“All of us will bring a strength or two to the table. I’m bringing investment cash and accounting skills. I’ll be the number cruncher. I’ve also put together plenty of business entities, and I have some contracts we can use and a family member who’s an attorney who will help us. He’s my cousin, and I do his taxes free every year, so he owes me. I also love coffee, so I could learn how to run the fancy machine.” She smiled encouragingly at Aimee who’d picked up her head again, not looking quite as bummed as she had a couple seconds ago.
“I’m bringing investment cash too, and style. I’m going to find the spot and design its interior. I know exactly what we need. Like the bar in Friends but not a bar. A coffee slash tea house with cakes and other sweet things, sandwiches and soups. We’ll keep that other stuff simple so we can really emphasize the confections. We’ll have comfy chairs and tables too. Inside and outside seating. Flowers. But chic. Oh, and I can wait a mean table, but I’m picturing this as a ‘get your food at the counter’ kind of place. We’ll hire a hot guy to bus the tables for us.”
“And take out the trash,” said Elizabeth, getting even more excited after hearing Kiki’s ideas. This felt really right.
“I could do some special things. I’ve been experimenting … ,” said Aimee, now taking on a distracted expression as she gazed off into the distance.
“Okay, so are we all in agreement then?” asked Elizabeth. “We’re all in, at least in theory, on opening a cafe together?”
“I’m in,” said Kiki without hesitation.
“I’m in. If you guys don’t mind dead wood,” said Aimee, smiling shyly.
“We won’t let you be dead wood. You might feel like the walking dead by the time we have this business up and running, but you will never have to worry about not pulling your weight. Right, Kiki?”
“Damn straight.”
They exchanged conspiratorial smiles across the table. Emotions were riding high. Elizabeth couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this excited about something.
The waitress came over to take their orders. Once she was finished and had walked away, Elizabeth said, “We need to put together a business plan. I want to draft it all up in the next couple of days and throw together the pro formas - estimated financials - so I can get an idea of the level of investment required.” She looked at Kiki, not entirely sure that Kiki knew how much it could cost to start and run a business. For all Elizabeth knew, Kiki could have only ten grand to share. That wasn’t going to be near enough. “I’m guessing, just off the top of my head and depending on where it is, we’re looking at an initial investment of between one hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand. That doesn’t include operating capital. We could do it with less, but we’d have to really work hard at finding deals and cutting corners. It would mean more work.”
Aimee choked on her drink.
Kiki reached over and patted her on the back a few times.
“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Are you nuts?” said Aimee. “I can’t do this. No way. You guys could buy a house with that money. What if it fails? What if I’m terrible? What if Jack’s right?” She slammed her mouth shut and just looked at the others, tears swimming in her eyes.
“Take a breath, Aimee. It’s not a lot of money to start a business. A club costs nearly a mil. Sometimes more. We’re getting off easy.” She reached over and put her hand on Aimee’s, stopping her from completely shredding her straw wrapper. “And for the record, whatever Jack said about you, it was wrong. You kick ass in the kitchen. No one can say any different. We’ve tasted the proof.”
Elizabeth nodded her head. She was glad to hear Kiki wasn’t as naive about the investment as she had feared, and she was in full agreement about Aimee’s abilities.
Kiki let go of Aimee’s hand after patting it a couple times and sat back in her seat. “Do you want to each put up half, or what? We can do it in thirds and I could front Aimee’s part to begin with. She could pay it off with her share of the profits over a period of several years.”
“I’m not sure. I’ll ask my cousin and see what he thinks is best. From a tax perspective, it really doesn’t make much difference. I suspect we’ll have a loss at least the first year. Aimee probably doesn’t need one. I could use one. What about you?”
“Well, I’m going to take some gains if I cash out some stock to pay part of my share; so next year, yes, I’ll probably need some losses to offset.”