Dearest InnerActivists -
Our vision for InnerActive began over 5 years ago with an idea to provide easy to access play for families and their children. When this terrible virus started coming out in early 2020, it was quickly evident that this truly unprecedented event was going to be an incredibly trying time for a business like ours, in spite of the care we'd taken to insure and run our business safely and responsibly, from a financial perspective. After nearly 5 months of shut downs in 2020, and a greatly reduced capacity for the remainder; our revenue finished down over $500,000 for InnerActive in 2020, compared to 2019 leaving the business with a large debt. With diligence to keep up with requirements that changed daily, we used every possible day our state allowed us to be open, and were not able to cover a large amount of our expenses.
With heavy hearts, we announce that our Minnetonka location will be closing at the end of next Month. April 25th will be our last day open for our community to play in Minnetonka. We will remain open in Mounds View.
What can you do to help?
We started and have continued to run this business with the genuine mission not just to do something we love and to provide for our two boys, but because this is something we know we have a passion to provide, and is something that families desperately need in this community that we grew up in and love! We know in our hearts, and on the non-Covid balance sheet, that this business has the strength and demand to continue to be a powerful resource for our children. Like we've done with this business since the day we spawned this idea, we have turned over every stone in hopes that we could find a way through this year to try and save InnerActive, but we're now being faced with the closure of our original location.
I wish we could summarize this letter with a simple call to action that would help us move forward together to resolve this, but the truth is we're appealing for your help. We've already been blessed with YOU, an amazing set of guests who have supported us at every turn and have been every bit as important to our past success, but we're coming to you now in our time of need.
Through five years of business we've overcome every hurdle thrown at us, allowing us to reach a great deal of our community (now measured in the HUNDREDS of thousands)! We won't give up until every stone has been overturned. Please, if you know of even the smallest stone we might not have looked under...let us know.
Our Promise
What we can promise is that we aren't willing to go out without the hardest of fights, and we've embraced the difficult lesson that some things you simply cannot do on your own...asking for help is simply vital to survival. We can also promise you that we are putting 100% of our energy into our Mounds View location to keep things running there!
Reopen?
We hope that we are able to reopen on our beloved west-side in the future. We have a huge amount of work ahead of us, and past promises to fulfill before we can consider that, including cleanup, storage of equipment, accessing future loan funds, finding a location with flexibility for future pandemic issues, etc. Our hope is to come back better than ever in this community that we love.
Thank You
Thank you to all who have shared a memory or experience with us, no matter what happens we will never give those up. The outreach we have received from so many this past year with offers of words of encouragement, financial and emotional support have helped carry us through in a great way! We couldn’t have come this far without all of you. We hope to continue the journey with you for a long time to come, this is just a (large) bump in the road.
Teddy and Stacy Anderson
(and Calvin and Tucker!)
Our vision for InnerActive began over 5 years ago with an idea to provide easy to access play for families and their children. When this terrible virus started coming out in early 2020, it was quickly evident that this truly unprecedented event was going to be an incredibly trying time for a business like ours, in spite of the care we'd taken to insure and run our business safely and responsibly, from a financial perspective. After nearly 5 months of shut downs in 2020, and a greatly reduced capacity for the remainder; our revenue finished down over $500,000 for InnerActive in 2020, compared to 2019 leaving the business with a large debt. With diligence to keep up with requirements that changed daily, we used every possible day our state allowed us to be open, and were not able to cover a large amount of our expenses.
- Along with other similar businesses, we were denied coverage by our insurance company for the shutdown due to the nature of a pandemic.
- Due to having very low employee numbers (by design in our business model), we received minimal aid from the PPP program. In total, we have received $54,000 in forgivable aid between our two locations, after applying for every grant that would accept our applications.
- In addition to the financial strains of the pandemic, our Minnetonka landlord has decided not to renew our lease (which we had hoped to keep for ten more years!) and no matter what we can provide, it isn’t enough to convince them to keep us.
- While our Minnetonka landlord has helped us with a few concessions as we close out this location that have helped us preserve our brand, our Mounds View landlord has declined to work with us on even minor concessions and negotiations to help us manage being closed or at limited capacity. Unfortunately for all of us, they have remained unwilling to negotiate even lightly realistic terms for businesses that are forced to close due to government mandates and a global pandemic. We will continue our business at Mounds View, but our lease remains a very large financial struggle for us in these times.
With heavy hearts, we announce that our Minnetonka location will be closing at the end of next Month. April 25th will be our last day open for our community to play in Minnetonka. We will remain open in Mounds View.
What can you do to help?
We started and have continued to run this business with the genuine mission not just to do something we love and to provide for our two boys, but because this is something we know we have a passion to provide, and is something that families desperately need in this community that we grew up in and love! We know in our hearts, and on the non-Covid balance sheet, that this business has the strength and demand to continue to be a powerful resource for our children. Like we've done with this business since the day we spawned this idea, we have turned over every stone in hopes that we could find a way through this year to try and save InnerActive, but we're now being faced with the closure of our original location.
I wish we could summarize this letter with a simple call to action that would help us move forward together to resolve this, but the truth is we're appealing for your help. We've already been blessed with YOU, an amazing set of guests who have supported us at every turn and have been every bit as important to our past success, but we're coming to you now in our time of need.
- Do you have a potential avenue to seek aid?
- A politician who might listen?
- A news channel that might share our story?
- Could you offer helping hand as we shut down our Minnetonka location?
- Are you able to help us with a donation?
- Do you have a crazy idea you have no idea will even help…?!
Through five years of business we've overcome every hurdle thrown at us, allowing us to reach a great deal of our community (now measured in the HUNDREDS of thousands)! We won't give up until every stone has been overturned. Please, if you know of even the smallest stone we might not have looked under...let us know.
Our Promise
What we can promise is that we aren't willing to go out without the hardest of fights, and we've embraced the difficult lesson that some things you simply cannot do on your own...asking for help is simply vital to survival. We can also promise you that we are putting 100% of our energy into our Mounds View location to keep things running there!
Reopen?
We hope that we are able to reopen on our beloved west-side in the future. We have a huge amount of work ahead of us, and past promises to fulfill before we can consider that, including cleanup, storage of equipment, accessing future loan funds, finding a location with flexibility for future pandemic issues, etc. Our hope is to come back better than ever in this community that we love.
Thank You
Thank you to all who have shared a memory or experience with us, no matter what happens we will never give those up. The outreach we have received from so many this past year with offers of words of encouragement, financial and emotional support have helped carry us through in a great way! We couldn’t have come this far without all of you. We hope to continue the journey with you for a long time to come, this is just a (large) bump in the road.
Teddy and Stacy Anderson
(and Calvin and Tucker!)
Have Questions?
We know you’ll have more questions than we can address here, please visit this page for answers to common questions – we’ll continue to add information as questions arise. We appreciate your patience as we try to keep up with all demand.
Want to help?
If you are able to provide any help via donation that will be used towards our future endeavors of a new InnerActive on the west side, you can find our GoFundMe link here: https://gofund.me/e55a84ca
Feel free to contact us directly at [email protected] with any suggestions!
Feel free to contact us directly at [email protected] with any suggestions!
