The LBV Chronicles

Episode 8: Lemonade

“Eat Right, Stay Fit, Die Anyway”. Motto of the Round Lake Running Club

You learn a lot about living when the most important person in the world to you dies.

You also learn a lot about happiness from sadness, a lot about being full from being empty, a lot about success from failure.

The old folksy adage is “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.

I prefer the motto me and my buddies created for our makeshift running club. It really puts things in better perspective. Make everything count along the way ‘cause guess what, none of us are getting out alive. I don’t know what happens on the other side but I do know this, whatever it is or isn’t, whatever you were doing here is done.

I’ve used “get busy living, or get busy dying”, the Andy Dufresne line from Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption”, many times in the past because it’s so appropriate and I as wrote in Goodbye Neil Young and in One Year Later deciding to get busy living was brutally hard and completely necessary, and something that anyone who knew Bonnie knows was her absolute expectation because she really did embrace that life is not a spectator sport.

So deciding to actually pull the trigger on doing LBV was making a pretty big vat of lemonade, because I was dealing with some big-ass lemons.

I have tried to do a few things in these chronicles. One, be truthful about the fact that I began this pretty much as an accidental tourist. Two, that once the Go decision was made I never again waivered about going forward. Three, I’m very happy I did it. It’s been an adventure that I’m just fully realizing a lot of people never get to experience. A lot of people think and talk and dream about starting a business but another old favorite quote of mine usually comes into play, “when everything is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done”.

There’s another element in play that may give us a chance to make some lemonade. LBV is a wine and cigar bar. At the end of 2009 the Michigan Senate and House passed a no-smoking bill that goes into effect May 1st. Interestingly there’s a carve out for “cigar bars” and the way the law reads we may be exempt from the ban by virtue of the fact that the way our smoking lounge was built appears to comply with the definition. Unfortunately as of this writing I do not have a final ruling, so we’ll see. As I wrote in Episode 4, sometimes you get lucky.

Well, that’s about it. I think I’ve said about everything I set out to get off my chest when I started the chronicles I don’t know where this little science experiment of mine is going to end up but I know that its creation has gone a long ways toward getting me living again.

Thanks for your indulgence. I’m quite positive that the adventures of LBV will play prominently in future blog posts.

I’ll leave you with a quote – actually lyrics – from a John Mellencamp song “The Real Life”. John and I grew up at the same time in towns that were 20 miles apart. I remember seeing his early bands play in the local venues, and no, I don’t know him and I had no idea he’d hit it big but really glad he did.

I want to live the real life
I want to live my life close to the bone
Just because I'm middle-aged that don't mean
I want to sit around this house and watch T.V.
I want the real life
I want to live the real life

The LBV Chronicles

Episode 7: How much is too much?

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done” Bruce Lee

It seems like the theme of “too much” played into a lot of things during the formation, creation and realization of LBV.

How much time was too much on trying to sell or lease the building? As I’ve mentioned before my first option after Bonnie died was to sell the building followed by the second option of leasing it to other tenants. Starting a business was the third option. I maintained a running debate/dialog with myself on how much time to allow the hunt for someone else to continue.

How much is too much on determining if the economy will ever recover? Starting a new business is risky in the best of times and in the best of places. Michigan has been neither and may not be for a while yet. Back in October 2008 I posted this blog – Dark Days - that gives an early preview of things to come.

How much is too much to invest? Once I decided to go forward came the stark reality that this thing was going to cost some dough. How much would it cost and where would the capital come from? Trying to go through the traditional routes of obtaining capital would prove to be frustrating. I wrote about it here – Getting it

How much is too much involvement from others? Going solo versus taking on partners was another major decision. Spreading the financial risk was appealing, but so was the thought of not having to consult others along the way unless I chose to.

How much is too much daily involvement? I did not start LBV as a career change but as an investment. But, I am the majority owner, it’s housed in my building and I live above it so naturally I’m going to be around. But how much time is the right amount to spend down there? I don’t want to annoy people but I don’t want to seem uninterested. Where’s the balance?

So let’s take a look at how each of these played out:

How much time was too much on trying to sell or lease the building? There was never a totally right or wrong answer but it was a constant companion until I reached a point of no return with LBV. What was the point of no return? I’m not sure there ever was an absolute crystal clear line of demarcation on this. More, as time passed and elements of the building and business fell into place the price point of selling or leasing steadily increased. Whereas in the early stages I would have made someone the deal of the decade the price point kept moving to where the amount to get my interest got big and one to make me actually go down that path would be dizzying.

