Doors Open & Another Closes

Well, it's been an eventful few weeks to say the very least. As I posted before, the first of three fitness clubs is now open for business and that's consumed a lot of my time as of late. Thankfully, Leigh has been amazing during this time and supporting this experiment 100%. I know it's put a burden on her having to take care of Riley by herself a lot lately, but she rarely complains, and I couldn't even come close to doing this without her.

Another part of all this that has been difficult has been maintaining my consulting job. In the planning stages, I was able to do all the paperwork and communications in the evening...rarely taking me away from my day job. However, once the club opened, I felt a little overwhelmed. Luckily I had vacation scheduled for a few weeks to help get things up and running.

Unfortunatley, a couple weeks ago we got word that Capital H Group had decided to close down the Houston office. We're based out of Chicago with office is NY, LA, Boston, Millwaukee, London, and a few more across the globe. Capital H has been fortunate to have over $75 million in venture capital, but that also puts certain pressures on companies. We've grown at least 20% in each of the last few years, but the rate of growth hasn't been quite where they'd like to see it. We purchased a leadership development company out of London last year for a large sum of money which helps us from a growth perspective, but it also eats up a lot of capital. So anyway, it appears that they are trying to position the company to be sold, and to do that have trimmed up by reducing a lot of the consulting offerings we currently help clients with. In doing so, it really eliminated a lot of what we do in LA, Boston, and unfortunately Houston. So as of now, I'm not a full time employee, but I am finishing a couple things on a contract basis...which isn't a bad deal.

I really do have mixed emotions about it. On one hand, it's a good salary that was taken away, but on the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to focus on making the gym successful....which is what I want to do. The hard part is the financial aspects of it. Because I'm opening 3, I wasn't planning on taking a salary for quite a while...keeping the money in the business.

With that said, I'm in a decent spot right now. Two of my co-workers at Capital H Group already hooked up with a new company and are responsible for making a presence and building up a business in Houston. It's same type of work we do now, but with a slightly different business model creating a great opportunity to get the business going in Houston...in a hurry. While they do that, I'm going to help out on a contract basis which will allow me to continue to focus on the gym, but have some income coming in...which is fine with me because there's some good money in contract work. If they are able to get things going in Houston, there's a chance I could join them full-time if it makes sense on both sides. That would be down the road a ways so I'm not thinking too much about it right now. Either way, I feel pretty good with where I am at the moment. A little nervous for sure, but confident and excited at the same time.

It's weird how the doors in life open and close. You just have to hope the timing is right, and believe me, that's what I'm praying for right now. Thanks for all the support I've already gotten from a lot of you already!

Our New Adventure

Well, I've intentionally held off on blogging about this, but I think it's finally time. As of last February, Leigh and I are now small business owners. We bought the franchise rights to open 3 fitness facilities in Houston area, and the gym is called Snap Fitness. As many of you know, the fitness industry has always been one of my passions. That doesn't mean I've always kept myself in the greatest shape, but I've always enjoyed working out and studying about health and nutrition.

Back in the early 90's, a new fitness center opened up in my hometown of Lufkin...it was and is still called LiveWell. Since that gym opened, I've always been intrigued by the idea of owning one myself one day. My Mom even remembers me talking about that in high school. However, until now, I had absolutely no idea how to even begin down that career path. Gyms are big, they are expensive, and typically it takes a lot of people to make decent money. Combine that with the fact that I'm moderately risk averse, it just seemed like something that sounded cool, but not very realistic. Since college, I knew that it some point I wanted to something on my own, but I wasn't exactly sure what that would be, or when I would do it. As each year went by I always decided it just wasn't the right time. It took me a while to figure out that there will never be the perfect time to take a risk and do something for myself.

So back in December, you may remember that I won a trip out to California with a supplement company I had been doing business with since their inception....Isatori is the name of the company. Leigh and I flew out to Santa Monica, CA, stayed a couple nights on the beach, , spent some time with the CEO of the company, and worked out with a very successful trainer at Gold Gym - Venice Beach (The Mecca). For whatever reason, that trip sort of lit a fire under me and got me thinking about gyms again. The holidays were shortly after that trip and I spent some time researching different gyms and types of gyms. The one that kept popping up was Snap Fitness. After a couple of months of research, talking with other franchisees, and lots of prayer, we decided to pull the trigger and take a chance.

So here we are 5 months later and gym #1 is open for business!! Snap is a little different concept than the big box gyms. The entire model is based on research regarding what it is that customers value most in a fitness club. The top 3 things are convenience, quality equipment, and a clean club. So what Snap does is try to put these smaller clubs as close and deep into neighborhoods as we can get. 90% of the members will come from within 2 miles of the club, so convenience is definitely one the biggest selling points. We stock the gyms with Cybex equipment, which is as good as you can buy in my opinion. Research also shows that more than 80% of members strictly use strength and cardio equipment...not the pool, the rock wall, etc.. So that's what we offer, phenominal strength and cardio equipment. Another differentiator is that we are open 24/7 allowing people to work out when they want. That doesn't mean there is someone working 24/7, but the club is open to the members all day and every day. We also don't lock members into contracts...pay as you go month-to-month. You have an option of pre-paying for discounted rates, but no long-term contracts.

We've been open a few days now and signed up a few members already. The grand opening isn't for another couple weeks when the mass marketing goes out, so this is a good start. Anyway, check us out at www.snapfitness.com/houstontx

Here's a few more pics...