(no subject)
I have had a good day today. We had a meeting with the bank regarding funding for our pet shop and it seemed to go really well. He said the accounts were quite impressive - which they are because he actually takes nearly 1/4 million a year - and he was impressed with our business plan which we had spent a lot of time and energy doing. There are a few small problems which go as follows:
* Because we have no security to back the loan we are applying through the Small Firms Loan Guarantee run by the governent who will back loans for small businesses therefore encouraging the bank to the lend the money. The SFLG however might only want to lend us up to the value of the businesses and its stock, not for the extra money we need for legal fees and doing up the flat so we can live in it. The bank manager is going to look into it for us and find out if they would, but if they dont then we need to find a bit of money ourselves.
* The pet shop at the moment only has a 2 year lease left on it, and we have enquired about signing a new lease for 10 years. The finances have been worked out based on us getting the 10 year lease, because if we dont then basically we dont want it. So we also now have to wait to hear back from the solicitor about the lease.
But other than that the bank manager seemed quite positive. Providing we get this lease we could either end up with all the money from the bank, or most of it. He thinks they would approve it but who knows in this day and age, its just a waiting game. If we dont get the lease or if the bank dont approve the loan he gave us another option of setting up our own shop from scratch.
To be honest he was being very supportive about it and was very complementary too. He said we obviously have experience with breeder our animals and the knowledge to run a shop, so told us to consider the idea of finding an empty shop and turning it into a pet shop. We didnt go for this option to start with because we thought we wouldnt get the funding, but he seemed to love the idea. We are going to look into it but it is a lot of work finding an area without a pet shop, finding a premises that allows animals and getting customers in, but like he said the satisfaction at the end of it would be much better.
For now I think we are going to wait to find out about Herefordshire. We have fallen in love with the place and the building so its hard to now think of somewhere else. We love how much space it has for all our animals and the amount of living space for us. I'm on tender hooks now waiting to hear back about both things, I'm not getting my hopes up as it is very hard to get any loans at the moment, but at least we kind of have a fall back plan now if they say no.
In the meantime we are going to see the pet shop again on saturday, woohoo!
* Because we have no security to back the loan we are applying through the Small Firms Loan Guarantee run by the governent who will back loans for small businesses therefore encouraging the bank to the lend the money. The SFLG however might only want to lend us up to the value of the businesses and its stock, not for the extra money we need for legal fees and doing up the flat so we can live in it. The bank manager is going to look into it for us and find out if they would, but if they dont then we need to find a bit of money ourselves.
* The pet shop at the moment only has a 2 year lease left on it, and we have enquired about signing a new lease for 10 years. The finances have been worked out based on us getting the 10 year lease, because if we dont then basically we dont want it. So we also now have to wait to hear back from the solicitor about the lease.
But other than that the bank manager seemed quite positive. Providing we get this lease we could either end up with all the money from the bank, or most of it. He thinks they would approve it but who knows in this day and age, its just a waiting game. If we dont get the lease or if the bank dont approve the loan he gave us another option of setting up our own shop from scratch.
To be honest he was being very supportive about it and was very complementary too. He said we obviously have experience with breeder our animals and the knowledge to run a shop, so told us to consider the idea of finding an empty shop and turning it into a pet shop. We didnt go for this option to start with because we thought we wouldnt get the funding, but he seemed to love the idea. We are going to look into it but it is a lot of work finding an area without a pet shop, finding a premises that allows animals and getting customers in, but like he said the satisfaction at the end of it would be much better.
For now I think we are going to wait to find out about Herefordshire. We have fallen in love with the place and the building so its hard to now think of somewhere else. We love how much space it has for all our animals and the amount of living space for us. I'm on tender hooks now waiting to hear back about both things, I'm not getting my hopes up as it is very hard to get any loans at the moment, but at least we kind of have a fall back plan now if they say no.
In the meantime we are going to see the pet shop again on saturday, woohoo!