Yeah I'll post pictures when it's open and continuing through it's life. I don't think I'll make the 15th. I can force a soft opening them. But I'm realizing it will just be easier to build out another room of the store without people in there. I might shoot for march 1st. Not sure yet playing it by ear. I keep upgrading what we are doing. Few days ago we put crown molding on the fish tank stand in the main room. Then applied stain to it. Next we are shooting gloss on it.
I found out a competitor is opening up in April, I don't think he'll be much competition for me directly as he's focusing on high end ADA products in a different city.
I talked to a neighboring business yesterday. She said it took her 1.5 years to get her business license through the city. Because she wanted to put a shower in her physical therapy office. Once she finally dropped the plans officially with the city she got her business license in the mail the next day. She was still open for business during that time, I don't know if that was legal or not.
Biggest thing I'm going through now is the emotional ups and downs. Yesterday we were only able to work in the shop for like 3 hours. Had to touch up a couple of places of stain and let it dry over night. The whole place is taped with plastic up everywhere to prevent overspray so not much else I can do in there. Before we got there I bought stuff for the shop for a couple of hours. But being done by 4pm was weird and I didn't like it. The night before we were able to work until 11pm. Today were going to rub some linseed oil on the stand and I'm not sure what else. But it looks like a short day. Tomorrow we spray the finishes. Each coat has a 4 hour drying time. So I may be at the shop for 12 hours tomorrow, but only about an hour of it will be work on the shop.
I've already got customers who want me to open, and I'd love to be open as I really enjoy selling things. However I want to make sure the first impression blows people away. As everything I've been doing is very high end compared to any other fish store I've ever seen. I'm making something similar to this picture without the pergo floors.
At this point I want to get cleared with the city before opening so I don't have to tear anything back out and make changes as it's 500 times harder once live animals are already in the store. If I open up tomorrow and go to put my next stand in a month later, all the staining/shoot will have to be done off sight and assembled in the store with customers being around etc.