Determination, Determining, Defining and Dealing with Doubts

Good morning out there!  I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend and beginning to the new week.  We worked in the yard this weekend, among a myriad of other tasks, and does it look great!  Now we could use a good overnight soaking rain to keep everything looking happy!

Today, we are at letter D, and while there are things like decorating under this letter, I would like to talk a bit about some d words that are prevalent in all areas of innkeeping; Determination, determining,and defining, and the word that creeps into everyone’s life at times-doubt. 

It takes plenty of determination to follow through from the  initial idea of innkeeping to welcoming that first guest.  This is actually true for any area we want to succeed in and requires a great deal of commitment, organization, and faith that things truly happen the way that they are meant to if we are pursuing our dreams-another important d word.  And while dreams are important in the innkeeping business, they have a better chance of becoming reality if I do the work to take them out of the abstract and define them.  Defining is motivational and sometimes surprising.  I try to start with one sentence that I can build on and go back to when I feel like I am straying to far from what I believe my dream is.  For instance:  I want an inn located near the water with at least ? rooms, and needs little or no renovation and has ? much land with it.  That is a start-now I know if I see a cute inn for sale with less rooms than I have defined, I will probably rule it out.  This can be done with every aspect of starting an inn.  For me, defining makes my next d word easier.  And that is determining.  Stemming from determination, determining is something to be done with every area that gets defined and will be an ongoing process through my entire innkeeping career.  Once I define a certain amenity-say robes in the rooms-then it’s on to determining where to buy them, will I sell them, will I have the inn’s logo embroidered on them.  That’s an easy one and one that comes when I actually have my inn.  Right now- I look at an inn I like and determine-do the numbers work, how much debt would I take on, how much work needs to be done, how can I improve it-or can I improve it? This is a time consuming, but necessary step in creating a business plan and involves studying the competition, knowing the demographics of visitors to the area, and seeing if the property will my fit my hopefully well defined dream.

While defining and determining help my process to flow more smoothly, I still confront plenty of doubts.  Having a basic once sentence mission statement of my dream helps a great deal and I look at that every day.  I also have two quotes that help me with this project and life in general.  The first is from Henry Ford and many of you probably know it :”If you think you can, or think you can’t do it, you are right”.

The second is from George Jenkins-the founder of Publix supermarkets.  I believe he was answering a question from someone in the audience.  While I don’t remember the exact question I do remember the answer:  “There is always room to distinguish oneself in one’s work” .  This one has become almost a mantra for me!

Thanks for reading!  Everyone have a great day, and we will see what e brings in the next post.

C what’s new!

Good Friday morning faithful followers!  I have been a bit remiss in my posting this week- guess it has been a crazy week; one I felt never really settled into itself.  Today seems to show promise though, and I’m looking forward to a productive weekend!  So let’s C what’s going on with innkeeping research.

C has some fun issues in it along with a couple of more serious ones.  Top of the C-list for me is Checklists.  I use them everyday and in innkeeping they are invaluable for managing your time.  A good checklist will allow you to manage your time efficiently and help you squeak out those precious few minutes to knit or read or do some yoga (or nap!) during a break in the day.  And believe me-20-30 minutes can be very restorative if you are checking in guests later, or attending to other inn business.  So with my fondness for checklists out there, here is my C list of important inn items.

working Cats:  Our cats would be so very offended if we didn’t put them at the top of this list-they are at the top of every other list, so why not!  While we’ve tried to discuss the idea of working with them, we will just be grateful if they take turns sitting on a porch chair looking adorable!  I have a sneaky feeling that they have gotten together to decide contract terms and quality of catnip issues…….

Coffee- Good coffee (and yes tea) can make a great breakfast even better.  I’m toying with the idea of serving latte and cappuccino in the morning too.  Any comments?  My favorite coffee is Higher Grounds Trading Company in Traverse City, MI.  I have added their website to my links.  Right now I am enjoying a cup of their Sumatran Gayo Mountain Dark Roast.  Delicious!

Curb Appeal:  I read many years ago, that an inn has 5 seconds to grab a potential guest driving by.  While many  people make a reservation during busy times,  in slower seasons and mid-week-I think this is crucial.  While I am not particularly good at garden designing or maintenance, to me it is money well spent to have an eye-catching sign and landscaping that makes a driver unable to resist stopping at your inn.

Color:  I like picking out colors, but I also like help doing it.  This time around I am considering having a feng shui expert help with color choices and furniture placement.  Colors affect our mood and how well we are able to relax, so I think it’s important to provide the right color scheme in guest rooms.  Did you know that the color blue is an appetite suppressor.  So if any of you are on a diet-get blue plates or place mats or sit in a blue room.

Cash Flow- something everyone would like their inn to do!  This c will show up more in the future as we look at how to pick an inn that will do just that.

Computers play  a large roll in our lives and the innkeeping profession is no exception. Expect to hear more about this C word, as computers really need their own list!

