Well, things are moving quickly now....
Yesterday, the 18th, we met with Koert-Jan de Weert to talk about investers. Of course he couldn't promise anything, but he was very positive. He's going to take our plan around to his circle of contacts and see what he can put together -- and perhaps he can even get more investers than we are seeking, so that we can borrow less from a bank.
He explained the advantages of working with investers this way: a bank is an institution that in general brings you an umbrella when the sun is shining, and takes it away when it starts to rain. But an invester (if you hook up with the right kind) is usually someone in their later years, who made a lot of money as an entrepreneur, and would like to use their savings to help new entrepreneurs. Especially now, when the alternative is to invest their savings in stocks and banks that are almost completely removed from the actual person or business they are supporting. If we could connect with this sort of invester, he or she would probably be someone who is personally excited about our vision, someone who would drop by regularly to see how it's going, offer encouragement and advice, talk up our project among his or her friends.... In short, it sounded totally in keeping with our way of thinking and working.
Koert-Jan also explained a little how investment contracts work. Banking laws prohibit investers in the Netherlands from lending money to someone for more than a year -- if you do that, then you are acting like a bank and cutting into their business. So companies like Koert-Jan's have set up ways to work around this, so that the loan is called something else. The invester gets a sort-of share in the project, which we can later buy back from the invester. The result is that we can be more relaxed -- the invester (being a former entrepreneur himself or herself) knows that the first years can be slow, and they are looking at the long-term. When it rains, metaphorically, they won't come pounding at the door demanding their payments, but will come with a hammer and nails to help secure the roof.
In short, a very positive and eye-opening experience. Before talking with Koert-Jan, I had the impression that investers were mostly worse than banks -- that in general they demand their money back more quickly, with higher interest, and are more likely to want to take over your show and run it the way they see fit. I'm glad to learn this is just a negative stereotype! (with perhaps some basis in truth -- I'm sure there are investers like that, as well.)
So, after talking with Koert-Jan, I made the last changes to the business plan, added our resumes and scans of the floorplans at the end, and sent it off to him electronically to take around to his millionaire friends. He doesn't have time until the end of this week, so I'm hoping maybe early next week we'll have some preliminary reactions from him....
Meanwhile, I had contact with someone at Triodos (after playing a lot of phone tag and message forwarding, to get to the right person for our project) and sent her the electronic version of the plan as well. She'll review it and get back to us in a few days to make an appointment.
And Wednesday (tomorrow) we go to the Rabobank, whose representative has been reviewing the plan since last Thursday.
I've told people at the shop that I definitely want to stop (even though I don't know for sure what will happen in Bunnik) and we're getting ready to tell our landlord that we are definitely going to move....
Saturday I turn 45, and we're going to have a party for friends and family in the garden (it is supposed to be beautiful weather -- I need to get out and do some work on the flower beds....)
And next week Tuesday I have an appointment with the local midwife. It seems that I am 10 weeks pregnant (and I thought I was just pre-menopausal....)
Life sure is interesting.
Showing posts with label Triodos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Triodos. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Now it is May...
Well, a lot has been happening even though I haven't been blogging for a while....
I've been writing like crazy on the business plan, making more and more improvements to the content, and then every time getting native Dutch speakers to read it and make corrections... it is a long and slow process, and yet....
I'm glad that I'm doing it. Even if we don't get the necessary loans and can't buy the house. Because the whole process is a good reminder to me that I can do more than slice bread and order milk and check people out at the cash register. I can take initiatives, do research, organize my results, inspire other people to want to help me with extra information and ideas. Where this will all lead me, I have no idea, but at least it is leading me out of the shop.
I'm going to disturb the chronological order here a moment and describe one of the more recent chapters in this adventure. I made contact with a friend of a friend, Carole Anne. We met some time ago at a house concert at Anne Ku's. Anne reminded me that Carole Anne had a background at a bank, something to do with investing, and I decided there was no harm in emailing her to ask if she might be willing to read our plan and comment on it. Well, it turned out that Carole Anne is a very busy professional in Amsterdam, who used to read and evaluate 300 business plans a month for ABNAMRO -- now she does private consulting. And she would be happy to read the plan. !! I mailed it off, and about a week later, I got an email back: could we meet in Amsterdam on Friday May 8, to talk about it over lunch? Of course, I said yes. But I was nervous. Were there so many problems with the plan that she didn't want to take the time to write them all in an email? Easier just to name them all and let me take notes between bites of our sandwiches?
