My Exit Strategy

Planning my exit strategy is extremely important but even more exciting to think about when envisioning the potential long term success of the business venture.  My exit strategy is to preserve Alpha Body Fitness Center as a 100% family owned business and protect the venture from outside investors and partnerships.  I want to implement my exit strategy in a two-part phase.  First, I will officially bring her into the decision making process at the age of 25 to give her time to finish college while working part-time with Alpha Body.  She will learn the operational side of the business during this time.  Once she fully understands the daily operations of the business, then I will immediately promote her to CEO at the age of 30 while I still retain full ownership.  When I feel confident that she can successfully run the business then I will retire and relinquish ownership to my daughter. 

            I chose this particular exit strategy because I don’t want my daughter to have to work for someone else her entire life.  I want her to have financial and spiritual freedom to make her own decisions without anyone having power and reign over her career.  Also, I want to pass the business to her early enough before she becomes fully invested in a career outside of the family business.  My heart is into health, fitness, and helping people which is the foundation of Alpha Body Fitness Center.  My main interest would be to create a well respected identity in Tallahassee and cities beyond that’s associated with the family name that my daughter can be proud of.  The one characteristic that describes my exit strategy is leaving behind a legacy that can be passed on for generations to come.  Finally, my plan will be to give the family business a bit of a fresh and young perspective while maintaining the long proven characteristics that defined the success of the business since inception. 

            My exit strategy has definitely influenced decisions in crafting my business venture concept.  For example, the decision to create a true family environment by delineating from just great customer service has been the foundational quality to creating a legacy that will be well respected in the community.  Also, the ancillary product mix I chose to offer such as healthy cook books, special operations workout books, herbal teas, organic supplements, etc. will help people understand that Alpha Body Fitness Center is not only interested in pushing them to reach their physical fitness goals but also their overall health and wellness.  Most importantly, Alpha Body Fitness Center will be located within residential communities which is much different that your traditional gym.  The concept of being located within the residential communities of Tallahassee gives the business an identity as a major pillar in these communities and it will be extremely hard to walk away from a business that has established strong relationships with it’s residents.  My planned exit strategy has also influenced my intentions of expansion.  I plan to pass Alpha Body Fitness Center to my daughter and the success and longevity of the business will dictate how far the business expands.

Making It Real

Below is a copy of my resume.

Resumé

Celebrating Failure

This semester has been a bit of a strain with several changes in my life happening all at one time.  First, my mother left and went back to North Carolina to let me and my wife learn how to be parents to my newborn daughter while we both juggle school and work.  Then, my family and I took a trip to North Carolina for my nephew's graduation just to return back home with news that my grandfather in Jacksonville had passed.  So, my family and I took a road trip to Jacksonville for the funeral.  Finally, my job has lost about 12 Airmen with only about four replacements which has put a tremendous amount of stress on my workload and has resulted in me working late almost everyday.  I explain these events to paint the picture of the root cause to the stress I have experienced this Summer semester.  My first test in Retail Sales and Management was a disaster and I was really disappointed in receiving a 62% (124 of 200 points) because, despite all the of the stressors, I devoted several hours of study time for the test.  I wanted to give up because I didn’t know how much harder I could have studied and still successfully manage all of the other priorities in my life.  But one thing that stood in my way was the pressure that I put on myself to flawlessly manage all of the obstacles in my life.

  Going into the second test was less stressful because I had already experienced failure in this class.  As funny as it sounds, experiencing failure feels new for each class that I take because I go into each class with an expectation of how well I will do based upon several factors such as how well I understand the material, the teaching skills of the professor, the personality of the professor, etc.  In order to bring my grade to an A- in the class I would need to score at least 96% on the second test.  Well, I had just returned from my grandfather’s funeral and I asked the teacher for an extension in which she was gracious enough to give me a two-day extension.  This was a relief because I had a few more days to study and I was very confident that would be prepared to take on the challenge for this test.  My score was shown immediately and this time I received an 84%.  This time I was not as disappointed because I had to realize that the bigger accomplishment was being able to manage work, attend my grandfather’s funeral, and balance family time with my wife and daughter, as well as still get a B on the test.  Now, I will be preparing for my final exam in MAR3231 and I am not afraid at all of failing because at this point I am not putting so much pressure on myself to perfectly mange all of the stressors in my life.  I am going into this test with a different mindset because I realize that all I can do is fully dedicate myself towards my goals with a realistic expectation of the outcome.  I am going to dig deep and give it my all on this test and not worry about failing because if I don't consume myself with failing then in the end I will not fail.  I learned that there will be times where distractions and obstacles make things harder but just because I didn’t reach my original goal of getting an A doesn’t mean that I didn’t succeed.  Right now I have a B in the class and confident that I can raise my grade to at least a B+ as my final grade.  

