Our Brick and Mortar Business will be the Death of Me (Part 1)

It's been exactly 4 months since we opened our SPA in Quezon City, Philippines (Cedar Wellness SPA), I'd like to say "Happy Monthsary" but I'd be lying. Almost every month since we opened, uncontrollable events had me question why I resigned from my comfy corporate 9-to-5 work. The first one is:

Noah's Ark Modern Version

Before we go to the great flooding part, let me tell you first how I became Noah but no God was commanding me to build an ark. As the head of this business, I'm always the first to enter the SPA. I finish more work in the office without anyone knocking on my door every 15 minutes.

As I entered the SPA, I heard a ticking sound outside the toilet room near our foot massaging area, bringing me behind the reclining chairs (background image of this website).

As I approached the source of the ticking sound, I saw a quick bright spark from the reclining chair plug, followed by a foul smell of burnt plastic. That moment I knew something was wrong. I rushed back to my office where the breakers were and closed each and every line. I went back and pulled the plug of the reclining chair thinking "It's only been a month since we opened, now I'm down a chair already?".

I wish this story ended there, unfortunately, your entertainment and my demise had just begun. I brushed the incident off and proceeded to my daily 'opening' routine. I was walking toward the northernmost part of the SPA when a step sunk my feet underwater.

In the employee pantry area, the sink pipe decided to burst. Strong water pressure kept gushing, enough to rinse off the shampoo from your head in 5 seconds flat. I closed the water line and stopped the bleeding but the damage was already done.

Wooden furniture, plants, striplights, towels, and my hope flooded. I sat on the wet couch and asked God "What did I do to deserve this?". While waiting for his reply, I took out my phone and told all my employees to come to work earlier than usual.

I sent the message at 10:45 am and our SPA opens at 1:00 pm, the clock was ticking. I took out a mop and started going to work. I pushed water toward the toilet drain. From heel-deep water to just a damp floor, I alone took out 95% of the excess water.

My employees arrived at 11:30 am, I asked them to dry all the things that needed drying and vacuum the water that sipped in areas that my handy mop could not reach. It was a lot of work, and I thought of closing the SPA for the day however; I estimated that this event might have cost me hundreds of thousands in expenses. The sad realization came "I can't afford to close the SPA for a day".

I delegated an area to each employee, closed the line where water could not be dried immediately, and left the rest open. Through sheer will and effort, we were able to open some areas of the SPA where clients can, and need to go. Remember the spark I talked about in the reclining chairs? We found water sipped through the wall and into the socket hole.

By 12:55 pm, I'm exhausted and demoralized. I lay in one of our massage beds and immediately drifted to sleep.

By 1:00 pm our first client for that day started her treatment.