It has been a tiring few days with little sleep and plenty of anxiety, but interestingly I am still very much awake and sipping a quiet beer to celebrate, I guess, the next major stage of my life. But this is not about me – Red Bulb would not be possible without the support and work of the people around me and these are the folks that I will like to thank today.

Tammi: our real estate agent who has persisted in our often frustrating but finally rewarding search for our location. Extra points for sending Andy to help with our security system. It is definitely armed and ready for any intrusion

Mike & Team: Turning the drawings of Sching into reality; there are challenges but i think the overall result is great.

Gloria/Maria: Thanks for believing in my dream and joining the team – the road ahead is going to be even tougher and I will need both of you to show the drive and determination to make Red Bulb successful.

Facebook friends/Stouffvillites – your continual suggestions and messages of support are the reasons why i think we may just have a decent chance of doing well.

Our equipment/food suppliers – true we are paying you guys , but you have educated me so much in your respective areas and some of you have gone beyond your means to help us.

Canadian Friends: too many to name here, you have contributed money, time, encouragement, and effort to help make the dream come true. For Sching and I, the fact that we are here in Canada by ourselves, your friendship means the world to us. Some of you have followed my path from Staples to Telus and finally through Rogers, it is always great to listen to your advice and encourgament.

Friends from elsewhere: It started way back in 2002 and you have listened to my initial ideas and griping about being in a office. thanks for continuing to follow the journey.

Family: Always believing and supporting my decision with no question. Whether it is advice, support or financial, I know I can always count on you. We will not be here without you.

Kay: the first time you said Red Bulb, you have no idea how much it warms my heart. The last few days when I looked at you sound asleep when I came back from the cafe, words cannot describe how much I love you and how it makes no sense to have Red Bulb without you running through the cafe.

And finally to my wife Sienching: you have stuck with me through thick and thin, and this project would not be possible without you. Your creativity turns Red Bulb into something cool, and you are the single most important person who have turned the site into the cafe with your talents and dedication.  The tough times are always the times that demonstrates your love and you have been the heart and soul of this journey. I love you and thanks for being there all the way.

This week also marks the first time we are mentioned in any publication, which in this case, is the Stouffville Sun Tribune on Sat. The story was about us receiving a partial loan from the Town to help in installing  new folding windows and a new door at our cafe. Apparently we are the first to apply and obtain our approval successfully. This would not be possible without the help of Anna Rose(our new Downtown Coordinator) and Andrew McNeely(Director of Planning and Building Services). Together with Rebecca Mustard(Economic Development Officer), they are folks from the Town Hall who have given us great support over the last few months. This is especially important for small businesses like us, who does not have extended resources like franchises and major corporations.

Our next event is the Strawberry Festival in Stouffville and we will be setting up a booth on 3rd Jul(Sat). The main objective is to get our name out there and also to hand out our promotion coupons for the Summer. We are of course keen to showcase a few coffees and food items that we will be selling, including ice coffee for the summer, cupcakes and cookies.  We are excited about the event as it will be a great opportunity for us to do some  marketing before our official opening.

and yes, we have the tentative date of 24th July marked as our official Red Bulb Opening. After eight years of dreaming, decisions, planning, and execution, we now have a date.  Almost there !

Dear Red Bulb Team

It has been over a year since you made the decision to pursue your dream of opening up your cafe. Now, with about 6 weeks to go, you are finally arriving at the finishing stretch. You have to bring it home now!

I am sure you are feeling a great deal of anxiety and everyday seems to uncover something new that you have not think about before,  or you have thought about them but have yet to take action. Sometimes you may feel overwhelmed by the number of items you have to handle and that you are running out of time to finish all the necessary tasks. On more than one occasion, you may have thrown your hands up in the air and shout out in frustration.

These are all relevant concerns and they tell me one important thing – you care about the cafe and you want to succeed. As with any new business, they will be hiccups and there will never be enough time, but you need to stay COOL amidst all the chaos.

We should all be like Fonzie from Happy Days!

Draw upon your previous start-up experience, trust your own team members, believe in yourself and your past cafe experience, prioritize your to-do list, work hard, and most importantly, keep a positive and calm mind. You have done your homework and it will translate into great results.

