The first purchase order and the warehouse happened almost simultaneously. We had furniture coming from Indonesia and had secured 4,000 square feet of former welding shop to receive it.
The place was a complete cesspool.
Thirty years of welding grime and dust had settled in comfortably. My son, Michael’s son, and I worked diligently, incessantly, fanatically to remove it. The building had enjoyed three decades without our standards and seemed offended by the introduction.
Our theme was “completion, not perfection.”
We nailed it. Perfection never felt threatened.
The amenities included one AC unit, an eight-by-eight mechanical room with a mini-split, and an elevated toilet. We needed space and had no intention of paying extra for somewhere to admire ourselves.
The mechanical room offered a cool place to work, provided two people didn’t attempt it together. I bought a pop-up tent with walls, added a desk, chair, and computer, and established my office.
Yes, a tent. Operations now had walls that folded up, an excellent feature for a growing company.
The toilet had elevation, character, and no sink. I installed a cheap sink from Amazon, which arrived with little heart-shaped cutouts.
Very cosmopolitan. You could wash your hands and feel courted.
Naturally, the small mechanical room also required a 58-inch television. We exercised considerable restraint by stopping at one.
Meanwhile, Michael built the entire MorFurn and Throne Source websites. He handled the design, products, and presentation, giving both businesses a professional online appearance while our physical headquarters included a tent and a romantic sink.
If you’ve seen the furniture and the websites, the warehouse tour offers a surprising plot development.
In roughly sixty days, we launched the two DBAs, set up the logistics, prepared a home for the company, and stayed within our means. There were a hundred things happening at once. Michael apparently considered that sufficient room to build two websites. I was busy removing evidence of the previous thirty years.
In my estimation, two people should not have been able to accomplish that much in that amount of time. I would compliment Michael further, but keeping him on task is already difficult without giving him this paragraph to frame.
We turned the place into a clean, temporary storage facility. Spending carefully on headquarters lets us put more into the furniture and service our customers receive.
It is our first company address. It will certainly not be our last.
For now, the furniture has a clean home, the websites look excellent, and I have an office I can take camping.
Michael will probably try to list it.