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

There is a great opportunity to bring community fitness centers to housing developments to cater to the fitness needs of the residents of Tallahassee.  Potential customers include residents of housing developments that don’t have the time in their busy days to drive several miles to their nearest gym or may not have the knowledge and motivation to reach their personal fitness goals. The forces in the environment that have created the opportunity is the strong desire for people to become healthier and feel great about themselves in a convenient and time efficient manner.  The most important environmental force is the influx of college graduates from Florida State and Florida A&M deciding to make Tallahassee their home due to the major infrastructural changes taking place and the plans to make the city more of a major metropolitan area.  The increase in population has had a direct effect on traffic in the city, which results in residents being less active.  Also, there are only two major gyms in Tallahassee that provide satisfactory service and equipment, which is Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness.  Both of these gyms are located on the Northside of town and there are not great options for those residents living on the Southside of Tallahassee.  Currently, most customers are satisfying their needs by becoming members at one of the two major gyms in Tallahassee or exercising at home.  Most customers are only loyal to a particular gym as a result of the geographical convenience offered by the gym.  There is a huge opportunity to offer a convenient and different type of gym atmosphere to the people of Tallahassee.  The opportunity will be open for as long as college graduates continue to contribute to the population increase in Tallahassee.

Innovation

The concept of the gym will center around an offering of classes inspired by military special operations fitness routines such as Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, Pararescuemen, Combat Rescuemen, etc.  The gym will have a swimming pool to incorporate the routines of Navy SEALS but the classes would be modified to accommodate the fitness levels of gym members.  A level of integrity and respect would be maintained to prevent the perception that I actually served as member in these career fields.  I would only use the workout routines and not incorporate a “boot camp” style environment.  However, I would invite friends that served in these career fields to conduct week long “boot camp” style classes. Also, a variety of equipment and machines will be available for housing residents to utilize 24 hours a day.  Another source of revenue will be the Sankofa Cafè which will serve various health drinks, snacks, supplements, herbal teas, breakfast sandwiches, vegan/healthy cook books, and special ops workout literature.  The cost for gym membership will be $79.99 per month and $25 per month for each additional family member to have unlimited access to classes and gym equipment.  If you choose to only use the gym equipment with 24-hour access then membership is $29.99.  Non-residents of the housing development are welcome to the gym as well but will pay an additional $19.99 per month for gym membership.

Venture Concept

This business venture will address the issue of providing convenient fitness options to housing residents of Tallahassee by placing a fitness center in a housing development that offers on-site certified personal trainers to conduct classes.  Customers will pay for the gym membership because it’s within a very close proximity of their homes and offers classes used by some of the most physically elite group of individuals in the world.  Generally, people tend to revere members of special ops career fields because of their impeccable physical stature and the unique military mission that they have volunteered to risk their lives upon.  This will attract something similar to a cult following of people interested in challenging their bodies to realize incredible physical results.  Also, my main focus is to ensure people are treated and feel like family when they enter my gym.  People will be more inclined to switch gym memberships or remain a member at my gym if they feel as sense of family and care from myself and the staff.  I want gym members to know that I genuinely care for their well-being and it will not be very hard for them to switch their gym memberships because all gyms that I was a member of never made me feel as such.  My main competitors are Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness.  Their main weakness is their lack of interaction with their members because their main focus is not offering classes to develop a personal relationship with their customers.  Their class offerings are more of an augmented service to their business model.  Their main weakness is the distance from their gym members’ homes.  The price point will make or break the success of the gym and I have to offer a reasonable price to bring an overflow of customers into the gym as well as keep my staff of certified personal trainers satisfied.  The customer experience is also key to the gym’s success because the fitness center’s main focus is a strong and positive personal relationship with our members.  The perfect location for the first location will be in the central part of Tallahassee because my main competition is on the Northside and there are not any great options for residents on the Southside.  If I locate the business in the central part of the city then I can grab a good portion of members from my competition while also catering to the needs of those living on the Southside.  More specifically, the fitness center will be located directly outside of the housing development so as to not affect traffic flow within the residential area and still serve non-residents of that community.  I would staff the gym with about three instructors and two part-time employees to work the Sankofa Cafè (only one employee needed per shift).  Most importantly, I need a CPA to manage the finances of the business.