All the best and I look forward to seeing you at the opening!.

your friend

Red Bulb Espresso Bar

Online social media tools have indeed expanded the ways we can use to reach out to our customers. Even before we open, we are able to communicate our journey and our vision for the café.  If you are reading this right now, you will probably understand some of the trials and tribulations we have gone through.

This communication channel will continue to broadcast our messages when we are open. For instance, we can share certain promotions like half-price hot chocolate on Kay’s birthday (that is her favourite drink now) or when we bring in a certain batch of great coffee from Kenya. I think it is important not only for big corporations to reach out to customers, but also small businesses like us. In fact, it is even more critical as our margin for error is small.

Nevertheless, even with the wider net we can cast through social media tools, Red Bulb is still inherently a neighbourhood café in a growing town. We like our place to be a part of the community: where we can share stories of joy and sorrow, experience the highs and lows of the daily grind, or simply to offer a smiling face to acquaintances. While we will never be as slick as the big corporate chains, we will always offer a great cup of coffee in a comfortable setting. This ultimately will be what defines us.

Our first promotional banner

so many choices

We visited a few trade shows this show and we have seen some really nice cups and saucers. While a cup is a cup, there are several considerations like:

• volume: we are intrigued to find that 12 oz means different things in North American and the UK, but the lack of standards to sizes. Hence we have a bit of difficulty settling on the correct size for a sit-in beverage, as we don’t have the normal 8, 10, 12 oz to pick from
• function: different beverages require different cups sizes, diameter, height. Eg a latte will require a wider diameter for latte art while brewed coffee can be taller without a saucer.
• colour: the easy option is to pick red but we are considering the aesthetics of the drink and in the end, we decided that white is still the most elegant
• Price: being cheap is not an option but neither is spending on exquisite china. thankfully, we are able to meet some suppliers who are able to provide quality at an affordable price. (Note to self: please try not to break any cups)
• Features: Cups that looks radical may not be user friendly; I for one, like to loop 2 fingers through the handle – form and user-friendliness are also areas we look at.

While Sching was agonizing over the cups, saucers, cutlery, and plates for the last 2 weeks, I am simply confused about our water situation over the last month. Here’s the situation – Stouffville has really hard water with lots of sediments in it; thanks to Steve from Social Coffee, the water here measures a hardness of 400ppm CaCO3 or 23gpg and 420ppm TDS(total dissolved solids). Essentially hard water does serious damage to the pipes and machines because of limescale, and with sensitive equipment like our espresso machines, this is a big no-no. We would also need to consider other things like chlorine and other unwanted particles that will impact the taste of coffee – we all know that 98% of coffee is made up of water and the kind of water that goes into our equipment has a direct impact on the quality of our beverages and food.

It is also not easy to find the right solution out there as there are myriad solutions and companies out there, all touting their greatest technologies out there. Thanks to folks like Steve and Dawson from COAG, I am able to settle on a solution that will give us the right profile of water. Phew!!  One more thing off the list.

The best that money can buy

We have let the cat out the bag!

The most significant and visible(to the world) development is of course the banner that is put up in front of the store. The banner is the first time we communicated with the Town of Stouffville and the announcement means that the clock has officially started for us – there will be expectations and anticipation, and we are no longer just a concept anymore. We are happy that we have received some really positive messages, giving us more impetus to work harder.

The renovation efforts has been spearheaded by Sching. With her architectural background and creative eye, she is certainly doing a far better job than if the rest of the team is doing it. It is an understatement to say that renovations is a complicated and costly affair; there are so many things to consider and everything costs money – but if that’s what it takes to brew a great cup of coffee in a nice setting, that’s what we have to do. Progress has been good so far with Mike(our contractor), and if we are able to get the necessary permits from the Town, we should be in good shape for opening day in July.

This is what the building looks like 100 years ago(ScotiaBank)

Stouffville Train Station

Downtown Stouffville is where we were first attracted to the town of Stouffville when we were looking for a house 4 years ago. It has it own quiet charm and we are always intrigued by how the world goes back slightly in time when we drive east from 9th line. Of course Downtown Stouffville is also where Red Bulb will be located, and it is exciting to hear about the Town’s plans to enhance the downtown core and create a vibrant environment to draw out the Stouffville community.

