Opening my office

There have been so many ups and downs that it has been hard to remember who I have told what. Many people have been graciously interested in how it's been progressing so I will post it here.

I started getting everything in motion for setting up my own scratch startup office. I interviewed at least 3-4 people for each position on my support team (lease negotiator, office designer, supplier, lawyer, attorney, construction, consultant, marketing, etc, etc...) After interviewing each one I chose who I wanted and had the terrible task of telling the rest that I wasn't going to use them :(

I also spent many hours on dentaltown.com reading the stories of others that had done the same, comparing things like pro-formas, equipment lists, marketing strategies, etc. I feel like I had a crash course in a dental MBA. I don't know how I could have done this if I would have tried a few years ago before this dental web forum existed. My obsessive/compulsive disorder makes me research all these options to a T before making a decision.

I used all the demographic information I could get my hands on to find a location that had a good socio-economic status, growth potential and youg demographics to fit my ideal plan for office location and reviewing a city planning consultant group's findings on the area. I finally came to a decision on locating my startup in a development called Snoqualmie Ridge within the Snoqualmie City limits. I was very excited about this.

This location only had two current retail locations that I could put my office. I prayed and pondered a lot over which location to go with. One had great visibility, but was expensive. The other was the oposite. In the end I felt fairly strongly prompted to choose the lesser visible location. After spending a few months working on the contract w/ my lease negotiator we came down to signing week. Just at that time the landlord backed out of the deal. I was devastaded! I couldn't believe what had happened. I felt like a teenager that had just been dumped by a very hot girlfriend. I couldn't understand why I had felt prompted to go with that place only to have it fall through. I figured that I just wasn't good at differentiating between the spirit and my own thoughts. I lost confidence in my ability to receive any form of spiritual guidance on important decisions.

After being pretty depressed for a couple of weeks I felt like I should go take a trip around the city and look for any new retail locations. The city won't allow any new construction of retail, just residential so I would have to find a lease that had become available. I called and harassed one landlord about any other locations that he might be aware of. He said, "you really want to be here don't you?" I said of course and he gave me a number to call and hung up. I called the number and got a call back a day later. The guy said that a home finding center (the focal point of the whole development) was going to be converted into a gas station (the only on in the area for about a 7 mile radius) and have two 2000 ft2 building built next to it. He would like it if I leased one of them!

I couldn't believe it. This would be a perfect 10 on a scale of leasable locations. I suddenly understood why I was prompted to go for the location that fell through. If I had gone for the other I would have probably signed and missed this opportunity. By going for the one that I did, it held me over until this location came available. We just have to wait a couple months for city approval and then construction will start after that. I am about a year out from being able to open my own doors and will have to be patient, but this will definately be worth it.

Last week I went to lunch with a local orthodontist. He called me the next day and said that he would like to open a satellite office on the second floor above where I put my office if I felt comfortable with that. That would be a huge benefit for me. This keeps getting better and better. I now feel bad for doubting what I felt prompted to do and know that I have recieved help to make this all occur.

Very exciting, but now I will have to patiently wait a few months before I can get going again. Long post, but I got it all down. Thanks to everyone's support. BTW, another good thing happened with all this. I interviewed three companies for my lease negotiator. They all had different benefits that I couldn't decide on who to use. I felt prompted to choose the one I did. Their cost was in the middle of the other two, but the big benefit is that they work with me until I sign a contract. If I had gone with the other two and the lease fell through like it did then I would have had to pay them again for the current lease. They ended up being cheaper and better in the long run!