The Weekend Before Our Immersion Program

Our lights are in and they're stunning. Bradley and his team at Flux did an amazing job. One of the women from Flux (Ali and Lara, I can't remember which one of you it was!) said that looking at them just made her smile, which is what we were going for (in addition to great, flexible task lighting). Also the shelves went in today - Kirk got them to fit perfectly. And they're beautiful! I can't wait for the rest of our Paul Schulman furniture to arrive (next Tuesday or Wednesday, we believe).

Also Shari (and her daughter Caroline) dropped off our shopping bag, chocolate wrapper, and lotion labels today. They are perfect - colorful, sophisticated, but warm and approachable. Now we've just got to get them affixed somehow.

Here are the "parties" we've got planned over this weekend:

- Put labels on our mint chocolates party (hosted by Karri's mom)

- Put together our manicure tables party (hosted by Anthony)

- Dull our new, oversharp implements party (hosted by Karri)

- Put together our technology party (hosted by Jeanne)

- Assemble our undercounter shelves party (hosted by Karri's Dave)

- Unpack all of our stuff party

- Trip to Home Depot party

And Jeanne's keeping us all on track with her giant post-it note lists on our walls.

Lots to do before Monday.

Permanent Sign is Up!

Here's our permanent sign! Isn't it elegant? It will look even better when we remove the temporary sign so you can see our disc icon behind it.

Today was the first day we worked in our space - we camped out at the reception desk, where we now have high speed internet access, a phone, fax/printer, ice, an instahot, and a bathroom nearby. In short, pure heaven.

While we were building out our immersion program and figuring out logistics for the first few weeks, Amy and Anthony two of our first team of vernisseurs, were out and about dropping of invitations at local shops, buying curtains, bar stools, and stenciling the cloth for our lamps. I handed Anthony five bottles of glossy paint (thinking that was overkill), and expected to see him back in a couple of hours. Five hours later, he was still plugging away, and almost out of paint. What a way to welcome him aboard.

So it turned out to be just a tad more difficult than we had anticipated.

Which is the theme of the week. But I am SOOO excited to see the light fixtures go in tomorrow. I think they will be gorgeous. When you come in, dear reader, please appreciate the beautiful leaf motif on our light drums designed by Ron and executed by Anthony.

In other news, Ali wrote to me that Paul actually screamed with excitement when he saw how amazing the guest chairs looked with the cushions in them. I can't wait to see all of this come together. It's even harder now that we're so close.

But mostly I'm excited to start working with the full team! It was great before, but today was even better with Anthony and Amy. And Mae (one of the most talented and experienced estheticians in Seattle) has been busy picking out waxing room furniture and building the waxing menu. Tomorrow, Lisa is dropping by to help out, and then next week we have everyone on board.

I can tell that this is just about to get really, really good.

ALI AND RENATA ARE COMING!!!!

And here's the SUPER high - my dear friends Ali and Renata, who inspired this whole journey, are coming to Seattle for our opening party! I am so excited. In my self-effacing twenties, I would have insisted that they stay at home. But now I know enough to just be grateful and excited to have such amazing girlfriends. This is what Julep is all about.

It does make the next two weeks even more festive and wedding like for me. Renata says that she and Ali are "Julep-maids".

(And Paul, of course I'm excited about you too!).

Highs and Lows

They said the highs would be higher, the lows would be lower. That turned out to be true (at least so far). But there are MORE of both of them too. I didn't anticipate how many of those higher highs and lower lows could be packed into just a single one day. And the cumulative effect of having a higher high followed by a lower low, followed by a higher high etc. etc. is giving me whiplash.

High: I went to the Shop/07 conference organized by Crave on Monday (Karri had found out about it and signed us up). I invited Shannon Borg from Seattle Magazine, Monica Soto Ouchi from Seattle Times, and Jasmine Moir from Daily Candy to visit Julep when we open. I hope they will come!

Low: The beautiful paprika colored ergonomic chairs we ordered came in the wrong height.

High: But Steven at Keeny's Office Supply, who has been so helpful (even bringing us a sample chair for our recruiting event) got on the problem immediately, and it will be fixed by next week.

Low: Our sign went in, and it was so far back (over our awning), that it was hard to read.

High: But then they moved it, and now it looks fabulous. Forgot to bring my camera with me, but I will today for our site visit and put up more pictures!

High: Jeanne is just rockin' and rollin' with setting up our POS and scheduling software, and now she's taken over buying all of the rest of our hardware and writing huge chunks of the operations manual. The operations side is really her groove. I never realized there were actually 15 steps between a guest walking in the door and starting her service - all of which happen in a matter of seconds. But Jeanne did. Everyday I find more reasons to feel so lucky to have her helping us to build Julep.

And that was just the morning.

