Birth center is donezo. I mean, there's a couple little things. Gotta put up some blinds. Need to replace a doorknob. One counter still needs a backsplash. But we spent $1500 on catering for 50 people at the open house Saturday and after three hours we had eight rolls of mortadella, a couple polenta cakes and about a melon's worth of honeydew. Also got my call for work this summer, so our financial future is secure while we wait for, oh, $1500 worth of catering to come back to us as goodwill and consumer interest. Also pulled off the taxes such that we won't starve prior to work starting again, was able to pay my daughter's tuition in full, was able to pay the accountants and was able to set money aside for retirement for me and the wifey for the first time since 2005 so that's nice. I also managed, through sheer blind luck and mk's tutelage, to leverage bitcoin and Ethereum such that... well, I'm pleased with the current price and guardedly optimistic as to its trajectory. We should be starving to death right now and we're not. We might be sitting on a half million dollars' worth of leverage but apparently that's between a third and a quarter of where we'd be with a dental clinic. I might be driving a '95 Dodge, my daughter's room might be directly across the hall from mine and I might not be sure if we can afford storm windows this spring but fuckin'A I have a reasonable expectation that whatever windows we've got, I'll still own their frames next year. My insurance is good enough that I have a nutritionist and a physical therapist, and my daughter is going to have a shitty week because she's got shots tomorrow and the dentist friday. I also have a yoga instructor. Mine is a pampered fucking lifestyle. If my biggest complaint is that I'm now eating sixteen servings of fresh vegetables a day I'm neck deep in white people problems. I dunno. You're supposed to be thankful in November. That's always seemed weird to me because that's right about the time you're going into ridiculous debt buying shit people don't need and busily accomplishing fuckall until January. For me, it's always been getting through February. We're cooking the second 3lb chunk of corned beef for my father-in-law's birthday tomorrow. That means i will make Irish Tacos for the second time in as many weeks because they're fucking delicious.
Hell yes kb! (almost sent this using your actual name, such was my excitement. You have been working so hard towards this opening. It's phenomenal to see someone set a goal as lofty as this one and achieve it. I know how much it takes to accomplish such things. It's Herculean. I read below that you are the one that took the photos for the center's art. They're amazing. Also, in a previous photo, I saw the living wall. -Well done! Hell, I'd have a baby there. Maybe I'll swing by in October with my wife. Turns out, we have a daughter on the way ;-)
This is brilliant. It's been so interesting following the development of your birth centre, I hope that the opening goes well! It's not often that we see people talk about starting a new enterprise who are also willing to be totally frank about the amount of difficulty and stress that goes into it. Also, TIL what a doula is!
Wow. I wanna have birth now. Did you take those photos that were printed and hung?
Everything currently hanging in the birth center was taken by me. Kind of intimidating to print up four of your own shots into 40x60 triptychs. We've been meeting with birth photographers to get their stuff to hang up outside the birth rooms. We get decor, they get advertising, the word gets out, everybody's happy. We had about nine doulas just sorta park and hang out for three hours. Initially it annoyed me and then I realized that (1) they're cruising for customers (2) they don't get to hang out and gab very often. So now we're thinking of putting together some sort of "meet the doula" event every couple-three months because it costs us nothing, gets people into the facility and increases the likelihood that our clients hire doulas, which reduces our transport rates precipitously and takes a big chunk out of the amount of hand-holding my wife has to do. The doula pope showed up Saturday. The pros were gobsmacked. Her husband sat in our lobby talking to no one and reading a book for half an hour. It was awesome.
Those are a couple of positive-sum business ideas. And those photos are great, what I was able to glean. How expensive are semi-large triptychs? And are there many birthing rooms in the birthing center?
Cheap. But also kind of crap. Like $55 plus $20 shipping. So... if you want to have a birth suite, there are certain requirements for size. There are other requirements for layout. There are still more requirements for access to bathrooms. There are still more requirements for access to gurneys. All of these are argued out and debated by no less than three agencies - the local jurisdiction, the planning department at the Department of Health and the licensing department at the Department of Health (who do not necessarily agree with each other). Further, there are requirements as far as ancillary support for those suites. Like you need a laundry room big enough that all your clean shit goes on one side and all your dirty shit on the other. Then, of course, you need facilities for the families, lockers for your employees (!) and a kitchenette which has its own happy fun time regs. And since you've got professionals around, and since you're hoping to attract others to pay you rent, you need a couple-three offices. And none of this is going to work without reception. So. If you want, say, two birth suites? Despite the fact that they're under 400sqft each, you've still got 2200sqft worth of facility upon which to pay rent and triple net every month.