Cracked Cauldron Spillings

Many things have been accomplished today.

Manager spoke with the loan officer and sent her the information to get started on the loan process.

Our Chief Flour Monkey gave us her resume and spoke of another baker she knows looking for work. She's convinced we'll have enough work to need another baker. And she's friends with another loan officer at the bank Manager is using, and has been saying good things about us there.

Our future landlord will be getting the pre-lease information to the bank today. His attorney had a reasonable explanation for his delays, and we're OK with that.

The Marketing Outline is complete (barring a few annoying typos). A more detailed Marketing Plan is almost complete - filling in dates and names now.

The CPA will meet with Manager about stock and taxes.

A glitch arises in that it looks as if the ex-attorney incorporated the Cracked Cauldron as a "C" corporation, and not the Subchapter "S" he was hired to do. If that proves to be the case, Manager will sue the ex-attorney for all related expenses in correcting his mistakes. We can't afford to eat the expenses and damages he's cost us. Manager should know later today.

Manager is purchasing our domain name today as well, and working with the hosting company to get everything set up.

Now, if we can find a good supplier of Oklahoma Red T-shirts, we'll be set. Oklahoma Red is an browny orangeish pink color, close to rust in color, but not so orange. Some people call it brick red - but that's darker - perhaps a faded brick red might come close. That's the color we've chosen to be our primary color.

We chose this color for several reasons: Panera and Starbuck's both use green and brown as their colors, Panera's is paler; it's a quintessentially Oklahoma color (although I have it on good authority that Georgia clay is the same reddish brown color); it's a good color for baked goods, both to show them off and to remind people of them; and few other people use that color. It's a neutral enough color that we can liven it up with greens and yellows, and contrast it with the black of our logo.

Oh, yeah, since we'll be making collectible buttons, we're also purchasing (as part fo the Marketing Budget) a button maker.

Things are beginning to move swiftly now.

Manager has a cell phone so she can remain in contact while we take the Bakery Road Trip we planned months ago to finalize design ideas, and speak with bakers across the country. We've added a few new contacts in to visit from the Baker's Trade Show. And - Hooray! - we discovered we have friends living along both routes we will be taking to the East Coast and back - it looks carrot shaped, our road plans do - a long narrow loop.

We've met all of these people on line, and this will be the first time we'll me seeing them in person. Several of them are potential commission artists, all of them have known about the Cracked Cauldron from its inception and have supported us in our endeavors to open it.

As we travel, we'll be able to thank them for their support as well as develope a network of baker contacts.

Best of all, we found an inexpensive car lot to park in while we're in Boston. $35.00 a day for parking just curls our frugal souls, so I found a secure lot that's only $4.00 a day. I can take public transportation back to the hotel. And Boston is geographically so small we can walk anywhere we need to go.

I understand the Lord of the Rings exhibit will be there, and while I have no plans to visit it, perhaps I can find a gift-type shop and see if they have any nifty goodies to secure as gifts.

The only indulgences I plan are that Chocolate Buffet that's supposed to be near the hotel and eating some really fresh seafood. Manager hates eating things that live in water, but I like lobster and crab and such, and hope to find a good place to indulge. Cheap, of course, because even though it's an indulgence, I'm still frugal.