Everyday brings unanticipated challenges, but it's also exciting and satisfying to solve them. There is so much to do between now and Monday, when we welcome our first Julep team to our immersion program. No matter how many lists I write, I can't quite figure out how it will all get done, which is where faith comes in. Lately I've been needing a lot of it, and I've been pleasantly surprised to find that I have larger reservoirs than I might have predicted.

Last week before "Julep Immersion Program"

We're in the final stretch! This past week, all the plumbing went in (including the faucet above our sink), the blackened steel covering went up around our fireplace, our vernisseur chairs arrived (pictured here in "paprika"), our bathroom was finished, and our appliances arrived.

This coming week we are busy:
- Preparing for our first ever "Julep Immersion Program" - a four day preparation and get to know each other session we'll be holding next Monday through Thursday. Topics include: Our Values & Guiding Principles, Servant-Leadership, Our Unique Products and Services, "Providing Memorably Outstanding Service," Ergonomics of Providing Nail Services, and our Triple Sanitation Policy.
- Buying last minute items: trash bins, undercounter shelving, wine glasses, toys for kids for Mommy Mondays, etc. etc.
- Installing lighting (including stenciling the lampshade cloth).
- Installing all of our appliances, and our flat-screen TV.
- Connecting all of our electronics.
- Sending out our VIP invites.
- Planning our Opening Party.
- Unpacking all of our products and implements.
- Getting our occupancy permit (knock on wood).
Among other things, which I should get to right now instead of just writing about them.

Almost done with construction

The first piece of Paul Schulman furniture arrived today (the sink cabinet) - and it's so beautiful! And I didn't realize until the lights went in that Tom had thought to shine a glow from above onto the water area. How about that. We're having our final walk-through tomorrow. There will be a few things (lighting, rest of furniture, etc.) that will bleed into the next week, but we're getting there!

Scorecard on progress - Last week of construction

We're days away from finishing our construction phase and having our final inspection (next Tuesday, actually) and then we'll be able to move in, unpack our furniture, office supplies, set up the dispensary, etc. to be ready to start our Julep Immesion Program for our new hires on May 21st. We're still on track for an official open to the public date of June 1st!

Amazing things this week:

- Already eight brave, creative, fabulous people have joined Team Julep! We're holding our breath on three outstanding offerees. (If you're reading this, come on you guys! You've got to come on board!). The team that has accepted so far is the best team of nail industry professionals I've ever come across anywhere in all of my research visits in New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, and, of course, Seattle. Each individual has phenomenal technical skills and is someone I look forward to spending time with (and hopefully our guests will too!).

- We've ordered almost all of the files, brushes, glasses, foot bath fizzies, etc. etc. that we need to equip our vernisseurs to be able to do their very best.

- Our fireplace arrived and is installed!

- Our signage should be going up on Friday.

- Our appointment booking and POS software solution is actually proving to be what it promised to be! Jeanne and I are pleasantly surprised.

- Jeanne just found a babysitter, which frees her up to build and document the rest of our operations procedures, set up our software, and walk all of us through these processes.


Less than amazing things this week:

- I just found out today that our sinks, which were supposed to arrive May 3rd, are now backordered until May 31. Of course, I wasn't informed about this change until I called to find out where they were. This is one of the pitfalls of ordering everything online. If we don't have a sink, we can't finish the plumbing work, we can't get our permit. You get the picture. So Tom and I took a trip to Home Depot and Lowes to find an off-the-shelf solution. We/he picked one, but I had to go to another Lowes to pick it up. By the time I got there, I started worrying that the one we picked was too shallow, and our vernisseurs may struggle with emptying footbath water in an efficient way. So I bought a deeper one - but it's made of frosted glass. Tom said something about the frosted glass sink in passing, but I can't remember whether he said, "That frosted glass one was nice," or "That frosted glass one was hideous." And it's now occurring to me that the lovely porcelain white one (which is becoming lovelier by the second in my mind) HAS A HOLE in the bottom of it, so it will drain, and the depth is probably fine. ARGHHH. I'm going to have to return the sink first thing tomorrow. I just wan something worthy of Paul's beautiful cabinets.

- Speaking of Paul, he just told me today that the guest chair pieces were cut all wrong by one of their sub-contractors. I don't know much about making furniture, but that doesn't sound good. Not good at all. He and Mike are now engaging in heroic measures to get us our furniture on time.

- My lighting designers are off for yet another trade show (okay, just the second, but in just two months! And in critical times for me!). Although they assure me that I'll have my fixtures by Monday. This is the piece I'm most nervous about, especially since I haven't seen a fixture yet! I hope I'm really wrong on this, in which case I'll be more than happy to sing of my error in faith from the roof tops.

- I accidentally put my home address as the delivery address for my dishwasher, and the neighbor who's been painting our house kindly let them in while I was out. But since we didn't cross paths, it wasn't until 2am the night before I was leaving for North Carolina last week that discovered a very large box in my laundry room. A box too large for me to move. Much too large to fit into my Subaru Forrester. Thank goodness for Mitch and Kirk, who found some lovely Wilcox guys to pick it up from my house and move it to where it should have gone.

