Let Your Colors Fly

Give me the Beach Boys that freed my soul. I could listen to Beach Boys music all day and I can’t help but sing along. So it’s no surprise that I had a ticket to their show in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It’s an easy drive from Dallas, see the show, stay overnight, and drive home the next day. I even stayed in the same hotel they did and saw some of the band members at breakfast the next morning. A wonderful experience.

While I was driving to Muskogee, Pierre called. He was ready to take over the restaurant and wanted to meet at the bank that day. I explained that I was on my way out of town but might be back before the bank closed the next day. He was mad. I don’t know why. He’s the one that put this off for so long. I wanted to take care of all this in November and here we are in April – and he’s mad that I have plans for one day. I guess some elite figure skaters think everyone else should adjust to fit into their schedule. These are the times people show their true colors. You get to see just what kind of person they really are. It can be very disappointing, but this is very valuable information. Don’t dismiss it and don’t excuse it. Don’t ever let them fool you again. That doesn’t mean you have to change how you feel or what you do, it just means you now know to be more careful. This person is not who you thought they were. The next time you interact with this person, you will make wiser decisions. This is exactly why I have been telling you my story. No matter who you are, where you are, or what you are doing, I want you to use my sad, sad experience to make your life decisions better, to make your life better. To make you more aware so you can keep yourself safe from bullies and predators.

There was a big storm the next day which slowed my drive home. At one point the rain was so heavy, I couldn’t see the road. Fortunately, I found a place to pull over to wait for the storm to subside. Even with the wait, I made it home before 6pm. So I called Pierre and we made an appointment to meet at the bank and sign the papers.

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

Don’t be thinking this story is over just because we made a deal. The final deal was $10,000 cash and another $10,000 over 3 years if the cafe made money. Of course, I was not counting on the cafe making money – that’s pretty hard to do when the owner isn’t present and Pierre had a history of not being present. I felt deflated, defeated, embarrassed, ripped off, scared, tired, conned. But I had to take the deal. It was that or fight – fight with no money or support. Maybe the $10k would give me time to find a job and try to move on.

During this time, Kyle decided to quit. I was devastated. Kyle had always been there for me and had become my best confidant. I asked why and he said he didn’t want to be in the middle of the growing rift between Pierre and me. I understood and promised to let go of our work related conversations. I also was afraid Pierre would back out of our deal if Kyle were no longer working at the cafe. I pointed out that Kyle had the rest of his life to get a regular job, but who else would make him the General Manager of a restaurant and bar at age 21. It was quite the resume builder and he should stay. He decided to stay. I was relieved. And I’m sure Pierre gave him a raise since Pierre was not going to be around and his former student/restaurant expert was not joining the business.

Pierre had told me it would take 30 days to get the money. I didn’t believe it, but agreed to wait. About a week before we were to transfer the business, Pierre said he needed more time because the next Monday was a European holiday. What the heck??? Electronic transfer doesn’t take 30 days even if 20 of them are holidays, let alone five weeks when one day is a holiday. I had no idea what Pierre was doing, but this wait had nothing to do with the mere transfer of funds. So I continued to wait.

Let’s Make a Deal

Like I was saying in my previous post, every time I talked to Pierre his offer went down. And our negotiation was taking months. He always said he would get back to me after checking into more things. For someone who showed no interest for over 2 years, he sure had to check into a lot of things. The wait was excruciating. I don’t think Pierre found a partner, which allows me to sleep better. I don’t want to think he’s out there taking advantage of someone else.

We finally had our last negotiation meeting in March. Pierre’s offer was very small. He knew he had me backed into a corner. He told me I should think about it and get back to him. There was nothing to think about. My only other options were to close with the hope of getting some money for the used equipment or filing a lawsuit against a major hockey franchise. Reluctantly, I took the deal. I was totally deflated.

But wait… there’s more… bad news. How can that be? How can things get worse? Pierre said it would take him a month to get the money transferred from his retirement fund. Seriously? It will take 30 days to convert $10,000 from a retirement fund and transfer it into a checking account? And yes, he’s old enough to do it without penalty. Was he lying? I don’t know. At this point I just needed to go with the flow and get it over with. Pierre had not partnered with me since we started, there was no reason to expect better from him now. I acquiesced. There was no joy in Mudville that day.

