My Personal Journal Detailing the Creation of our Shoppe

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engagementSandra and I got engaged this weekend! I honestly could not conjure a more perfect life partner. No one has considered me, loved me as deeply or helped propel me more in life than Sandra Calm. I would never have become the person I am today without her, and I am so thankful for that.

Considering we’ve created a business together already, I figure there isn’t a whole that can make us stumble at this point. Well at least that’s what I thought until we started talking wedding plans… Iyeee! (Just kidding, baaaby!)

While Sandra and I are busy creating our dream wedding this week, I thought it would fun to post a few entries from my journal that cover the days of planning our business while I was still at my old job to just a little after our grand opening. I hope you enjoy!

People Mentioned That Require Explanation:

Shoshana Leibner – Too many titles to list, but an epic float guru
Doug – Previous owner of our Floatarium tank in GA and great guy
Stewart (Stu) – My big brother
Jesse – Sandra’s big brother

April 10, 2011

About to go to my first day back at work after a week long vacation. I can’t say I feel great about it or terrible, it’s more like I’ve forgotten what its like and need to experience it again to find out what I’ll think.

Putting finishing touches on the business plan for the Float Shoppe. This is huge. It means access to funding and to locations. This is the big one to get our biz moving.

April 25, 2011

Put in my 2 weeks notice at Fiserv on Wed April 20th! This means my last day will be May 4th. it’s crazy, but it hasn’t hit me yet. This is my last full week of work before moving on to Float Shoppe full time. So excited to get those gears turning full time!

May 1, 2011

Sandra and I visited Float On last night for their Grand Re-opening. It was cool, and I was filled with a tension the whole time. this will be our competition.

May 11, 2011

Wow. Big things coming up. This Friday to see if the building can handle tanks…

August 1, 2011

First day of our lease on 1515 NW 23rd!
We have our Floataway tank in our location. We bought an open tank from Shoshana today and we buy Doug’s tomorrow!!!
Just had paddling practice. Chun made us work our asses off!
Time to figure out where we’re putting our tanks!!!….

August 23, 2011

Construction. Plumbing. Stew and sandra’s help. Good day of work

September 14, 2011

I was in a car accident last Thursday. I was rear ended. I am doing well, but by neck down through my ass is really killing me. Work at the float shoppe has slowed to a crawl, but Sandra and Stu have been helping out. I think this will be a great wake up call that I need to call upon my friends for assistance.

November 1, 2011

Construction has taken a lot longer than expected. Had my first day off in a while yesterday. Awesome. Very refreshed today. All 3 fans are in … And working! My dad is making such a big difference. Gotta finish tile and get these walls ready!!!

November 13, 2011

Got the giant ass floatarium upstairs!!! Thank you Stewart, thank you Jesse, Sandra I love you.

November 27, 2011

I don’t know how many days we have been trying to complete this project, but we are getting very close. Room #1 is set up and just needs the electrical finished. Room 2’s pump is now broken and needs to be replaced. I can see that we are almost there, but the fear of not having enough money in our first few months is becoming overwhelming. I am very scared, but I’ve been scared this whole time. And that’s probably a healthy thing…

I’m sure that we can do it. Combined with Sandra’s amazing drive, we’ve got this. We have to.

December 3, 2011

Both tanks filter pumps are working.

December 5, 2011

Hot water turned on tomorrow. Filling at least one tank! Wow.

December 6, 2011

Tranquility in place. removed old water, added new, cleaned it. added probably about 2/3 of the salt needed. EXCITING. Tired.

December 14, 2011

Opening day! This place looks amazing 🙂

December 19, 2011

Biggest sales day yet. $351 dolla! We could survive as a business like this!

December 30, 2011

I think we are just we are just a little over two weeks into being open. Wow! What an incredible win! We are actually floating people! They are having a great time I here! I can’t wait to see what this place becomes. But first we have to deal with Groupon. Hopefully this means we are able to take money that we get from Groupon and invest it back into the Shoppe. We need things like window insulation, runners down the stairs, sound absorption downstairs and up. Just so that we don’t have to tiptoe around our own building! We are worried we are going to be bum rushed by Grouponers and want to make sure that we are able to keep up a good image and customer experience no matter how busy we are. Ha! How busy we are! We have 2 tanks in this place and 4 other rooms that we will be expanding to! My god this is a hilarious beginning. I guess well see what happens. It’s gonna be great 😀

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9 responses to “My Personal Journal Detailing the Creation of our Shoppe”

  1. Gini Stanwell-Smith Avatar

    WOW! Congratulations!!! Colin and I are so happy for the two of you! You are such a lovely couple! We always thought that you’d end up married! We wish you both continued love and success! Looking forward to seeing you in August – we are coming to the conference! xxx Gin

  2. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    Made me laugh to remember the craziness! (A Saturday morning spent with Sandra trying to recreate a chemical reaction 😉 ) You guys have come so far, from a somewhat foggy vision of ‘this is what we want to do, this is what it can be, now how the heck do we get there’! to something that is outstanding, amazing, awesome, doesn’t even come close to describing what you have created!!

  3. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Congratulations! Through reading your blogs and messaging with you briefly, I feel like you are fiends of mine! Best wishes and continued success for the both of you.

  4. Rishi Avatar
    Rishi

    Congratulations Dylan. Made me very happy to hear this….I thought the Hawaii trip was leading upto something! Congratulations to You and Sanda.

  5. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Really enjoyed this post. Congratulations Dylan and Sandra!

  6. Sandra Avatar

    Ahhh!!! I’m so thankful to have shared these incredible years with you, Dylan, and to be looking into the powerful future with you! I love our life, and the capacity to create together within it that we have both seen become real despite all fears and doubts. Walking beside you, I look forward and feel capable of handling whatever comes to us. It’s such an immense gift!!! The greatest adventure!!!

    I love these comments, everyone 🙂 Jan, lol! That was a pretty fantastic lab day.

    Here are a few entries from my journal during the same time period, plus a few months into being open. 🙂

    January 23, 2011:
    “Today was cold and gray, and I want to fly to Kauai with Dylan to stand on top of cliffs and watch whales and butterflies in the sun with our toes in the mud.
    Yesterday was nice. Mellow, creative, with plans for a new business: Float tanks. We wandered around NW 23rd, 3101 SW 1st, Mississippi, and just off of Corbett. We have some more research to do, but this is an exciting thing unfloating*! Stewart is still making a sandwich.” *In retrospect, this is a silly word.

    December 30th, 2011: So fast!
    “Today is the last day of a beautiful year that roared through like a fortunate lion. We built a business we dreamt up during waking nights in the early Winter months while I began to see my shoes as those of a teacher, and grew blisters on my heels. Dreams of orange and saltwater became words on paper, communicated over wine and salmon to supportive people willing to risk portions of their fortunes on our abilities. Together we became a new potential, and now I sit at our front desk, with our music [Elbow] playing, while a stranger floats into a new perspective for the new year. I’m so thankful. Thank you 2011”

  7. colin Avatar

    Huge congratulations to a most adorable couple!

    (I am a little envious of how quickly you found your building. We’re now in month 6 of our search.)

    1. Dylan Schmidt Avatar

      I’m sorry it’s taking longer than you wanted Colin, but It’s going to be worth finding that perfect spot for you to grow your business in!

  8. Jack Avatar

    This post is inspiring.

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