How much is too much on determining if the economy will ever recover? I’ve written about the state of the Michigan economy many times, probably too many, but here’s another one – Smoochy. The bad economy has been a double-edged sword. People simply don’t have as much money and that’s combined with people leaving the state for better employment opportunities. So there are less people spending less money. Not the optimal climate for a new business that’s predicated on disposable income. On the other hand, the availability of skilled labor and the ability to get them at bargain rates has probably never been better. So, to quote Harry Callahan, do I feel lucky? Yeah, I guess I do. Time will tell.

How much is too much to invest? I have enough experience to know that no project in history ever gotten done on time or within budget. On the other hand if you don’t draw some lines in the sand you have no hope of even coming close to a time or budgetary deadline. I put a very aggressive budget in place but not an aggressive timeline. My rationale around that was the old “time – money – quality” theorem. Professionally I’ve always impressed upon people that I can give them any two of those three elements but not all three. That is, if you want something quick and with high quality it’ll cost you. If you want something with high quality and not a lot of money, it’ll take some time, and so on. Well, I certainly wanted quality and I needed to hold a hard budget, so the timeline got to be the wild card. Ultimately I overspent the original budget but hit spot-on my personal “this is what I really believe it will actually cost” number with the quality intact.

How much is too much involvement from others? Since I’ve told each of the partners this already I’ll confess it to you as well. Yeah, I wish I would have gone solo. Why would I say that when Brian is a great friend and has been a fantastic business partner and as I wrote in Episode 5, LBV would never have turned out like it did without Kim. Well, because the absolute risk is still on my shoulders. It’s mainly my capital, it’s my building and it’s my town and sometimes I’d rather not have to consult with others. Now that I have that little demon out in the open let me tell you this as well, Going solo would have been a terrible mistake. So there! I just have to follow my own advice from this post – Devil

How much is too much daily involvement? This has been the most interesting one. I obsessed about this before we opened quite a bit but everyone would say to me “you’ll figure it out”. And I have. Well, actually the customers figured it out for me in that I continue to get comments on a very consistent basis that they like me being around. Something about “the owner” paying attention hits a sweet nerve. So by virtue of the fact that I don’t have a traditional life these days in that I have the time and proximity to pop in I do. After all, it is a place I would hang out at even if it wasn’t mine. When I’m down there I try to follow the lead of arguably one of the most successful food/restaurant owners in the area Ari Weinzweig of Zingermann’s http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/. What does Ari do when on the floor? He wears the same clothes as his statt, carries a pitcher and refills water glasses. What a great way to stay in touch with the customer experience. Many know who he is, many don’t. Very cool

Next: Episode 8: Lemonade

The LBV Chronicles

Episode 6: So many helping hands

“The nine scariest words to any American citizen are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’” Ronald Reagan

Like any major endeavor taking LBV from a lukewarm, hazy muse to opening the doors for business took a large cast and had lots of moving parts. And hands, lots of hands.

It’s almost overwhelming to reflect back on how many people got touched by this little science experiment. City and State administrators and inspectors, architects, designers, contractors of every type from concrete, landscapers, brick masons, electrical, heating and cooling, painters, framers, steel workers, and then buying the equipment and the inventory. Without exaggerating we had to have monetarily touched well over 50 companies and independents.

I will confess to you that I had moments of unfettered pride watching workers perform and knowing that I was creating paychecks for people. It’s the part of capitalism I like the most and frankly the part that so many “public servants” (oxymoron) seem unable to grasp. I posted on this – Shrugged.

Then there’s the staff. It was a great deal of fun interviewing and choosing the staff members. They’re a great group and each has a great sense for the customer. I think we’ve created a really great product here and with these guys have added the service element, thus giving us the optimal situation that I laid out in this post – Service vs. Product.

Then, of course, there are the other helping hands. The “I know you didn’t ask and I have no skin in the game but let me eat up an hour of your time quizzing you on the decisions you’ve already made plus dump a bunch of unsolicited ideas on you” ones. I had one individual who was so bad I posted about him – Drive By.

I know its human nature to be inquisitive as well as to want to help by offering up ideas and opinions. And to be fair some really good things came out of some of these outsiders, so you can’t just blow everyone off. But Jeez….it’s as if some people feel you gave no thought whatsoever to things. Anytime a conversation would start off with “did you think about….” my hackles would instantly go up and I would start my “smile, nod and acknowledge” routine.

I’ve found there’s a direct correlation between the layers removed from actual involvement and the strength of the opinion. I also came to realize that the less financial capital was involved the more the answer to any question equated to “just spend more money”.

Ah well. To be fair, the vast majority of helping hands were truly and sincerely trying to be helpful.

Now, where’s that suggestion box/shredder combo?

Next: Episode 7; How much is too much?

