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

Hi Lindsay, thanks for joining us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

As a business owner, I always knew there would be a time where we would face adversity, like a stock market crash. But what I wasn’t prepared for was a world wide pandemic. I was pregnant with my first child in 2019, with a due date of mid-March of 2020. As my due date approached, I saved up money to take maternity leave and hired another trainer to cover my clients when I was out on leave.

On March 19, 2020, I went into labor at the same time that our governor came on my television to tell Austin to shut down all gym entities and non-essential places of work. So there I was, in labor for the first time, calling my coaches, clients, and other employees to tell them we will be closed for the foreseeable future. I had over 70% of clients cancel or pause their gym membership as I was having contractions.

I will never forget when the nurse handed me my baby and asked me what I did for work. I quivered as I answered with “I’m not sure anymore. I use to own a gym and now it’s closed. I use to be a competitive weightlifter, but now I just had a c-section surgery. I use to be a personal trainer, but I don’t know if I have clients anymore. So I don’t know what I do for work now.”

It was in that moment, holding my baby boy, that I felt uncertain of how our story would end.

As months went by, I went into survival mode as I eventually had to strap my new baby to my chest and go back to work, coaching clients outside to save money just to pay rent. With time, I rebuilt my business and pivoted my business model to survive. It’s this experience that has taught me that my gym can survive anything if I set my mind to it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my business out of necessity. I was working at a gym where I was the only female trainer. What I noticed is that most of our clients were female with the goal of wanting to lose weight and build strength in a way that fit their lifestyle. Since the gym was run by primarily men, the coaching style catered to men which didn’t support our client’s goals. This experience drove me to open up my own gym that was more aligned with what women wanted and needed out of personal training. My coaching style was more gentle at the beginning, while slowly building resistant training with conditioning elements to create a balanced approach to working out. I also asked my clients questions about how they were feeling at every session so I could truly tailor a custom workout that fit their energy demand and body’s needs.

What I learned quickly from opening up my own gym was that I was in a place where I loved what I do, yet had no idea how to run a business. So I had to learn really fast. I took out a loan and leased a space that was previously a gym so it was easy to move into. I hired a business coach to learn the basics like accounting, website development, and marketing. After moving in, I found myself needing more clients to cover expenses which meant I needed to truly learn into my marketing efforts.

I started by asking for referrals and leaning into social media. I also reached out to previous clients to see who was interested in training with me. These approaches blew me away, because I built my entire business by myself within one year by simply waking up everyday and executing simple marketing strategies. This validated my decision to start my own personal training gym as I truly cared about my clients and their results, which was always shared to me through reviews.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

I bought a small gym in the past and have shopped around for other gyms to buy in order to grow the business. With the first purchase, I took out a loan to buy the business and truly analyzed what I was buying. I met with the previous owner to understand her current business model, the gym’s PnL, lease agreement, any debt collected and her membership contracts. After analyzing her business, I discovered that she wasn’t profitable, which didn’t match her story.

After learning that the business wasn’t profitable, I then negotiated what I would actually be purchasing. So I settled on only purchasing the gym equipment for $10K. We signed the contract and I took out a loan to pay her. I also met with the landlord to take over the lease.

After the transition, I wanted to call it my own which meant a ton of changes. This did not sit well with her which lead to a falling out, but now I know that this is common and to not expect the previous owner to be aligned with my vision.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

One piece of advice I got from my accountant when starting my business was to pay your rent & staff first, and to let everything else sit on your credit card if needed. This made me act very diligent when it came to liquid cash to cover payroll & rent. It also led me to a maxed out credit card that took me over a year to pay off. That year I barely paid myself and pretty much worked my butt off to pay bills, credit cards, and staff.

After that year, I learned the value of profit and saving. It was these two accounting terms that honestly saved me during COVID. I had enough in saving to pay myself for 3-6 months. I also knew that if I had any profits, I would save 50% of it. This allowed me to cover payroll on months where we didn’t make ends meet.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.embodyfitnessatx.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifestylebylindsay/ or https://www.instagram.com/embodyfitnessatx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/embodyfitnessaustin/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/embody-fitness-austin

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/taylorprinsenphotography/