Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nichole Elmore. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nichole, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
2One Life Studio has gone from being a boutique fitness studio specializing in virtual fitness experience to opening it’s first store front public boutique fitness studio. Thanks to our time of doing virtual fitness before and during the pandemic, we were able to expand into a brick and mortar space within our own community of Douglasville, GA. It might look simple but there really is a lot of sweat and work we put into everything we do. 2One Life went from being established mid 2019 about 60% in person and 40% virtual to being 100% virtual by May of 2020. With consistency, hard work and dedication the clients came and classes flourished. Once pandemic begin to slow down we took the leap of faith and decided to open our first store front boutique fitness studio. We offer both Virtual and In-Person options for Personal Training Services and Group Fitness Classes. We are only 4 minutes across the railroad tracks from downtown Douglasville’s Gumbos restaurant. We opened our doors January 1, 2022 and officially announced our opening by February 1st, 2022. The community has embraced us with open arms ever since!
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
Let me introduce myself! I am Nichole Owner founder and Owner of the boutique fitness studio 2One Life, LLC. I am a Certified Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor. My business was born from the need for fitness affordability, convenience & accessibility. I’ve been a fitness instructor since 2014. Through my years of experience I’ve grown from just being the ordinary fitness instructor to a mentor, fitness guru and friend to many of my class participants. Through talking with my students and listening, I discovered a need for more affordable fitness, accessibility (especially for people living in rural areas) and convenience. That’s when I decided to take my fitness business virtual in 2018. I was finally able to open up my boutique fitness studio 2One Life in July 2019. The decision to go virtual was easy for me but the execution of my dream was not. I experienced many hiccups and costly mistakes along the way. Through the difficulty came experience and know-how. in 2020, once the pandemic began we were ready, our process was perfected and running smoothly. Our job was to keep class participants motivated and encouraged throughout the pandemic. By retaining our virtual following we became successful and were able to expand our presence in January 2022! I never dreamed 2One Life would have international clients, work with corporations or have a brick and mortar building, but here we are. Whether they are personal training or group fitness clients, we pride ourselves on being able to deliver knowledgeable services, convenience and best of all RESULTS!
2One Life was recently nominated and received the award as one of Douglas County’s five “Small Business to Watch” for 2022! What an honor for our community to choose us out of 75 other nominees. The community believes in us and our decision to make the change from mostly virtual to a solid presence turned out to be a good one. This journey has been amazing and I am excited for what the future holds.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I started 2One Life with money I have saved from teach fitness classes. I started with what I could afford. I knew I eventually wanted my own fitness studio but I started by sharpening my craft. I taught many classes $30 here, $40 there. Then I landed a few contracts with some small business, finally moving forward to landing corporate contracts for much more money. I continued to save for about 3 years and then once the pandemic hit, I took advantage of any grants I qualified for. I stayed away from the loans. Saving this money allowed me to prepare and be ready for when opportunity presented itself. My studio was easy to furnish and just saving the old fashioned way was the best thing I could have done.
Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses
I never bought a business before but renting a building was certainly a new experience that I’ve never done before. I can share my process with you. First, we found the perfect spot to lease so we went to visit it. Once our visit was over they sent us some qualifications we had to meet. They needed my personal and business information for background and credit checks. Then I have so submit 6 months of financials for my business account. Checking and savings. Then the building owner had some questions for me and the purpose of my wanting to lease the building. After that the contract was sent. I got called my real estate attorney Arnice Foster of “The Foster Firm” and the helped me negotiate my contract. They were extremely knowledgeable and I had peace of mind knowing she had my best interests at hand. They nearly got me everything I asked for! I would highly recommend hiring an attorney before signing anything when it come to your rental agreement. That was worth the money and The Foster Firm was nothing short of AMAZING!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.2one.life
- Instagram: @2onelifestudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2onelife/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/2onelife
Image Credits
Douglas County Chamber