It turned out, in fact, that Carole Anne thought our plan was extremely well done, better than many she used to read each month -- so good, in fact, that if I were in an MBA program, I could submit it as my thesis. Wow!
And yes, she also had tips, which were very helpful and insightful and I've been busy adding them in. But even without the changes, she said it was already good enough to take to a bank. The changes will just make it better: I've added an index, and a one-page summary, and a "Sources and Uses" analysis, and a "break-even" analysis, and I've moved the mission statement back into the body of the plan.
But two main challenges remain. One, we are still talking about a huge sum of money, and Paulus and I can't demonstrate that we have experience handling that amount of money. And two, we don't have very much money of our own to bring into the project. If we could somehow hook up with an invester/partner who could help out in one or both areas, it would be a big help. So I continue to "broadcast" our dream in all directions.... Someone (or an organization) involved in hotels/lodgings/events management/restaurants & catering....
We met on Friday May 1 with one potential partner -- an organic caterer named Edsart, with his wife Ellen. All of us went to the Dorpsstraat and had a tour of the place together. We talked there, and later, about the possibility of us all working and living together in the house. Paulus and I would handle the treatments and the bed & breakfast, and Edsart and Ellen would handle the food and the room rental. But we decided that it would be too much: it is hard enough dividing tasks and taking care of everyone's needs in a relationship with two people -- but to do it with four adults plus two children, and at the same time start up an expensive business venture from scratch -- it just sounds like a recipe for disaster. So we agreed to keep it at a regular business level: Paulus and I do our thing, and hire them in as needed for the catering, from their current location. If we are totally busy and calling them 6 days a week, then we can all discuss the possibility of them relocating and getting "hired" permanently. Now... in the meantime I don't know if they want to invest financially... but we want to get positive word from a bank first before we ask people point-blank about money.
Plus Edi, the friend of Paulus' with two successful bars in Utrecht, remains a possibility. If he and his wife wanted to be partners/investers, I think that would impress a bank a lot. Again, we're going to wait until we have more details before asking them directly. But we know already that they are excited for us, and also that they know a lot of other people in the business...
Next Monday we go to meet with another friend of a friend, who runs a marketing and investment company. I sent him an introductory email with a brief description of the project and he responded very positively. His point of view was basically, if the plan is sound (ie it will make a profit) and if it is our dream and we are really passionate about it, there will be a way to do it. Where there is a will, there's a way.
A few other interesting events in the last weeks: We attended two events for Triodos shareholders. (Triodos is an independent European bank that invests in green and sustainable projects) One was organized at Antropia Cultuur- en Congrescentrum in Zeist-Driebergen (on the estate of Landgoed Reehorst.) Antropia is a very upscale yet new-agey/alternative sort of center (all the conference rooms are named after crystals and gemstones, their meals are all organic, etc.) which has received funding and support from Triodos. We heard lots of versions and perspectives on the Triodos philosophy... and kept nodding and looking at each other... surely they will like our project as well? We also heard about how fast they are growing -- apparently in the last year, with all the financial troubles, lots of people decided to take their money out of the banks they were using and bring it to Triodos. Their deposits grew an amazing 10%! I forget how many hundreds of millions of Euros that is -- but it is a lot, and all that money has to get put somewhere. Naturally, not all of it can get put into risky start-up projects, but maybe just a little....
I've been writing like crazy on the business plan, making more and more improvements to the content, and then every time getting native Dutch speakers to read it and make corrections... it is a long and slow process, and yet....
I'm glad that I'm doing it. Even if we don't get the necessary loans and can't buy the house. Because the whole process is a good reminder to me that I can do more than slice bread and order milk and check people out at the cash register. I can take initiatives, do research, organize my results, inspire other people to want to help me with extra information and ideas. Where this will all lead me, I have no idea, but at least it is leading me out of the shop.