The LBV Chronicles

Kim and founding team memebers: Heidi, Shirley, Mark, Matt & Matt

Episode 5: If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me

“Phone line works both ways, big boy” David J. Kleehamer

Phones are amazing devices. From when I was a kid on the farm watching my grandmother listen in on conversations on the party line to today when people are so connected they can barely function. Part of my amazement is that the act of communicating is arguably worse now than before even though people seem to being talking all the time. One morning while waiting to cross the street during morning commute time I counted twelve cars. Nine of the drivers were on their cell phones. My thought was, “who can they possibly be talking to?” They just left the house; it’s too early to be one the phone with the office. Maybe they’re all talking to each other. Most probably they’re leaving messages that say “call me”, also known as giving someone the “telephone monkey”. See Operator.

One thing that suffered while starting LBV was keeping connected with people. I became one of the people I criticized in this post. – One More Time - in that I didn’t initiate contact and ignored or avoided incoming attempts because either I was in the middle of something or I was too worn out to want to engage in conversation. But really another big reason I avoided calls was I got really tired of talking about how the building/business was coming along. It’s flattering that everyone was interested but talking about it constantly drained my enthusiasm. I guess it’s how public figures must feel when they have to answer the same questions continuously. “So George, what’s your new movie about?” “Stephen, tell me about your new book.” “Mr. President, what does your teleprompter say about the new health care package?” (Sorry…)

Frankly there’s another element involved in being constantly quizzed that I’ll cover in Episode 6 but the fact is phones are amazing, totally necessary and a large pain in the ass.

Speaking of phones, I ended Episode 4 saying that one way I was lucky in putting LBV together was by returning a phone call. I was lucky in that it was early in the process before I tired of too much phone. But I did return this message to “call me” and is how I met the young lady who became the Managing Partner and such an instrumental part of LBV. She has not only brought amazing knowledge of wine and food as well as a great network of people in the business but she has also brought vision, spirit and passion. As indicated in Episode 2 I’ve been asked many times if having a wine bar was always a dream of mine. Where my honest answer is “no, not really” her honest answer is “yes, always!”

I’m a big believer in the power of passion. I once wrote “Education is nice. Experience is nice too. As for me I'll bet on the person with vision, passion and that magic touch every single time.” I also wrote in Episode 2 that it’s turned out way better than I expected. She’s a big reason for that and I’m glad I was lucky and returned that call.

So the lesson here is return phone calls, you never know.

Next: Episode 6: So many helping hands

The LBV Chronicles

Episode 4: It’s sometimes better to be lucky

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure." Mark Twain

Last episode I wrote about how plans can and will change. I feel for the most part that I was lucky multiple times during the process of putting LBV together. One case in point was the “Ah…S***” moment while, interestingly enough, sitting on the patio one evening. While serenely having a nightcap and smoking a cigar it dawned on me that we (we being the architect, designer, builder and me) had totally forgotten to think about lighting for the entrance into the building. As it turned out one more day and the work on the patio would have been completed to the point that it would have cost serious money to fix properly. As it turned out the solution was quick and relatively painless.

Another one was while trying to tune in the new HVAC and exhaust system for the cigar room. As is typical of architects mine had, as a buddy describes it, used a shotgun on a hummingbird. Upon startup this thing would not only eliminate the smoke in the room but pull your eyebrows off in the process. The solution was to vent off a lot of the power before it got to the room. But where? Well, turns out the ductwork runs through the garage. I had always wanted a heated garage so bingo, two outlets later and the too much power problem and heated garage problem are solved in less than an hour.

There seemed to be several of those knick-of-time moments and I wondered often when my luck was going to not bail me out. But for the most part it held.

Whereas I feel I was lucky in some area others were just following my nose.

My architect was the same one I had used for each phase of the building. They’re great people who do great work and this was the third project with them, so that was an easy decision.

The designer had worked with Bonnie on the second phase of the building with great results, so they too were automatic.

Choosing a contractor wasn’t as automatic. Phase I had been done by one local commercial contractor and Phase II with another. Both did good work but I wasn’t keen on using a commercial group. This was much more of a remodel than a build. Commercial people, for the most part, lack an eye for design and detail. They like boxes.

I’ve spoken before about my Thursday night buddy sessions – The Capital of Talent. During one of these I was introduced to a local guy who makes his living remodeling basements on a high-end scale. After multiple conversations I decided to go with him over the commercial guys. What I gave up in experience dealing with commercial architects and city planning officials I more than got back in his eye for detail, commitment to the job and ultimately a friendship.

Another lucky moment came when I was brilliant enough to perform a little known and ancient practice. It’s so obscure and has been lost from civilization for so long that most people have never heard of it much less practiced it.

I returned a phone call.

Next: Episode 5: If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me