13 posts tagged “business”

Our current catering logo is a stock photo of a tree. It's a nice design to be stock from Kinko's, when we walked in on a whim. But it's a bit outdated.

About a year ago, we spent about $300 for a logo design from a pretty reputable graphic designer -aka recommended by a friend- to design a new logo. He ran off with the cash! It was a definite WTF moment, and it made me determined to figure out a way to get a new logo for our cards and business.

Moo just helped out in a big way.

I was already a super fan of their MiniCards, but they were waaay too small to hand out as buisness card. Mainly since most of my clientele are big offices and the like, I wanted to make sure that our cards don't get lost in the mix. Their new business card size is right up my alley, and for extra bonus points I can put my own images on them.

My thought is to stage a photo shoot and have my friend Dexter do my photos and from there put them on Moo Cards. Fantastic!

Some of the *better* images are:

It's done ya'll.

For the first year we finished not only on time, but on schedule. All orders were actually ready for pickup at 5pm instead of 6pm. And we only went 36 hours with no sleep =)

Thanks to all who ordered, and especially thanks to the person who saw my Vox post and ordered! Amazing!

It feels as if summer is over in San Diego. September 3rd was crazy hot and humid and it was like on September 4th, it broke. The nights are definitely cooler and the air feels like it's time for a season change. In San Diego, our weather ranges from hot to less hot to freezing and if you're not from these parts, it's certainly bizarre.

In any case, I'm happy for the weather change. Spring and Fall are my two favorite seasons so I'm a happy girl. Things just feel different, like changing for the better and I like that optimism. I got an A- in my PSY class; my late paper only cost me 2 points! Talked with my elusive counselor and I am on track to graduate next year. Ya'll are invited to the party!!! I'm going to be doing backflips, I swear. I'm re-reviewing my CLEP books testing out of my lower division within 2 weeks. 12 units at $160 vs $3,000!!! I think that's a good plan. I'm still bummed about my GPA. When I had my surgery, I didn't know that I could take a medical leave of absence from school and not lose my financial aid, so two weeks after surgery (pleurisy and all) I was shuffling my way to classes and failed two. BOOO. Bah, my 3.5 GPA was now in the toilet and despite all my best efforts, it doesn't seem to want to budge. Bah.

So with my schooling under control, the fact remains that I need to A) get out of debt and B) Find financial aid for culinary school. B is proving harder than A, but I'm optimistic that I'll be able to do it. I believe that I'll be able to do it. No sweat.

So Mrs. Peel, UK in January looks like a no =( I'm sorry but I was all set and then I looked at the bills and my heart sank. You'll see me after I Graduate at this point!

The daycare isn't going too hot. I need some full time children, and I've  put advertisements everywhere, but still nothing. I did a drop in for a 1 month old and a 2 year old and it was a lot of fun, but dammit I need more kids!! I've even done some web advertisements (hello Craigslist!) which yielded some results, but more than a few crazies so I don't know what to do at this point. I'll let the children come to  me and focus on the Thanksgiving bake sale. I love that it's that time already!

We're finished!

Being a food vendor is a lot of hard work and the past week has been AMAZING. We actually made a profit! I'm so stoked! We did pretty well for first timers, but compared to what everyone else was making daily...eh. I don't want to think about it. I'll chalk it up to the experience being enough and that I know what to do next time.

I do know that I'm probably going to sit on the couch all day tomorrow, in my underpants, with my xbox, nursing my sunburned face.

Yes, I got a sunburn. No, it's not bright red. I look like I've gotten about 3 shades darker and my face hurts. I can't even lay on the pillow, it smarts so bad. Aloe Vera to the rescue, and I'm totally cursing my grandfather's name for this one.

In any case, back to the hustle. After a quick break of course =) It appears I've got loads of entries to read!

I hate these. I always get them when I'm really nervous. It feels like there''s a train sitting on my chest and I have this massive urge to cry...

It 4 hours until our big sale, and I'm really nervous. I hope everyone likes the food, and I hope that we sell out. We've spent so much time and money on this project that if it fails, we'll be in a really bad spot. I mean really, really bad. I just remembered that we didn't buy drinks to sell! OMG how do we have food and no drinks!

In any case, I'd normally call Daniel to freak out over the phone and since we're no longer --- well anyway I'm freaking out here.

I'm going to go do deep breaths somewhere...I won't have any internet down at the base I won't be as posting as often.

It's been crazy around here ya'll.

First things first...I got an A in my Business Law class! Yay me! It wasn't like it was super hard, but I had a rough time class wise early last year after my surgery...I'm still trying to drag my GPA out of the mud. It's awesome though, I love getting A's!