It's so exciting to have everything so close, but so nerve-wracking to have so many things an unknowable distance up in the air. I'm finding I need to call upon a deeper reserve of faith than I thought I was capable of. That, and a fully charged cell phone.

Grieving

I’ve been struggling with how much of my personal life to reveal here, on this blog (as I do in every interaction I have, actually).

Even in the rare instances when I’m able to premeditate the sharing (instead of just spewing forth), I still find myself erring on the side of over-revealing because I feel so strongly about being authentic and true to who I am, even/especially in my “work-self”. And who I am, across all my selves, is a slightly over-revealing person who hasn’t had much success to date with attempts at strict compartmentalization.

What I can’t compartmentalize this week is the sudden passing away of my husband’s beloved aunt Caroline McHardy Elliot. As I write this, I am on a plane flying back from being at her beautiful Quaker memorial service yesterday in Greensboro, North Carolina.

It doesn’t seem appropriate to try to tell you about who she was, for those of you who didn’t have the great privilge of knowing her (although I’m not sure how many of you out there fall into this category since I suspect that a huge part of the readership of this blog at this point comes from my in-laws in North Carolina). But I wanted to write about my heartache and grief – for myself, and for her loving and lovely family.

Aside from figuring out child care issues (my wonderful, job-sharing nannies offered before I even had to ask), it didn’t occur to me not to fly out to North Carolina to be with my husband, who had lost his aunt, and my mother-in-law, who had lost her little sister and best friend. And to be there for myself, to connect to the broader sadness that was felt so deeply by those who knew, and therefore adored, Caroline.

There are many times in my life when I’ve made the wrong decision about putting work priorities ahead of personal needs. I’m really glad, for myself, anyway, that I made the right decision this time.

In a sympathy note to another family member, Caroline once wrote that she hoped that the mourner would still find a way to “find enrichment, even through all the pain.”

I hope that we’ll all help each other to find our way to the enrichment that must lie at the other side of the rage and bewilderment. In the days ahead, I also hope to find my own small ways to honor Caroline, in my thoughts, actions, and especially in the way I love.

Flooring is in

Our flooring is in, and it looks great! (Likely to look a little better after we clean off the dust too!)
"Guts" of everything (electrical panel, plumbing, shelf supports, etc. behind service area sink) is also in place.

As I left our third to last walk through today, Kirk and Mitch were going to pick up the fireplace insert to install. After that, they're calling the metal smith to measure the fireplace to put blackened sheet metal around it. It's amazing to me the level of care that is going into details like the 1/8 inch gap between the fireplace and the metal. I would have just eyeballed it.

Like I tried to for our lotion containers. Shari and I had a freak out moment this week when I realized that the amber bottles I initially gave her as samples were not the same size as the ones I ordered in the end (found them for half the price). So for a whole two hours I thought that the beautiful labels she designed wouldn't fit, which would mean that we would have to start again on finding a label size, which would mean that we might open without our Julep retail products.

How many different sizes could there be for tall 8 oz amber bullet bottles? Apparently at least two. . .

After our walk through, I met with Michael to learn how to manage the content on our new website: http://www.myjulep.com/. It's beautiful and highly versatile and functional! And I can change out pages all by myself. Actually, working on this blog was great practice for that.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to talking with references for our amazing candidates. Here's some of what I learned (all different people):

"She's so grounded and wise, I always think she's decades older than she is!"

"She's dedicated and genuinely kind. Most of the others aren't very nice to the front reception. But XX really made us feel like part of the team."

"YY is so detail oriented. Her manicures just last and last. If I opened a salon, she'd be the first person I'd hire."

"She's got so much going on, but she just projects a blanket of calm of wherever she goes."

"She's just a really good person, in addition to being a good worker, you know?"

Karri and I are getting ready to invite people to join us by the end of this week. I just hope that we've been able to communicate how truly differently we're doing things.

I was talking to Shari about this tonight, and she suggested sharing The Servant Leader book I gave her and Karri several months ago with the broader team, once we get them assembled (this is one of the most important books I've ever read). I'd always meant to do this - I have six copies of it and it's the first thing I gave Karri when I was trying to share a little bit of who I was with her.

But somehow it's easy to lose track of these important priorities when you're ordering bags (arrived this week!), reviewing labels, and trying to get a phone line installed (still have my fingers crossed).

We have an amazing location, space design, logo, products, services, online scheduling system, website, tools, and even shopping bags. Now that we have this strong base, I think that the success of Julep really depends on how successful we are at living Servant Leadership.

Interviewing amazing, inspiring people

Karri and I had quite a hectic last two days interviewing 16 candidates back to back in the basement of the friendly Silver Cloud Inn (across the street from Julep).

