for months and it was even in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die book. There were thousands of people there and it got a bit nuts at times. But it gave us a perfect opportunity to look for beers for our beer menu.

We want to have a menu that is diverse, local and seasonal with a flair of organic. We also really like interesting fruit beers. Some of our favorites were:

Stumptown Tart (Bridgeport Ale House - Portland, OR) Marionberry Beer!
Organic Chocolate Stout (Bison Brewing - Berkeley, CA)
Cream Ale (Fearless Brewing - Estacada, OR)
Raspberry Wheat (Vertigo Brewing - Hillsboro, OR)
The Great White (Lost Cost Brewery - Eureka, CA)
Organic Acai Berry (Eel River Brewery - Fortuna, CA)

We'll also have some Ambers, Lagers, Pale Ales and Hefeweizen.

MMMMMMMM.... Can't wait for some of these beers to be flowing from our taps!!

Cheers!

In an attempt to work on the things that we can, we've been doing a lot of menu planning lately.

Way back when we first started doing research I stumbled upon a great site called BNET. Some of the articles you have to pay for but at the time there were all these amazing free articles about the state of the restaurant business. I started to notice a specific magazines called Cheers that was especially insightful. I subscribed to the magazine and now get it sent to our house.


I have steadily grown more and more impressed with this publication. This particular issue has amazing insights in to how to craft your beer menu, how small plates are ruling the industry and how to give the "millenials" what they want.

As I was reading it I kept thinking of all the people I've been helping lately and how each one could benefit from this magazine. I would strongly recommend it to anyone in the restaurant business, whether you're already open or just doing research.

And on a somewhat related note, I have now had a hand in starting three separate bar/restaurants here in Portland. Woo Hoo!!

Clarence Duffy

Justin's DJing Thursday night at the Jade Lounge on SE Ankeny & 24th. 7PM. It's a good time; half price apps, drink specials (I think) and some funky tunes. Plus we'll be there :) I haven't seen some of our friends in a while, so I'm looking forward to it.

It's Friday!

It's Friday!! and we're gearing up for a BIG weekend. My parents are coming in to town this weekend for their first ever trip to the Pacific NorthWest. It also happens to be the 24 Hour Fundraiser for Relay for Life.

Sarah, Lisa and I (among many, many others) have been working our butts off preparing all the events and entertainment for the event. It's 80's Themed and I can't wait to see the Best 80's Hair Contest, 80's Exercise Lap and the 80's Prom that we have been planning!

I'm also planning a trip to the Japanese Garden, Mt. Tabor Park and Kennedy School with the rents. Busy, busy weekend!

The logos have started coming in and they look great! Our friend Edgar is getting really in to it, buying books on 60's and 70's funk records and logos. I can't WAIT to see what he comes up with.

I also got a new business plan client. It's for another restaurant here in Portland. With every new client the whole process gets easier and easier. I think it may actually be time to start charging more :)

And on a related note, we took a MUCH NEEDED break from reality on Wednesday and headed to the Coast. God, we live in a beautiful place.

Expanding

Thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday!!

It always takes me a few days to recover. This past Saturday was a success (!) and a whole new experience because we did it on the patio. It gave it a much more laid back vibe which was great, yet not much of a "riot." Despite that, we had people who said they liked it better outside.

We had a great mix of old friends and new faces. Khalil from Hammond Beat Records brought some of his labels' records to sell. The 45's we got from him have been filling our house with funky goodness ever since. In addition to friends, we've started to get repeat customers, which is really exciting!

Right now we're prepping for the Beat Off, Rock the Runways and our next party. We love a lot of things about doing our parties at the pizza place but we may need to branch off in to more of a bar setting.

We've been discussing maybe approaching the GoodFoot about doing a party there. The club is really cool, in our neighborhood and they do a lot of funk nights. Dameian even spun there on the 4th of July. Only thing is that we'll probably have to do it on a week night, where at the pizza place we can do it whenever we want. Decisions, decisions!

There's a lot more going on behind the scenes, too. We have four different friends working on logos for us and it's pretty exciting. We're so grateful because with every new logo we see we can figure out what we like and what we don't like. We want to have a banner with both our logo and the Wax Broker Riot logo for the Belmont Street Fair, which is September 12th.

At the same time, we've been doing a lot of work on our menu. Betty, a good friend of the Portland family, has offered to teach us about sauces and dressings. We're going to start experimenting and there's even been talk of expanding it into it's own business on the side. I like to kill about four birds with one stone :)

I have a client who I am helping put a business plan together for a new bar. We're in research mode, so we're going around and scoping out other bars for pros, cons and ideas. I am almost completely re-tracing the steps I did when I was putting our business plan together, only this time it's a different style bar so it's a completely new experience. It's reinforcing everything we've been doing for the past year and a half.

Ah life is good when you seize opportunities.

Getting Ready for Tomorrow!!

Newsletter & Portables

The days counting down to our parties are always so exciting! I ordered a new portable record player so people could listen to records at our parties and we didn't expect it to come until next week, but it came today!!


Sometimes guys will bring their own but I figure if we get in the habit of always having one then they won't have to worry about it. Plus it's going to be a major feature once our store is open, so it's never too early to start!

We've also been hitting the pavement to come up with a logo, website and email newsletter. Thanks to my new friend, Nedra, I woke up this morning, checked my morning blog roll and discovered she had written a blog about a product that was exactly what I needed; a newsletter template.

So guess what?!? Now we have a NEWSLETTER SIGNUP PAGE!!

Until we get an actual website up, we'll just use our MYSPACE. But at least we have something!