We were lucky to catch up with Marc Payne recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marc thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

My family and I have just moved to GA from CA. In California I had a franchise gym and private training studio, but covid wiped out most of that unfortunately! I knew I wanted to do it again, The amazing feeling of having a community gym full of people all coming together for health and wellness is priceless, and I want to build it again here, so Here I go.

The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who jumps off the cliff, and builds the plain on the way down, and I did it without a parachute! I’m new to the area so building a business with no help, all my own capital, finding the location and jumping right in was and is a risk, but the will and drive to do something great lives inside me! Helping others to make a lasting change is priceless!!!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

At the age of 16 I weighed in at around 350lbs. With some drive and motivation, plus a lot of trial and error I was able to lose over 150lbs, and changed my world from within. Many years later I worked as a trainer at 24 hour fitness. There I started helping a young lady who wanted to lose around 80lbs, and so we trained together for several months, she was very motivated to see results and worked hard so I knew she would get to where she wanted to go. But things change and I moved on from that job. Several months later while walking around with friends in San Jose, a young lady came up to me, put her arms around me and started to cry, I had no idea who she was, my friends laughing saying “What did you do Marc?” And again, I had no idea who she was! So she finally stepped back, wiped away the tears and told me who she was, The young lady i was helping at 24 hour fitness. She had lost over 75lbs and completely changed inside and out. The feeling she gave me was unreal, And I knew then that helping to change peoples lives is what i wanted to do! Almost 28 years later and I have had many of success stories, and I’m always on the hunt for another one!!!

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

So this one is a little unfortunate! My family and I had planned to move to GA about a year or so before covid. It was not an easy thing to do! Finding an agent, posting it on sites, reaching out to friends and family members and trying to find someone who will carry on the commitment and standards that I have built, as the members there were family and I wanted to make sure it would carry on with its success! I was able to find two amazing gentlemen who had worked in the fitness industry and were very excited to own a gym of there own. So we started down the path, Accounting books, Year over year profit and loss reports, monthly and yearly gross revenue, Trainer reviews, lease agreements, franchise agreements and so on. And on March 5th 2019 I got a call from them and we made a deal. Fantastic right? Nope… March 15th I received a call from the city that there is a world pandemic and we are to shut down till further notice! As you can imagine it was not long before the deal disappeared, and I was stuck with an empty gym, and our hope to move fell away! Almost two years past and I was able to find another buyer, but for about $60,000 less. And though the deal went through, the new buyer unfortunately ran it into the ground and the fit fam I had bult had no place to go. That was a sad moment for me, all that time and effort put into that location, just to disappear!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

As the owner of the studio, I am the leader, head trainer, cleaner, coach and every other hat that can be warn! I am the perfect mirror for what I want my employees to be, Training, cleaning, staying busy is the name of the game! I’m right there with them, helping out the members, cleaning the bathroom, taking out the garbage, leading by example is how it should be done. Also, Talk to your staff, ask how can we help you, what would make the job better for you? How do they think things can be improved, make them part of the growing process, and ambassador for the brand. I truly believe if you take care of your staff, keep them happy, then the service with speak for itself!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bagsandbarbells.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bagsandbarbells/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089876718102

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