From the earliest stage of our business planning, we’ve kept a list. The list is all the people who have lifted us up along the way and helped us to start this business. Certainly we’ve missed a person or two here or there and for that, please accept our apologies! We had grand ideas of delicate, thoughtful, handwritten thank you notes that would be distributed immediately following our opening. I swore that I wouldn’t wait until November to share thanks with the MANY who have helped us get to this point.
HAH!
I guess we didn’t fully understand just how COMPLETELY time consuming owning and operating a business would be. These days we’re either busy with lots of floaters or busy trying to figure out how to attract lots of floaters. Oh well, it’s November and there are no handwritten notes, but here goes! In loose, chronological order.
Bobby & Rachel McGee – THANK YOU! For seeing past the dreadlocks, giving me a chance and giving me a job at your awesome cafe. James and I were broke and I could not find a job! Learning about and helping with your small business was an influential experience for me. Thanks for all the advice about planning and operating a business. Thanks to all of our friends from Selah who have been rooting us on this whole time!
Kevin Joseph – THANK YOU! You gave me the reins at The Pub and it helped me to understand what it takes to run a business. You were always helpful and accommodating while James and I were planning and traveling back and forth to Portland. Working at The Pub, you introduced me to other small business owners and I admire how you guys work together and support each other. I feel lucky to haveI met you and to have you as a friend.
Larry Mitchell – THANK YOU! We are so happy that we reached out to SCORE and were paired with you. The knowledge and support you share with us is more than we could thank you for. Having our meetings with you meant that we HAD to have progress to show and that kept us motivated each week. We would not have kept such a bold pace without your advice, you truly pushed us along.
Michelle Ritcheson – THANK YOU! We knew you were pretty cool when we met you and you already knew what floating was. We didn’t know you would become one of the most important resources to our business planning. Your support and advice has been invaluable. We feel so fortunate to have met you, to get to work with you and, now, to call you a friend!
Stephen Flowers – Thank you for giving us your time and attention and looking at our (at the time) unfinished business plan with an open mind. Thanks for facilitating our meeting with Michelle and for taking us seriously, when most were looking at us like we had multiple heads.
Bob Perkins – Thanks, Bob for helping us design our logo! You managed to turn this brainstorm into this reality.
Kelli Brewer – Oh my! THANK YOU, Kelli for showing us every open space in Portland (and beyond). Thank you for driving us around and teaching us about Portland when we didn’t know Forest Ave. from Congress St. We went through three seasons with you looking for a place and it totally paid off. We really appreciate your help during our long property search!
Lou, Kristen, Matt & Patti at A&M Partners – Thank you for open-mindedly giving our business a home. Thank you for your insight during our buildout and quick responses to our endless stream of questions as we made our way through this learning process!
Jarrod at Necessary Technologies – Thank you for recovering all of our business planning materials when our laptop bit the dust right in the middle of it all! It could have been a nightmare, but you really pulled through.
Frank at Bouchard and Associates Inc. Thank you for your accounting advice from the very beginning. You’ve been a trusted advisor to our family for many years and we look forward to working with you for many more.
Grandpa Harder – Thank you for helping to edit our 50+ page business plan and every page of our website. You are incredibly thorough and we knew we could count on you to offer constructive criticism. Yours and Grandma’s support along the way has meant so much. Using the family name for our business brings us a lot of pride.
Jason “Samouel” Siglar – Thank you for your help with editing. We know you would have been on a ladder with a paint brush in hand if you were anywhere near, but you helped from a far with our business plan and our website and we really appreciate it!
Matt & Anthony Ferranti – Thank you for helping us to transform this space from a dirty old laundromat into a beautiful, modern day spa. Your home building touch gives our commercial space a warm, inviting feeling.
Kyle & Katryna at SignOne – You two were great to work with. We really appreciate how you listened to what we were looking for and made changes until we were 100% happy with the designs. Thank you for updating our logo and providing our signs!
Jenny – THANK YOU for practically living at the float center with us. Thank you for staying up until 4am on countless occasions. Thanks for slamming iced coffees with me and painting every inch of this place with us including 1,000 miles of trim. I was loosing my cool and would have lost my mind all together if it weren’t for you!
Kyla & Phil – Thank you for helping with editing, for taking care if Charlie when we were pulling long days, for being the first people to show up when we popped open those buckets of primer, for being our live float models at our Grand Opening. We had no idea how busy we would be at our Open House and, Kyla, you stepped up to the plate with your Float Harder shirt on and answered questions like you owned the place. It was perfect because we were waaaayy busier than we had even hoped to be!
Sara – Thank you for all of your encouragement along the way. Thank you for spending your school break painting into the night with us and for using such care and detail when doing so! You were the voice of reason when the brown trim paint that we got kinda looked like poo. Thanks for being there to confirm that it did, in fact, look like poo and we should pick a different color.
Aaron & Brigitte – THANK YOU for putting a roof over our heads when we had spent every dime of our savings on the down payment for our business loan. We really would have been down and out if you hadn’t opened your home to us. Thank you for taking care of tiny Charlie when we painted through the nights. Thank you Brigitte for being our build out photographer. Thanks Aaron for helping us at night when you’d already put in a full day at work. From demolition, to painting, to putting together the float room, we appreciate it all!
