These are portions of my letters to Lee Shobe, the former CEO of DowBrands. He has been a major mentor throughout the start of my business, The Spotted Cow Coffeehouse. These letters may come across as a bit unprofessional, but they represent what I am learning through my adventure as a young female entrepreneur.
We opened a drive through a couple of weeks ago. It was in my beginning business plan, but we had to go through three zoning meetings to get it passed. We had some problems with neighbors to start. They were worried that the drive through would cause traffic down their alley ways. During the first meeting, the neighbors expressed concerns at the meeting but the overall issue was that we did not have the drive through route charted out clearly enough. So they tabled our request to the second meeting.
At the second meeting, someone suggested putting in a gate so that traffic would not use the alley ways. On a board of five people, two people agreed, one person disagreed because he didn’t feel it was the job of the zoning board to enforce gates being put up in alley ways, one person disagreed with the idea of us having a drive through all together, and one person was absent. We needed 4 votes to pass. We got two.
The man that disagreed all-together was the chair of the zoning board and he sure gave me some grief. He came out to the shop, didn’t bother to come in, but started walking across our parking lot, “measuring” the distance of our drive through, not with a tape measure but with his footsteps! I went out and asked, “Can I help you?” and he said, “Oh I’m just double checking some measurements for the meeting.” I knew this would be trouble.
He came into the meeting wearing a hat advertising the local bar (very professional) and proclaimed, “I have a complaint that is something no one here has even thought to mention yet! I took the time and went out and measured the property, and there just simply isn’t enough room for them to have a drive through at all!” I spoke up, (and to him I’m sure I look like a spoiled Generation X kid that gets everything handed to her) but I said, ” With all due respect, I don’t think it’s fair to our business that anyone on the board discount what we have measured and have on paper, especially considering that we used a tape measure and not our gate to mark out the distance of the drive through.” (This happened at meeting 2 by the way)
We applied again. The drive through route was flawless. We found out that there had previously been a gate blocking the alleys and its position was on our property, so we went ahead and put in a gate and it was not an issue that the zoning board would have to deal with. And we prayed that the hearts of the board, particularly the chair, would be softened so that we could continue to grow the business and fulfill the business mission. At the meeting, the chair was still concerned about distance. His biggest concern was the sidewalk, as the drive-through runs right beside where the sidewalk should be. (In front of our building, the sidewalk stops and is just pavement.) Someone mentioned the idea that we needed to block off the sidewalk area. Our landlord had access to a bunch of parking blocks for a fair price and we agreed to install them to mark off the area clearly.
By the end of the meeting: The neighbors were satisfied with the installation of the gate. The two original voters still agreed with the idea. The member that was absent at the last meeting was present this time and he agreed with the proposal. The member who was against the idea of the gate felt that our installation was fair and he agreed with our proposal. And finally, the chair of the board was satisfied with the installation of the parking blocks and he, though somewhat embarrassed, voted yes as well. Unanimous!!
The Adventure Continues... 