Author Topic: Making Lemonade  (Read 1761 times)

Redhead Erin

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Making Lemonade
« on: August 11, 2012, 11:02:45 AM »
This is the proposal I just sent to the small business mentoring agency, SCORE.  I have decided to stop waiting until I have a perfect body to start working on my next stage of life. 

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I am just starting out to get my certification as a Personal Fitness Trainer.  I have noticed that most trainers are young men and a few young women, but many people who go to gyms and want to get in shape are older people, over 40.   in the past several years I have belonged to several gyms,  which fell into 2 types.  One was the "beginner gym" like Planet fitness, where the membership was inexpensive and there was a big marketing concept about the "judgement-free zone." For all its talk, this gym provided little support  for new members and turnover was high.  The high-end gyms, I have joined, (like Bally's and Premier Fitness) on the other hand, were expensive and full of beautiful young trainers, mostly male. 

Not to be a snob, but I'll bet most handsome 20-something males have no clue about the most important needs of women (and men) over the age of 40.  Not only do we have different physiological needs, but there are lifestyle issues, emotional baggage, and years of poor habits to unlearn. Many of my friends are too intimidated to even set foot in a traditional gym.  Even my husband, who is normally a confident guy, does not want to go to the gym because he is afraid of looking stupid.

I myself have had a lifetime of dieting and exercise, some of it beneficial, much of it not.  I in the last 10 years I have manged to lose 50 pounds and keep it off, and I am now battling the last 10.  Along the way, I have also had to re-learn everything I thought I knew about food, exercise, and motivation. 

My goal is to make a gym where people over 40 or so can go and find support for their particular training needs.  I want to help moms who want their pre-baby bodies back,  veterans (like myself) who want to return to fighting weight, high-school jocks who miss feeling fit, and empty-nesters and newly-single people who are ready for a new start in life.  In other words, for anybody who feels like the years have not been kind, like they have let themselves go, or maybe they never felt great about their looks and are ready to find out what it feels like.

This gym would offer personal training, nutrition counseling, exercise classes that are geared for older clients (like low-impact aerobics) and a generally supportive atmosphere where people my age can go and not feel like the oldest, fattest, least-appealing person in the room!

In addition I would like this gym to be a community.  I would offer group trips to active adventures (canoeing, hiking) and fun local activities (art walk, wine tasting).  I would like to find some way to bring in other small business owners whose products compliment my mission, like Avon or Herbalife or  BeautiControl .   

This whole business would be about promoting an active lifestyle and making healthy choices, well as developing new supportive friendships.  It would create a space where people can be comfortable to come in and work on themselves, where they can learn new skills they will need to support their healthy lifestyle, and where they will want to keep coming back, even after they have lost their  weight, because they love the atmosphere and community.

Now I need a plan....

teartracks

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2012, 12:57:56 PM »



I like your idea Erin.  I especially like the idea of a community atmosphere.  I hope you realize your dream.

tt





Hopalong

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2012, 10:55:56 PM »
SIGN ME UP!

I just love it. Great idea and wonderfully described.

I hope SCORE really takes you under their wing.
I've taken some of their classes and think they're fabulous help.

Keep us posted.

Hops
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Twoapenny

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2012, 01:51:41 AM »
Erin, I'm really glad you're forging ahead with this and your plan sounds amazing.  Aiming at over 40s is a brilliant idea and you're so spot on - our local gyms are full of athletic young men and pencil thin women pounding away with their hair and make up perfectly done.  I'd feel very self conscious going somewhere like that - but a gym full of ladies trying to gain control of their saggy bits whilst talking about the kids and the fact it's been two years since they last had a good night out - that would be right up my street!

I wish you every success with it - it sounds fab :) xxxxx

sKePTiKal

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2012, 02:01:31 PM »
And you're gonna help tame those "inner feral cats" we have too??   :D
Sign me UP!
Success is never final, failure is never fatal.

Redhead Erin

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2012, 12:34:29 AM »
Oh, thank you, all of you.  My community has so many great activities that people just don't take advantage of, and it would be so nice to help people get fit and try new things.  I also know a ton of people who have some kind of side-business and would love to be able to market to this crowd but dont always know where to find them. 

I have a ton of ideas running around in my head, but I tend to be the kind of person who gets ahead of myself. While I was driving by son back from the state fair I made up a list of stuff I have to do FIRST, in each of 4 areas of my life--website, homeschool, household organization, and business dream.  Now I need to just do what I have to do.

sKePTiKal

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Re: Making Lemonade
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2012, 07:16:59 AM »
Quote
I tend to be the kind of person who gets ahead of myself.

Yeah, I've heard this a lot about me, too. My response is, that it's the source of my motivation --  ;)

In experience, I've found that people in planning sessions get all bogged down in the details (and arguing over them) about how to do something -- BEFORE they even have a concrete idea of what they want to do. How does a person know what they want to do? They let themselves dream about, get excited about, and become connected to an idea that only exists in imagination... the future.

Even if that dream isn't all that clear or "set" or definite... without that emotional connection to "what could be"... it's always difficult to find a reason to bother with, put up with, work my way through... all the work and boring stuff (legal stuff, organization, etc) necessary to make it happen.

Just don't let the dreaming part become the only thing you do! (and that's probably what people mean, when they say "you're getting ahead of yourself").

You go, Erin -- pull the pieces of the picture together any way, in any order that makes sense to you... or as life allows -- and trust in your ability to know what, when, where and how... and knowing you can ask for help when you're not sure. The idea is worth you being up to the challenge! 

Good luck! (Luck doesn't hurt, either!)

:D
Success is never final, failure is never fatal.