Great news Tom, and really good to have you on board. Sounds like you are doing a sweet job of ploughing the field with some friends, and that's a good way of doing some lead marketing.
As you have pointed out, no sense sitting around waiting till it's all ready to rock and roll, start networking early and build the interest, you can end up with a stack of customers ready to buy the moment you open, plus get a few sweet sales on the side before you do.
Good luck with it all, look forward to reading about your continued success : )