This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to some groves from Apple Music.
Good day,
August is flying, no really. Soon October will be here (with a new lease and a build out to make happen) and we had a drone in the air to document the current shop.
Preparing for a new shop //no.1
In addition to finalizing lease details (remember, nothing is urgent in commercial real estate),
we’ve been loading up on new product from new vendors,
testing new display efforts,
and documenting the current shop.
Shoot the shop //no.2
For marketing and else, we had a few hours with a photographer in the shop recently. Note to self, get a 35mm lens and a friend to snap the shots for more pics like these in the future. And, complete an advanced lightroom course (hit reply with suggestions). The black/white on these are wonderful. And, we’ll get a standard color profile for shop photos going forward. And one more, tune up the lighting in the new place a touch more for photos.
Drone shoot.
I’ve heard from friends that having a drone fly through on this store would both be cool AND help people find it more easily. It’s been 10 months of hearing this refrain and it finally happened. We’ll get it on the dot com soon to help folks find this little shop behind a gas station - just in time to leave. Not to worry, we’ll shoot one of the new shop ASAP - after we get in and fill the store out a bit.
Marty, who runs a gaming tech startup called LeagueOS. which got its start in drone racing, knows a bunch of pilots. We meet at 6AM and the light came up while we shot a few runs and I sharpened. Results soon. :)
More Team Members //no.3
While the lease is not yet signed it’s looking good. The list of to do items for opening is developing. I’ve been spending more time around the new shop at coffee shops, testing parking, walking in the back doors of restaurants in the area, etc. It strikes me that we’ll need more hours than we have now and more team members to be sharing the stories and know-how than Sterling and I do now. There’s going to be so many more people!
Want to spend a few hours a week in a knife shop? Two shifts a week. We’ll provide edu and chances to chat with folks about food and kitchen knives. It’s fun. Reachout. Job descriptions are done, however, I’m holding a bit before posting publicly.
Know someone who might enjoy chatting with home cooks and industry folks in a knife shop + pro deals? Send them my way. I look forward to meeting your friends.
Sum
August is flying. Family time at the lake was both wonderful and went really really fast. We’re both documenting the current store while developing plans for the next one with increasing urgency and speed.
Change on the school lunch front
Keep filling out the forms. While the lunches will be provided free of charge to everyone in Minnesota this year the forms for qualifying for free lunch will still need to be filled out. This is because the state will simply pay for everything the Federal programs don’t and the forms provide access to the federal funds. All the problems with forms remain. I think this is the case in the other 8 states too.
Massachusetts will become the eighth state to make meals for all students law, following California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont and Michigan. link The trick with these will be the funding after the first windows of funding run out. It’s a few years in the instances I’ve come across.
The Governor of CT has funneled more funds toward school meals at no cost to families - $16M this round. link
On Your Way
Enjoy August. There are only a few weeks to school. The loads of school information emails have started to arrive. Tackle football practices are in full swing. Farmers are eagerly awaiting harvest. Tomatoes are in season. Here’s to those last hot days of ice cream and pool time. Buy your slopeside season passes, snow is coming! :)
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