Finding My Purpose

I started this blog because I didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistakes I made. It never occurred to me to ask my future landlord who would have keys to our restaurant space. It never occurred to me to ask if the security cameras worked on a building that was only about 5 years old. It never occurred to me to ask my future landlord how they handled their employees who steal from their tenants. It never occurred to me to call the former food service company and ask why they were pulling out, as everything I had been told by Pierre and Todd checked out to be true by my own observations. It never occurred to me to get a detailed marketing plan from Pierre before we started – although now I know he would not have done anything on the plan even if he had made one. It never occurred to me I should not trust any of these people. It never occurred to me I wouldn’t have the seed money from my two partners. It never occurred to me that the Dallas Stars organization was mostly managed by men and that fact should be a warning sign to a woman managed business. I wanted to encourage future business owners to ask as many questions as possible even if the question seemed stupid. Then I wanted them to see they should go back and think it through again and ask more questions. Opening any business is risky and the more answers you have, the better.

Not too long ago, I saw an article about the Dallas Stars Foundation giving money to help a local restaurant survive. I did an internet search on some of the keywords in the article to see if any women had received this same kind of help from the Dallas Stars. I didn’t find anything. I don’t know if it was because I searched poorly or they haven’t donated to any female owned businesses, but honestly I wasn’t surprised I didn’t find anything. A few years ago, I was a disabled senior citizen business owner in a Dallas Stars facility, and rather than support me by eating at my restaurant or recommending my business, they stole from me and disparaged me. These actions have helped me change from my original perspective of telling my true stories in hopes of helping new business owners to analyzing my stories for possible collusion.

Now in retrospect, I’m wondering if Pierre and Todd conspired to use me to front the money of opening a restaurant and then get rid of me so they could reap the benefits. Or maybe Pierre is less than honorable and has done this to others. Or at the very least Pierre has broken the law by taking money under false pretenses. After all, Pierre certainly misled me all along the way. Since I left the business, Pierre has redecorated the bar, held annual anniversary parties with free food and live music, put a permanent sign on the building, and advertised in a local Impact newspaper/flyer. Where was all this marketing in the beginning when we really needed it? As you have read in earlier posts, Pierre told me countless times that he was Marketing. Why did almost all the marketing happen after I was gone? After my money was gone? My heart is broken that this man took so much from me – and not just money, he took my dignity and self-respect. And now he threatens me to keep quiet. Are these the actions of an honest man? I need some outside perspectives of people who have read my story.

My purpose with this blog has become a broader warning. Not only should people learn from my mistakes, but they should question themselves if they are thinking of doing any kind of business with Pierre and/or the Dallas Stars. And women especially should consider supporting any hockey team except the Dallas Stars. Any company that would allow their employees to steal from a disabled senior citizen should not receive support of any kind from anyone.

The Threats Continue

On Facebook, I got challenged to share pictures representing the Good Life. After about 15 posts, I posted a picture from the restaurant and talked about how much I enjoyed making pizza for people. I explained that I loved it in spite of the fact that my time at the cafe didn’t end well and the possibility that my partner seemed something like a con man. I didn’t say it directly and I didn’t mention any names.

Well, guilt is a terrible and revealing thing. In a couple of days, I got an email from Pierre. It had the last financial report, FINALLY. And of course, another threat. Pierre said he would sue me for liable, slander, and defamation of character if I didn’t delete the post within 7 days.

No one likes to be threatened. I thought about his demand and came up with my own solution. I reposted the original post with a note. I said someone had assumed the post was about them and threatened me to delete it. Then I apologized to all present and former life partners, friends, etc. who may have assumed the post was about them because it was truly about me and my love for making pizza. All Pierre succeeded in doing was to bring the post to the top of the list again. If you keep threats a secret, that’s when people can hurt you the most.

Pierre unfriended me. What a pity.

Practice What You Preach

At the encouragement of a friend, I got on NHL.COM. I was looking for some kind of code of conduct. And sure enough, the NHL has a page dedicated to their principles of Teamwork, Respect, Perseverance, Integrity, Courage, Acceptance, Passion, and Humility. They even have summits to promote these values. I don’t know if they hold their affiliates to these principles, but I can tell you the organization I worked with definitely does not adhere to the standards described on this NHL community page. While I’m sure there are companies everywhere who publish their company beliefs and then don’t even treat their employees by their own standards, these high profile organizations have a lot of influence as mentors and spokesmen and should be the best role models they can possibly be. And their affiliates and employees should exude these standards.

