Starting construction

It's official. We started construction this week at 5001 25th Ave NE (across the street from University Village). Our spot is street facing - the middle storefront (in between a Verizon Wireless and Fondi, a brick-oven pizzaria). There's also a Dessert Sun, a Rooster's Coffee, an Emerald City Smoothie, a dentist's office, a pediatrician's office and ob/gyn in the Northcut Landing complex.

It's beyond exciting to see the walls start going up, as they did today. On Monday, they were just red chalk drawings on the ground (some of which we ended up erasing (like the door to the back office) and some of which we ended up changing and moving (the front counter). Today, the drywall and metal framing went up.

I'm also excited to report that our "ugly ducts" have grown into swans. Here's the before picture (taking our 12 ft ceilings down to 8ft):

And here's the after:

8 weeks and counting!

Learning when NOT to bring up The Year of Magical Thinking

Karri has now come on board full-time as Julep’s first paid employee. It’s been so great to have her enthusiasm and energy in attacking our ever growing to-do list.

This week, I met with a great husband and wife CPA couple who helped me to figure out how to actually pay Karri, and other exciting accounting questions. Mike and Dolly Waller have desks side by side in a modestly furnished office in a modest building (“People expect accountants to be penny pinchers!” Mike explained. “We don’t have to pay for those fancy offices the way lawyers do.”).

Although my appointment was with Dolly, Mike chimed in with many interesting questions, comments, and gems of advice, which Dolly built upon and incorporated.

As I was walking out the door (running a little late for a conference call), I had to comment on how amazing it was that two married people could spend their whole workdays sitting just four feet away from each other. Dolly laughed and said that when they were raising their children, being with her husband all day long (including their commute), enabled her to focus on their children when she got home. Their unique solution enabled her to juggle work and family more effectively.

I think I might have ruined an otherwise lovely moment by bringing up Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking.” I love this book, but I’ve really got to stop mentioning it because it’s a surefire conversation killer.

“It’s so amazing what you have, it’s just like Joan Didion and her husband. Have you read ‘The Year of Magical Thinking?’” As I watch the words fall out of my mouth, I can see that I have no plan for a good place to take this conversation. But it’s too late.

“Well, it’s about a husband and wife who spend all their time together, because they’re both writers, and they just work in the same space, and sometimes on the same project. And they never tire of each other, it’s so beautiful. . . . uh . . . and then he dies suddenly.”

“Oh,” says Dolly, and immediately I feel horrible, but I’m late for my conference call.

“Anyway, thanks for the “No Activity” form, I’ll be sure to get that in.”

I have a section in my notebook for “lessons I have learned.” I will now add “Do not bring up ‘Year of Magical Thinking.’”

Here a few of the other lessons on my list:

- Write EVERYTHING down – appointments, minor changes, phone calls, etc. If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.
- Remember to apply the above to “Lessons learned” too. Take the time to process and write them down.
- Think about what might be on someone’s mind before launching in with a Julep related question. They just might not be as obsessed with Julep and have other things they're thinking about.
- Honor your comfort zone. If something feels awkward or uncomfortable think about whether to change it. (“Pull on the string until you figure out what’s at the end” as a BCG mentor once taught me.)
- Think through out WHO to turn to for WHAT advice. The most sympathetic shoulder might not be the one you really need.
- Presentation always matters. The underlying idea is necessary but not sufficient.
- Words (contracts) are important, but people are more important. Build relationships of trust with people whenever possible.

Hmm. No that deep, when it comes down to it, but that’s some of what I’m trying to master.

LEASE IS SIGNED

Which is a good thing, because we're starting construction next week.

For about five seconds, I was walking on air. "It's really happening! We have a lease!"

Then I came crashing down. "Holy $*&* now we have 9 weeks to get EVERYTHING else done. We have a lease."

But those five seconds sure were great.

Countdown

It’s happening. It's really happening. Construction starts on March 26, and I have a lease that’s FINALLY finalized and in the process of being signed (I know, I know, not perfect timing, or exactly perfect timing, depending on how you look at it).

Karri, our Director of Education and Lead Vernisseur started on payroll this week, as Julep’s first official paid employee.

These movements towards the concrete are thrilling – in that 99% exciting, but 1% Depends-requiring, terrifying way.

This week we are:
- Ordering the ergonomic seating for our vernisseurs
- Finalizing our product line up direction
- Finalizing our menu
- Going to visit local beauty schools to ramp up recruiting
- Finishing up writing the content for our website
- Putting our want ads in Craig’s List, The Stranger, and other local pubs
- Finalizing our POS/online scheduling solution decision (to start configuration next week)
- Meeting with an accountant to figure out what tax forms I need to file
- Meeting with a book keeper to set up Quicken
- Finalizing the graphics for my store signage
- Trying to figure out how to get our graphics made into a stencil that we can use for the store front as well as these custom light drums we’re building (to enable our vernisseurs to have great, movable task lighting)
- Sending our graphics to our nail polish manufacturer and finalizing color selection

I’m also:
- Taking my son (five months late) to his five year old check up (my goal was to take him in closer to his fifth birthday than his sixth)
- Getting the dents pulled out of my car (my resolution to get my household in order before we open the store)
- Going to the social security office to finally fix the incorrect birth date they have for me in my file (which gums up our online filing)
- Trying to figure out what, if any, summer camps we’re signing our son up for

I hope I’m not jinxing it by writing it here, but if construction starts on March 26, we should be done by May 18, and open by May 23.