Negotiations Begin

I didn’t have a good feeling about this. Pierre asked me how much money I wanted. Since he was 1/3 owner, it would’ve been nice if he were to give me 1/3 of the losses – especially considering he was able to write that much off his income taxes and he had never put in his original seed money. So I started there, or maybe a little bit over that to leave room for negotiation. He actually suggested that I should keep 10% ownership in case the restaurant made money in the future. I was surprised, but it made sense that I might be able to recoup some of my money. He put me off, saying he was still checking into the contract extension, finding a partner, etc. I was dying inside. I needed for this to be over. I was out of money and my alternatives were even more painful, closing or suing a multi-billion dollar hockey franchise. He had me by the proverbial testicles.

This was a very simple business and Pierre’s restaurant expert had already delved into our physical, mental, and financial inventories. Negotiations shouldn’t take months, but Pierre was dragging his feet. Every time we talked, he offered me less money – he always had a different reason. I continued to bring up retaining 10% ownership. First he said ‘no’ as any partners he might find wouldn’t agree to something like that. Then he said ‘no’ as it wouldn’t work well that way. Then he just said ‘no’. I don’t know why, it was his idea in the first place and now he’s acting like I was asking for unreasonable things. Once again, I was just confused by what was going on.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Pierre were visiting various bars for ideas to improve the bar. Wait, what? Why didn’t they do this from the beginning? Was this Pierre’s plan all along? Pierre would do nothing – except have Todd and his Minions torture me – until I had used up all my money to get the business started so Pierre could swoop in and take over? Had I been conned by a figure skating coach? I was crushed, financially and now mentally.

Hire a Good CPA

I wouldn’t recommend our CPA to anybody. He was forever paying our sales and liquor taxes late – and that comes with penalties. Of course I made him pay the penalties, but still, I didn’t want our history to show we always paid late. Our CPA never communicated unless he needed something from us. He didn’t tell us to file an extension on our income taxes because he wouldn’t have our reports ready by April 15th. I had never filed an extension before. I didn’t mind doing it, but when you email someone over and over as April 15th approaches and they don’t respond, it’s very frustrating. And then you still don’t hear anything by September and your extension ends in October, you just want to scream.

Before we opened the restaurant, we had made the decision to use my home address for important mail, as we didn’t want to rely on the kids working the front desk to handle our mail correctly. And as you may have noticed in previous posts about the bad behavior of the rink employees, that was a good decision. However, I moved while I was running the restaurant. I sent my new address to our CPA. He didn’t update his records, the financials, or any governing bodies we needed to communicate with, like the State of Texas. I don’t mind taking care of these things, but he didn’t tell me I needed to. I didn’t find out until we weren’t receiving any notices and consequently didn’t pay for something. The notices were still going to my old address and some weren’t forward-able.

Pierre should have known not to use this CPA since he was Pierre’s CPA before we started the restaurant. Or maybe he was acting on Pierre’s orders to make things difficult for us. I don’t know. Pierre knows people in the restaurant business and could have gotten us recommendations. Or maybe this guy was the cheapest one – you get what you pay for.

The CPA charged us a monthly fee plus a Quick Books membership. For that, it was his job to do our payroll, our financials, and our taxes, including the business income taxes and the figures for us to file our personal income taxes. My mistake here was not asking for references and talking to them. I trusted Pierre to set us up. Trusting Pierre may have been my biggest mistake of all.

I’m Confused

Posting my story is getting harder and harder. It hurts to dredge up these memories and sometimes it gives me bad dreams. My saving grace is to believe I will save at least one person from getting screwed like I did.

As I said in an earlier post, it surprised me when Pierre expressed interest in buying me out. And when we started discussing it, I became even more confused. He wanted time to check out some things, so I agreed. First, he wanted to meet with Todd and/or corporate to verify they were interested in extending our contract. We still had over 3 years of a 5 year contract and that wasn’t enough for him? I totally didn’t get that – the one person who showed little to no interest in the cafe wanted to make sure he was set up for another 10 years? Why? There were rumors of adding another sheet of ice, but the 2 that were there were virtually empty most of the time so how much more business would a third sheet bring? I’m sure Pierre was hoping Todd would confirm the third sheet of ice during the contract discussions. Next, Pierre wanted to have someone inventory the restaurant and look over the financial reports. Evidently, one of Pierre’s former students was a restaurateur in NYC. So, Former Student inventoried the entire cafe and bar and sat with me to discuss the business and finances.

