Pay attention! Take notes!

Don't take notes on this blog, but in general, in life, take copious notes. I called for my fire inspection (lovely sounding lady, Dawn, in charge of that). Dawn informed me that I need to turn in all my paperwork for the city business license before I can get inspected. I thought I had to get inspected to get a business license. It's all connected. So I called Debi, the city controller, to make an appointment to do all that. Well, this week is Berwyn's centennial celebration. Which means every city official is really really really busy. So Debi let me come in today, even though she's really really really really busy and I gave her all the paperwork for my incorporation, insurance, lease and everything. I thought she said not to sign a lease until I passed the inspections. Well, it turns out you need a signed lease to get a license. (see? I should have taken better notes--it turns out you can sign it, but it needs a clause that says it's only binding if you pass the inspection). My initial meeting with her was months (and a business partner) ago. Should've taken better notes. But it looks like George the landlord can come by tomorrow night and sign stuff. And the insurance company needs him to write up a statement of the work that's been done to the building. He's only owned it for a few years, so I said I'd write up what we know so far (George doesn't have a computer) and he could sign it. That should make the insurance people happy. And he'll sign the lease and I can take it all to Debi's office and then I can get rolling on this inspection stuff. Looks like maybe next week I can wrap it up and finally get open. *Whew* Now I need to learn how to program my cash register. The credit card processing stuff is getting done on Friday. Sometime in between I need to get the wood in the window cleaned up and finished and then I can comfortably put out my products (after pricing them and taking inventory).

I've had a few musicians/bands come by with their CDs to sell. I'm doing a small section of local Berwyn bands. Jon was there this afternoon when Peter Budd came by with three of his titles. He was really nice. So he and Jon were talking music (Peter has been playing for years) and he mentioned the musician friends that he's played with that he still keeps in touch with. When he said Jeff Beck, Jon almost passed out--that's one of his guitar heroes. There are a lot of talented musicians and artists here in town, and I'm happy to be able to help them distribute their music. It's really hard for unsigned bands to sell their stuff in stores. It seems like labels do that sort of merchandising for them.

We had the first car show event of the summer in the Depot District tonight from 5 - 9. I was really impressed with the turnout of cars and car fanatics. Next month when they do it, I'll be open, so it's good to know that people come out for the Cruise Night. It's the third Tuesday of the month June - August. And my block seems to be the heart of it all. That's a nice bonus I wasn't counting on!