We were lucky to catch up with LeRoy Franklin recently and have shared our conversation below.

LeRoy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My hero and biggest influence is my dad. I have learned countless life lessons from him but one of the most relevant to being a business owner is how to persevere through hard times. We are all going to lose and get knocked down in life but what matters is that we always get back up. My dad has always supported my athletic, academic, and entrepreneurial ventures and has been an exceptional role model and leader not just for our family but our community.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is LeRoy Franklin and I am the creator and owner of Work Over Weakness LLC. Work Over Weakness is a fitness and wellness-based apparel company with the mission to inspire and motivate people to become the best version of themselves. I started WOW while playing football and earning my engineering degree at the University of Louisiana Lafayette in 2019. I wanted to create a brand that represents myself and my work ethic and determination. Currently, WOW sells shirts, hoodies, sweats, tank tops, hats, and various other apparel. WOW is also now partnered with Total Performance Fitness, a wellness facility, and gym in Stafford Texas. Although there is still a lot of growth and work to be done I am extremely proud of where WOW is. It has taken countless sleepless nights and failures to get WOW where it is today and I wouldn’t trade the journey or experience for anything.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started my LLC while studying and playing football as an undergraduate student. Being a D1 student-athlete studying engineering made it almost impossible to get a job and save extra money to start a business. I relied heavily on friends and favors to get a lot of graphic design work and initial planning done for Work Over Weakness. I was blessed to play for a very talented Ragin Cajuns football team throughout college and because of this, I went to multiple bowl games. To pay for the LLC filing I used the money saved from bowl games. I have never had any investors or any source of crowdfunding so I had to think of an out-of-the-box way to fund my business.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I chose to build my website using Shopify. Shopify allows merchants to seamlessly integrate with countless other platforms. Social media platforms have proven effective in generating sales, specifically Instagram and Facebook. I looked into selling on Amazon but after looking at the price adjustments I would have needed to make it did not seem worth it yet.

Contact Info:

• Website: workoverweakness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workoverweaknessllc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/work.weakness/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorkOverWeaknes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL-XdVLfNkn08gD-VQEfvMA