Lunapads

As many of you already know, we have just moved to our new office. It’s a huge but necessary step for us as we outgrew our old office quite some time ago. We were there for 7 years and it was great while it lasted, but on busy days when we had 6 women working, 2 kids playing, visitors, meetings and deliveries, it could get hectic! Our new office, decked out in walls painted electric apple green and hot pink (to match our new shelf packaging) features more space for desks, computers, a real fridge, lunch room and a soon to be installed new phone system.

A major feature of this new chapter in the Lunapads story is that Suzanne and I (meaning Lunapads as a company) actually bought this office (we previously leased), which brings a whole new level of financial committment and responsibility to our operations. Early on when we first decided to take the plunge, I looked at Suzanne and said “so I guess this means that nobody’s going anywhere for a bit?” She laughed nervously, but it was a big moment for both of us.

For all that this move will make our work life easier in the long term, it has not been without its reminders and lessons.

First, we have needed the help of many, many people to make it happen. Fortunately most of them were already on staff or in our community - Cam, one of my oldest friends, built the new “quiet room” (where kids sleep, babies get nursed and meetings take place), my cousin Jamie did the electrical wiring, Suzanne’s brother Henry painted and built the new shelving, and our husbands Tim and Craig (and Aiden, pictured, building Suzanne’s desk) handled all manner of smaller but indispensable jobs. Looking at this list reminds me that there are some great men behind us great women !

And while it also may appear very grand that we could buy our own office space, we learned that ownership and taking on a commercial mortgage is a much bigger deal than we expected. There were three sets of lawyers involved, a few nail biting deadlines, a hefty down payment and mortgage, a property appraisal, renovation costs, and new bills for additional insurance, security, utilities, strata fees, not to mention loads of paperwork As I discussed in an earlier posting (this is harder than it looks) we hold our breath some days wondering how we will manage our now even tighter cash flow situation.

But, when I think of all the choices that I have made in my life, sticking with Lunapads stands out as being one of the riskiest and yet completely without regret. It has taken many years to appreciate just how challenging it can be to build even a little business like this one, and I have the highest regard for those who choose to take it on. From our customers’ perspective, it may look easy and kind of utopian - all these women working together, doing something good for the planet. And it is, in many ways. That said, the process of the office purchase has made us acutely aware of just how much debt we are carrying, adding to our responsibility of meeting our obligations to our staff, customers, suppliers etc. In short, as utopian as it may seem, the fact is that this is a business that needs to work hard in order to survive, grow and continue its work in the world. We look forward to proving that our hard work will pay off!

Madeleine and Suzanne

pictured: Genevieve, Goni, Madeleine, Marie-Genevieve, Garret, Sandra, Suzanne (and not pictured, Lisa, taking the photo!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm by Madeleine and is filed under Inside Lunapads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.