To Move A Home Takes Some Buddies, To Move A Gym Takes An Army

  

I’m sure you all have moved from house to house or in and out of an apartment at least a hand full of times in your life? Especially, going to college, moving to a different town for a job, you’ve moved we all have. Typically you get a case of beer and a pizza with a couple buddies to help in an afternoon/evening and you can knock it out in a day or two? The most annoying part might be calling and changing over your water bill, utilities, internet/TV, mail, telling your landlord you love them and it’s not them, it’s you and you don’t want to move, but your girlfriend is making you or some sob story.  It sucks, but it’s part of life and we’ve all been there. Ok, now trying moving a business and think how detailed/messy that is? Or in this case moving a gym which is not only a gym, but a business and dealing with that end too?

            So here it is, but let’s start back at the beginning to give you a touch of back story for entertainment. So Full Circle Strength Systems technically started the business in the old “Curves” location behind McDonalds in Williston, you might remember? We signed that lease May 1^st of 2015 and made that small location work for 2 years until we out grew it and decided to double the space by moving to the more recent spot the old “mechanic shop” off the highway. So that first move wasn’t horrible, it was rough, but we had literally half of the stuff to move and acquired a lot more in that new space. This first move took a few days to move, set up, but remember we are a business so we need to call more people than water, power, internet, mail but also Vendors, people we buy supplies from, people we pay bills to and let everyone know we are moving and update the new address, so that takes time. Wait, also, moving and resetting up our office, the 24/7-day access, security, etc.…it’s a pain.  That “Mechanic Shop” we signed that lease June 1^st, 2017, for a 5-year contract. And in 5 years we acquired a lot more stuff! Our lease was up June 1^st 2022 and I’ll skip some details, but let’s just say it was time to move and our idea of buying that building was burned to the ground.

            When that lease was up, we basically found out that evening on the last day of the lease (I will say I was trying to get answers for months and years prior, skipping that part) that basically we have an option to move, and we have a short window to do so. We sort of have a small break down, more of a WTF moment and need a stiff drink to discuss this option! We made a few phone calls and in 72 hours we found a new spot that we will call our “forever home”. The fun begins, and oh it’s fun, we started our plan and pushed paperwork through and started a move on Saturday morning June 4^th and literally asked people to show up to “help with a surprise” as we wanted to keep it quiet until we had the keys to the new place. People showed up Saturday morning and we dropped the news about moving. It took 1 entire day to just take items off the walls and organize this process. We did not advertise this move, but more so asked any gym member who was not working that could help in the challenge to help, and sure as hell people just showed up. We started that Sat and people were able to start lifting the following Wednesday June 8^th. It was at the end of the week that we had our utilities, items changed over and our doors installed with the 24/7 access for key cards. I mean this was not easy, we had to coordinate, carpenters, electricians, IT guys, security guys, plumbers to basically all get there on a very short notice to start this, and sure enough they did, they showed up. It was hectic as hell, and in ways we are still organizing and setting up our office, store area and not 100% moved in. This stuff takes time. So back to this move, we literally had a small plan and we knew we need to move the rubber flooring first so we had to move equipment at the old place just to get rubber out and haul rubber over first. Basically, we had to move everything twice and rubber alone was about 3 trailer loads. At the new place we had a rough idea, but sort of just rolled with it and set up on a whim. How we set it up initially is how it still sits, and everyone seems to like it so its staying, and its working! As crazy as it sounds, we accumulated so much stuff in that “mechanic shop” gym we had figured we had 3 dozen trailer loads (20’ bumper pull trailers), 3 dozen vehicle loads (offices, store, storage, misc.), we also had a semi-trailer and crane one day moving our storage containers and equipment from outside in the yard over, we had a forklift at each location a scissor lift helping out as well just to help unbolt and take the tall items down.  I might even be low on that number, when you think about it 3 of our bench presses take up 1 trailer alone, we have multiple pieces and each piece is heavy where you can over load it. We have about 150 – 45lb plates and that is multiple pickup loads.

            So it took time to get everything over to the new place, takes time to set everything up and organize and takes more time to get the office items organized and set up for the store, office part so we can help our members more. Often when you move utilities you find that new locations might not have the same utility companies so now you need to cancel one and set up another. That happened as well as any stuff the realtor might not know or even the owner of the building. You just gotta figure this out and its part of being an adult, roll with the punches!

            This move was stressful, and not to mention it came at the worst time as we were prepping for competitions, as were a few of our members- so that’s rough! We did not train for about 10 days as this becomes priority over everything else and I also have a day job so that was a juggling act. Moving can be overwhelming, we get it, and inconvenient, but there is a silver lining in everything, and we find this new location is better for our members, better for us and the business, and in ways a nicer location that is not as hectic as it is a block off the highway vs on the busiest intersection in town. Did I forget to say this location does not leak or flood every time it rains! Its dry, its updated, its cozy, everything is nicer, and the yard has more work able room to move around. All in all, I would say most would give this a 5 star move and was much needed!

I want to thank everyone for helping in this move, we appreciate it more than you would realize! Please stop down and check it out at 412 47^th Street West, about 2 blocks north of Wal-Mart and 1 block West of UPS.