What's the Holdup?

Well this certainly hasn’t been going the way I wanted it to. If you’re just tuning in, I’ve been working on getting the online shop for Coffee & Comics launched. However there have been setbacks at every step of the way.

I filed with the state of Texas back towards the end of JUNE but because of the Fourth of July coming up, my documents were delayed. A week or two later I received my packet of documents that said Coffee & Comics is now a company. Next was to sign the documents and mail them in. 

Hell yeah! Right? Wrong. 

I received that packet on a Friday, mailed out the needed signatures the very next day on Saturday. Then on Tuesday I RECEIVED ANOTHER PACKET OF DOCUMENTS. The same one I just received the week before. 

So what’s going on? Was this a mistake? Was there something wrong with the first one? But the second packet had a misspelling so if the second packet is the correct one then I have a problem with that now. 

I reached out to the firm who filed for me again and asked what set of documents I should use? The main point for this all is to get an EIN number, plus tax exempt and a resellers license. Since they’re two different numbers associated with the packets I didn’t want to choose the one that is wrong. Well I didn’t hear from them for about a week. Turns out the entire office got COVID. 

That’s where the mixup occurred. With some employees working from home and some in the office, there was miscommunication and my documents were filed twice. 

I am currently waiting to hear back on what my next steps should be. In the meantime I’m working on more products to add to the shop, setting up my email campaigns, plus doing some freelancing. Hoping with that I can make a big apparel purchase and screenprint it all to have ready for the fall

When's The Shop Launch?

Since I’ve had numerous people on Threads ask as well as friends and family, “When is the shop going to launch?”

I figured i’d write this post. The answer is soon, I hope at least. I was trying to find a CPA/Business Advisor who could help me with registering the Coffee and Comics business here in Colorado, but I was unsuccessful. Instead I went with the same team my business partner and I use for Resin Refinery/Chronicle, our web agency and start-up, who is based out of Texas. I just got that filing sent out and am waiting to hear back.

Why am I going through all of this and registering the business? Well I don’t want to just start selling things online without any regards to what I need to do for taxes and then come tax time, get royally screwed by the IRS. So to eliminate the chances of that happening, I’m taking the time to handle all of that from the very beginning. Plus if I want to open a brick and mortar shop down the line, I’ll already have the proper paperwork setup.

There are two main “goals” I have with operating as an online shop right now; spread brand awareness and raise funds for an actual shop. If I execute a well thought out plan, I can go to a bank and use that data to show there is an interest and an extra channel of revenue besides coffee and comics. Should I be successful with that, I would hope that I can get a loan to start this shop for real. The online shop is only the beginning and there is so much more to go.

While launching and then operating as an online shop, I plan to learn as much as possible for this business. There is a workshop in September that will help me with writing a business plan, hopefully by then I can have a few months of data from the online shop. So in the meantime I will need to find a coffee wholesaler to partner with, a comic shop to partner with or just start building my own inventory of comics and maybe even start looking for a site location.

Finally, the shop. I don’t want to get stuck with boxes and boxes of apparel should I not be successful and can’t sell anything. Instead of doing that, I want to do limited drops in which I’ll only put up a few items at a time. My hope is to build excitement for each drop and entice people to purchase and rep the brand. I’ll be posting on social media about the limited drops but I’ll be using my newsletter as early bird access. So as a way to build an email list for when the brick and mortar shop finally launches, I’ll announce that subscribers to my newsletter will get alerted of the limited drops first and then social media the next day. The limited drops will help me with not having to front so much money at the start of this project. You know the saying, you need to spend money to make money, well I'm kinda running low at the moment so I have to be very careful with how I spend my money right now.

Here is a look at how a Limited Drop post on social media would look like.

Besides apparel, what else will be in the shop? Right now I’m working on custom comic bookmarks and stickers. The bookmarks have become quite fun and therapeutic to create and have been well received on Threads. There will be a few on there at the time of launch, I will continue making them depending on how they sell. There is a second design I have worked on that I included on the print screen I got. The design is of the saying “Just One More”, as in “Just one more comic” or “Just one more cup of coffee”.

Stickers + limited drops of hoodies and shirts will be available on the shop.

That design will be available on shirts as well as the canvas tote bags I’ve been creating. In Colorado, they have been going after the use of plastic bags at stores, making you pay for them each time. With a reusable bag you can go about your shopping business without having to worry about paying for plastic bags. I also want to make these bags or cheaper versions of them for comic shops to purchase on a wholesale basis to sell in their own shops. I’d even be open to shops paying for their own screen and I’ll print their logo on one side and the coffee & comics brand on the other. All of this will develop as time goes, I'm not sure if it’ll lead anywhere, but here’s to manifesting it into existence. 

These bags had the designs drawn on, but the bags will be screen printed from now on.

Thanks for following along on this journey and be ready to subscribe to the newsletter when it’s ready! Don’t worry, you won’t be spammed. I plan to only do 1-2 emails a month; to give an update on where I'm at with the business and announce the limited drops.