Denali Fitness Part Deux
We announced Friday that we've signed a lease for our second location. This was followed on Saturday by an estimate from our contractor that our TI's were going to cost a lot more than budgeted (A LOT MORE). Needless to say, this created a lot of stress and consternation over the weekend. The question of "did we screw up?" definitely popped into our heads. We had a meeting scheduled for Monday morning with our landlord and contractor to review the estimate. I felt physically ill from the stress. It takes a lot to stress to me out and this was way past "a lot" of stress. The meeting went well but we still have a lot of work to do.
I now understand why so many business development people I've worked with over the years have a tendency to sign deals regardless of if they were good for the company. While we negotiated this deal, I realized how easily one can get caught up in the moment. The definition of failure becomes not closing a deal instead of closing a deal that's bad for the company.
All that said, I'm very optimistic about the future of our new site. In case you're wondering, it's located in the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle. Our target opening date is January 1st. Wish us luck and tell your friends.