Reboot 2.0

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Rita walked slowly along the gray sidewalk. September pleased with bright sunny days, hurrying passers-by were rushing past. Summer has passed, and with it all the admissible excuses "why everything is wrong" and "I'm not really making excuses, this is a period of summer calm."

Promises made to oneself and loud declarations "to get together and again into battle" have been defeated for two weeks already. With a slight fall in temperature in September, the degree of activity did not increase. The girl was still experiencing a spring failure.

Rita was a marketer, and her college education proved that fact. After graduation, she was lucky to find a job in her specialty in a large company with career prospects. There, the girl was appreciated for her performance, creativity and responsibility. Therefore, it did not surprise anyone that very soon she took the position of Marketing Director. The news was Rita's desire to leave her corporate career in 2 years and go on a free voyage. Moreover, early summer is a dead season for job searches.

Everyone tried to dissuade her - from colleagues and parents to casual acquaintances from the bar. But this desire was not impulsive. Yes, she went “nowhere” and still managed to tighten up all the necessary gaps in the field of doing business: she graduated from the Mini-MBA program, and took a separate course on managing financial flows for owners. She knew very well not only what a balance sheet is and how to draw it up, but also why you need profit and loss statements and the flow of funds, how to separate business and personal money. All this was necessary for the girl to open her own coffee shop with delicious coffee and a high level of service. Not a "point" with conveyor service, but a quiet, cozy place for 10-12 seats.

Rita “nurtured” this project since the third year of university - she learned by heart all the famous coffee varieties, places of their cultivation, taste characteristics depending on the origin and degree of roasting, wrote a detailed business plan for the implementation of this idea in the future. Max Fry's Coffee Book has long since gone from being a favorite to a recipe book, with neat typographic text flaunted with multi-colored corrections and additions, and new recipes for coffee drinks dwelt in the margins.

Despite the lack of support, the girl left the company. She has long established strong friendly relations with time management, so there were no problems with the schedule and terms of implementation of the idea. She took out a long-awaiting business plan, reread it with affection and decided to make another. The plan of the 2008 model seemed like "baby talk" in comparison with the real reality. Three weeks later, a new one was ready, reflecting the current market situation and the state of affairs in the desired niche. There was no choice between buying a franchise and conquering the market on its own. Rita tended to the latter due to the greater freedom of action and the ability to independently influence and be responsible for changes. It remains to find investments for the project.

However, she coped with this task pretty quickly. The seventh investor agreed to give money for this project. Since the amount was small (by the standards of a real business), he wanted a share. Rita, having weighed all the pros and cons, agreed, because the man had vast experience in doing business, which the girl clearly lacked. Communication is, after all, support.

The entire preparatory stage took 3, 5 months, and at the end of September last year, another establishment appeared on the coffee market. Everything went according to plan - the girl understood something about development and was able to monetize marketing strategies. Naturally, force majeure happened. At the same time, the company was actively approaching its break-even point. This is the place where you can say with confidence: "I am the owner of a successful business."

Autumn and winter were very active and rich in clients. This spring also showed prosperity trends. Rita was glad that her first independent experience was not like the first pancake. She has already begun to discuss with her partner the idea of opening another establishment. I began to look for a place. The girl's plans were ruined by the statement of the same “share manager” that she should go out of business. He set tough conditions on her - you can't get underneath from the legal side. Affected by the experience, which, as it turned out, the girl still lacked.

Rita had a choice - to silently leave the business after receiving miserable compensation or sell it to strangers. This choice became the hardest in her life. While the coffee shop was never a dream, it was originally planned as a business that makes money, not vanilla stories of me doing my life's work. But still, the girl could not calmly cross out 9 months of her life, the invested material and moral resources, time, feelings. The thought that her brainchild would pass to others constricted my throat. For her, it was like giving her child to an orphanage with her parents alive. Better to let him stay with someone alone. It was decided to give the coffee shop to a partner without any complaints.

Summer passed somehow. Rita could not really remember a single bright day or event - she lived with the pain of loss, remorse, doubts and unwillingness to look the world in the eye. After a month of self-flagellation and pity of loved ones, thoughts began to come to me that it was time to pull myself together and start doing something, moving somewhere. All these "something" and "somewhere" were very vague, but they were enough to reassure others that everything was getting better.

The second month passed, the third, the summer ended. Nothing has changed, except for the aggravation of the emotional background. September 20 is a sunny warm day. Rita came to her senses before entering the coffee shop. Her (!) Coffee shop. Her legs gave way, she opened the doors with a trembling hand. Today is the official birthday of the brainchild - a year. The girl sat by the window, ordered an espresso in the proportion of 70% Arabica - 30% Robusta without sugar and milk. The staff were new. The interior is the same. Memories flooded - she knew every corner, every crack, although no longer - new ones appeared. She hurt again. Tears came to my eyes.

Year. If things had turned out differently, now she would be celebrating this day! On a grand scale. But “if” did not work out and now she is grieving. Rita stared unseeingly at the cooling coffee. It seemed to her that her heart was cooling with him. She cannot change her today, but she definitely has the power to influence September 20 next year.

Rita left, leaving her cup of coffee intact. She did not yet know what she would do and what she would do. There was not a single complete thought in my head, only a lump of scraps of them. Yes - her brainchild was taken away from her, but no one can forbid her to create a new one. Not better or worse - just different. For yourself or for someone else. No one will take away the experience gained. She cannot forget, but it is in her power to draw conclusions and move on. Which she did, mentally thanking her on September 20.