Pierre also wanted to find another partner to help buy me out. No shock there. Pierre is good with other people’s money. And time. And hard work. An obvious observation from his lack of performance during the first 2 years. I think Pierre really wanted Former Student to partner with him. I guess Former Student was too smart to get involved with Pierre. Maybe he knew better from past experience. Of course, Pierre wanted to confirm Kyle the Bartender would stick around. Kyle and Pierre started barhopping to check out options for building the bar business. More confusion for me – why hadn’t Pierre been doing this during the last 2 years?

I don’t know if all this crap is a stall tactic or what. Funny, if you consider Pierre was just using me and my money to front his business, all the confusion goes away, doesn’t it? All I know for sure is, I’m sitting on pins and needles during all of this because I have to be prepared to sue a hockey franchise if Pierre doesn’t buy me out. At this point, I have no idea what will happen next and I don’t know what to do.

Now what???

Important decisions take a lot of thought. Too bad I didn’t invest more time before embarking on this adventure. It probably wouldn’t have made any difference, though. I never would have foreseen the level of deceit and theft I encountered during my time as a restaurateur. Now, it’s time to consider next steps.

I can close the restaurant and try to sell the equipment. Recoup what I can and move on. If Pierre really is interested in the restaurant, I can sell my share to him and move on. I can file a lawsuit against a giant hockey franchise for breach of contract, slander, theft, fraud, and conspiracy and hope for a David versus Goliath ending. I can get a loan and continue running the restaurant.

I definitely won’t be getting a loan. I have no support from my business partners, namely Pierre and Todd, and the environment it totally toxic. I already have a hoity toity downtown Dallas attorney, so I’m ready for a fight if I don’t get a better offer. That’s the thing about horse people, we’re used to dealing with entities that are bigger and stronger than we are and we accept the circumstances as normal everyday life.

I already suggested to Pierre that he buy me out, so for now I’ll wait to see his reply. I hate that it has come to this. That’s probably why this decision is so difficult. I love pouring beers and making pizzas for people. I enjoy meeting families and sharing in their stories. Part of me is not ready to walk away.

Questions

Pierre seemed interested in buying me out. I was shocked. Why would he even want this restaurant? He never helped do the work. In fact, as I found out later, he never got his TABC certification, never got his Food Manager certification, never even got his Food Handler certification. Clearly, he had no intention of being involved. Pierre never put in his seed money, never stood up to protect our profits, never fully engaged in marketing our bar. Why in the world would he want to take over ownership and management?

Millions of questions started bouncing through my brain. Was Pierre a con man? Did he lure me in with the idea of having me front the startup costs of the cafe and bar? Was Todd actually his partner in a good cop/bad cop game to get as much money from me as possible as they pushed me to quit? Was Max in on it, too? Am I the biggest idiot on the planet? Do I have an ‘idiot’ sign taped to my forehead?

Cyber Monday, I went to the bank and took Pierre off of the cafe checking account. After all my stupidity, I didn’t want my story to end, ‘then Pierre emptied the bank account and disappeared.’ For once in my life, I did something right.

Clarity

The rose colored glasses are gone. The world is a dull gray, at best. My hope for the future and seeing the best in the human race is gone. My vision of a group of people working together to build a successful restaurant has been stomped into the ground.

The General Manager of our rink and many of his employees are thieves. My contact at corporate has made it clear, he is not interested any issues we are having. Even after agreeing to start over and work together, Todd and his cohorts continue to sabotage our business. My partner doesn’t have my back. It almost seems as though he and Todd have been in cahoots to drain me of my savings before continuing to build the cafe and bar into a viable business. I can hardly pay my bills and definitely cannot invest another penny. My body is falling apart from all the hard work.

No knight in shining armor is going to gallop in and whisk me off on his mighty steed. Chef Irvine and Jon Taffer will not be calling to help me get back on track. Not even a wonderful philanthropist like Ellen DeGeneres can save me now. It’s time to quit.

After letting Pierre’s email sink in for a few days, I replied, ‘Buy me out’. He acted surprised. I don’t know why. After reading this blog, I know you’re not surprised. You’re probably more surprised that I stayed so long. Me, too, now that I’m looking back. It was truly a mistake to believe things would work out once these issues started presenting themselves. I was very sad. I really did love having a cafe and bar.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should not believe in your vision of starting a business. All I want you to do is think way outside the box about what may go wrong and plan for that. After reading about the issues I encountered, you can see there are a lot more hurdles than drawing people to your doors and fixing equipment. Be prepared and make your dreams come true.