We catered out County job last week and it went awesome! Granted, we had some things go wrong (grill we wanted was out of stock, had to rent a UHaul from hell) that caused our profit margin to take a dip but now we're very well known in the County Department. All of the County heads took cards and asked us what we're doing for Christmas (uh oh...). Mission Trails out in Santee really is a nice place for a walk, just watch out for lizards. All in all it was a great time, I could have done without all the nature LOL.

A few weeks ago, I went on an interview to Apple Computers. I'm happy to say that I got the job there, and can now leave King's Fish House in the dust. I'll be working there nights, in a more casual atmosphere so when I get done with running around kids all day, I can just throw on my Apple shirt and go. Plus discount! OMFGZ! Discounts!

In any case, I'd better get up and start cleaning. Daniel gets here on Monday and I still have loads of sheet washing, carpet cleaning and other random crap to do. I'll have to read up on my neighborhood, I mean honestly, could you guys post a little less =P

<3

So this weekend.

My preventative health class was alright. Mostly boring and I really wanted to fall asleep, since I stayed up late last night trying to torrent Doctor Who. I only worked four hours after being off 3 days and I was exhausted.

It doesn't help that I am disillusioned by the restaurant, and the fact that the weather has been AMAZING here so I really didn't want to go into work. I do have Mother's Day weekend off, but mostly because I have to attend TWO classes to get the day care up and running.

Yes, day care. I've been putting it off since January of this year, but with all the shitty job stuff going on I figure I'd better get my butt in gear. So today was the Preventative Health and Safety and next Sunday is the First Aid & AED class. I really hope I get to shock something! We've got to drive all the way to Oceanside, so I'm going to try and weasel out of driving that weekend. My mom and I are both getting re-certified, and our plan is to have 6 at the day, and 6 at night. Like the old times, and man that was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we went to the madness that is Ikea and got a lot of cool ideas of what to use in our tiny apartment to make things bigger. I'm really excited! I honestly love working with kids, despite my snarky comments. The toddlers are the most fun, especially since they start developing their little personalities! It's great (and they actually listen to me) and I'm already planning field trips and stuff, lol.

So I think I'm gonna go read my stuff for class and pretend that I am a model student. toodles.

How I love you! It was the most fun class I've had in a good long while. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this class.

I actually LEARNED things last night! What a concept! And there are very cute men who are in my class. Eye candy, as all of them talked about wives or girlfriends.

I essentially have two papers to do this week, since I didn't do last night's and the prof is nice enough to let us turn it in next week with no penalty on the amount of points we would receive. Very nice.

So today I have made plans to be out an about. Taking Sarajevo to the holy grail of restaurant shopping for dead cheap, aka Restaurant Depot and then out to City College (Finally!) to get myself registered. Down to the job to switch  shifts with Manu and then back home to wait for my mom. Then we're going out, but not in the Dina/Lindsay way. I honestly really like hanging out with my mom, it's part of the reason why I still live at home (other than being completely fucking broke).

If I didn't have to work this weekend (Saturday 5-9 WTF?!) it'd be damn near perfect.

1. Never agree to do a ghetto fab wedding. Granted the wedding was slightly more fab than ghetto.

2. Always learn how to cut a wedding cake in advance. Thank God for wireless internet and Google. Amen.

3. Always hire GREAT people. All my servers were wonderful, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything without them.

4. Always check new equipment before hand: e.g. Make sure chocolate fountains actually work, before filling them with 5lbs of melted chocolate. Make sure both brand new electric burners work too.

5. I will try not to cut hand on the carving knife.

6. I will not split open that itty bitty cut by lifing out a hot steamer pan. Luckily no one saw that. Unfortunately, that kind of put me out of commission for the rest of the night.

7. Wedding receptions are full of unknown family members who are just there for the food. I know now not to get upset when all the greedy family members show up and start hollering. Seriously, stfu greedy family members.

8. I'm eloping.

I had this great resource for a lady who has a commercial kitchen for rent. I was looking forward to using her as I'm catering a wedding for 250 people and need a crap load of ovens.

Let me but this straight: I am not a professional catering company (yet). I'm currently in the process of getting my business license and my liability insurance (all needed by March 10th! Yikes!) So I'm in a bit of a rush to get...legal. Been cooking at home for friends and family for ages though. It's just what I do.

So this lady calls me back and tells me that everything I've been doing is ILLEGAL and that in order to rent a commercial space or do any sort of catering I need about 50,000 permits and certifications and yada yada yada.

She basically scared the shit out of me. Mostly when she asked for the name of my company and I said "Oh we don't have a name yet (lie, but smart move) and she goes "Oh, I just wanted to know so I could keep an eye on you."

You mean narc on me, you crazy bitch. I'm handling things, ok! What it really came down to is that she wanted to get a year contract from me and she would get a profit from any catering I did in her kitchen plus the rental fee. Forget it.

This is why you have a cousin that owns a restaurant. So you can go beg him to borrow his kitchen at 4am to cook. And all he asks is that I pay him in food.