La Bene Vita

MTMS Polaris: Closing in 31 days

It looks like I last blogged in 2018, which means guitar student Emma is now 16. 😲

And the music school location where she prepared for a jazz band audition is now closing after ten years in business.

I wish I had started this sooner, but I'm using this blog to document the process of closing a business location and cutting my operation (and hopefully my workload) in half.

I've known for at least a year that I planned to close my Lewis Center location, MTMS Polaris. I signed a 10-year lease in 2013, which seemed like a good idea at the time because it locked my pricing, but then two major competitors moved into the area. And then COVID happened. And diabetes happened. And then Parkinson's Disease happened, and that was the last straw. I can't keep up with two locations anymore.

My mom, my husband, and three trusted employees knew in advance to help with logistics. I stopped hiring and advertising in Polaris, and I gradually began moving items to our other location in Gahanna. Then on July 10, I announced the upcoming closure to clients and staff. Our last Polaris lessons will be Friday, August 25. Yesterday I scheduled the piano movers for August 29, and our lease expires August 31.

I'm taking this opportunity to renovate our Gahanna location to increase capacity. Over the weekend, Keith and I dismantled the piano mural and book display rack in Polaris (to be installed in Gahanna); took Polaris lobby tables I want to keep to Gahanna and Gahanna tables I want to re-home or discard to Polaris; moved the newer, bigger staff fridge from Polaris to Gahanna; redesigned the music lab to increase its capacity; and took measurements over the restrooms so we can lay flooring and install a storage area. Yesterday, I stopped by Gahanna City Hall to talk about the planned renovation and request a list of contractors (he took my contact info and promised to get it to me); scheduled a meeting with another contractor I found a few days ago via Google search; played phone tag with the sign company to arrange taking my Polaris exterior neon signage and install it in the interior of my Gahanna location (it's going to be SO COOL); scheduled piano movers; and taught lessons.

Meanwhile, my student load has increased significantly because I stopped hiring. I figured it was temporary since they're at a location that's closing, but many of my students are switching to virtual or trying the commute to Gahanna. I'm also sitting at the reception desk half the time because I lost one of my receptionists to college and I'm obviously not backfilling her, either. And I'm still not sure who's covering my Gahanna music lab the second half of August, but that's two whole weeks away. 🤣 Low on the priority list.

And while all this biz stuff is happening, I've been seeing a speech therapist about my singing, which has been affected by Parkinson's (and possibly the first stages of menopause?) She told me I inspire her because I'm such a hard worker, so you can imagine the hours I've been dedicating to that while everything else is happening.

I'm probably forgetting a lot, but I'm glad to get this down, at least. I'll try to keep up with documentation, but for now I have to go run payroll and meet a general contractor.