If you’ve been reading my blog from the beginning, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The hockey organization employees stole from me, disparaged me, sabotaged my business, and disrespected me in just about every way possible short of physical abuse. I don’t know how they justified their behavior to themselves and their coworkers. Even if you take away the fact that I’m a disabled female senior citizen, their behavior was abominable.

I looked at the Contact Us page for the NHL community. It specifically states they want stories of how hockey has positively affected you. I guess that means they’re not interested in hearing how their affiliates represent them and their code of conduct if it’s not ideal. The NHL’s standards say to do the right thing, yet they don’t want to hear that someone didn’t do the right thing. It’s easy to think you’re great when you live in a bubble and only accept compliments.

Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They’re Hatched

When Pierre and I were discussing dissolving our partnership, his cash offer got smaller and smaller every time we talked. At one point, he suggested a cash amount plus an opportunity to get more money over the next 3 years if the restaurant made at least $10,000.00 that year. I agreed to this offer because I just needed to get something and get out. He had used me up. He had used up all my money. I had to get out. So we signed the agreement he wrote up and I walked away with a tiny bit of cash. In order to prove whether he owed me money each year thereafter, he was supposed to send me a copy of the year’s financials by May of the following year. With a check attached if they made money.

Obviously, as much as I hoped to get more money, I wasn’t counting any chickens. Pierre was such a non-contributor to our business and so out of touch with the overall management of the restaurant, it seemed pretty unlikely he would ever make any money. I still don’t know why he even wanted the business in the first place. Maybe he thought it impressed people that he owned a bar in an ice rink. Maybe it wasn’t a business to him at all, just a hobby to get tax write-offs from the government. I don’t know.

Anyway, every May for 3 years, I was supposed to get a financial statement. This month is the last one. The 3 years ended in 2019. It’s not a difficult thing, as the accountant has to print a report in order to do the income taxes. Everything is computerized, so a report is generated with the mere press of a button. Yet every year, I have to ask for the report. This was Pierre’s idea and yet every year I wonder if I’m going to have to get a lawyer just to get a financial report that he contracted to give me. And as expected, I have not received any more money. This whole experience has really changed my opinion of Pierre and I hope others will read this entire blog before they even consider going into business with him.

Research, Research, Research

It’s amazing what you can learn from the internet. For example, I learned that the restaurant was having some issues after I left, like not paying their state sales tax in a timely manner. The State of Texas doesn’t like that and they can close your business. It’s not a good idea to get crosswise with the State or TABC.

I encourage you to use the internet to its fullest before going into business and definitely before partnering with anyone. Personally, I prefer the search engines by Google and Dogpile. Whatever you choose, click on everything that seems related to your search. You never know where it may lead. The more information you have before you start, the better. You may even find things that save you from going into business with that person or company.

Unfortunately, you probably won’t find much even if the person or company has wronged people in the past. Sometimes, victims are too embarrassed or afraid to share the heartbreak of being conned or misled. But research, you must. Dig, until you can’t dig anymore.

Who Audits a Hockey Franchise?

Am I the crazy one here? My landlord, the local hockey franchise, bullies me, steals from me, and sabotages my business. My so-called partner, Pierre, lies to me, bullies me, and sides with my landlord against me. Yet when I object to these things, everyone acts like I’m the one who’s lost my mind. Like all these things are ok and I’m just overreacting. How can that be? Doesn’t anyone else see that this is wrong? Very Wrong!

These were all things going through my mind after that email from Pierre; the intervention last summer and then the email at Thanksgiving. The idea that Pierre was in collusion with Todd to sabotage the cafe was becoming more real. After all, Pierre used to work at corporate before we started the restaurant. Was this standard operating procedure for franchise employees and that’s why no one saw anything wrong?

Surely, a hockey franchise would have internal and external auditors. There must be billions of dollars funneling through that company, so wouldn’t they have a Big Five auditor like Deloitte or KPMG? Wouldn’t there be somebody concerned about guarding the keys to the kingdom? Or does everyone steal until they retire, so they have an auditor like Enron had with Arthur Andersen? You know if the employees were stealing from me, they were robbing the hockey franchise blind. And considering Operations and Corporate employees had master keys that opened every door in every building, there was a lot of opportunity for ill-gotten gain. Maybe to them, bringing home a little extra was just a perk of employment. Obviously, no one was telling them it was wrong. Just me, the crazy one, telling them it’s wrong. Now, what do I do???

