Whoever Said This Would Be Easy?
After the gents came home, we worked steadily on getting funding. As a last resort, we decided that we would try applying through the Essex County Industrial Development Agency. They specialize in offering funding to businesses when they cannot get funding through traditional sources.
The application itself is only six pages, but the supporting documentation killed several trees. The business plan alone was about 20 pages. We drafted and researched and drafted some more through the holidays. The process was coming along quite nicely.
And then…disaster struck on December 27. Chip got three phone calls within minutes of each other telling us that the dumpster company had finally come to pick up the last of the scrap metal and in the process, dumped two loads of tires at the front of our property. Holy cow, they’re back. The tires were back. After days of getting those suckers in dumpsters, they brought them back. We didn’t understand why 1) they took so long to collect the last dumpster for credit and 2) why they didn’t credit the metal to our balance before deciding we owed them money and returning the tires.
We tried on our own and through our lawyer to resolve the issue with absolutely no response. At this point, we’ve decided to just let it go. It’s frustrating that they undid days of work and took our scrap metal, but we’re experts at taking lemons and making lemonade. This project has taught us valuable lessons and we’re chalking it all up to experience.
On April 29th, we submitted our application package to Carol Calabrese at IDA. She asked that Karen Stehlin with the North Country Small Business Development Center review it and offer her input. We revised it based on Karen’s observations and submitted the final in late May, too late to make the June board meeting cut off. But we made the July meeting…
Details to follow in the next post.
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