Something I don’t usually do-I’m recommending a cd that I recently purchased and am listening to daily in my car and at my desk.  It is call These Times We’re Living In-a Red House Anthology of songs about living in our 21st century world. With 16 different artists I guarantee you will find one  or two that you will want to hear more of.  I picked up this cd  in Saugatuck at Open Door Music and Books and have put their website on my link.  I visit their store whenever I’m in Saugatuck.  They are excellent at recommending music and I like supporting local business.

Tomorrow I will write more about choosing the right inn.  One more sign you are hooked on an inn- you start thinking about the sign out front and what your logo might look like!

Thanks again for reading.  While I started writing this morning, that pesky thing called work got in the way and here we are in late afternoon already.  So everyone have a great Friday evening and enjoy your weekend.

Life’s Little Lessons Once More

Good evening everyone – I perhaps think I should have titled this post Life’s Big Lessons.  Checking my e-mail this morning, I received the sad news from a friend on Cape Cod that her Mother had passed away the day before.  Although 94 years old, my friend’s Mom was doing very well, and her passing was quite unexpected.  While I only spent a small amount of time with her during my years on the Cape, I remember her as an avid scrabble player who completely trounced me during a game we played the first time I met her.  Since I moved to Florida a few years ago, my friend and I keep in contact a few times a year through e-mail.  She does wonderful things with paint and walls and faux finishes and hand cut stencils and plaster and is quite responsible for creating the beautiful walls in my first inn-something I’m sure I  never thanked her enough for.  Without fail, whenever we do chat via e-mail we ask how each other’s Mom is doing.  We are both only daughters, and have shared our concerns about our moms’ health, our guilt about living several hundred miles away from our respective Mom’s, and our fears about doing enough or the right things.  Usually one of us winds up saying-”well, you know we’re next after them.”  And wasn’t that brought home in the news she sent me this morning.  While I am enthusiastic and thrilled to be getting back into innkeeping, I am sure that I am not the only one who gets so caught up in aspirations, that I almost live in the future instead of enjoying every moment of the journey getting to my dream.  We never know when we will lose someone we love, or something else will unexpectedly and profoundly change our life.

Tomorrow I will return to innkeeping issues.  Tonight I wanted to honor my friend.  And I think I’ll give my Mom a call and make sure she is keeping warm enough and has a good book to read.

Thanks for reading.

Final notes on B and C you next week

Hi readers!  I spoke about breakfast in my last post and my desire to become more proficient with hot breakfast dishes.  Well, I made a delicious french toast casserole for our Sunday breakfast here and happily bolstered my confidence in creating delicious breakfasts for my future guests.  Along with great coffee, we were in breakfast nirvana.  Lots of leftovers, so we are set for a couple of more mornings at least!  I think the next time I try it, I might try putting some apples or blueberries into it and maybe using a whole grain baguette.
Now I am anxious to try some more breakfast dishes and start putting a new recipe book together!

I only skimmed over business plan the last time.  In reality, I think this is one of the most important parts of starting any business.  I used to be a real foot dragger when it came to writing up things like plans and budgets.  Not any more.  I use every available resource I can find.  The second time around here, I want to be a little better prepared.  While I did a lot of work the first time around, I did live in a little bit of the “ignorance is bliss” world for the first couple of years, and then learned how much easier and how much money I saved by doing the above mentioned budgeting and planning.  So I spend a good hour our so every evening adding a few things.  When the right inn comes along, then I can just fill in the blanks and be ready with any presentations I need to make.

So in the process of re-innventing myself, I have had to make some decisions about the size of the inn I want.  While the small 3 rooms or so size inns can be appealing-little if any debt, easy for one person to run, I have ruled out anything this small as I feel, that for me, I would feel a little stuck.  Investment inns can be appealing, since they usually cash flow more easily, are manager and staff run and leave time for pursuing other adventures.  While perhaps the right one hasn’t come along yet, the large debt that comes along with this inn is not something I’m sure I want.  Plus, one of the best things about innkeeping to me, is meeting people and having opportunities to hear about their travels and adventures, while making them comfortable in your home.  To that end I think I would like something no less than 5 rooms and probably no more than 10.

Coming up next week-C and good things like coffee, color, curb appeal, and working cats.  Plus-how to tell when you are stuck on a potential inn-are you naming the guest rooms and decorating them before you even make sure the numbers are working?

Enjoy the last of your weekend and once again, thanks for reading.

B is for……breakfast. Yum!

Good evening readers!  Well, B is a big letter in the innkeeping world as it encompasses a lot of what it is all about-Bed and Breakfast!  I won’t spend a lot of time on beds here as it seems to me that everyone,including the hard working inn kitty, deserves the comfiest of beds to sleep in.