That’s only 67 days away. And counting . . .

T minus two weeks? (to start construction)

I went by my site today – and was so very very excited to see how wonderful and high the ceiling looks now that the massive, cumbersome duct is gone (if I can ever remember to have a camera with me when I visit the site, I'll post some pictures).

To recap, over the past two months, the finalization of my lease has been held up because of the surprising appearance of an enormous duct snaking through what seemed to me the entirety of my lovely high ceiling that I was planning on having exposed.

To his credit, the developer has been a great partner in problem-solving this (highly unusual for a developer, I understand). Initially, he asked me to bring him some ideas for options that would not require moving the duct. Tom (my architect) and I sat down and came up with a very creative solution for putting up a ceiling that would conceal the duct but stay true to the original concept. (Okay, okay, in reality, Tom came up with the idea while I just sat next to him and oohed and ahhed).

Unfortunately, this very creative solution also ended up being very expensive. And while the developer and I never talked about it explicitly, I think the floating assumption was that he would have to cover at least a sizeable chunk of the cost. Fortunately, we never had to cross that pricey bridge.

In the end, he decided to move the duct, and now there is space to breathe when you walk in. 12 feet high of space, to be precise.

I can only say this in retrospect, but looking back on this one issue, it seems to me that the very best “negotiation” happens when both parties are making their best attempt to be collaborative problem solvers. Obviously, we were each looking out for our own interests first and foremost, but I think we were also genuinely trying to explore alternatives that might be reasonably acceptable to the other. Or at least it seems from my position, especially since the duct is gone.

So I hope I’m not jinxing my progress by writing that I hope to finally, finally, have my lease signed this week (since only a handful of relatively small “i”s remain to be dotted) – which is a good thing because I’ve already submitted for permitting and am planning to start construction in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Which means that Julep will be open, beautifying Seattles hands and feet by late May/early June. I’m meeting with my general contractor tomorrow for specific project details. I’ll keep you posted.

Bonding with Quickbooks tech support

Against the advice of two fellow entrepreneurs, I’ve decided to start off by keeping my own financial books. I know my time crunching numbers as a newbie consultant at BCG that there’s a command of the real picture that comes seems to magically emerge from managing the information yourself. At least until you have done it enough to be able to trust your own pattern recognition capabilities.

I set myself up for Bank of America’s online payroll system (free if employees have an account at Bank of America), and ordered Quickbooks from Amazon. Then I found someone on Craig’s list who said he could do a quick tutorial and get me up and running in a matter of just a few hours. It seemed foolproof.

Except that Quickbooks won't load on my laptop. I’ve said that to several people – my husband, my technology guru Jeanne, and my neighbor. All three had the same response – “Maybe I should have a look.”

But when I say, “Quickbooks won’t load on my laptop,” I MEAN “Quickbooks WILL NOT LOAD on my laptop.” I mean that I’ve spent two-and-a-half hours with a poor Quickbooks technical support installing and uninstalling, hard-installing, double-hard re- booting, and “going-around-the-speed-bumps-instead-of-over-them” installing. Finally, I had to give up control of my computer to my support guy, who, as it turned out, was working from India, where it was 3am in the morning.

Although we were strangers on different continents, our time together was oddly intimate. We were comfortable chatting, but also comfortable just sitting, wordlessly waiting out yet another ten minute install. Apart, and yet together.

Every once in a while, he would break the silence by clearing his throat. Then, hesitantly, “would you mind very much if I asked you a question? ”

Something in his voice told me it wasn’t about the install.

It wasn't. “I have always wondered, what does it mean, LLC?”

He was very polite, my first Quickbooks tech support friend. At one point, while my computer was installing (yet again), he asked me, “would you mind very much if I just took just three minutes to go to the washroom?” After everything we’d been through together, it seemed churlish to say no.

My second Quickbooks tech support relationship was very different. This time I got a chatterbox from Arizona who was just about to go see a child custody lawyer as soon as we were done.

By the time I got off the phone with him, I learned that he had once dated someone who owned a nail parlor, and that he loved taking his four year old daughter to McDonalds. And although he had been divorced for only under a year, his ex-wife was engaged to be married to her best friend’s brother, who lived in Chicago. He was hoping that his ex-wife and daughter weren’t going to move, but just to be sure, he was going to court to modify his child custody because he didn’t have a lawyer the first time, so his ex-wife got sole custody. “I just want to see her on the weekend sometimes, you know?”

