Faking Sanity

The Name Game

Posted by perian - 17/07/10 at 01:07:05 pm

Oh hey!  We didn’t mention our excellent news from yesterday — our business name has been approved!  Under the Willow will officially become Faking Sanity on July 31.

I know it seems utterly redundant to buy a business and then turn around and change the name. I mean, part of the price of a business is its good reputation and loyal clientele. But Under the Willow just felt wrong for us, though it works perfectly for the current owner.  Faking Sanity is more… us.  This business is going to reflect a lot of what makes the two of us unique, so we might as well pick a name that’s unique as well, right?

Paychecks and Friends and Moms (oh my!)

Posted by perian - 17/07/10 at 01:07:45 pm

I gave my official notice at work this week and am feeling a little wonky from it. In part, it’s exhilarating to think that soon I will be working for myself (well, and that partner of mine.) I can do things my way and, most importantly to me, won’t be dealing with the politics of working for a big corporation (though I really do love the company!)  But on the other hand… I only have 2 more paychecks coming my way. And then it’s completely up to me as to whether I pay my rent on time.

The thing that balances it all out in the end is our support network.  Our friends have been brilliant this past month, whether they were offering a whole lot of positive reinforcement or a box of old books off their bookshelves.  In fact, complete strangers have been offering us books, thanks to the awesome network that is the knitting community.  And mainly, there’s been my mom.

I can’t even put into words how much I appreciate my mom.  She’s always been encouraging and supportive, but this past month she’s just rocked. She has single-handedly populated the shelves of our kids section, offered to put up mtlaise for 5 weeks (and me for 2 or 3, but I’m family so she has to! *grin*), and been our sounding board, local knowledge guru, and general runner since we’re trying to get this started from 900 kms away.  And most likely she’s going to be our best source of advertising, since I swear she knows every single one of 12,000 people who live in Dawson Creek and is telling everyone she knows about the shop.

My turn…

Posted by mtlaise - 16/07/10 at 06:07:00 pm

I guess it’s my turn to say a few words, since I linked our knitting blog readers to this new business blog.

The past few weeks at our house really have been a crazy flurry of activity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many books in a single home, and the scary part is that it’s nowhere near the number of books we need to acquire in the next few weeks before we open the shop. It’s terrifying and thrilling all at once. To give you an idea, here’s a pic of our dining room table about 2 weeks ago before we knew we were starting a book store right away; since then, we’ve kicked book acquisitions into high gear. The table is still just as full, there are more bags under the table, and the hallway is also lined with books… oh, and the walk in closet is half-full already with book boxes!

Today, we made our first big equipment purchases for the shop, continued working on our business plan, and I just bought my ticket to head up next Sunday. After the roommie/business partner left for work, I started packing, so she isn’t stuck packing the entire apartment alone once I’m gone… Not to worry though, I’ll have work too. I’m heading up early to work with the current owner for a week, and get all our local licensing, banking, inspections, signs, etc taken care of before I start painting and setting up the shop. We’ll both be run off our feet, and I can’t think of anything more exciting!

A Sharp Right Turn

Posted by perian - 14/07/10 at 11:07:24 pm

Eight days ago I wrote about how we were going to blog the entire process of starting our own business… and that night we got a call offering us the business of our dreams.

While we were in Dawson Creek last month we discovered that Under the Willow was for sale. We went to take a look at it and it was exactly what we were looking for — a small cafe with a kitchen and seating, and a whole side for books.  Unfortunately, when we went to talk to the owner she already had a sale pending, so we went back to our plans to start from scratch.  Luckily for us, the sale fell through and she called us to see if we were still interested.

We’ve spent the last week planning and figuring out financing and wishing desperately that we could tell everyone we knew exactly what was going on.  As of this morning, it is all official.  On July 30th, we will be the proud new owners of our very own cafe and used bookstore.

I still not sure whether to be ecstatic or terrified…

Game On

Posted by perian - 06/07/10 at 11:07:59 am

It’s been 2 weeks since mtlaise and I decided that we were actually going to do this whole business thing. I can’t even begin to explain how much thought and work has already gone into this project, but let’s put it this way: we already have over 1500 books with more on the way, we’ve got enough starting capital to make sure the bank doesn’t laugh in our faces when we ask for money, and we’ve discussed pretty much every aspect of the business. It’s happening, folks.

And because we’re computer nerds, we’re going to do our best to blog the entire process from today forward.  So watch this space if you’re interested in following the craziness.

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