Not fancy, but the best we could do given that our space is still under construction.
Meeting our interview candidates was such an incredible experience. It's one thing to say that you're looking for passionate people to join the team, but it's another to come face to face with what passion means in this field.

I was particularly surprised at how many people said that the spa pedicure was their favorite service to perform. As a client, I have always been very self-conscious about pedicures. It seems like such a large ask, in many ways. Especially if you have callused feet like mine.

And the word that came up most frequently was "connect." In answer to the question, "what moment in your career are you most proud of?" we heard amazing stories of everyday heroics from the thoughtfulness of anticipating the anxiety of a long-standing client about to throw a large party for her husband, to providing complimentary pedicure services to lift the spirits of cancer patients.

Time and time again, our interview candidates talked about how rewarding it was for them to create a great experience, and to make some difference to their client.

I really learned so much from the past two days. And I am so amazingly proud of just our applicant and offeree pool. If at least some of these incredible people join us, I think we will have the very best nail therapy destination in the country.

End of Week 5 - Painting done, Flooring has arrived

Below 1: Tom and Mitch contemplate the state of the ceiling.
Below 2: Back wall with fireplace (to be encased in blackened steel) and palate of flooring material (in plastic shrink wrap).
ABOVE: Bill, our electrician. It's hard to get him to smile, but we've done it! (Not captured well here, of course).

LEFT: Here's the plumbing for our high temperature sanitizer (for footbaths, bowls, and anything too big to sterilize in our autoclave).

I am really going to miss Tom, Mitch, Kirk, and Bill when we're done with this buildout. My friend and graphic designer, Shari, confessed to me that she missed her bathroom remodelers a little once they had finally cleared out (leaving a gorgeous bathroom).

It's just another excuse to start looking for the next parlor location . . .

This week, I'm really excited that Karri has arranged to interview all of our vernisseur candidates in the Purple Room at the Silver Cloud Inn across the street from Julep all day next Monday and Tuesday.

Tonight she swung by to pick up the color template for our toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl pthalate free nail polish line. We've got over thirty great colors, which we're naming after some of our favorite style icons:
- Dark burgundy/black: The "Lindsay" (after my friend "Lindsay SMITH", of course)
- Soft, translucent pink: The "Reese" (after my friend "Reese SMITH", of course)
- Fire engine red: The "Marilyn" (after my friend "Marilyn SMITH", of course)
- Mauvy purple: The "Halle" (after my friend "Halle SMITH", of course)
- etc. etc.
But since I wanted soft pinks, dark reds, burgundies, bright corals, etc. in both warm and cool tones (so people of every skin tone, including darker skinned people like me, can have access to more options), the color choices were pretty tricky. Our sample sheet has:
- blue circles (colors Karri's clients liked)
- pink highlighter (top selling colors)
- red stars (hot runway colors this season)
- blue stars (cross referenced colors from MAC and Bobbi Brown, the color experts in cosmetics)
- red circles - my final recommendations
Now we'll have to incorporate Karri's final input and then our final final choices.

And hopefully our bottles are already silk screened and ready to fill with our color choices!

I also met with Kari (Moe Straley) and Jen (Porter) with Marketing Alchemist today to plot our marketing and PR strategy. It was so great working together with such smart, creative women about creative ways to get the word out. Even better (from my perspective, anyway!) that these plans will be implemented in the next few weeks, instead of months or years, as I've been used to in my work with larger companies. The immediacy of this work is addictive.

Penultimate Push

This week we are:

- Scheduling interviews for our vernisseur and esthetician positions (and finding a place to hold them!)
- Painting the walls and ceilings (with environmentally preferable paint)
- Setting up water and electricity (after multiple calls to the city and hours of waiting on hold)
- Making all our final implement/equipment purchases
- Returning the initial vernisseur baskets we chose (which don't fit into any normal sized locker) and buying new vernisseur baskets
- Finding lap blankets
- Reviewing our preliminary PR plan (pulled together by the creative and results-oriented Kari Moe Straley with Marketing Alchemist)
- Starting to configure our POS/scheduling software
- Launching our new website - thanks to Michael Hillard (check www.myjulep.com on Saturday!) - and please note that e-mails to me might bounce back or be lost in the netherworld between Friday night and Saturday morning
- Writing our "Julep Partner Resources Guide" to support our partners (employees) in achieving the most in their careers with us
- Finalizing our compensation structure
- Finalizing colors for our custom nail polish (Buddy if you're reading this, I hope we're still on track!)
- Setting up a credit card processing account with Bank of America Small Business
- Setting up payroll through Quickbooks Assisted Payroll
- Following up on conversations with prospective investors from the Early Stage Investment Forum last week

Among other things.

SO TIRED

Here's where we stand this week. This is the check-in counter at the front of the store. I'm still happy every time I see the rounded edge.