The story did go on a little longer than my download, but it seemed rude to interrupt just to tell him that the Quickbooks icon had appeared on my desktop (false alarm, it still didn't open).

Several Quickbooks tech/customer support/ sales relationships later, I’ve given up on ever installing the software and have opted instead for the online service (with some discounts that Quickbooks very nicely agreed to). By that point, I was too exhausted to get past inputting my name and address, but that’s farther than I got with the other version.

While I wish nothing but the best for all of my new Quickbooks friends all over the world, I wouldn’t be sad if I didn’t have a reason to call them ever again.

Hanging out with Diane

Shari and I spent a couple of hours on Monday afternoon creating party favors for some lucky guests of today's Nordstrom fashion show, which featured Diane von Furstenberg's spring collection (fabulous) and benefited the Seattle Repertory Theater (also fabulous).

I mixed and filled jars of organic shea and mango butter lotion ("hand-crafted", right?), and then Shari made labels and gift cards that we creatively attached to the jars using scruncci ponytail holders (the only thing Shari could find at the local QFC at 10:30pm). Heady, strategic stuff.

When I called Shari after the show to tell her how great our party favors had looked on the table, she asked me whether I thought it had been worth doing. I realized that there are several different ways to think about this question:

- Most importantly: Will it be successful in bringing new guests into Julep? (Hopefully! It was definitely the right target audience.)

- But also: Did we learn anything from the experience? (YES! Even simple ideas - let's give away some lotion! - can take a lot of time to execute, and time is becoming even more of a precious commodity).

- And not insignificant: Was it fun? (YES! YES! YES! How great was it to be doing something with my hands, sitting on Shari's couch while talking about toddler shoes. It was such a welcome break from being joined at the wrist to my laptop).

So thank you Marisa for thinking of Julep and sharing us with your friends and fellow supporters of "the Rep".

Shopping and shopping and shopping

One of the most fun parts of starting up Julep is all the shopping. Just this week, I've been shopping for:

- super soft, 800 gram cotton towels
- "environmentally preferrable" paint and dual flush toilets
- 5.8 Ghz cordless phone system that won't interfere with our wifi
- a flat screen TV (thankfully prices have fallen quite since my husband came home with one 18 months ago)
- a sound system (just learned about a "squeeze box" that will enable me to stream music from an online service)
- a dishwasher (love the new

The Oscars

Hooray! Little Miss Sunshine won Best Original Screenplay and Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor. And Ellen was just on fire.

I could go on and on. I don’t think there’s nearly enough post-Oscar analysis in the world.

I mean, how much real work gets done on the Monday after Superbowl, when men all across the country gather at water coolers, either reliving the glory of victory or helping each other get through the pain of defeat. As a woman in the working world, I found that I had to at least feign enough interest to know who was playing in the Superbowl, and who in the office was rooting for whom. As a woman married to a man, I find that I might have to sit through not only one, but sometimes two loops of ESPN to appropriately celebrate key victories.

And yet, on Oscar Monday, I often find myself in meeting after meeting with men who don’t even care whether I was excited or crushed that Helen Mirrin (looking fabulous!) edged out Meryl Streep and Penelope Cruz. Worst of all, they don't even know enough to ask.

Men of the working world, hear this: if you work in a mixed gender environment, it is your duty to educate yourself on the Oscars - at least enough to engage in polite post-awards-ceremony banter with your colleagues. Watch the Joan Rivers Red Carpet Show, and have a point of view about Camerion Diaz’s dress (we’ve seen worse). Or hair (we’ve seen better). Watch the Oprah post-Oscar show for highlights and juicy gossip about the Vanity Fair party. For bonus points, talk about how unfair it is that Kate Winslet has been nominated five times, and is still yet to win. In today’s internet era, ignorance of the awards is not a defense.

http://www.oscar.com/

Executing a simple concept . . .

I started off with what I thought was a simple concept – I wanted to create a place where women could come together to hang out, gather and connect while engaging in the very best, customized manis and pedis.

But in order to enable friends to be able to talk to each other without yelling their most private secrets across the room, we had to custom design new chairs that could move to accommodate parties of 1, 2, 3 or more.

Then we had to custom design pedicure ottomans that worked with the chairs to provide comfortable seating and good ergonomics for our vernisseurs.

Because the ottomans needed to move with the chairs, we couldn’t tie them down to a faucet and drain. So we will have to put sinks on the service floor where our vernisseurs could fill pitchers of water for pedicures. To put the sinks on the floor, we will have to pay for “core drilling” and “structural x-rays”. We will also have to put a sanitizer in the back to sanitize our foot bath bowls.

With so many moving pieces of furniture on the floor (all to facilitate guest bonding), we needed to move the task lighting overhead (this also helped us to avoid tripping over floor lamp cords).

Now I’m trying to figure out an affordable task lighting solution that can move and bend to shine down wherever in our space our guest’s toes choose to be. All while keeping lighting levels a comfortable “living room” level (avoiding the “operating room” feel). And looking beautiful.

