A close friend, business owner, and Suriname expatriot walks into a bar...

... and orders a Coors Light.  No joke.

I had a much needed and very insightful conversation with a close friend, business owner, and emigrant from Suriname, yesterday afternoon, ironically at a place that we call "the Office".

We discussed having a business office in a residential neighborhood (for me it's R-10), waste management, package delivery, industrial space, and stainless steel counter tops.

Since I need a business office before any licenses or permits can be issued, I need to setup space in my house... well... it's detached... so it's part of my property, but a separate building with separate heating costs, no H2O and electrical is combined with the main house.

When I go to register the business with the city, they're going to ask about the trash generated by the business and where it will go.  I don't expect there to be much trash generated from the office.  I'm going to try to keep it paperless, so the only trash I can think of will be paper that is mailed to the business (envelopes and stuff like that).  But this friend from Suriname said that I still  need to have a plan to dispose of trash not as part of the city's residential trash run... so I need to find a waste management company to sell me a trash bin that I can keep in the office, and every time it is filled, I can call them and they'll come haul it away.

(Once the Brewery gets set up, this office will be moved on-site)

This friend also suggested getting a UPS Store mailing address.  This is something I hadn't thought of before that will make many things much much much easier.

• It will give me an address separate from my residence and brewery so any psycho can't come track down the secret location of the brewery, break in, and steal kegs of beer.
• It will allow deliveries to be safe if I am not there to get them, so no one can swipe that 50 lb. sack of Crystal Malt before I can steep it!
• It will allow any one of my many many many employees (all none of them... but I'm thinking future!) to go and pick up the mail and packages if I'm away.

The one caveat with having a UPS Store address, is that if my Business Credit/Debit Card Address is different, I might have some issues having things delivered there, so when I open up that bank account (at the North Shore Bank -- the world's best small bank!) - I'll make sure to use the UPS Store address as the Business Address.

We also discussed the use of industrial space for the brewery.  The Cummings Center here in town is the best bet.  It's a very large Commercial and Industrial Complex (Ahhh... Axis and Allies!) right on Route 62 with easy access to Banks, Restaurants, other Businesses, et cetera (and it's close to home).  I'm going to need an industrial kitchen with a gas stove, several deep deep deep stainless steel sinks, a Big CO2 tank, and walk-in cooling space (for lagering, conditioning).  Also I'll need a place to store grains... so... dry storage?

I'm going to design what this all should look like and post it.

Until then... Vaya Con Cerveza!