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cgod  ·  3143 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I opened my coffee shop yesterday...

Way more than I thought I would. The majority of which is due to the city and permits. It took a long time to get open. I probably lost two months paying rent because I was dumb and didn't know what I was doing. I lost at least four months battling the city and it's constantly changing permit requirements, probably more if I sat down and carefully accounted for each time they kicked me in the ass, changed my requirements, just sat on my next round of change submissions, caught me up in a small needless legal wrangle or just didn't show up for an inspection.

The build out was way more expensive than I expected, most because of recent changes in building codes, primarily in plumbing regulations and garbage area regulations. My tiny trash area ended up costing me over 4k in plumbing, structural and permits.

Actual coffee making equipment, tables and chairs, paint, counters and what not was probably only about 10% of my final costs.

I went into the process a hard core labor Democrat but have to say I'm leaning so far right after forking tens of thousands out for permits and questionable regulations that feel like I hardly know myself.

If I had it to do again I don't know that I would

On the upside, I've only got about 6k in debt right now. I'm sure that I'll have more before I become profitable enough to pay myself but it's not a bad place to be. I expect that it will take me three years or so to do all the improvements I want to make on the space, but I'm OK with that.