Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I can almost taste it

We are so close, I can almost taste it. Today we are supposed to sign a lease for our new gym space. A space big enough to house our current students and allow for the growth of our gym into what we've been dreaming of for years.


I met Steve while working as a kickboxing and boot camp instructor for a boxing gym. I saw him around on the other side of the gym and always noticed the interaction between him and his students. I thought to myself that he must be a great coach and a nice guy to have such loyalty from these students(I was right). One night I overheard him talking to someone about building a website for way too much money...I always thought that he could do bigger things than rent the corner of a gym, and overhearing this let me know he wanted something more. I left him a note at the front desk telling him I could help him get a site together for almost nothing and to call me. He swears it was my way of slyly hitting on him. Not true...but I did think he was cute.

That's where it all started. We would meet before our classes at BreadCo and dream up our gym. The boxing gym we were at took on new owners and management and quickly closed down. That was it...our chance to take a stab at small business ownership and to open our own gym. We had two problems, we only had five days notice to find and occupy a new space and we had no plans or money.

We frantically looked for places and found a spot in Valley Park only 20 minutes from the old gym. The amazing support and loyalty that came from the students was amazing, we had guys and girls out all day and night to help pull the new space together so that we could open quickly. We seriously could not have done it without all of them.

We survived the last two years almost entirely by word of mouth so that we could save money and plan for a space that would allow us to continue to grow. Our old lease is coming to an end and a bigger space was not only desired but necessary for us.

I hate long blog posts so in the next one I'll talk about the new space and our plans for it and the amazing people that are going to be the parachutes that make this leap of faith possible.

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