Memere’ – Thanks, Memere’ for the constant love, support and muffins! You never doubted what we were doing and you helped us along the way even though it meant we’d be moving an hour away. The distance hasn’t stopped you from continuing with love, support, and muffins. It’s just a bonus that you love floating too!
Noah Cole – Thank you for hours and hours of help and support from cutting ceiling tiles and wiring up tanks to flawless video production. Your excellent production skills , helped to make our crowdfunding look professional and surely helped us reach our goal. Everyone comments on the quality of our instructional video and it is an invaluable tool for our day to day operations. Thank you for your help
Mollie Ennis – Thank you for whipping up our chalkboard lettering. You crushed it!
Momma & Dad – Thank you for the many meals and fresh veggies from the garden that helped us to save, save, save for our loan. Thank you for being our promoters, for handing out brochures and putting up posters, and donating your floats to the UMA silent auction! Thank you for the beautiful lobby plants which we have somehow kept alive.
Mom & Dad – Thank you for providing us with an affordable living situation while we saved for the down payment on our loan. Thanks for feeding us and listening to every detail of our plan and for hauling tools, furniture and materials back and forth between Vassalboro and Portland. And thank so much for donating your beautiful old barn boards for our front desk!
Gravy – Thanks for your constant counseling and advice. As a fellow young entrepreneur, you lead by example, showing us what it means to pour all of your energy and effort into growing your business.
Friends from all over the place – Thank you so much for supporting our crowdfunding, rooting us on and wearing your Float Harder gear proudly!
Sean Fluet – Thanks for your expert advice even after your work day had ended. It was quite a lucky thing for us that you moved in when you did. It’s so good to know you!
face of the company. We weren’t sure if having a dog at a “spa” would be well received, but we decided to give it a go and we found out what we really already knew…. everybody loves you, Charlie!
Tony & Jen at Hanging By A Thread – Thank you for helping us through our first merchandise order. It was a tall order and you guys delivered an excellent product with top notch customer service!
James, Steve, Matt, Wayne & Shannon at Superior Float Tanks – Thank you for everything from late night phone calls about how to set up float tanks, to delivering a quality product with top notch customer service. Thank you for allowing us to join you for float tank installations, which have lead to fantastic opportunities for our company. We look forward to ordering many more float tanks from you in the future!
Chris Bennett – Thank you for the great shots of our facility!
Savannah – Thank you for being the floating woman in all of our ads!
Crowdfunders – Thank you to everyone who made contributions to our Crowdfunding campaign. We were overwhelmed that so many of you were willing to take the leap and back us!
The Float Collective – Thank you to Pete at The Float Studio, Dave at Float Cottage, Oliver at Aqua Float, Steve at Astral Float, Graham, JT, Frank, Lauren and Ian at Float On, Lindsay at The Floatation Centre, Maria at Float Factor, Colin at Float Boston, Neil at Float Maine, Gary at The Float Space, Valarie at Neptune Float Spa, Dan at Oly Floats, Amy at Float Nashville, Lance at The Float Shack, Dylan & Sandra at The Float Shoppe, Lindsay & Paul at Annica, and so so many more! It is so awesome to be part of an industry that cares deeply about lifting each other up and working together to make floating part of the main stream in a way that is consistent, clean, and comfortable.
Weebly – Seriously, thanks Weebly for offering an awesome product and for always having a live, well trained, person answer the phone. That is so important and it makes such a difference.
Rachel – Thanks for being willing to be the voice of the float tanks! You saved us from having the voice of a computerized, Brittish woman and gave the float tanks a warm human voice!
Pop & Ian – Thank you for being there when the tanks arrived and for patiently trouble shooting with us as we figured out how to get the damn things through the door… and down the hall…. and around corners… and into rooms. We, absolutely, could not have done it without you guys. Then you painted through nights with us and accepted pizza, tacos, beer and floats as payment, thank you!
Josh Doyon – Thank you for all of your help editing and helping me to understand the Oxford comma. Thank you for repeatedly driving to Portland to help only to show up and find that we didn’t have all the supplies necessary to work on the days project. We owe you many thanks for kicking the pod into room two just when we thought we were going to have to take out a wall.
Celeste & Patric at Arcadia Designworks – Thank you so much for helping us to plan our space out. You found ways to utilize all of our square footage and your thoughtful expertise is what made this place come together!
Leanne – Thank you for donating your time and valuable advice. We feel so fortunate that you were there for us along the way. Thanks for stopping by to check in on us and spreading the good word about floating!
Lisa – Thank you for helping us to pick out the colors around here. We get compliments all the time on how nice everything looks and people always ask if we are part of a franchise. I think it’s because the place has a really professional, cohesive appearance, thanks to you!
Our Members and EVERYONE who has come in for a float – Thank you so much for being a part of the Float Harder Family! We are so pleased that so many of you are enjoying the benefits of floating regularly. We look forward to continuing to serve you!
Portland – Thank you to our neighbors and all the area business’ that partner with us and support what we’re doing. We didn’t know anyone in Portland when we started planning this business. Everyone has been so welcoming and supportive, we’ve made so many good friends!
These first seven months have been an absolute whirlwind, but we’re having a blast. We’re so happy to help people feel their best and to be a part of this great community! THANK YOU!
Amy & James Harder (and Charlie!)