Liquor License

Getting a liquor license is very precise and time consuming. TABC is great about guiding you through the process. You have to get just the right signatures in just the right order and everything has to be notarized. I took far too long to complete this process. I’m not making any excuses. Yes, it’s hard to run a business, work the counter, do your partner’s job, and work on a liquor license, but I should have made it a higher priority. Oh, and I sold my house, bought a new house, and moved all during the same period.

You may wonder why I was still building the business after all the crap I’ve told you about so far. Well, the liquor license was that one ray of hope that the business would make a complete turn around for the better and all the torture I had endured so far would just melt away. Pierre, Todd, and Kyle all said it would make a difference and I believed them. During this process, I learned that Todd had lied about helping us set up pizza and beer in the locker rooms for the adult league. Once we got the liquor license it became a violation to have liquor on the premises outside of our space. We would have to change the liquor license to cover the entire building and Todd said he would never agree to that.

The liquor license did double our business almost immediately, but it didn’t turn the world around. Sadly, things continued to get worse. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it as the saga continues. One thing I want to say here, I couldn’t have done any of this without Kyle. He is a hard worker and honest person. Even though Kyle no longer speaks to me, I will always be grateful to have worked with him.

Financial Harassment

Like I mentioned earlier, rent was due on the first of the month and our contract gave very specific instructions about mailing the checks to Damon. Not only did we do that, we set up automatic payments from our bank account to ensure the rent would be paid on time every month.

I guess when you have a lot of money, managing the money doesn’t seem very important. I have never worked with any company or organization that was as bad at managing money as the local hockey team. Or maybe it was just harassment. I don’t know, but I sure got tired of proving we had paid our rent.

The first week in May 2015, Todd came to me and said he needed to collect all the rent since we had opened. I was taken aback because we had paid all of the rent, so I asked why. He said I had not paid any rent since we signed the contract and he needed that money. If you remember, I also told you earlier that Todd had told me to pay the rent according to the contract and not give the checks to him. I guess he forgot, and assumed we hadn’t paid because he had not seen the checks. I explained that we had auto-payments to Damon as the contract specified and we had paid all the rent – February was paid when we signed the contract (Todd should have know that as he was there), March was a free month according to the contract, and April and May had been auto-paid. He was glad we paid and went on his way. Seems like he would have a way to know about payments – a report, communication with accounting, or something.

In October or November, they accused us of not paying September rent. In January, corporate accused us of not paying December 2015; and then November 2015. Each time, I sent copies of our bank statement showing the money had been sent in plenty of time and the screen showing the checks had been cashed. Turns out, the missing payments were months before and each time we sent a check accounting would apply it to a previous month making it look like we paid late all the time. If they had just told us the same month a check was late, we could have stopped payment and resent right away. I have no idea what happened to our checks – lost in the mail, lost in Damon’s department, lost in accounting, thrown away to sabotage our business. At this point, we had been accused of not paying our rent 7 months out of the first 11 months in business. Their accounting couldn’t tell us when things had gone awry, so I had to go back through all the payments to find the checks that had not been cashed and replace them. I think it turned out to be July, October, and November. Accounting appreciated my work and repaid us by having a team lunch at our cafe in March 2016. Accounting has the nicest people in the organization.

Around the first week of January 2016, Todd came to me and said we had paid the wrong amount for our January rent. He suggested that if I checked my contract, I would know the rent went up and I should have paid the 2016 amount. I had to remind him the contract stated the rent increase began each FEBRUARY and I had already changed the auto payment to the new amount for next month.

In September 2016, Todd informed me there was another missing rent check and wanted proof of payment February through September. I reminded him we had already provided proof of February payment when we were researching November and December payments. How can you run a business when you’re constantly researching paperwork to prove you pay your rent? So this time, I took my time doing the research. It’s ridiculous that a company as big as a national hockey team can have this much trouble managing money. And why is it they don’t know when things went awry??? Seems to me all they have to do is look for the first month the rent was credited after the late-date. And why don’t they contact you that month so you can take care of it right away??? We were in our busy season and I did my research only when there was spare time, so I took several months to get back to them. Turns out, the March 2016 check had been lost. Meanwhile, Todd asked me to start handing our checks to him instead of following the instructions in the contract. I did, but I got a receipt from the person I handed the check to, as Todd wasn’t always there. I wanted proof we paid on time so no one could accidentally lose the check and say we didn’t pay or hold the check until after the grace period to make it look like we paid late. These people obviously cannot be trusted with money. But we knew that, because these are some of the same people that stole from us.

