Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathryn Gawrych. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kathryn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
The biggest most unexpected problem of my entire life was being forced to shut down my business that had only opened 9 weeks prior. I had just left the start to a very successful career at one of the big four accounting firms and put my entire life’s savings into this business. It had taken about 2 years between securing a 7A governmental loan, permits, build out, fire marshals, fire marshals, and fire marshals from getting the idea for my business to actually opening the doors. So the anticipation was incredible. When the facility opened there was about 600 children at the grand opening!!! Amazing! Couldn’t have asked for a better turn out. Flash forward 9 weeks later……..COVID-19 hits. This was supposed to be a 2 week shut down max. Gyms were closed 4 months minimum and forced to stay at a limited capacity even when reopening 4 months later. During those 4 months of full closure and about 3 more months of limited capacity my landlord had no mercy on me. With a 9,533 sq/ft facility on long island my rent was in the 5 digits per month. It felt like I would NEVER in a million years be able to survive this. I wasn’t eligible for any of the government relief due to the fact that the facility was not in operation at all until 2020. Nothing to compare to in 2019 meant nothing to receive as far as grants/loans went. Once I realized this was going to be much longer than just 2 weeks I had sent a personal email to every single family that we had pre-registered for the semester that was just supposed to start and explained the situation. If I was to refund them their money there was no way I survive this shut down. I promised that if they left their money on account credit I would do everything in my power to survive this and be there for them and their children when the world opened back up. To my surprise almost every family left their money on account credit and placed their trust in me. It was the most incredible yet scary feeling I had ever felt in my life. Oh and by the way I was 26 years old at the time. Those families did not have any reason to trust a 26 year old that they had just met with their money and the ability to survive something of this magnitude. But they did and I’m here almost 5 years later still standing and with a second location. Without the trust of those families I would not be here doing what I’m doing today.
Kathryn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Kathryn Gawrych and I am the 31 year old who owns two 10,000 sq/ft American Ninja Warrior training facilities for children and adults on Long Island, NY. I went to school to play division I volleyball at the University of Hartford in CT where I received my bachelors degree in accounting and my masters in accounting and taxation. After college I went straight to working for PwC one of the big four accenting firms in Manhattan. Many ask how I ended up the owner of 2 gyms. I’ve been an athlete my entire life and always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur which is why I studied accounting and taxation. Nothing better than being able to do your own accounting as a business owner. As an accountant working about 80 hours a week in Manhattan and commuting from Long Island every day I was missing my physical activities and needed something to keep me moving. I started to wake up even earlier in the mornings and went to a place called I love kickboxing before getting on the train. Going there regularly I started to build relationships with management and expressed my interest in owning something like this of my own someday. One day in 2017 they had mentioned that their franchise would be at a franchise expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center and that it would be a great opportunity for me to see what was out there. I had thought it seemed a little soon to start thinking about this but decided there was no harm in just looking around. So I went and that’s where I came across the American Ninja Warrior gym concept. It was very unique, had never been done before on Long Island, a little bit of a once in a life time opportunity. On the train ride back home I talked to my dad who had accompanied me that day and basically stated that if I was capable of obtaining a loan all on my own I would just go for it and if not then it wasn’t meant to be and another opportunity would arise somewhere else down the line. To my surprise I was able to secure a 7A loan on my own and now here we are almost 8 years later.
As mentioned prior I have two facilities where we train mainly children 5 – 14) but also adults (14+) on American Ninja Warrior style obstacles and courses. We are extremely structured and TEACH the clients how to overcome obstacles. It’s not just about the physical but mental as well. Our motto is “Together, We Will Overcome All Obstacles”. I strongly believe much of my generation was brought up with the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. I also believe as adults now it did not do them any favors. Many of my teammates have gone for job interviews, been denied and rather than picking back up and moving onto the next opportunity they go into a deep depression and it’s hard for them to get back up and try again. I am extremely proud to teach the children at a young age in my facilities that not everyone does get a trophy, failure is inevitable, and it’s all a matter of how you get back up and never give up. This will carry on with them for a lifetime and I believe help drive them to success in anything they set their minds to now and in their futures.
I have had many, many, many set backs in my life, I had learning disabilities, physical injuries, business hits no one should ever have to face let alone in the first quarter of the business and I WILL NEVER EVER GIVE UP. If there’s anything anyone should know about me. It’s that I am a fighter and I would do anything for my family, friends and facilities (including the children and their families).
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
Recently my father who loves to read the local Newspaper, still gets the physical copy to this day. He came across a local small business grant and sent it my way. It was the first of its kind and I just submitted an application thinking there was no harm in trying but expecting nothing to come back from it. Well, to my surprise I was one of the 25 small business across Long Island that they selected. It wasn’t much but to me a very small business where I handle all facets of the business, $5,000 is better than nothing. That wasn’t even the best part though. There was a ceremony for the winners and at that was all of the News12 anchors and personalities. Winning this gave me the opportunity to network with some very influential people. Flashforward to now, about 6 months later and I’ve been on News12 twice and have had a couple of the anchors children in my facilities for their birthday parties. Having this has helped promote my business in ways I never could before. I’ve always gone for anything and everything but I think it’s a great lesson to others that even if you think there’s no chance, there is always a chance. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky
Any advice for managing a team?
First of all building the team is where it all starts. You build a team with the right individuals and it makes it much easier to maintain that level of morale. Is it easy???? Hell no. Is it expensive? Hell yes. But is it worth it in the end? Absolutely!!!!
I love to host team bonding events for my staff where both locations come together to hangout in a fun setting like beach volleyball or a trampoline park. Just the simple gesture of putting something together outside of the work environment and hanging out outside of the facilities is enough to boost morale. I also love to treat my team the way I would have wanted to be treated when I worked for someone else. Especially when I worked for the largest accounting firm on the globe. Can I afford to really do fancy dinners or cocktail hours and things of that nature? Nope. But I do try my very best to do what I can to make them feel like I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://smithtownninja.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithtownninja/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Smithtown-Ninja-Academy-NY/100075832854417/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings?trk=d_flagship3_profile_self_view_public_profile
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@freeportninjaacademy
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/smithtown-ninja-academy-nesconset
