Sitting down to calculate this month's expenses for both Hulk's and our own personal expenses like our apartment rent and so forth was quite hard to digest.
$700 for one month's worth of power and water at Hulk's... ouch... with over 1/3rd of it being for water... double ouch! And here I just thought UP was being cheap with giving us no hot water to shower in, dang was I wrong! I've yet to take an actual full shower at Hulk's and, at the price it's costing us to keep up with the hot water bill, I may never be able to afford to.
When we initially renovated, we certainly were smart by taking out all 140 main ceiling lights and replacing them with 38 light fixtures that I made myself. [Enter me high-fiving myself for that one and adding a "take that Pinterest" here]. Best investment ever as were the two watt juice bar and ceiling runner lights too! Making the switch meant we chopped the initial LeChard Hair electrical bill by 70% -- crazy cool.
They say you have to have money to make money and I have learned that this is definitely true. Having said this however,it never stated whose money you have to have. In our case, we got a small business start-up government loan and two loans from two different sponsors, one being WOW Motors and the other being someone who wants to remain anonymous. In using their money we were able to build our dream -- Hulk's -- but it takes a hell of a lot of money to sustain Hulk's and our own minimal expenses. Two average incomes in Korea wouldn't be able to cover the monthly costs.
But I'm not discouraged... I am challenged.
If both Snickers and I could live for one full year on only our boxing royalties and absolutely no steady income or job yet be able to travel to three different countries, maintain our monthly expenses and bills than running a boxing club that feels like it costs the same amount as running a small country shouldn't be a problem. A challenge yes but not a problem. And, as it stands, despite the massive monthly bill to maintain Hulk's and the even more massive amount of money we owe in creating it, I am very, very, over-the-top very happy in announcing that we've almost entered the double digits in terms of the thousands we've already paid back!!! We originally anticipated it being at least a solid year to pay back but we've been pretty consistent with living a low budget lifestyle.
We've been living at a much lower than expected low budget actually. We only go out for dinner once a week and I only treat myself to one coffee shop coffee a week. I've decided to stop dying my hair because it's just an added expense. It's quite a silly expense too considering every time I go to get it dyed I always ask them to dye it as close to my natural colour. I'll keep up with getting it trimmed but will let the dye grow out. At work it's always up in braids and I don't really go out much to really care about what my hair looks like out of the braids. Our "secret money" has been put on hold until not too sure when but I've been secretly stashing any 1000won ($1) bill I get in a change. I had about $34 stashed, took me a couple of months to acquire that, but I gave it to Snickers the other week when he wasn't feeling good on his day off. I'm now only up to $6.
Snickers continues to want to branch out and do some advertising for new members, like put up daily banners around town and print off posters, but I continually tell him to hold off. My priority isn't making new members, it only was at the start. Instead, my priority is keeping current members happy and doing what it takes to keep them coming back, hence the events and monthly challenges. Everyday I go through our membership list to review their names and quiz myself on their pictures and everyday I pick one or two members to text message randomly on our club phone. I want them to know that they do have a place at Hulk's and that their presence is felt just like their absence is. People want to be acknowledged, it's a simple fact, and I think members appreciate it when we do.
I miss many of our members who are now off at university, especially one who I always trained with. No member really challenges me at training like he did but the Kid Champ comes in as a possible second. Almost every Friday he shadows my boxing training and every day when he comes in to train he always asks me "What do I train today?" I know he likes it when I train with him and he often tries to pose random challenges when we train together. The other day he challenged me to a rope climbing contest. I beat him but boy did he try with all his might!!! There wasn't a drop of energy left in that boy's body after it but he insisted he could go again if I was up for a rematch. He sneaks peaks at me when he's doing his own training, to see if I'm paying attention, and I think it's cute. He's a great kid and a super member.
We've got a good crew at Hulk's, there's no doubt about it, so when midnight comes around but I'm still at work it's not an issue. I tried to take yesterday off of work, to give some extra attention to our four-legged babies and to relax, but it really wasn't relaxing for me. I was overly distracted with logging into the club's security cameras and seeing who was coming out to training. I definitely felt left out. Hulk's is my baby, so I kept on text messaging Snickers about it. I texted him about important things, like how to set up the club's music online, but I also texted him about nonsensical things too, like reminding him to check to make sure all the toilets had toilet paper and keeping the office door closed. By 9pm I had gone somewhat stir-crazy, wanting to go to work but trying to stay home, hence why I showed up at Hulk's last night. You just can't keep me away from this place... hahahaha. I love it!
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