But it’s worth all this effort to create a place that I’d be excited about sharing with my mom, sisters, girlfriends, and colleagues.

And I’m just waiting for the lighting company to tell me that I need to ride an elephant across the jungle to find the right materials to build my swivel lighting, which will enable my flexible task lighting, which will enable guests to sit in any configuration they desire, which will enable friends to hang out and chat.

Caring about health care

Last week I started to delve into how I can provide health care benefits to Julep employees, and I am overwhelmed.

I knew the health care system was broken in this country, but having had the good fortune of working for large companies with good benefits, I have to admit that I have been sheltered from the extent of the damage.

I start with the basic premise that, in a country with our level of wealth, people who work hard should be able to see a doctor when they, or their children, are sick. Growing up in Canada, we were always able to see a doctor when we needed to, even though my parents worked hourly jobs and then ran a small business. We never had to choose between groceries and health care.

In a nutshell, it seems to me that we as a nation must be more vested in maintaining the illusion that we’re not paying for other people’s health care than in actually lowering health care costs. We are paying a premium to be able to pretend that problems don’t exist.

Because I know that the $275 per person per month I was quoted (to provide 80% coverage with a $200 deductible) includes the hidden cost of providing expensive emergency room health care for the 42.6 million Americans (10 million of whom are children) who do not have other alternatives.

As a business owner, I think I would feel better if this was broken out for me. How much of my premium actually goes to serving my employees? How much of it goes to support the maze of crazy administration? How much would it be to pay for a more open, rational system that covered more people?

I want to do my share. But I also want to understand what that share is, how it’s being allocated, and what it’s being used for.

Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing

Skiing and dancing to Scissor Sisters

We just came back from a great ski trip to Colorado with some friends from law school, and I’m settling back into my basement (the heater is still taking a while to warm up, so I’m in my husband’s old Gap jacket that he hasn’t worn for a decade, the only warm thing I could find down here, since I don’t want to go back upstairs and upset the breakfast that my kids are having with my nanny).

I haven’t yet figured out how to enjoy a vacation while in this new role of starting up my own business. I actually talked to my father about it, thinking that he might have some words of wisdom for me since he used to work seven days a week in his convenience store without any vacation for years. His advice went something like, “Why you worried? No salary, right?” It wasn’t very helpful. (Any better advice would be most appreciated).

I’m used to checking e-mail and keeping things going while on vacation, but I’ve also been better at shutting down for most of the day and just enjoying the time with my family than I was during the first couple of days of this trip.

But I had planned to have a lease signed and just be waiting to start up construction when I first scheduled this time away.

Instead, I am still working through some issues with the space (namely, an unexpectedly large and ugly duct that appeared on the ceiling one day), and have some other hard decisions and conversations looming over me. Nothing that couldn’t wait a day or two, but also nothing that I could escape, even during late night card games after dancing to the Scissor Sisters’ most poorly named song, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing.”

When I left Starbucks, one of my mentors there told me that the toughest thing about this experience would be the inability to talk openly with my spouse about the worries on my mind. Because it is unfair to ask for the financial and emotional sacrifices you require while also burdening him with the concerns. Because the concerns, each taken individually, are rather small and unworthy of disrupting limited family time. But he neglected to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to make it through a Scissor Sisters song without worrying about how my reception desk would look.

The last couple of days were better – perhaps because I’d had some time to decompress, perhaps because it was the weekend, and nothing more could get done anyway, and perhaps because my husband pointed out that I was being impatient with everyone, including my five-year old son who wanted nothing more than to impress me with his snowplow. Also in large part because of my wonderful, supportive friends, and several cases of great wine.

Thank you Renata and Nick! And Becky, Stu, Camy, Lisa, Jerry, Liza (and Mary Lee and Carter too). And my lovely family. Maybe I’ll do better next year . . . if I’m invited back.

Hollywood (Toronto) Here We Come

I didn’t watch the Superbowl on Sunday because I spent the day taping an audition video for the HGTV show, “Opening Soon: By Design.” (But I probably wouldn’t have watched the Superbowl anyway).

I wrote about my obsession with “OSBD” (as they call it in the biz) a couple of weeks ago in my blog (it’s a reality show that tracks the exiting world of retail start-ups – from Day 1 of construction through opening day). The morning after I put up that posting, my architects, Tom and Rob, e-mailed me a link to the “casting call” page for the show.

They’ve got to pick us, right? How can anyone have a better story?
- I’m nice!
- My kids are darling. (On the audition video, they make charming suggestions like, “How about black Batman nails?” (my 5 year old son), and “How about Batman PRINCESS nails?” (my 2 year old daughter)).
- We’ve got a spectacular space design!
- We’ve got beautiful, custom designed furniture!
- We’ve got an amazing idea! (Reinventing the glamour and social ritual of the neighborhood beauty parlor)!
- We’ve got loads of dramatic tension! (Most of it being stored in my back until we can release it).
- And did I mention I’m nice?

