If you've ever woken up early, brushed your teeth, and headed in to open the doors of a new business on day #1 then you are part of a small but hardy group. It isn't easy to get to the Start Line.
Let's say you have an idea. Almost everyone does...
Starting: The hardest part for sure. You have to have courage... and you have to find money (usually). Then you have to wade through tons of governmental bullcr&p... Now you have a bunch of paper (BC865446776 or something like that) and a bill from a lawyer. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Planning: Locations, sticky leases, irritating landlords, pesky holdbacks, confusing clauses, 80 page contracts, quirky lawyers, bearded accountants. And bills. Now you have an empty building. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Creating: Busy builders, tough negotiating, expensive designers, expensive millwork, better go with the less expensive computers, choose the lighting & flooring, order the equipment, delays, decisions, decisions, decisions. And bills. Now you have a concept for your empty building. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Build it! Crews, electrical, plumbing, framing, drywalling, painting, debating, second guessing. Lots of bills. Bills. Bills. Now you have a business under construction. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Planning (yes, again): Marketing, studying, learning, networking, monitoring construction, counting the days, worrying, dreaming. Now the construction is done and you feel ready. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Preparing: Cleaning, arranging, shopping - Home Depot, Staples, Ikea, Canadian Tire, Costco, London Drugs, and more. Bills everywhere! This place is stocked! ...better mark this occasion with a celebration. Congrats.
Time to get started.
Celebrate: The IF crew, 1 jumpsuit, 1 wig, several beers, Browns, St. James, The Point. Taxis, tylenol, lost phones, a few hours of sleep. (Clean again.) Congrats (you're alive.)
Time to get started.
Opening Day! The doors swing open at 6. The music is on and our first customer is warming up on the bike. He is followed by one more - then the place is empty again - hopefully not for long. We made it to the START LINE. Congrats.
Now it's time to get started.
Epilogue:
We are doing really well. Four days in we find ourselves ahead of our projections for the first month - which is great - but we've barely started. We are the swimmer exploding from the blocks but yet to hit the water...
Other photos from Day 1:
![](http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh23/meyrickj/twitter_logo-1.jpg)
12 comments:
Congrats - the place looks great! All the hard work, hours and $ paying off. I'll have to come down and check it out!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Beautiful facility. Congrats and best wishes for an incredibly successful venture
Nancy
Congrats! The place looks awesome.
Best of Luck.
Congratulations, Meyrick. It's a gorgeous space.
Wishing you and the company the best!
Congratulations. Your hard work is already paying off! The place looks absolutely gorgeous. All the best!
Awesome! You've done a great job with it and it's in an awesome location. Looking forward to coming by and seeing it in person soon (no excuses since I'm in the area every day)!
What a beautiful place.
Congratulations and best of luck to you! ;)
Well done (and well cataloged). I think the best part is the "What IF you could" sign. Nice touch.
Congrats - how very exciting. Thrilled for you. I would totally be there IF I was closer. Looks like a great facility.
Hey Meyrick,
Thanks for posting such awesome updates about the facility! You (& Kris) should be very proud of IF Port Moody! The admirable success........(wow)......in your first week.......!! You guys ROCK!! Love the pics.......but where's the one of the cleaning lady (smile)? LOL
You & Kris have an attitude that breeds successes! Wishing you every success.....you deserve it! j.
Impressive place bro, cant wait to come see it. Im working on getting my own place started too, as always, reading your stuff got me a little more motivated. I will send you pics.
DS
Wow, just WOW!
You are truly amazing. Thank you for sharing this. I wish you so much luck with your new creation. It's going to be awesome!
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