When company was founded: 2003.
How did it get started? I was from Columbus and was living in Columbus at the time, and I was visiting a friend in Springfield and I called a few places in town to get a trainer myself, and everybody I called didn’t have trainers. So I thought this might be a good place to start training. So I started at the Springfield Athletic Club off of 72, which is now called Premier, and I would drive from Columbus. I would gradually build and talk to people, and I got my clientele base and eventually moved into my new location in downtown Springfield.
How many employees? I have six trainers and 14 instructors, who teach the classes.
How has your company grown? We started in the Bushnell building in 2003, in the basement in about 1,500 square feet, and now we’re in 7,000 square feet. We basically outgrew the space, and now we’re on the corner of Main Street. We got 19 spinning bikes, we added the Les Mills body pump, so we have a designated room for that. We were able to bring in more equipment to accommodate our client base; we added massage therapy, things like that.
Describe your job: Being a business owner, other than the business part of it, I do personal training. My favorite part of my job is the spinning program. We teach a lot of spinning classes and I love it. We started it in Columbus. But pretty much everybody is independent; everybody has their job and they know what they’re doing.”
Tell us about what you use to do your job: Basic knowledge from the experience of being in the military and Army, and I also have 20 years of experience in the personal training field. I’m a certified spinning trainer. What we use is our knowledge to educate our clients, because we want our clients to learn about fitness, to learn how important it is to be fit and healthy, and not just to look good but to understand the ‘healthy’ part of this.
What’s unique about your work space? I decided to set up a different type of atmosphere. We are not the typical power-shack gym with the mirrors. I try to make it very low key, comfortable — everybody feels at home when they come here. They like the look, it’s industrial. There’s different areas of the gym that are more private than others, and I only have 2 mirrors hanging in the gym. It’s a very personal setting.
What is one thing in your space/on your desk that you can’t work without? “The most important thing are my clients. They are what makes things happen. And I have to mention my staff, we have a really good staff. Those are the most important things right there.”
What is your secret to success? It’s the relationship that we develop with our clients. The success for me is when clients walk up to me and say, “I went off all my medication,” or “I lost that extra 10 pounds,” or when someone who walked in in a bad mood leaves with a smile on their face because it’s such a stress-reliever. So I have to feel like I’m a part of that. People who are healthy are usually in a better mood, and they’re happier in every way.
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