My friend Shari and her husband Ben and their one year old daughter Caroline and I tooled about Seattle on Sunday, filming our story. Speaking into a video camera (even for a VERY limited audience!) was a lot more awkward than I’d anticipated. But, as awesome girlfriends do, Shari got me through it with her perceptive directing skills.

So we have our fingers crossed. If you know anyone at OSBD (at Red Apple Entertainment in Toronto), please put in a good word for us.

Exfoliation - Not Just For Your Face Anymore

Over the past year, I’ve been searching high and low for the most effective, highest quality lotions for Julep (my basement is a garden of different colored lotion bottles).

When I started out evaluating samples, all of the lotions felt more or less the same to me. Some were lighter than others, and some smelled better than others, but they all provided a temporary coat of slipperyness that made it difficult to pick up my afternoon martini safely.

Then I started evaluating exfoliating scrubs, and everything changed. After using a scrub like Uspa’s Bamboo Polish, I was able to tell the difference between lotions that just sat on the top of my skin versus the ones that penetrated and absorbed. My eyes, and pores, have been opened. My cuticles stopped peeling, and I could feel the effects of some of my samples hours after an application.

Now I exfoliate my hands daily. Karri and I are still in the process of working out our product line, but one thing I’m sure about is the need to offer a great exfoliator both in our services and in our “take-home” offerings.

Surviving nanny sick days

When the phone rings before 8am, my heart sinks to my stomach and tears start welling up in my eyes because I just know it’s my nanny calling in sick.

I love my nannies (I have the great fortune of having two wonderful women who job share and work alternating days for us - I'm always quick to add that explanation to ensure no mistaken impression of a full-fledged household staff). They are loving, smart, energetic, and endlessly patient. They are passionate and dedicated child-care professionals with creative problem-solving ideas. I have not a shadow of a doubt about my childrens’ well-being when I head out the door in the morning (or when I head into my basement, as the case might be at the moment).

Which is all the more reason why I’m a shriveled, deflated balloon, needing to be scraped off the floor on the days when I’m dressed and ready to run out to my first meeting - and the phone rings before 8am. For me, there is no harder test of putting the needs of another, suffering human being above my own. If God were a woman, this would be the test you would have to pass to get through the pearly gates. (My admission wouldn't be guaranteed).

Back when both my husband and I were working “outside the basement”, we did a better job of sharing the responsibility for nanny sick days. But now that I’m the one who’s physically at home, with the prospect of being the one who’s hardly at home at all just around the corner (when Julep opens), I’m usually the one picking up the phone. And the pieces to the day.

When I can struggle through it, getting done what I need to for work while keeping the children fed and alive, I feel utterly invincible. Like the time my friend Julie and I were both having sick nanny days at the same time. We called each other, and after drying our tears, we got it perfectly choreographed. I brought my two kids to her house, where they joined her two kids in breakfast while she went off to give her talk to an audience of psychiatry residents. During that time, I wiped up at least four different kinds of bodily fluids off the floor, trying not to get any on my blouse. Julie walked in, and I ran out to give a presentation on a new product launch to an audience that included my boss and the CEO of the company. By the time I got up to the podium, I had the confidence of someone who had waded through four different kinds of bodily fluid and emerged alive. There’s nothing like that feeling.

But then there are days when my daughter NEEDS her Piggy I SAID NOW NOW NOW! during a conference call, or my son NEEDS me to stop the car at the house down the street with the beads in the yard to pick a treasure or he’ll NEVER EVER EVER get out. And then I say, “Not now, sweetie” in a voice that is a little louder and more jagged than I intended, and on top of everything else I’ve got to squeeze in the time to process through my guilt.

On days like this, I try (mostly unsuccessfully) to remember that, on the other days, my life is full and rich. That I have the amazingly great fortune of being wildly engaged in my life. That everything worthwhile has a cost, and nanny sick days are part of the price of admission for the life I want. I just wish there were fewer of them.

The smart mommy network

When I first started down the start-up path, I had no idea that Julep would be such a huge beneficiary of “the smart mommy network.”

Take for example, Jeanne Riley, my friend who used to work at Accenture and Safeco, who left her full-time job when she had her second son. Instead of working complex technology strategies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, she now advises on complex small business / retail software that costs much, much less. We often crouch over our laptops, sitting on my basement floor as we evaluate online scheduling and POS systems. She’s technology smart, but also a great person with whom to bounce around ideas.

Shari Heege used to work with me on the Starbucks Liqueurs team (Delicious! If you’re over 21, check it out at http://www.starbucksliqueurs.com/). She’s my graphic designer (along with my brilliant logo designer friend Ron Nix, who is not a mom, but very smart nonetheless). We tend to meet at her house when her beautiful toddler is napping. In addition to graphic design, she provides HR support, emotional support and sanity with an edgy twist.

Then I have an anonymous friend who is a real estate lawyer, mom of a toddler, who’s helping me get through the lease process.

And Jeanne’s friend Deborah Yand has been tirelessly calling local schools to ask for auction procurement forms when she’s not tirelessly working on the Coe school auction.

