Journey of a Studio Owner: Finding Home: not one, but two, but three times!

Dream:
Find a perfect location, sun gleaming against the windows. Perfect location, fully loaded with all the trimmings, ...where's the line & I'll sign it right now and start teaching tomorrow!

Reality:
Three words, #1) NOT. #2) EVEN. #3) CLOSE.


It's a dream most dancers want in their lives...their own dance studio. I have spoken of the trials and tribulations of dealing with the process. In this blog, I'm talking about location. Yes, we decided Moreno Valley...but where? I've stalked almost every business and industrial MLS ads and bilboards across the city. We've asked all our students for leads here and there...and luckily, my business partner is an office assistant and comes across leads all the time.

With several recommendations, we fell in love with a location. It was perfect. It was once a dance studio with all the walls up and rooms divided, all we needed were flooring and mirrors. We envisioned our haflas, workshops, classes, retail area, reception area, warm-up area...it was all there and ready to occupy. We were gleaming and dreaming at all the possibilities.
REALITY CHECK - 6000 square feet = rent of almost a dollar a square foot.
Definitely out of our budget and way out of our reach.

Our leasing agent worked at getting us into another location that would suit us. He showed us a location that was 5000 square feet and asked if this would be suitable, but that too was out of our league. He sent us in on locations that were near the end of their lease to "scope it out", but none seem to fit the bill...however, my business partner ended up buying a mattress from one of the places we scoped out!

The next day he showed us a place that was once a Hookah bar and it was about 2500 square feet...much better price, but it was definitely small to our projected growth for the future and the distinctive smell of hookah smoke. No worries, we will manage, we know people who can erradicate the smell.
The decision has been made, we will settle for this. Our mentor guiding us through our studio search made a CAD design of the layout of what our studio will be like and what will be done. After getting the lease agreement - 34 pages of it and going over it with a fine toothed comb and making numerous revisions, our mentor had to make a departure that leaves us without the original agreement or revisions for submissions. When we finally got the agreement in order with the help of our mentor's spouse, we were ready to move forward. A meeting was called with a group of instructors and in the midst of the meeting, one of the instructors said, "I was driving by the location last night to see where it was and I saw the hookah bar was still in operation and it didn't look like it was out of business..." Much to my shock (and jaw on the ground) my business partner drove by it the next night to confirm what the other gal saw - and it was true.

The next morning I set out a call to the leasing agent for an explanation and he said we waited too long and the original business wanted to conduct business again and they let them return. "RETURN??? RETURN without letting us know or even asking why there was a delay with us???" After a lengthy talk, he agreed to show us another property for the same rate and we were immediately entranced.
Nevermind the cobwebs or dust, we saw beautiful potential. The location had beautiful ceilings, tile floors, arched doorways, beautiful fixtures and definitely bigger...except there would need to be alot of demolision and revisions to the walls, restrooms, flooring, etc. Again, no worries...we will manage. The dreams of haflas, workshops, retail, etc fill the air once again and we also get the students in on the dream. My mentor's spouse took some pictures and photoshopped 'artists renditions' of what the exterior would look like. Everyone is excited and happy we have something within reach! Once again with another revised lease, we negotiated for alowances that would seem to fit our vision. I would turn it in the next day after my dance conference over the weekend.
Mission accomplished....or so I thought.

Upon my arrival from the MECDA professional conference, I immediately got a text message from my leasing agent. [give me a call immediately] When I called him, the news I dreaded to hear: "You cannot have that location, there are some things that came up that was beyond our control and we didn't see it coming".
A sense of heaviness came upon me an I didn't know whether to scream, cry, or just be stunned in silence. I just paused in disbelief. I was stunned. All our hard work again gone. Just as I told my business parner the news, she was equally as stunned, but also angry that we have been strung along like this. Her sentiments quickly synced with what I was thinking and by the time I met with the leasing agent the following day, I gave him a piece or two of my mind (maybe even three) and expressed the journey of disappointment to him about our ordeal. He understood, although the circumstances were legitamite and warrented for this situation, however it was no excuse for their lack of knowledge of the situation or communication within. He agreed and gave us another offer - a former karate studio that has been recently vacated in the past two months.
Remember in the earlier part of this blog I mentioned the 5000 square foot place? This is the one. Better pricing, better allowances. This time, it fits us perfectly. mirrors in place, rooms divided, flooring is somewhat acceptable, and rent is definitely acceptable. Score! (however it took us three times to get this place!)

Somehow, we have come full circle. Not exactly in the way we imagined, but in a way that was meant to be. Now is the fun part....HARD WORK