So as I said last week, ole Zach came back into the picture looking for a job while we were at the 1908 Capitol Trail Location. He was a decent enough coach, although he was a lying sack of shit (I didn't know it then). Zach had never competed in a an actual sanctioned fight. He trained around, and according to him, did lots of training and fighting at other gyms. He had a strong LAX background, which I find myself questioning now but, whatever. He had history with Ted, Tim and myself so it appeared to be a good fit. He hopped in and started teaching the cardio classes without a hitch. He could fill a room and was charismatic two of the most important things as a trainer. While he was working there, Brandon (from the failed Nottingham experiment) was also still training. He hadnt screwed us over yet and there was some overlap there between the two of them. A year or so later, we did the Nottingham venture and Brandon was out of the picture. I ended up stepping up and filling the void of skilled instructor while still managing my own personal training schedule (15-20 clients) the advertising, and I was slowly cutting my teeth on the back side of the business. There was a guy named Tim, a real good dude who I learned a lot about exercise science, even though he was a bit strange. He was reliable and never called out. He was very religious and that would sometimes cross over into work which we had to shut down a few times. There are 3 rules in the work place, no politics, no religion, and don't fuck your clientele. He unfortunately had issues with the second one. Cant be leading prayer circles as a Christian before workouts when you have no idea what beliefs other people have. That was a headache.
The business flourished at the 1908 location. I was making more money then before (still not a lot but, again, I loved what I was doing). But I had ambitions, I wanted more and I figured that more should come in the form of more gyms. Ted agreed however, as a far wiser man then I was at the time, he saw the risk and smartly kept me on track building Newark up. By the time we were nearing our end of lease (3 years after initially moving), Ted told me he was done with Knockout and I needed to buy it. I had no idea how anything of that worked, but I started going around trying to get a bank to give me 100,000. No surprise, no one would even entertain me. I had to dig back into what I learned at school, and put together an actual business plan. So armed with my new "plan" I went back to the banks...and I failed again. This time, strength of credit....I had a good score, 740+ but no real history. All this time, we are inching closer and closer to the end of the lease. I'm frantically searching for new spaces, none of which were in my price range (4-5k/month) that also offered what I was looking for. I finally connected with Alicia Fox from DSM and she opened my eyes, started taking me to some spots to show and advising on how best to approach this.
Now this entire time Id been driving by this tiny little retail space in "The shoppes of Redmill" center. I knew it was there but there was no way it would work. Too small, too low of ceilings. But as Alicia and I continued to strike out I was left with that tiny little retail space as my final option. Alicia reached out to the opposing agent and talks started...and continued and...finally...someone took a chance on me. They didn't want to lock me into a long term lease (5+) and that was fine, but they gave me a 3 plus 1 year option to renew. I agreed, and worked with Alicia on how a lease actually worked. She knew that I was after the lowest monthly rate possible. She was great, I got 3 months of rent abatement on top of a limited responsibility for HVAC issues ($500 deductible) and we had a good strategy for securing the lowest rate possible. At this point I had 90 days to get out of the 1908 spot. Redds Ferris had bought the spot and made it very clear that he had no interest in having us there. He even screwed Ted and I out of the security deposit once I had vacated the spot claiming that It wasn't left as I had found it (it was. It was just your typical big guy shitting on the smaller guy thing, he's an asshole, whatever).
The final 60 days of the 1908 gym and transition to the 1450 location were, up to that point, the busiest and hardest I had ever worked. I was spending 6am - 9 am at 1450 building the space which included demo of all the walls, removal of tile flooring, installation of 2800/sq/ft of LVP flooring, installation of a shower, new equipment, signage (which is very expensive). Then I'd spend all day at 1908 training my clientele and when we finished for the night I'd go back to 1450 to continue working. My GF (now wife) was there, with her father and family members helping me get that place together in time. The support I got from our families enabled me to get it all done in time and come 1/1/2017, I had managed to pull it off. Ted had realized I wasn't going to be able to secure the $100,000 he was asking for so, he ended up just handing the keys over, we came to a gentlemen's agreement for future endeavors and then I was off on my own. A new business owner, a fledgling entrepreneur...full of ideas and motivation. I finally owned something, I had something to talk about. It was a proud moment indeed...And I had no idea what I was in for.
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