Yesterday I had my meeting with the nutritionist lady. I woke up at a reasonable time and did some research about veggie chilis and general health stuff. I then went to the meeting and thought it went really well! She is a very down to earth woman and definitely knows her shit with like 30 years of experience. She had actually forgot about our meeting because it was already a crazy week with more police brutality events over the weekend. But she was totally great and flexible so we had the meeting. She gave me a lot of insight into how to make the chili more healthy - what ingredients and cookware to use, how those ingredients help, etc. and we finished the recipe for the vegan chili.
There was, however, one interesting thing that happened during and after the meeting. At the beginning, she said that all she asks for is a donation at the end of what I think her time is worth, which was fine by me. And as I said, the meeting was awesome and near the end I explained to her a little bit about my life. I’m a 23 year old that has only worked a job for 10 months and am now trying to start a company so I don’t have much. I then said “I can give you $40, is that enough” and she said “Yes, of course!” so I said “Are you sure?” and she reassured me that that was okay. Then we hugged and I went on my way. About an hour later I received the text below and you can see what I responded with after about 40 minutes. I never received a response.
Now, the argument can be made either way about how minimal $20 is so I think that point is moot. But this did not make me feel very good. I thought we had a real connection and she really loved what I was doing and enjoyed helping me. I even thought she might not let me pay at all because her son is around my age and an entrepreneur so she knows the struggle. But then she asks for $20 more just because of 15 minutes?! It definitely threw me off and made me pretty sad. After not receiving a reply text, I sent her a follow-up email today. I again said I would love to give her some chili but we will see if she ever responds to that. It mostly just baffles me that she would do something like that, I really liked meeting with her and thought, still think, she’s a great person. Especially with her son, it just did not make a lot of sense, but I guess I’ll see how it plays out.
I also made some progress with the logo yesterday. My dad sent me his drawings which I thought were okay but not exceptional. I did some sketching myself and then had a 30 minute conversation with my dad and sister about my stuff and his stuff. It was a productive conversation and both my dad and I had a much better idea what I wanted after it. Talking it out with them definitely let me talk through what I was thinking which was something I hadn’t done before. I felt really good after this conversation and I replied to my logo guy with my feedback. My dad also sent me a new logo sketch today, which is below, and I actually like it a lot.
The only thing I don’t like is that the sun takes up the majority of it and the words are fairly small in comparison. But I definitely think it’s on the right path and am excited to see how it develops.
Today I did some research through the catalog I was given from the equipment supplier. I picked out some exact items I like but am open to suggestions from them when I go there tomorrow. The designer and I are meeting at 10AM then heading down to the showroom to see what they got. I’m pretty excited for this, once it happens phase one of the design will be able to be completed and that’s really exciting. Hopefully the truck can start being built fairly soon!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I had an hour long phone call with a family friend two days ago. He’s started several business so he was definitely a good guy to talk to. He looked through my business plan and some financials then we talked about Revival Chili and a few things he saw that might be helpful. I thought it was a really good conversation, gave me a lot of stuff to chew on in the next couple weeks. Also, he pointed out a huge problem I had in the math which was employee salary for a month. I fucking botched the math and it was about 15k short. That definitely is a huge thing and increases my estimate from needing to sell ~50 bowls a day to ~150. That’s definitely a large increase and not something I’m sure we will be able to achieve every single day. I was sure about the 50 but 150… Luckily, 068 will be helping out with employee payment for the first 3 months so I’ll be able to gauge it then.
I’m still feeling really good about the business. I was definitely on a high after coming back from Providence because I was talking about it so much and getting other people excited for me. I’ve dropped a little since then but am still really excited. It’s just a little bit hard right now because I work like 4-6 hours a day and then don’t know what to do with myself the other times. It’s also a lot of waiting on other people right now which is a little hard for me and I wish there was more I could do or a sense of urgency. Like, there’s a lot of small things I could work on but none of it is really vital or super, super important. It will get better though. Once I start moving into my new place and then go on family vacation, when I get back it’ll be moving pretty fast. As I said, I’m still pumped and waaaayyyyyy happier than I was before, can’t wait to start making chili! :)