A Downtown Stouffville Revitalization meeting was held on Monday evening(12th Apr) and it brings together the businesses and the landlords from the downtown area.  We heard from the town officials on the various programs that are being planned and we were also introduced to Anna Rose, our new Downtown Coordinator, who was specifically appointed to lead the Downtown Revitalization efforts.

The efforts from the Town Hall is a great start and to succeed, we need the active participation of the business and residents. As a(soon-to-be) small business owner myself – while I hope that Town will deliver their promises and provide the best support to businesses – I also recognize that I play a critical part in bringing excitment and value to the Town. That means providing the best retail experience and superior products to the folks who are willing to shop in Downtown Stouffville. I spoke with Anna after the meeting and one salient point we agreed on, is the need for businesses to have a collective mindset that it benefits all businesses in the area if we work together to bring out the crowds. True, we are competing against each other, but if we are able to draw out 100 extra people, capturing 10 percent of that will mean an extra 10 customers for our business.

All the plans and effort will not work without the Stouffville community. I know(and I am guilty of) that it is easy and safe to visit the big box stores and drive-throughs but what you are missing is the personal touch and the intricacies of independent stores, most of which have staked their savings on their businesses and work really hard to make things good. My team at Red Bulb has discussed extensively about the need for excellent products and service, and we are fully committed to delivering that to our customers when open our doors in July.

so..folks of Stouffville..would you like to come in for a nice cup of coffee(or tea, we offer choices too ) in a few months? we look forward to seeing you! 

Trying to get from cherries

to coffee beans in 4 months

After the euphoria of finally locating a home for Red Bulb, it dawned on me that the process of setting up the cafe has finally become a reality. It is perhaps a blessing in disguise that we did not manage to secure the first location as we ended up with more time to source out suppliers and also try out more coffee, syrups, tea, and other cafes(including those outside of Toronto). All these preparatory work has really come in useful as we set about building up the cafe.  With a target ETA time of July, this does not leave us with a lot of time.

On a high level, these are what we are looking at:

1. Renovations – Thanks goodness for Sching. With her background and creativity, Red Bulb is in good hands here – the biggest concern is whether we will run into any extended discussions with Town Hall. Hopefully, they can be fair and will not adversely disrupt our timelines.
2. Coffee & stuff – Ahh.. the key ingredients. I am thankful that we had put in a lot of hard work here and we should be able to decide on our coffee. This aspect of the journey has been the most interesting so far, and as I mentioned in my earlier blog entry, there are a lot of impressive folks out there.
3. Equipment – Most of the key beverage equipment(eg, espresso machine, grinders, etc) has been decided, but we need to nail other food-related items like pastry case, baking equipment, coolers etc. This will in turn impact the dimensions on the renovations side.
4. Supplies – It is always the small things that cause the most trouble, and there are a lot of small things in a cafe. From paper cups to napkins, from cleaning supplies to cleaning equipment, from milk pitchers to thermometers – they affects customer experience in some way.
5. Marketing – Getting the word out. Sching’s branding work has kick-started the process and we need to start the communication.  While blogs and facebook are great, we will need to reach out to the rest of the world. We like to have a booth at the Stouffville Strawberry Festival, and will need to map out a continuous plan to convince folks to give us a chance. Friends and fans (that’s you the red movement reading this post) will be critical to our success.
6. Administrative preparation – The boring stuff; but needed to make things happen, stuff including  permits, accounting, payroll, GST/HST, etc. The one interesting exception but also critical, is to make sure all of us(including our baristas) receive the right training to provide the best products and service to our customers. It is no use having the most prominent location if we scald the milk in a latte and be rude to our customers.

Of course, each of these buckets consists of numerous little tasks and inter-dependencies. With this, tax season, and also my current full-time job, I have not been posting as many blog posts as I would have liked. Nonetheless, the blog is Red Bulb’s window to our friends and I will probably give up my weekly dose of ‘24′ and Jack Bauer to provide weekly updates. This has been a plan eight-years in the making and over the next few months, everything that previously existed on paper and in my thoughts will be turned into a tangible 850 sq feet cafe. Scary..obviously! Busy…without a doubt! EXCITING.. I can hardly wait!

p/s: for fans of ‘24′, this is the last season. here are some Jack Bauer jokes for the weekend.

