Try starting a new business. Or better yet, open a new location for your existing business. Or even better still, open your first location for your business. I have to admit, I don’t think I have ever had this much going on at one time. And to make things even more interesting, we are opening in less than two weeks! How’s that for pressure?

I’m not complaining, not by a long shot. And I’m no stranger to pressure and pushing myself beyond my own limits. It’s just that it all looked so simple on paper. In reality, sometimes contractors don’t show up on time, or finish when they said they would. Sometimes materials are late, or wrong, or just plain don’t go together the way they are supposed to. Sometimes the original price the vendor gave was before he knew about “the extra work that would be involved” and the new price is almost double what he first quoted. And sometimes there is just two pieces short of enough material to complete the project and an entire case needs to be ordered which will take a whole week to arrive, just for those two pieces.

Then of course, there are the long days at the suite coordinating things and just plain doing a lot of the work yourself. There are bruised knees and sore lower back from installing flooring. There’s dust in the eyes from changing out ceiling tiles that are probably hiding the treasures of Tutankhamen. And for some reason, it seems that there are scissors and utility knives out there just waiting to nip off another piece of my fingers at any opportunity. (I swear, the FBI is going to have to take a whole new set of fingerprints, because my fingertips have all changed.) And all of this while trying to maintain a schedule outside of the preparation for things like client appointments, networking, workouts and of course, sleep.

I had a guy stop by yesterday while I was gluing down some random pieces of flooring, and ask when the place was going to open. I told him the 27th. “Of February?” he asked with raised eyebrows. “Yes,” I replied, ”February.” His astonishment only became more astonish-er when he asked who the owner was, and I raised my hand. Yup, I’m doing the labor, so what?

But it will all be worth it, I am positive. When we fling open the doors on February 27th and people are clamoring and pushing each other aside to get in, all while screaming things like, “I want to “meet The Rhino!”” it will be a job well done. Ok, maybe I’m fantasizing a little, but you get the idea. And I think that we are going to be offering such a wide spectrum of services, that we will be able to help a lot of people. And I can’t wait.

On opening day, we will have some vendors offering their services, we will have some demonstrations of our classes and some products for sale. Of course, we will be signing people up for classes and programs. So, in other words, don’t miss it! We are looking forward to seeing you there! And then you can see how all the hard work we have put in thus far has all come together!