We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annette Yates a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Annette, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Our beautiful studios are located in the South Mountain community of Phoenix, Arizona., an underserved community in Phoenix, AZ. We are unique in that we not only offer clients a welcoming atmosphere at our affordable studios, but we also offer marketing assistance for their classes and events.

We rent space for private/group dance & fitness classes, choreographer’s rehearsals, group/private parties, model calls/fashion, talent show rehearsals, etc.

For those also seeking studio space to offer educational workshops, community events, corporate team building strategy sessions, networking mixers, videography and photography shoots, receptions, etc. in a beautiful space with a kitchen area and a main studio that accommodates up to 80 guests, we’d like to welcome you to our Setay Family!

Our Serenity studio is available for practitioners to offer Reiki, Individual & Couples Massages, Reflexology, Fascia Stretching and other Healthy Lifestyle Modalities.

We are located at 7430 S. 48th St., Phoenix, AZ 85042, You are invited to reserve space via our website: www.studiosatsetay.com or text to request information at 602-438-7455.

Annette, 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?

After relocating to Phoenix, AZ from Richmond, Virginia and being downsized in 2009 during the housing downturn within three weeks of my arrival, while working out next door at Curves South Mountain, three weeks later, the owners sent a notice that they would shut down in seven days.

As a result, I was fortunate enough to purchase the business and run it for five years prior to turning it into Setay Dance and Fitness. During the pandemic to survive, I pivoted my business model and changed the name to Studios @ Setay.

Studios @ Setay is located in South Mountain/South Phoenix and recently has been designated as one of Arizona’s Blue Zones. This designation identifies our community as underserved. This means residents are lacking access to the affordable healthy lifestyle amenities and nutritional necessities and are prone to a life expectancy 14 years shorter than most citizens in nearby communities.

As the owner of Studios @ Setay, I saw a need to uplift the South Phoenix community by offering affordable space rental for healthy lifestyle dance and fitness classes, information sharing workshops, and community family-style events.

Studios @ Setay ‘s target audiences consist of individual/group dance and fitness instructors, choreographers, event planners as well as individuals in search of affordable studio rental space to offer community and family-style events.

My vision now includes offering the community higher levels of healthy lifestyle practices. Setay now also offers affordable space rental to practitioners of Reiki, Reflexology, Facia Stretching, Massage therapy.

Studios @ Setay barely made it through the pandemic financially. Thanks to my frugal financial budgeting practices, ingenuity and using my personal retirement income, Studios @ Setay has now been in business for eight years.

The vision is to expand Setay’s community outreach by leveling up the healthy lifestyle options that Setay and other small businesses have to enhance the cultural aspect of the communities in South Mountain/South Phoenix.

My partner and I applied for and received our 501c3 during the pandemic and have formed the Non-Profit, “The Future is Now Initiative”, so that we can partner with like-minded businesses and organizations to execute plans to secure a larger facility to create a multi-faceted Cultural Center to enhance the facets of our business model to expand to more youth and seniors in our community.

Our plan is as follows:

The Future is Now Initiative, is a community oriented 501c3 with a vision to partner with Studios @ Setay and other entities with the desire to create a futuristic cultural center in or near South Mountain/South Phoenix. The purpose is to offer impactful high quality neighborhood cultural programs.

The center’s focus will feature indoor tennis/pickleball courts, high tech community enrichment programs that will also be a catalyst to offer affordable community focused healthy lifestyle classes, events, and workshops.

The target audiences are underserved youth, adults and seniors caring for their grandchildren, etc. The center will comprise 4 elements:

 Youth Robotics Training
 Youth Computer Game Development Programming Classes
 Family Focused Nutrition Education
 Unique Healthy Lifestyle Dance and Physical Fitness programs

Current Status:

 Schedule strategic brainstorming sessions to clearly define and solidify the Vision and Mission statements.

Actions:

 Secure like-minded partners willing to invest and partner.
 Determine actionable strategy planning and workplan task.
 Identify potential 501c investors, donors etc.
 Identify and engage grant writers.
 Identity professional development workshops that will deliver the following results:
• Student engagement vs engaged students
• Critical thinking
• Math Anxiety
 Document Vision Statement
 Document Mission Statement
 Develop strategic workplan

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

After being unexpectedly downsized from my long time Information Technology Career after three weeks of relocating to Phoenix, purchasing a failing business during the downturn in the economy, and only knowing my daughter, who was attending ASU, and my son who relocated from Virginia to keep his position with Bank of America, I realized they were the only emotional support I had to discuss the purchase of this failing business, being as tenacious as I’ve been all my life, I just went for it with God’s Grace.

Having no personal or business connections in Phoenix to lead me in the right direction to fund my business, or to partner with, etc., I had no choice but to use the funds I received from being downsized and eventually my retirement funds to keep all of my businesses afloat as a self-funded Solopreneur.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As a Solopreneur, you must have a creative, executable and sustainable business model to survive. To continually be resilient, one must have tenacity and the faith to re-invent their business processes as needed, especially in two financially challenging economies. Having a technology background and an economical frame of mind has been very helpful in being resilient and able to keep my businesses afloat.

Studios @ Setay is my third creatively executed business model that has resulted in success for many of my clients. Although, business ownership has been very satisfying being able to enhance the healthy lifestyles of a diverse clientele and their families over fourteen years, weathering two economic downturns and a pandemic have really been a challenge financially.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.studios@setay.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/setay2014
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/setay2014
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/setay2014
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/studiosatsetay

Image Credits
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