The green building is the home of Red Bulb in Summer

After 9 months and 3 days, countless viewing, and several lease/purchase offers, we have finally secured our location for RedBulb. It was a process that was worth enduring, despite the frustration and anxiety, as we could not have asked for a better location for an espresso bar in Stouffville. Situated on the north side of Main Street, steps away from the GO train station, and about 850 sq ft, it is just the right starter place for Red Bulb.

Stouffville is the place we want to be after starting our location research from downtown in June 2009. It brought us through some interesting neighbourhoods in Toronto, including Mid-town, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Markham. Stouffville, while smaller than the other areas, is growing leaps and bounds and it is definitely able to support more caffeine spots in the town.  Moreover,we lived in Stouffville and this is really where we want to be, being part of the Stouffville community.

Side view - great to have windows by the side.

Throughout the whole hunting process, Tammi, our real estate agent, has shown great support and perseverance. She has drafted countless documents, done numerous viewings, conducted multiple negotiations, and knocked on all the doors on Main Street Stouffville. We are thankful to have known her and she will always be linked to Red Bulb’s first location.

I will be lying if I said that I have been optimistic about finding a location in Stouffville. It is inevitable that you start asking questions as weeks drag into months,  and there was with no results in sight. The worst thing is the inability to push things along, because it is not like I could force someone to rent/sell their place.  But as Herb(one of my customer from Starbucks)has been telling me, things happen for reason and sometimes, you just need to dig your heels in and keep moving forward.

The most crucial element is decided – now the hard work begins. These are exciting times!!

Wore this for almost 3.5 years

Last weekend(7th Feb 2010) marks the end of my second stint with Starbucks. I first worked for Starbucks Singapore in 2002 – yes,even back then, their empire stretched across Asia – when I was going through this ‘what are you doing for the rest of your life’ phase.  Gone through the usual self-help  books like ‘what colour is your parachute?’, and then I realize I enjoy working for myself and I like interacting with people in a non-office setting. Voila.. I could potentially run a cafe and I decided to apply to Starbucks to test out my wild idea.

That spur of the moment’s decision probably changed my career direction. Till then, I was the typical guy who had the fortune of receiving a good education, worked in great companies and even co-founded my own consulting firm; hence, working on my feet making coffee does not look like a food return on investment. However, as i learned more about coffee and understand the cafe culture, the more I realized that this is no longer a job, but a passion. It is the pursue of a dream; something that does not reward the best financially, laborious like hell, but yet so rewarding and and fulfilling.

That passion took a backseat when we moved to Toronto in 2004, as we seek to find our feet in Canada. We were fortunate to land good jobs in our first few years, but deep down inside, I know my passion is still very much brewing. Working at Starbucks again was a good way to rekindle my passion and allow me to experience the coffee scene again. Like the first time, it has been an absolute joy and it lasted 2 full years from February 2007.

So what have I learn?

As much as the third wave coffee geeks have derided Starbucks as a commercial juggernaut, there are many things that Starbucks have done mightily well. It has to be doing something right as it has becomes ubiquitous in North America. It excels in marketing and provided great training to their partners(their term for employees), and by and large, serve good coffee, better than most of the bigger chains in Canada.  However, at the end of the day, a lot more depend on the barista and for a company with over 15 thousand stores, it has become a hit-or-miss situation when you visit a Starbucks store.

I like to think of Starbucks like Tiger Woods(no, not the scandalous version). Much like Tiger bringing in popularity and money to golf, Starbucks has made the coffee scene more viable for smaller entrepreneurs. You have to tip your hat off to Starbucks like we do with Tiger, but yet at the same time, you are thankful for its presence, especially when you know you can definitely do better than them.

I will take away many fond memories of Starbucks, and even though I will be competing with them in a few months, it will always hold a special place in my heart. I have made many friends at Starbucks in Singapore and here in Toronto. I had my tattoo done when I was with Starbucks, I froth milk with the La Marzocco for the first time at Starbucks, and I have met many great customers along the way. I am sad to see it come to an end, but I am excited about the prospect of finally able to run my own espresso bar, with no more memos coming from the head office.

I can hardly wait.