Sad but true: you're probably going to need more money 💰

Sometimes we say something and mean something else entirely. I’m not talking about sarcasm or whatever you call what people do in poetry. I’m referring to those times when we’re trying to express something tough to say and hear, so we do our best to make it as inoffensive as possible. 


Like “putting lipstick on a pig.”


Despite being people whose animal brains really, really want everyone to like us, Abby and I have built a business that requires us to say this to very bright, optimistic people on a regular basis. And we hate it every time. 

Different people take the news differently. Some people get defensive. Others get really sad. Still others (though this doesn’t happen now as often as it used to) assume we’re wrong, and that we only know how to execute big fancy corporate concepts, and that they have the unique power to execute a surprise-free buildout.


Our work requires confronting peoples’ wrong assumptions all the time, and this is by far the touchiest subject. So I started wondering, why does this singular conversation about sufficient funding always feel like a third rail?


Then I remembered something I’d read long ago (and found to be true) — that the reason romantic couples fight about money is because we all have our own set of values around it. So we’re often not actually arguing about dollars, we’re arguing about how your parents never taught you anything about financial responsibility which is why you made this very bad decision and is evidenced by your brother’s similarly stupid decision to buy that investment property and your mother’s rude comment about the hand towels in the bathroom last Christmas.


Know what I mean? Conversations about money bring baggage and judgment.


💡 And then a lightbulb went on in my head. 


When we say, “you’re going to need more money,” people hear:

• You’re too poor - you’re not the kind of person who can open a brick-and-mortar business

• You’ve been irresponsible with money in the past

• You’re not smart or capable enough

• Your dream is out of reach

• You’re lame and everyone knows it


Without a doubt, finding out that your goal is farther away than you expected just…well, it sucks. It just does. But also, it’s not about YOU. 

What actually is about you is whether you’re attempting to reach your goals with realistic expectations. As you’ve heard us say a million times, the road to opening day is looooong. The only way to get from one step to the next is to prepare appropriately, and the only way to prepare appropriately is to have realistic expectations of what you’ll need.


And if this is your first time opening a brick and mortar business, what you’ll need is usually a lot more than you’d think. Why? Because never before in your life have you needed to know. But now you do. For example, most normal people would never think…

• That exterior signs that light up at night can be upwards of $10,000

• That you’ll need to buy at least three types of commercial insurance before you sign a lease

• That you’ll fork over at least two months’ of rent at lease signing

• That a column in your space can be 4” from where the construction plans think it should be, and the fix is going to cost $3,500

• That you have to pay your staff during pre-opening training

• Shall I go on? I've got 37 more Capital Budget line items...

See the point here? It’s both natural and normal to not have an accurate understanding of how much money it’s going to cost to get your business open if you've never done it before. At Pedal, we expect and anticipate this – that’s why we spend so much time refining Capital Budgets in the Dream Space Accelerator. 

If you don’t have the money you need to open your business today, that doesn’t mean you can’t raise what you need, and it’s certainly not a value judgment about your life choices or whether or not you were lucky enough to be born into generational wealth. 

If your Capital Budget is higher than you expected and you can’t fund it from your savings, you’re in good company – you’re in the same boat as the majority of Pedal Retailers. So as bad as the “you need more money” conversation feels in the moment, it’s a hell of a lot less painful than having that realization when the first bill from your GC comes in.