Unconventional Solutions

The dilemma unfolds…

Unconventional Solutions

The dilemma unfolds…

I had just opened my healthy juice and eatery restaurant,

Established a following, only to be told by my landlord

That the bank across our shared street was expanding with a bridge over the parking area to the building next to me.   

The entrance and parking in front would be off limits.

I was told to close for three months.

I knew this to be the end of my hard-earned work. A year of building out, the loans, the marketing.  This option was a death sentence for a new business.

How to conquer the—the landlord and the bank?

This was a classic big guy, little guy conundrum.

At first, they were my adversary until I conceived of an alternative.

All of the buildings around me were offices.  I knew the landlord courted the renters

With lunches, treats.

The bank would now have construction workers that would need to eat.

I struck a deal to have each party use me for catering. Whatever their budget was, they’d allocate a third to my restaurant.   I promised to promote the building with signage inside my restaurant, tout the value of the development.  They would surround the perimeter fencing with signs directing the public to a new entrance to my place.

Nine months later, the work was finished.  Along the way, I gained an enormous following.

I was their model tenant, and eventually the bank bought my building. They promised my restaurant a place for as long as it remained open.

Problems are upside down successes; connected by consequences

A win, win for all.

Let me know if you have unconventioanl solutions to a problem you solved. I’m at https://www.abberolnick.com