I'm going to disturb the chronological order here a moment and describe one of the more recent chapters in this adventure. I made contact with a friend of a friend, Carole Anne. We met some time ago at a house concert at Anne Ku's. Anne reminded me that Carole Anne had a background at a bank, something to do with investing, and I decided there was no harm in emailing her to ask if she might be willing to read our plan and comment on it. Well, it turned out that Carole Anne is a very busy professional in Amsterdam, who used to read and evaluate 300 business plans a month for ABNAMRO -- now she does private consulting. And she would be happy to read the plan. !! I mailed it off, and about a week later, I got an email back: could we meet in Amsterdam on Friday May 8, to talk about it over lunch? Of course, I said yes. But I was nervous. Were there so many problems with the plan that she didn't want to take the time to write them all in an email? Easier just to name them all and let me take notes between bites of our sandwiches?
It turned out, in fact, that Carole Anne thought our plan was extremely well done, better than many she used to read each month -- so good, in fact, that if I were in an MBA program, I could submit it as my thesis. Wow!
And yes, she also had tips, which were very helpful and insightful and I've been busy adding them in. But even without the changes, she said it was already good enough to take to a bank. The changes will just make it better: I've added an index, and a one-page summary, and a "Sources and Uses" analysis, and a "break-even" analysis, and I've moved the mission statement back into the body of the plan.
But two main challenges remain. One, we are still talking about a huge sum of money, and Paulus and I can't demonstrate that we have experience handling that amount of money. And two, we don't have very much money of our own to bring into the project. If we could somehow hook up with an invester/partner who could help out in one or both areas, it would be a big help. So I continue to "broadcast" our dream in all directions.... Someone (or an organization) involved in hotels/lodgings/events management/restaurants & catering....
We met on Friday May 1 with one potential partner -- an organic caterer named Edsart, with his wife Ellen. All of us went to the Dorpsstraat and had a tour of the place together. We talked there, and later, about the possibility of us all working and living together in the house. Paulus and I would handle the treatments and the bed & breakfast, and Edsart and Ellen would handle the food and the room rental. But we decided that it would be too much: it is hard enough dividing tasks and taking care of everyone's needs in a relationship with two people -- but to do it with four adults plus two children, and at the same time start up an expensive business venture from scratch -- it just sounds like a recipe for disaster. So we agreed to keep it at a regular business level: Paulus and I do our thing, and hire them in as needed for the catering, from their current location. If we are totally busy and calling them 6 days a week, then we can all discuss the possibility of them relocating and getting "hired" permanently. Now... in the meantime I don't know if they want to invest financially... but we want to get positive word from a bank first before we ask people point-blank about money.
Plus Edi, the friend of Paulus' with two successful bars in Utrecht, remains a possibility. If he and his wife wanted to be partners/investers, I think that would impress a bank a lot. Again, we're going to wait until we have more details before asking them directly. But we know already that they are excited for us, and also that they know a lot of other people in the business...
Next Monday we go to meet with another friend of a friend, who runs a marketing and investment company. I sent him an introductory email with a brief description of the project and he responded very positively. His point of view was basically, if the plan is sound (ie it will make a profit) and if it is our dream and we are really passionate about it, there will be a way to do it. Where there is a will, there's a way.
A few other interesting events in the last weeks: We attended two events for Triodos shareholders. (Triodos is an independent European bank that invests in green and sustainable projects) One was organized at Antropia Cultuur- en Congrescentrum in Zeist-Driebergen (on the estate of Landgoed Reehorst.) Antropia is a very upscale yet new-agey/alternative sort of center (all the conference rooms are named after crystals and gemstones, their meals are all organic, etc.) which has received funding and support from Triodos. We heard lots of versions and perspectives on the Triodos philosophy... and kept nodding and looking at each other... surely they will like our project as well? We also heard about how fast they are growing -- apparently in the last year, with all the financial troubles, lots of people decided to take their money out of the banks they were using and bring it to Triodos. Their deposits grew an amazing 10%! I forget how many hundreds of millions of Euros that is -- but it is a lot, and all that money has to get put somewhere. Naturally, not all of it can get put into risky start-up projects, but maybe just a little....
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