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.

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.

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.

1. Lease space VS buying a business The location hunt is somewhat affected by business owners who want to sell their entire branding and chattles (new term that I learn, it refer to a moveable object that has not been “annexed” to the property in a legal sense) and on top of that, transfer over the current lease arrangements. For someone like me who want to start from scratch, it actually reduces the number of leasing choices I have as it roots out great locations with existing businesses.
2. BIG names matter My thought has always leaned towards  having  the cafe somewhere in the Rosedale district of Toronto. However I found out that landlords in the popular areas are reluctant(and some even plainly state) that they will not entertain anyone who does not have a track record. Hence the stretch along Yonge are difficult locations to secure. I have to be prepared to fight against the big boys to get good locations.
3. Lease rates range from cheap to ridiculous I have seen rates as low as $12/sq ft to $60/sq ft. To put it differently, this means for a space of 1000 sq ft, the lease will range from $1200 per year to $60K per year. It is a delicate balance to identify the right location to gain the business dollars, versus over-paying for lease without the business to sustain it.
4. TMI This stands for taxes, maintenance, and insurance. The overheads does not stop after the lease payments and sometimes TMI could double the amount of money that are required for real estate.
5. Luck & timing matters Leases are always constantly renewed or forfeited, and sometimes it is a matter of luck that allows you to spot, see, review and secure the right lease. For instance, I was considering Rutherford Market Place in Richmond Hill but even though it is still under construction, the lease opportunities are already gone.
6. Parking spaces I personally do not like to stop at a location where it is difficult to find parking; this is particularly true during winter. Hence, outside of Toronto, it is not just the location selection for walk-in traffic but one must also consider whether people could park and come inside easily.
7. Competition The landlord is right to protect their current tenants – this means no competing businesses within a small proximity.  Thinking of the number of   Timmies and Starbucks around, it is extemely tough to actually locate an empty store to set up shop.
8. Demographics The Red Bulb cafe will appeal to folks who wants to have great coffee and healthy but delicious pastries. The location needs to have demographics that align with the concept and sometimes, the location is available but not the people and vice versa.

Visited this at Bathurst and 16th

I actually spend a few hours in Richmond Hill last Friday checking on a few locations but the stars have not exactly aligned like above.

Securing a location increasingly looks like the main consideration for Red Bulb Cafe, and hopefully we can get lucky and nail a location real soon.