Working with these amazing women is such a pleasure, and a secret (okay, maybe not so secret anymore) competitive advantage. If I get a call at 10pm on a Saturday night, I know it’s Shari, working on the menu layout (um, sorry Ben!). I often meet with Jeanne at our neighborhood Starbucks at 9pm, after we’ve both put our children to bed (um, sorry Rich!). We can also share the cute things our children have done this week and the joys and frustrations of our ever evolving roles.

It’s exciting to be around such talented, passionate women who care so much about doing things right.

I’d encourage any new entrepreneur, or established business owner, for that matter, to look around and search out the underutilized smart mommy who’s likely to be an absolute treasure waiting to be discovered.

Beauty as a profession

I've never worked with an architect before starting Julep, but now that I have, I can see why some people are in a perpetual state of remodeling / rebuilding.

I love working with my architect. I love being able to talk about beauty seriously and make decisions that can bring something uniquely beautiful into the world.

I knew that Tom (Maul) and his partner Rob (Hutchison) were truly disciples of beauty when I heard that they spent hours drilling what looks like thousands of holes into Rob's old garage to pay tribute to the building's life before they tore it down. (www.hutchisonandmaul.com to see their work). The Seattle Times called it, "Shafts of light searing the darkness, a Swiss cheese of a cottage. A Darth Vader highway of light sabers" (they had plugged the holes with acrylic pipes). Tom and Rob called it "Hole House 2".

Tom can make fire come out of stone (and fit it into Julep's back wall). He can make mint leaves grow on domes of light. He will even find a way to make my paraffin dip warmer an object d'art (okay, maybe the last one is a stretch).

Better yet, we're seriously under budget so far because of his early and clear communication of his perceptive ideas, and the lessons I learned about making and sticking to decisiosn from my addiction to the H&G channel show, Opening Soon by Design (a reality show about opening new retail stores! Go figure! My life must be glamorous if there's a TV show about it! http://www.fineliving.com/fine/opening_soon_by_design/0,2498,FINE_23516,00.html).

The very best thing about my entrepreneurial experience so far is how much fun it is to work with amazing, fun, smart, and dedicated people who share a genuine enthusiasm for this new venture. Hopefully, by writing it here I'll remember to carry this wonder and gratitude around with me during the gloomier moments.

"Spa voices"

I’m really excited about Julep providing a place in the world for women to get together and hang out with their friends to celebrate each other.

Men have all the places in the world to hang out together – baseball games, football games, basketball games, bars, golf, etc. etc. The beauty parlor used to be a social gathering place for women (remember Steel Magnolias?), but it really isn’t for most of us anymore. When’s the last time your girlfriend said, “Come and get your hair done with me?” Hair is much more about the relationship with an individual stylist than a group gathering.

The times I’ve participated in business or bridal get togethers at spas have been a disaster. After you check in, you don’t really get to hang out with the people you came in with, since you’re all whisked away to your separate treatment rooms. You can try to catch up between treatments in the waiting area, but it’s tricky.

First of all, if I’m trying to take a work colleague out for a special bonding event, being in a robe is a little TOO bonding for me.

Even if you’re with good friends, the zen-like spa is just not the place to celebrate a birthday or upcoming wedding. I was at a bridal shower with six girlfriends at a spa in Chicago a couple of months ago, and no fewer than 3 times did the spa manager come over to shush us and ask us to use our “spa voices.” I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “spa voice.” I thought we were using our “indoor voices” but apparently that wasn’t enough. But get six women together to celebrate the wedding of the coolest, kindest, most awesome friend you’ve got, and it’s unlikely that “spa voices” are going to happen.

I want Julep to be a place that I’m excited to share with my mom, my sisters, my best friends, and my work colleagues. A place where we can gab, gossip, celebrate, commiserate, and update each other without fear of being shushed. Won’t that be beautiful?

Raccoons

So I’m back from my presentation to a local Seattle angel group – and I am happy to find that I’ve accidentally left my space heater on in my basement so my coffee from this morning is not quite frozen all the way through.

The presentation was both more fun and exhausting than I'd anticipated. I was especially surprised by how great it was to meet the other presenters, who were so open and friendly and had all been around this block several times. The empathy we were feeling for each other far outweighed any competitive spirit that might have been spurred by the limited table space at the back of the room for our materials.

This was my first Julep presentation to a group. I was a little nervous at first, which is unusual for me because I love talking to an audience, where I don’t have to worry about niceties like letting anyone else get a word in edgewise.

But the five minutes before it was my turn, I found myself repeating, “It’s just a raccoon, it’s just a raccoon.”

This is what my two-year old daughter says to calm down my five-year old son during particularly nail-biting parts of thrillers like Sesame Street and Happy Feet. “It’s just a raccoon,” loosely means “it’s just a cartoon,” and/or “it’s just a costume.” In otherwords, don't sweat it.

Thinking of my daughter reminded me that I got up at 5:00 am this morning because my she came into our room needing to snuggle – which made me feel so confusingly simultaneously irritated and lucky that I lost all track of being nervous about my presentation.