And here's where our fabulous lotions will be displayed. We're going to have:

"Refresh" Citrus-Mint Moisturizer (with healing aloe vera)
"Nourish" Lavender-Vanilla Moisturizer (with softening shea butter)
"Quench" Pomegranate Moisturizer (with hydrating hemp seed oil). We'll going to display these according to size: "For my home" (8oz bottles on top shelf), "For my tote" (4oz bottles on middle shelf), and "For my purse" (2oz bottles on bottom shelf).

All these developments are exciting, but today I am tired beyond the reach of all legally available stimulants. Coffee, green tea, chocolate, sugar, all consumed in large quantities, in rapid succession, but to little avail.

Yesterday we had an amazing recruiting event – about twenty people throughout the course of the evening, and it was so humbling and thrilling to be in a room full of people who were considering joining Julep. Not to mention a huge relief. We’ve passed another milestone, and look at us! We’re still standing!

But just barely today. After getting home at 11 last night, I spent a couple of hours sending out urgent e-mails to everyone I work with to see if we could get everything done faster, since Mitch and Kirk (my contractors) now think we’ll finish construction a week early (go figure!). Then documents to print out to get ready for the Early Stage Investment Forum today, which went from 6:30am to 6:30pm. I really got my money’s worth out of the downtown flat fee parking lot.

I have to say, since I’ve never “closed the deal” with an investor at one of these functions (it usually takes several progressive conversations for us to get to know each other), the most fun part of these events for me is bonding with the other, particularly female, entrepreneurs. I loved meeting with the women who are building O Eco Textiles, and The Local Vine (wine bar concept).

I tried not to be insulted as many investors referred to Julep as a “low tech company” throughout the day. I never thought of myself as particularly “low tech” until now. If it means I’m not burning through millions of dollars of cash in the quest for the holy grail of the “software as a service” subscription-based business model, then I’ll take the label.

Week 4 of Construction

We're almost halfway through construction!

Things I'm happy about today:

1) We're starting to get some great resumes! Getting great people is my number one concern right now, so this is a HUGE relief.

2) We've got a lot of RSVPs to our recruiting event this Wednesday. A part of me was worried that we might have ordered a tad too much food for just me and Karri, even though we are both hearty enjoyers of food. . .

3) When I mention Julep to random strangers (as I'm apt to do), several have mentioned that they remember seeing the sign and noticing that it looked different than the average nail salon. (HOORAY!)

4) We've been developing some really amazing lotions that I'm very excited about. This is the first time I've noticed a huge difference in efficacy. These are products that both Karri and I are passionate about and would recommend to everyone.

5) Karri found a great solution for providing individual paraffin treatments that does not require us to use a pot of hot paraffin (messy, and questionable sanitation since each pot of wax is used for up to 20 different guests - this procedure is now banned in Oregon, we understand).

Things I'm sad about today:

1) My lighting fixture estimate apparently did not include the cost of having the mounting plates welded to my ceiling. That's an additional $1000 of cost I wasn't anticipating. How could an estimate that includes installation NOT include the cost of installing the piece that the fixture needs to be attached to? And how long does it take to weld a metal square to another piece of metal anyway??!! ARGHH.

2) It was raining IN the parlor today. Indoors. It's not supposed to do that.

3) My nail polish partner ran $2500 through on my credit card two weeks ago (to silk screen our bottles), but hasn't returned my phone calls since then. I've left messages last Thursday, Friday, and today. On Friday I called his cell, and someone picked up and hung up on me. Three times.

4) I just realized today that I somehow authorized the building of sink fixtures that are only 2 feet off the ground. Somehow, in all the flurry of paper, I read 25 inches and thought that this would be waist high. I've learned that reading 25 inches beside a drawing on a piece of paper is very different from standing in front of 25 inches marked against plumbing being put into the wall. We're now going to have to raise the fixture somehow, maybe by putting a pedastal beneath it (or some other great idea either Paul or Tom will come up with). Or hire really short people. Totally my fault in not reading drawings carefully.

The best thing about this journey is the fun of working with amazing, insightful, and talented people. The worst thing about this journey is needing to rely on sometimes uncommunicative, busy, far away people, many of whom I've never met face to face.

Jane and Karri in Hard Hats

Here we are on our weekly Wednesday walkthroughs (me on the right, and Karri, our Director of Education and Lead Vernisseur on the left). It's hard to look cool in a hard hat (unless you're our superintendent, Kirk, who wears his backwards).

This walkthrough was less intensive than the one last week, where we walked through with Bill, our electrician, identifying where every plug in the parlor should go. I've always taken electrical outlets for granted (except at coffee shops and airports that don't have enough for those of us with laptops).

