I signed the lease today 🙂 It’s crazy and I haven’t fully absorbed it yet.  

The idea of Yoga-urt was born 4 years ago and during these past 4 years, it sometimes felt impossible to move forward. Actually, for most of the 4 years it felt that way, but I always stayed open to the possibility, however small it was.  This has been a journey to say the least.

The last few days were tough.  The property management company/landlord put a lot of pressure on me up until the last minute.  Issues with the terms in the lease. Issues with timing.  It was uncomfortable.   Not the way I would’ve chosen to enter into a lease, but it’s okay.  That is done and I can move on.

My journey continues and in a way, my work has just begun.  Now I really have to pull this thing off 🙂 It’s scary and overwhelming but also exciting.  I don’t have any children yet, but Yoga-urt feels like my baby in many ways.

I know I can do this but I also know that I will never work harder in my life than I will this year.  

It starts tomorrow.  I’m meeting with the interior designer and the graphic designer (the same one that did my fabulous logo) at the shop at 9am.  Lots to do.  First on the list are the design/plans for city and health department.  Here we go!!!

That is how my days are. So many ups and downs in a day. I get good news one minute, bad news the next, and so on. It’s pretty crazy!

Today, for example, I got another estimate for the store’s city/health dept that finally came in at a good price. Then, soon after, I get an estimate for something else that was higher than I expected.

There are a million more things like this that are occurring everyday. I guess it’s something that I will need to get used to on this journey.

It’s somewhat exhausting but I’ll try to savor the good stuff and breath through the bad stuff or find an alternative solution.

Our first flavor is approved – Vanilla!

I’m so excited because it basically means our base is approved too.  It was a big improvement from last time and everyone loved it.

It was a great day, really the uplift I needed. Dealing with the lease, construction estimates, etc. has been difficult, mostly because of my tight budget.  It is so reassuring to taste the product and have it be GOOD.

We also tasted the chocolate, coconut chai, and salted caramel.  The chocolate was good, but last time it was a little better so we are going to take one more pass. It is super close though and we can use this version of chocolate for chocolate peanut butter 🙂

The salted caramel was close too, just needs less salt.  Coconut chai needed the most work but we will get there.  My food consultant will be working on all of these plus the strawberry over the next 2 weeks before we go back to taste again.

It’s so nice to see our progress and have most people like it.  Yay!

The lease is getting closer too.  The list of issues is getting smaller and we might be able to wrap it up this week.  We shall see 🙂

I got back from S. Korea two days ago. The trip was a whirlwind, but the client was happy and I got to see some of Seoul, so it was a successful trip.

I dealt with the lease in Korea as well. The property manager and I went back and forth a few times and there are a few remaining issues. The biggest one seems to be the ADA requirements. The landlord doesn’t want to take any responsibility for them and I feel like it is their responsibility.

I paid to have a Certified Access Specialist come out yesterday to evaluate the needs. The biggest thing is the ramp leading into the front door. It needs fixing.

I emailed the property manager tonight to tell him the landlord should fix this. We’ll see what they say. The bottom line is I can’t afford to do it so I will have to play hardball if needed.

There are other issues remaining as well. Hopefully, we can come to agreement this week and move forward.

In the meantime, my team and I are tasting 4 Flavors at Taylor on Wednesday! Exciting!!!

So what does one do when they get approved for a loan they’ve been trying to get for 4 years, are finalizing a lease for the space, and refinancing?  Well, they go to South Korea!  Or at least I’m going to South Korea…tomorrow.  It’s not the best timing, but it is for my day job so I have to go.

The last few days have been hard.  There is so much to do and I tried to get as much done before my trip as possible, but here I am, blogging at 12am before I fly out later this morning.

My plan is to review the lease on the plane tomorrow before sending it off to my lawyer.  I was trying to line up the plans & designer before I left so that they could get started while I was gone, but that was a bust.  The guy I wanted to do the plans/construction came in too high and so I’ll have to choose one of the other people I met for the plans, and then deal with the construction budget when I get back. I’m losing a week, but I have to remind myself that it is only 1 week, plus, the lease isn’t finalized so it is financially safer to wait anyway.

The good news is I can mostly relax while on the long plane ride.  I’m actually looking forward to it which I never thought I would say.  14 hours of sleeping, eating, watching movies, reading, and doing some stuff for Yoga-urt.  Not too bad.

I got the loan!!!! I found out on Wednesday. That took so much longer than I thought it would, but it has happened. So exciting!!!! This means I need to start moving forward on the plans, design, etc.

My life is crazy right now. I’m on 3 projects at my day job and I’m flying to S. Korea on Sunday for a week to meet with one of our clients. Not ideal timing, but I’ll make it work. Thank god I’m good at multi-tasking because it is intense right now.

Before I leave in 2 days, I need to pick the company doing my plans and get them started, meet with one of my restaurant consultants, engage a lawyer to review my lease agreement next week, talk to a designer, reach out to people to line stuff up for when I get back, etc, etc.

That’s just for Yoga-urt! I have checklists for my day job and personal stuff as well.

The next few months (probably year) are going to be intense and I just need to stay focused and do the best I can. Here we go!