I love talking about Julep, so that part was easy. People seemed to stay awake enough to laugh at the right spots and ask great questions. And it was terrific to have Karri, my Director of Education there. In some ways, it felt like the two of us sneaking in to see what this world was all about. She’s so smart and passionate. This was the first time I was seeing her in action talking to others, spreading the word.

But I’m learning that angel investing is not very transactional. Shockingly (perhaps only to me), not a single checkbook was whipped out. Eight people came over to take copies of our business plan, though, and now I guess I sit and wait, trying not to think about whether they will call. I’ve been told that about one in every four to five companies who present ultimately end up with investments from these presentations. (“They love me, they love me not, they love me not, they love me not, they love me not”).

So I’m back at my card table, typing up these thoughts, checking in with Paul and Mike, my amazing furniture designers http://www.paulschulman.com and calling signage companies to get bids. Oh, the glamour of it all.

Golden Globes

I don’t know why I love the Golden Globes so much.

It doesn’t seem to matter that it’s really just a bad work party on TV. Maybe BECAUSE it’s a really just a bad work party on TV. Where some celebrities might drink just a little too much (Ryan Phillippe, 2006), and others might be caught looking a little bored (Angelina Jolie, 2007).

Celebrities, they’re just like us! They struggle to make small talk with their work friends and nemeses. They sit politely through a mass-produced, rubbery chicken dinners. They walk the fine line between drinking enough to make the evening tolerable, but not too much so that you end up doing something embarrassing in front of everyone you work with. And the rest of America.

But mostly the whole thing is just so pretty. Since Tom and Katie can’t get married every year, it’s nice to have another venue for seeing a cross-section (TV, movies, music) of celebrities in their finery.

So I noticed a lot of sophisticated nude polish on celebrity hands this year. Sheryl Crow, Felicity Huffman, The Three Jennifers (Garner, Lopez, Love Hewitt), Helen Mirin, Toni Collette, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, almost every leading lady was beautiful in buff – on their hands and(for the most part) on lips too.

Kate Winslet and Jennifer Hudson were the notable exceptions – with the short, dark dark nails that I’m still clinging to. Not bad to be in company like that . . . If I was the last woman standing with Nicolette Sheridan and Britney Spears I’d be more worried.

But it looks like 2007 will be more sheer and nude on the hands. Which is great news for busy women who are washing dishes or wacking on keyboards, since nudes hide chipping and look neat for much longer than darker polishes.

By the way, how fabulous is Meryl Streep. So smart, genuinely gracious, funny, self-aware and supportive of other women. And I love America Ferrera. Also extraordinarily articulate, thoughtful, and sweet. I would drive across country with either of them.

Toxins in Nail Polish

I’ve been learning a lot about toxins in nail polish because I’m looking hard to find a healthy alternative for Julep guests. Most leading nail polishes contain three known toxins: tolulene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate.

Toluene is harmful to human reproduction and developmental. It may affect the nervous system with symptoms like tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, and memory loss. It is thought to cause liver damage and skin irritation. In high levels it may affect the kidneys. Toluene has been linked to birth defects in laboratory animals.

Formaldehyde is a carcinogen and a common indoor air pollutant because its resins are used in many construction materials. Formaldehyde has caused cancer in the nose and throats of lab animals. Inhaling the fumes can result in watery eyes, headache, burning in the throat, and labored breathing.

Phthalates are used to soften plastic (unfortunately often in plastics in products like teething rings!), and are known to affect hormone function. Studies have linked phthalates to early puberty in girls and low sperm counts in men. Environmental groups claim phthalate exposure may contribute to the rising number of uterine problems in women and testicular cancer in men. It could also be one of the contributing factors to a rise in infertility in both sexes. Repeated and heavy exposure to dibutyl phthalate may cause nausea and/or vomiting, tearing of the eyes, dizziness, and headache. Long-term exposures may cause damage to kidneys and the liver. Pregnant women must consider that dibutyl phthalate may harm the developing fetus and the male testes.

See: http://www.carefair.com/Hair-and-Nails/Nails/Toxic_Nail_Polish_846.html

You may have heard that OPI has agreed to remove phthalates from their nail polishes going forward, but will continue to use tolulene and formaldehyde. Learn more at:
http://action.safecosmetics.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=13937

If you’re interested in learning more about what might be in your cosmetics bag, you can go to: http://www.safecosmetics.org/your_health/skindeep.cfm

While I wonder about the impact of occasional exposure, I worry about the people (mostly women) working in this industry who have high exposure to these toxins for long periods each working day. Like second hand smoke - walking by someone who's smoking may be unpleasant and cause you to sneeze and your eyes to water, but breathing for hours on end day in and day out poses a different level of risk.

Fundraising

It’s been a while since I’ve been on the dating scene, or looked for a new job, so it’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with rejection.