I'm happy to proceed on many of these decisions (how high up should we put the light fixtures in the bathroom?) based on recommendations from knowledgable experts ("Bill, how high up do you usually put light fixtures in bathrooms?"). At Starbucks, there used to be a motto, "Everything matters." Howard Behar talks about how they debated whether the Starbucks logo should go on disposal napkins for hours on end.

While I admire and share the passion, I'm also wary of becoming a retail bridezilla. I'm trying to keep everything in perspective, which is easier on some days than others.

This week, my kids are sick (and waking up at all hours), I'm worried about recruiting enough great people, and getting ready for our Early Stage Investment Forum presentation next week.

So I just don't have enough bandwidth to give more than two seconds of thought to where the exit sign should be located. Kirk (our superintendent onsite from Wilcox) seems to have it under control. That is the great luxury of having a terrific team of people I can trust.

Banner is up

Seeing the Julep sign up was one of the most exciting moments of this journey so far. Random passers by will now know about Julep. People who don't even know me, or Karri, Jeanne, Shari, Tom, Ron, Mitch, Paul, Mike, Mike, Jill, Joe or Kirk.

Shari learned a lot more about vinyl signage through this process than she ever wanted to. And when she saw the picture on the teeny tiny screen of my camera, she immediately detected evidence of deviations from her specific directions. It reminded me of how Julia Roberts once said in a magazine that she had huge flaws in her face, but she wasn't going to describe them because her career would be over if others saw her the way she saw herself. So I'm not going to tell you what Shari saw. You can just admire our Oscar winning sign.

What it takes to move a duct (again)

The build out of a 1380 square foot retail space is more intricate than I ever imagined.

It seems like every time we put something up (the electrical panel, or the HVAC unit), we realize that something else has to move or disappear (the door to the back office, the second air duct, respectively).

And something like relocating an airduct is more complicated and takes more phone calls to arrange than I had ever imagined.

When the HVAC installer told Kirk, the superintendent, that the HVAC unit would interfere with the proposed path of the duct, Kirk called my project manager, Mitch, who called my architect Tom, who called me with a proposed solution.

Then I called the landlord, Pete, and his property manager, Connie, to let them know what we wanted to do. Of course, I called both Tom and Mitch back after that to let them know I had left messages describing the situation for Pete and Connie.

The size of this phone tree is comparable to the sophisticated communications systems required to get dates to a high school dance.

But we're now entering Week 2 of construction. At the end of this week, we should be 1/4 of the way done.

Starting construction

It's official. We started construction this week at 5001 25th Ave NE (across the street from University Village). Our spot is street facing - the middle storefront (in between a Verizon Wireless and Fondi, a brick-oven pizzaria). There's also a Dessert Sun, a Rooster's Coffee, an Emerald City Smoothie, a dentist's office, a pediatrician's office and ob/gyn in the Northcut Landing complex.

It's beyond exciting to see the walls start going up, as they did today. On Monday, they were just red chalk drawings on the ground (some of which we ended up erasing (like the door to the back office) and some of which we ended up changing and moving (the front counter). Today, the drywall and metal framing went up.

I'm also excited to report that our "ugly ducts" have grown into swans. Here's the before picture (taking our 12 ft ceilings down to 8ft):

And here's the after:

8 weeks and counting!

Learning when NOT to bring up The Year of Magical Thinking

Karri has now come on board full-time as Julep’s first paid employee. It’s been so great to have her enthusiasm and energy in attacking our ever growing to-do list.

This week, I met with a great husband and wife CPA couple who helped me to figure out how to actually pay Karri, and other exciting accounting questions. Mike and Dolly Waller have desks side by side in a modestly furnished office in a modest building (“People expect accountants to be penny pinchers!” Mike explained. “We don’t have to pay for those fancy offices the way lawyers do.”).

Although my appointment was with Dolly, Mike chimed in with many interesting questions, comments, and gems of advice, which Dolly built upon and incorporated.

As I was walking out the door (running a little late for a conference call), I had to comment on how amazing it was that two married people could spend their whole workdays sitting just four feet away from each other. Dolly laughed and said that when they were raising their children, being with her husband all day long (including their commute), enabled her to focus on their children when she got home. Their unique solution enabled her to juggle work and family more effectively.

I think I might have ruined an otherwise lovely moment by bringing up Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking.” I love this book, but I’ve really got to stop mentioning it because it’s a surefire conversation killer.

“It’s so amazing what you have, it’s just like Joan Didion and her husband. Have you read ‘The Year of Magical Thinking?’” As I watch the words fall out of my mouth, I can see that I have no plan for a good place to take this conversation. But it’s too late.

“Well, it’s about a husband and wife who spend all their time together, because they’re both writers, and they just work in the same space, and sometimes on the same project. And they never tire of each other, it’s so beautiful. . . . uh . . . and then he dies suddenly.”

“Oh,” says Dolly, and immediately I feel horrible, but I’m late for my conference call.

“Anyway, thanks for the “No Activity” form, I’ll be sure to get that in.”

