Amanda and I delivered our business plan to Key Bank in March and worked with a representative there to put ourselves in the best possible position to secure a loan to cover most of the cost of opening Homespun. Starting a business from scratch is expensive, especially if you really drill down into details and have a specific experience you are trying to create for customers. We ran the plan up the flagpole to see who’d salute and Key’s business lending division did not. We were expecting that and it was a bit of kabuki theater since we wanted to get in front of Key’s Small Business Administration lending team anyway. They declined our application but after we responded to the points they raised they revisited it for what turned out to be the third and final time. Today we got the call that Key Bank declined our loan application.

It’s not what we wanted to hear and there’s no positive way to spin it other than when the store opens we likely won’t go into debt because of it. The project has received so much love and attention that we can’t not follow through. Because of budget cuts Amanda has no job to go back to next fall even if she wanted to and with Zeke due to arrive at the end of summer we have extra motivation to supplement my income. I can’t say how the plan will be altered to accommodate our new fiscal reality but I will be revisiting the business plan tonight to hack, chop, and screw that sonofabitch until it’s leaner, meaner, and don’t need no stinking banks. In the meantime our fund raising event at the Irving Theater is fast approaching and our Kickstarter project is still going. We may apply for a second Pepsi Refresh grant (double dipping is totally OK under their guidelines) but I’ll pass along pertinent info when I have it.

Thanks for the love and support.