We were lucky to catch up with Tony Bonvechio recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tony, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

My craziest experience as a business owner happened shortly setting out on my own. It involved some deceitful landlords and nearly cost me my entire business.

After opening my own powerlifting gym in 2017 with a business partner, I ended that partnership at the end of 2021 and set out on my own. I inherited the original 5-year lease in our original location which expired in October with no option to renew. I needed to find an industrial rental space suitable for a powerlifting gym. Local inventory had been low for years and I didn’t have much time before we’d find ourselves training in a parking lot.

In the spring, I stumbled across a Facebook ad for a space available a few towns over in a great area. Good size, great visibility from a main road, new construction, an area central to many of my existing customers with tons of potential. And the price was reasonable.

Seemed too good to be true. And it was.

After putting down a deposit in April, we were due to move in June. Over the next few months, I brushed off red flag after red flag in terms of my soon-to-be landlord’s strange behavior. Requesting to meet at odd times of day. Discouraging me from getting in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce. Hiring sketchy people to do plumbing and electrical work. I brushed it all off.

Three days before we were supposed to move, I got a call. The town had shut down the buildout of what was supposed to be our new location. My landlords had lied about obtaining zoning and building permits. And they hadn’t paid their property taxes – ever. I couldn’t legally occupy the space. “Nobody’s getting in there in any time soon,” the town building inspector told me.

What’s more, I’d already given my current landlord notice that I was leaving and had to come crawling back, leaning on the legality of my previous lease which allowed me to stay until October. And the cherry on top: my would-be landlords went radio silent when I asked for my deposit back.

I was devastated. I’d made a big deal about the move to all my clients and had already publicly announced our new location in an attempt to drum up new business. I’d spent more money in a three-month period on the deposit and new equipment than I’d spent in any other period of my entire life, including when I bought my house.

The stress of scrambling to find a new location, having less cash on hand than ever before, filing a lawsuit against a couple crooked landlords… and did I mention my wife and I were pregnant with our second child? I was so angry and bitter at the world for throwing all this nonsense at me all at once. It felt like too much to handle. There were times I wanted to quit. And there were times I felt so angry that people who’d made their way out of my business had been dealt an easier hand, somehow side-stepping this freight train of bad luck.

Luckily I had the support of so many amazing people. They helped remind me to focus on what I could control, to see the blessing inside the curse. As Ryan Holiday wrote in his book The Obstacle is the Way, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

I did my fair share of sulking, but when I got my head on straight, I realized this was an opportunity to rethink my entire approach. Rather than taking on a bigger, more expensive space, we found a smaller space for less money, significantly reducing our overhead costs. It was closer to the previous location, which allowed us to retain 100 percent of our client roster. We streamlined our training approach to accommodate our members in the new space and established new scheduling policies to control foot traffic. All in all, our business came out better and stronger on the other side.

I also learned so much in the process. Next time I need to negotiate a lease, deal with town officials, or hire a lawyer, I’ll be that much more confident and affluent. I won’t make the same mistake twice.

Oh yeah, and we got our money back. Suing someone isn’t as fun as it sounds.

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

My name is Tony and I am obsessed with strength training.

I’m a strength coach and owner of Bonvec Strength, the premiere strength training gym in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Previously, I co-owned The Strength House in Worcester, where we trained powerlifters, team sport athletes and strength enthusiasts from all walks of life.

Prior to that, I spent three years coaching at Cressey Sports Performance in Hudson, Massachusetts, and worked as a personal trainer in Providence, Rhode Island.

I’m a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and earned my Master’s degree in exercise science from Adelphi University in 2013.

I’ve worked with people of all shapes, sizes and abilities. I’ve helped professional baseball players, record-setting powerlifters, marathon runners, TV producers, Ivy League professors and more. While I still train primarily competitive powerlifters, I get the most fulfillment out of helping people who are brand new to strength training. I love watching people fall in the love with the process and realize all the amazing things they’re capable of or never thought they could do.

I’m also an avid writer, and my articles have appeared on various websites such as Yahoo Sports, Testosterone Nation, MyFitnessPal and Bodybuilding.com.

Prior to my coaching career, I played baseball at Saint Michael’s College, a small Division II school in Vermont, where I played catcher and led the team in home runs and slugging percentage as a senior.

I’ve been competing in powerlifting since 2010. My personal best competition lifts include a 578 squat, 405 bench press and 584 deadlift to achieve elite status in the 198-pound weight class and Master status in the 220-pound weight class. I continue to train and compete in powerlifting as my competitive outlet.

When I’m not training others or myself, I enjoy fishing, drinking craft beer, playing guitar and listening to heavy metal music at ear-shattering volume. Most importantly, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When I initially opened a gym in 2017, my then-business partner and I had a thriving online coaching and seminar business alongside the income we generated from in-person training. Many trainers go the opposite route: train people in person, and then try to scale their business by going online. However, our online business gave us enough capital to open a brick-and-mortar facility without taking on any debt or outside investors. It also made us profitable without a single in-person client, taking off the pressure of having to drum up a bunch of brand new business right away.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Word of mouth has always been our strongest source of new business. No matter how much time, effort and money I’ve put into other types of marketing, nothing has worked as well as overdelivering to our existing clients so they spread the word to their friends and families. It may not be the fastest way to generate new leads, but it’s the most consistent and cost-effective.

Contact Info:

• Website: bonvecstrength.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonvec_strength
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BonvecStrength
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonvecstrength
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyBonvechio

Image Credits
William McCarthy