I have a section in my notebook for “lessons I have learned.” I will now add “Do not bring up ‘Year of Magical Thinking.’”

Here a few of the other lessons on my list:

- Write EVERYTHING down – appointments, minor changes, phone calls, etc. If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.
- Remember to apply the above to “Lessons learned” too. Take the time to process and write them down.
- Think about what might be on someone’s mind before launching in with a Julep related question. They just might not be as obsessed with Julep and have other things they're thinking about.
- Honor your comfort zone. If something feels awkward or uncomfortable think about whether to change it. (“Pull on the string until you figure out what’s at the end” as a BCG mentor once taught me.)
- Think through out WHO to turn to for WHAT advice. The most sympathetic shoulder might not be the one you really need.
- Presentation always matters. The underlying idea is necessary but not sufficient.
- Words (contracts) are important, but people are more important. Build relationships of trust with people whenever possible.

Hmm. No that deep, when it comes down to it, but that’s some of what I’m trying to master.

LEASE IS SIGNED

Which is a good thing, because we're starting construction next week.

For about five seconds, I was walking on air. "It's really happening! We have a lease!"

Then I came crashing down. "Holy $*&* now we have 9 weeks to get EVERYTHING else done. We have a lease."

But those five seconds sure were great.

Countdown

It’s happening. It's really happening. Construction starts on March 26, and I have a lease that’s FINALLY finalized and in the process of being signed (I know, I know, not perfect timing, or exactly perfect timing, depending on how you look at it).

Karri, our Director of Education and Lead Vernisseur started on payroll this week, as Julep’s first official paid employee.

These movements towards the concrete are thrilling – in that 99% exciting, but 1% Depends-requiring, terrifying way.

This week we are:
- Ordering the ergonomic seating for our vernisseurs
- Finalizing our product line up direction
- Finalizing our menu
- Going to visit local beauty schools to ramp up recruiting
- Finishing up writing the content for our website
- Putting our want ads in Craig’s List, The Stranger, and other local pubs
- Finalizing our POS/online scheduling solution decision (to start configuration next week)
- Meeting with an accountant to figure out what tax forms I need to file
- Meeting with a book keeper to set up Quicken
- Finalizing the graphics for my store signage
- Trying to figure out how to get our graphics made into a stencil that we can use for the store front as well as these custom light drums we’re building (to enable our vernisseurs to have great, movable task lighting)
- Sending our graphics to our nail polish manufacturer and finalizing color selection

I’m also:
- Taking my son (five months late) to his five year old check up (my goal was to take him in closer to his fifth birthday than his sixth)
- Getting the dents pulled out of my car (my resolution to get my household in order before we open the store)
- Going to the social security office to finally fix the incorrect birth date they have for me in my file (which gums up our online filing)
- Trying to figure out what, if any, summer camps we’re signing our son up for

I hope I’m not jinxing it by writing it here, but if construction starts on March 26, we should be done by May 18, and open by May 23.

That’s only 67 days away. And counting . . .

T minus two weeks? (to start construction)

I went by my site today – and was so very very excited to see how wonderful and high the ceiling looks now that the massive, cumbersome duct is gone (if I can ever remember to have a camera with me when I visit the site, I'll post some pictures).

To recap, over the past two months, the finalization of my lease has been held up because of the surprising appearance of an enormous duct snaking through what seemed to me the entirety of my lovely high ceiling that I was planning on having exposed.

To his credit, the developer has been a great partner in problem-solving this (highly unusual for a developer, I understand). Initially, he asked me to bring him some ideas for options that would not require moving the duct. Tom (my architect) and I sat down and came up with a very creative solution for putting up a ceiling that would conceal the duct but stay true to the original concept. (Okay, okay, in reality, Tom came up with the idea while I just sat next to him and oohed and ahhed).

Unfortunately, this very creative solution also ended up being very expensive. And while the developer and I never talked about it explicitly, I think the floating assumption was that he would have to cover at least a sizeable chunk of the cost. Fortunately, we never had to cross that pricey bridge.

In the end, he decided to move the duct, and now there is space to breathe when you walk in. 12 feet high of space, to be precise.

I can only say this in retrospect, but looking back on this one issue, it seems to me that the very best “negotiation” happens when both parties are making their best attempt to be collaborative problem solvers. Obviously, we were each looking out for our own interests first and foremost, but I think we were also genuinely trying to explore alternatives that might be reasonably acceptable to the other. Or at least it seems from my position, especially since the duct is gone.

So I hope I’m not jinxing my progress by writing that I hope to finally, finally, have my lease signed this week (since only a handful of relatively small “i”s remain to be dotted) – which is a good thing because I’ve already submitted for permitting and am planning to start construction in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Which means that Julep will be open, beautifying Seattles hands and feet by late May/early June. I’m meeting with my general contractor tomorrow for specific project details. I’ll keep you posted.