Backup Marketing

Marketing is definitely not my thing, so I had been relying on Pierre. It became obvious that he was not stepping up and we needed a backup plan. My first attempt at marketing was to purchase Hunt Brothers’ mass mailing of coupons. I don’t think 1 person came in with a coupon. So that didn’t work.

My next attempt was the RTUI grocery store cash register receipts. I used to like the coupons on the receipts so I thought that might work for us. I asked the salesman for recommendations from local restaurants, but all he gave me were nail salons and 1 restaurant in Houston, which is not nearby. It was an expensive disaster. I finally posted a bad rating on their facebook page and someone called to help me. A director came out for an evaluation. Turns out the receipt coupons only work if you’re in the same strip center as the grocery store or very close by. We were in a relatively undeveloped area so the grocery stores were 2-7 miles away. The director told me the salesman knew this and should never have sold us a plan. Did they give me any money back? NO! And I asked several times. They did extend our service several months and worked with me to design different coupons. With over a year of printing coupons, we got 2, possibly 3, coupons redeemed. It was very disheartening and I felt truly cheated by that salesman.

Kyle and some of the other employees passed out flyers near the baseball diamonds and soccer fields. When we finally got our sign, it was hung on the side of the building facing the baseball diamonds. I think that helped a little. I still don’t understand why Pierre wasn’t actively working the baseball market – after all, we had climate controlled restrooms and beer. Kyle and I set up all sorts of social media pages and events. Pierre still did nothing. Half the time he didn’t even respond to our events or invite his friends.

My biggest mistake here, aside from partnering with Pierre, was RTUI. Never do business with RTUI, unless you’re a nail salon next to a grocery store.

Hockey Camps

You’d think hockey camps would bring good money to the cafe, but even the camps had limited participation. When the local hockey team held camps in our facility, we had good business from the kids once the parents found we had a good lunch deal – 1/4 pizza, chips or fruit, cookie, and squirt top water bottle for $5.25. However, the coaches from corporate didn’t eat with us at all. These are our landlords in the building for a week and didn’t buy lunch from us even one time – in fact, Tuesday they brought in pizza from an outside restaurant. So Friday afternoon, I went over and had words with them about patronizing their tenants and setting an example for the students to patronize us as well. There was one independent hockey coach, Ryan, who approached us as soon as we opened to let us know he would recommend us in all his hockey camp emails. It was so refreshing to have at least one person who believed in supporting us and appreciated that we were there.

Every summer there was some sort of hockey ministry camp. The first time we met them, they brought us their coolers to be filled with ice. Once filled, we took the coolers out to where the camp counselors were standing. I asked the woman if there was anything we could do to get their business sometime that week. She explained they had already set up all the lunches to be brought in and they told the kids not to bring money so there would be no business for us. Then she asked if we would add water to some of the coolers. We didn’t have a faucet tall enough to get the coolers under to fill, so I suggested they talk to the front desk to see if the building had a faucet or hose to fill the coolers. When the ministry’s lunch came in the next day, she wanted to borrow a large knife. We only had one in our sanitized kitchen so we couldn’t lend it – often people forget to return items and who knows what they did with it when they had it. Having a safe kitchen was our first priority. The third day, she asked for large buffet spoons for their lunch. We didn’t have any of these because we sell pizza; we have no need for buffet serving utensils. That’s when she totally chewed me out for not helping them when they needed it. These people are supposed to be mentoring children with Christianly advise. Some of the counselors would take naps on our couch in the bar. Other times, they would set up their Bible study in front of the cafe. A huge lobby with plenty of space to set up chairs without blocking someone’s business and they set up in front of the cafe, blocking the entire counter. I don’t think these people are qualified to call themselves Christian counselors – I certainly wouldn’t want them influencing my children. I did make some money off the kids, which I think made her even more angry with me. I baked fresh cookies at lunch time each day and fresh popcorn in the afternoon. Those kids who were told not to bring money, suddenly had enough to buy cookies and popcorn. I guess I’m just evil.

Once again this boils down to ‘no outside food or drink’. It’s a must-have rule in an environment like this. Just like retail stores make deals that their competitor can’t be in the same strip center, you have to make deals in favor of your restaurant. You can always compromise outside food on a case by case basis, because no one can eat pizza for lunch 5 days in a row, but at least you have the power to deal. And where was Pierre in all of this? Why didn’t he talk to the ministry people and make a deal for the next year? He’s marketing, he should be taking care of this. And why isn’t he talking to corporate? He used to work with these guys and probably has all their emails. It is unacceptable for corporate to decide not to patronize their tenants.