But starting a new business is bringing that all back. In spades. On any given day, my Julep glass looks either 1 acceptance full or 99 rejections empty (dependant on my outlook, which is sometimes dependent on my wine consumption).

For example, over the past four months, I’ve been on in-person “first dates” with 38 potential investors. Here’s the want ad I should run:

“Exciting SRS (Single Retail Start-up), seeking multiple intelligent, forward-looking, and patient Accredited Investors to engage in highly rewarding long-term relationship.”

Beyond the standard “people are investing in the individual(s), not the idea,” here are a few things I’ve learned along the way:

1) Start-up investments come from disposable cash. This is a pretty simple principle, but I’ve never been part of this world before, so I had no idea. It turns out that even very wealthy people will not up and sell their investments in another asset to invest in your start-up, despite the obvious brilliance of your business plan (hypothetically speaking). If a prospective investor is remodeling a house, has just lost a job, or is embroiled in a messy divorce, start looking elsewhere.

2) I think all of my investors are “J”s in the Myers-Briggs world (“Judging” versus “Perceiving” – more orderly and decisive versus amorphous and open-ended). And most of them are “E”s (“Extraverts,” versus “Introverts”). I don’t think I have a single “P” investor, except for my husband (who arguably did not have full freedom of choice in his investment).

3) I think men and women “close the deal” differently. This was the hardest part for me, so I tended to avoid it. Looking back at my conversations, most of my investors had to take the lead and ask me, “So are you looking for investors?” (I think one investor actually said, “So what’s going on here, Jane? Are you really hitting me up for money?”). I was happy to just talk and talk and talk about my ideas for Julep. But, for the most part, my NPR strategy of “the sooner you pay, the sooner we’ll shut up and let you get back to regular programming” has served me well enough. . . (Oprah moment warning) I think the most important thing is to know who you are, especially when in uncomfortable situations.

4) Most people are busy – both interested and uninterested people alike. So it’s hard to distinguish between an interested busy person’s “call me later” – meaning “I’ve got Donald Trump on the other line and I’m selling him land,” and an uninterested busy person’s “call me later” – meaning “I don’t have enough time to think about this enough to get to my ‘no’”. My M.O. is to veer dramatically back and forth between manically calling every two minutes to intense self-flaggelation for over-bugging my friends.

Next week I’m presenting my business plan to a group of Seattle angel investors. I had a preparation call today that was really helpful. I went through my whole presentation, and the good news is that I got through all my material in just under 25 minutes. The bad news is that I’ve only got 10 minutes to present when I go in front of the broader group next Thursday. When was on the receiving side of new business “pitches,” I always thought that 10 minutes was more than adequate to figure out whether a further investment of my time was worth the while. But now that I’m the one “pitching,” the more than roomy 10 minutes seems to have shrunk into size 0 proportions.

So my business plan has some liquid only, crash dieting to do by then.

Stress

My mother called me today because she is worried that I am dying. Having observed me throughout the holiday season, when I was entertaining eleven people in my relatively modest house for a full week, all in the midst of launching a new business, she noticed that I seemed a little tense.

“Jane, you busy? Something I want ask to you. Something you not telling me?” She wanted to know. “You tell me anything. Your Daddy and I talk about it, we think something unusual.”

My mother is obsessed with death because one of her best friends had a son who was an investment banker and died at the age of 33 from a heart attack because he “work too hard, have big, big stress.” I think I was promised to him at some late evening “gae” night (the unofficial Korean small business loan program), when his father approached my father after several bottles of Johnny Walker and observed that despite my dark-ish skin, I appeared to be an acceptable and dutiful daughter worthy of his son.

“I’m not going to have a heart attack, Mom,” I tried to reassure her while feeding copies of my investor agreement into my copier. “I’m, uh, shit! The paper’s jammed again! Anyway, I’m fine.”

“You very lucky, Jane,” my mom said quietly, in a way that made me stop messing with the copier to sit and listen. “Button (what my mom calls my husband), I never see such a good father like him. When I see your family, you are so happy.”

“I’ve just got a lot on my mind, Mom. I’m sorry if I was impatient when you were here,” I admitted sheepishly.

“You just tell me if anything is wrong. Anything.”

“I don’t have cancer mom! My heart is fine! I promise I will tell you if I have a serious illness.”

“Okay Jane. You just telling me. Having a fun! Bye!”

I guess I have been out of sorts lately. I have been more irritable than usual at home lately, and my neck has started cracking loudly whenever I look anywhere other than dead straight ahead. So last week I started exercising to help channel out some of my anxiety.

It turns out that the treadmill is a pretty dangerous piece of equipment. Who knew. I was getting into a groove, running to George Michael’s “Faith,” when I suddenly remembered something so disasterously stupid I had said to a prospective investor. It made me want to disappear into a hole, which made me squeeze my eyes shut (first step to disappearing, as every toddler knows), which made me step off the rubber part of the treadmill, which made me hop ridiculously through the air and skid off the treadmill.

I stuck my landing, though.

My friend Kelly is always reminding me to celebrate the small victories along the way.