Brian and Mike: Not Safe for Work

In this episode, we discuss a few scenarios for how Mike's business might open up again once the COVID-19 lockdowns are lifted. We also discuss how business will be forever changed, and how NYC could be very different for years to come.

It's been a week since we talked. In this episode, we discussed how we see the business opening up once the lockdown starts to end, what makes a business "essential", and whether viruses came from outer space. This episode was recorded on April 9.

In this episode, we jump from the history of Premier Indoor Golf to today, when the business is closed. Mike looks at the federal loan and grant options and wonders whether he should shut the business down now or try to ride it out.

Back in the financial crisis of 2007, Mike lost his job in the oil & gas industry and decided to start in the golf industry. Overnight he went from a member at a club to the minimum wage guy picking up range balls. Seven short years later, he was opening Premier Indoor Golf.

Running Premier Indoor Golf in Manhattan the past five years has taught Mike a few lessons about customer service: 1. The customer is NOT always right. 2. Even so, whatever they want, you should probably just give them, because it will cost you almost nothing and make them happy, and 3. You didn't build this business to get in arguments with customers. Let stuff go, even when you're "right", and everyone is happy.

This episode focuses entirely on continuing Mike's story of how he built Premier Indoor Golf in Manhattan. We start with him opening the business and no one came. For weeks. Then Mike learns about marketing and everything changes.

Mike talks about the prospect of losing his business due to the coronavirus, and we pick up our story about how Mike built Premier Indoor Golf just after he signed the lease and had to start actually building his space. This episode leads us right up to opening day.

The first episodes of this podcast are being recorded while we're all working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. We're going to initially focus on how Mike started his business, Premier Indoor Golf, in the shadow of the Empire State Building in New York City. In this episode, Mike talks about how he ended up in NYC, why he decided to open a golf business there, and how he found his space.