Last week I went through my old innkeeping recipe book.  While I still make scones and coffee cakes occasionally, when there are only two people it is easy to get lazy.  Plus I’m more of a granola girl and made all my own granola at my last inn.  So I am going to work on tweaking that recipe a bit, although I love it as is, so maybe I won’t change it.  This time around I also plan to make all my own organic yogurt.  I’ve gotten so hooked on it, I don’t really like to buy it at the store any more.  I’m really looking forward to trying out some new recipes and am going to make Sunday mornings my practice mornings.  Creating beautiful hot breakfast dishes is probably  my biggest growing edge, since I am not much of a hot breakfast eater myself.  Full, hot breakfasts were not an important item in the town where I had my previous place, so I served home made baked goods and granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, juice, and coffee or tea.

I’m pondering different serving ideas and here is where I would welcome some more reader comments.  What is your favorite way of breakfasting when at an inn? I lean toward serving a healthy, but delicious menu.  I also believe that some folks would love a tray delivered to their room, while others would like a table for two in the breakfast room.  For me, I practically roll out of bed and want my mug of coffee in my hand, so I think coffee makers are good in rooms, as is coffee available before breakfast.

I could go on I guess.  B also include bookkeeping, Budgeting, and Brochures, oh my!  Not to mention one’s Business plan, Break even calculations and Balance sheet.  Now you know what I will be reading up on when I am finished here!

On a completely unrelated topic-I have picked up my knitting needles once again, anticipating a move from the warm climate of Florida back to wintery weather (yes, many folks wonder what I am thinking).  So I just finished a hat from Morehouse farms yesterday and it was so much fun to knit.  Now I am starting on some fingerless mittens.  Also have a scarf in progress for a young friend in Ohio.

Everyone have a good evening and thanks for reading!  Next post I am going talk about how I go about finding the perfect house or existing inn and saying yes or no to further pursuing a  place.

A is for….

Good afternoon faithful readers!  Today I am going to start on the promised A to Z  of innkeeping.  Since this is a journal of returning to innkeeping, I’m going to keep it non-pedantic and a little humorous.  Should there be anyone reading who wants to open their first inn I recommend a book called So you want to be an inkeeper by Susan Brown, Pat hardy Jo ann Bell and Mary E. Davis. And then perhaps an Apprenticeship-there you are-the first A word.

What I would like to relay is that almost everything one does as an innkeeper  is related  and that is why innkeeping is a lifestyle that I love. The reason I am doing this alphabetically?  It is a refresher course for me and pointing out where I need to update my skills and knowledge.

So without further ado…..

Amenities and Ambience can

make or break an inn.

No comfy bed or gourmet coffee and

guests won’t come back in.

So Accessorize right and

have great Advertising in sight

which will help you avoid this plight.

Add Availability online which to me

seems fine and a way to book these rooms

of mine.

If I follow this guide it might

just make it possible

to put out that sign

sorry, not Available.

Thanks for reading!  And yes, I am not a poet and know it!

Life’s little lessons

I am lucky to be able to walk to my yoga class.  The 6:30 AM class time means I get to enjoy the quiet of the day just getting started, with little traffic and a few “good morning’s” from other early risers.  Yesterday, about half way  to class, it started to gently rain.  My first thought was why it couldn’t have waited another 2 minutes before starting. It stayed as a soft sprinkle until I got to class…and then right after I got into the studio it came down in buckets!  So, I guess the heaven’s did wait another 2 minutes after all.  Just a reminder I guess, that the world is watching out for us and to think twice before complaining.

Later this week, I’m going to start an alphabet soup of getting back to innkeeping.  With people asking me why I’m going back into this business, I have been going back in time remembering how I got into it the first time.  A little more than 15 years ago, I was at a transition point in my life and had the luxury of taking some time to decide what I wanted next.  I did a little temp work, thought about graduate school, looked into a store for wild bird food as a few examples.  I am definitely a homebody and wanted to create something rather than go to work for someone.  While reading a bird watching magazine, I came across a b&b in Arizona that catered to bird watchers, and thought “wouldn’t that be fun!”  While the end product was far removed from this b&b I read about, it WAS fun, and also a steep learning curve.  We gutted and renovated an 1840′s greek revival home to include all private baths and fireplaces and wound up as a starred property in the Frommer’s guide.  While there are many stories to be had in the nutshell I have just written, I’m going to leave that and look towards the future.  Occasionally a bit from the  first innkeeping endeavor will pop up, but I want to focus on new adventures.  Once again, thanks for reading.   The adventure is starting!

All I want is an inn somewhere….

And with that said so begins my story of returning to what I love to do.  While the focus of this blog will be the process of getting ready to once again own and run an inn, no doubt other topics will hum in the background, rounding out this tale.

As someone recently told me; most folks who have had their own inn don’t do it again once they sell and move on.  So I will be weaving some of what lead me back to  innkeeping into my postings.

While I have been successful at innkeeping, I also know that in the several years I’ve been away more than just the price of real estate has changed.  The first time around, the internet was just starting as we opened our inn.  Now, availability calendars,  web reservations and video of rooms and grounds are routine.  What’s important to guests has also evolved.  Every day I like to spend some time learning something new about innkeeping and I’ll keep you all updated in that area also.

That’s all for today-a lazy, hot Sunday afternoon.  Thanks for reading this and I look  forward to comments and questions from anyone out there.