Bonding with Quickbooks tech support

Against the advice of two fellow entrepreneurs, I’ve decided to start off by keeping my own financial books. I know my time crunching numbers as a newbie consultant at BCG that there’s a command of the real picture that comes seems to magically emerge from managing the information yourself. At least until you have done it enough to be able to trust your own pattern recognition capabilities.

I set myself up for Bank of America’s online payroll system (free if employees have an account at Bank of America), and ordered Quickbooks from Amazon. Then I found someone on Craig’s list who said he could do a quick tutorial and get me up and running in a matter of just a few hours. It seemed foolproof.

Except that Quickbooks won't load on my laptop. I’ve said that to several people – my husband, my technology guru Jeanne, and my neighbor. All three had the same response – “Maybe I should have a look.”

But when I say, “Quickbooks won’t load on my laptop,” I MEAN “Quickbooks WILL NOT LOAD on my laptop.” I mean that I’ve spent two-and-a-half hours with a poor Quickbooks technical support installing and uninstalling, hard-installing, double-hard re- booting, and “going-around-the-speed-bumps-instead-of-over-them” installing. Finally, I had to give up control of my computer to my support guy, who, as it turned out, was working from India, where it was 3am in the morning.

Although we were strangers on different continents, our time together was oddly intimate. We were comfortable chatting, but also comfortable just sitting, wordlessly waiting out yet another ten minute install. Apart, and yet together.

Every once in a while, he would break the silence by clearing his throat. Then, hesitantly, “would you mind very much if I asked you a question? ”

Something in his voice told me it wasn’t about the install.

It wasn't. “I have always wondered, what does it mean, LLC?”

He was very polite, my first Quickbooks tech support friend. At one point, while my computer was installing (yet again), he asked me, “would you mind very much if I just took just three minutes to go to the washroom?” After everything we’d been through together, it seemed churlish to say no.

My second Quickbooks tech support relationship was very different. This time I got a chatterbox from Arizona who was just about to go see a child custody lawyer as soon as we were done.

By the time I got off the phone with him, I learned that he had once dated someone who owned a nail parlor, and that he loved taking his four year old daughter to McDonalds. And although he had been divorced for only under a year, his ex-wife was engaged to be married to her best friend’s brother, who lived in Chicago. He was hoping that his ex-wife and daughter weren’t going to move, but just to be sure, he was going to court to modify his child custody because he didn’t have a lawyer the first time, so his ex-wife got sole custody. “I just want to see her on the weekend sometimes, you know?”

The story did go on a little longer than my download, but it seemed rude to interrupt just to tell him that the Quickbooks icon had appeared on my desktop (false alarm, it still didn't open).

Several Quickbooks tech/customer support/ sales relationships later, I’ve given up on ever installing the software and have opted instead for the online service (with some discounts that Quickbooks very nicely agreed to). By that point, I was too exhausted to get past inputting my name and address, but that’s farther than I got with the other version.

While I wish nothing but the best for all of my new Quickbooks friends all over the world, I wouldn’t be sad if I didn’t have a reason to call them ever again.

Hanging out with Diane

Shari and I spent a couple of hours on Monday afternoon creating party favors for some lucky guests of today's Nordstrom fashion show, which featured Diane von Furstenberg's spring collection (fabulous) and benefited the Seattle Repertory Theater (also fabulous).

I mixed and filled jars of organic shea and mango butter lotion ("hand-crafted", right?), and then Shari made labels and gift cards that we creatively attached to the jars using scruncci ponytail holders (the only thing Shari could find at the local QFC at 10:30pm). Heady, strategic stuff.

When I called Shari after the show to tell her how great our party favors had looked on the table, she asked me whether I thought it had been worth doing. I realized that there are several different ways to think about this question:

- Most importantly: Will it be successful in bringing new guests into Julep? (Hopefully! It was definitely the right target audience.)

- But also: Did we learn anything from the experience? (YES! Even simple ideas - let's give away some lotion! - can take a lot of time to execute, and time is becoming even more of a precious commodity).

- And not insignificant: Was it fun? (YES! YES! YES! How great was it to be doing something with my hands, sitting on Shari's couch while talking about toddler shoes. It was such a welcome break from being joined at the wrist to my laptop).

So thank you Marisa for thinking of Julep and sharing us with your friends and fellow supporters of "the Rep".

Shopping and shopping and shopping

One of the most fun parts of starting up Julep is all the shopping. Just this week, I've been shopping for:

- super soft, 800 gram cotton towels
- "environmentally preferrable" paint and dual flush toilets
- 5.8 Ghz cordless phone system that won't interfere with our wifi
- a flat screen TV (thankfully prices have fallen quite since my husband came home with one 18 months ago)
- a sound system (just learned about a "squeeze box" that will enable me to stream music from an online service)
- a dishwasher (love the new