So, how did we get here? Last night Henry and I, over a couple of flat whites, came to a point. A point where we really believed this might happen. Enough at least, to say it was worth starting this blog to look back at if this thing ever got off the ground. Right now at least, it feels like we could do it. Still, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back.
Around a year or more ago I had an idea. I get rather excited sometimes when I have ideas and either want to tell someone or put it into action as soon as possible. So as soon as I found Henry somehow and started telling him about it. I wanted to open up a combined cafe and single speed bike shop. I would have no interest in just owning a bike shop or a cafe, but I felt the idea of combining them into one would work and would be an absolute blast to run. The name I came up with was 'Cadence', because of the importace the term has with single speed bikes. We both got excited about the idea talked about why we thought it was a good idea, and went on with our lives. We were in the midst of a very memorable final year in college. We had plans to go to New Zealand for a year and were no were near in a place to start a business. Every once in a while it would be briefly come up in conversation, but on the whole, life went on.
Graduation came, Henry went off to the east coast for the summer, and I went to Minnesota. After I was finished I went to visit my friend Hana in Prague. Once there I managed to convince Shep to come out too. During the trip we all went to Copenhagen where Shep and I had met Hana 2 years before, while studying there. Hana was working at a conference there, so Shep and I were left to our own devices for much of the daytime. On the day of our arrival we were walking along the water and Shep brought up how much he would love to go into business as a group of friends, but he didn't have a business in mind. I mentioned Cadence, we started talking about it and Shep seemed to fall in the love with the idea quickly and in doing so got me excited about it once again. We talked about it for a couple hours; who we would bring in, where we would want to do it, logistical stuff. After that it felt like there were now three.
Once again other things got in the way, primarily leaving home to come out to New Zealand and everything that went along with that. Recently though the idea has come back to the forefront of our thoughts. I think it was sparked by a few things: mostly I've been thinking a lot about my future and what I want to be doing a year from now. Henry has been doing the same. He also came upon a bike shop/ coffee place in Christchurch, the coffee was pretty understated, not quite what we are thinking, but the guy running it said he's never been happier. Seperately we had once again really started to brainstorm. Then we started talking about it again. I even started working on a prospectus for the company.
Then last night we sat down in Midnight Espresso and got talking for two hours about possible plans. What we should start doing now if we want to make things happen. Often we couldn't stop talking just about how much fun it would be. In fact talking about it itself got me feeling as excited as I have been in a while. I think the most important conclusions we came to were these.
1. It might work, it might now. However, even we spent two years trying to make this happen, if failed, and we had a little debt, that wouldn't be that bad. If we worked our asses off, but just couldn't make money, but still for while we lived this dream, that wouldn't be that bad. Even if one day we are just working as teachers, or in an office, at least we'll know we gave it a shot. Otherwise we could really imagine regretting it and spending a lot of time wondering what could have been. And if it did work, we could be really happy for a long time.
2. If there's ever a time in our lives to take a chance like this, it's now.
So, we'll see.
Joey
