The journey to building a company and getting a successful business off the ground is rife with moments that either challenge or solidify relationships. However, there will be a few watershed moments along the way that will sit close to your heart because they define your relationship. This is the story of a day that defined and solidified my partnership with Carol (my friend and business partner).

In this previous post, I shared the story of my first investment proposal that went horribly wrong. A major reason for that pitch going wrong was my unpreparedness. I asked for an investment of over a quarter of a million dollars but I didn’t provide a detailed financial forecast or a cash-flow break down. Potential investors want to know exactly how their money is being used, and when they can expect to see some returns – if it was your money, wouldn’t you expect the same? When I convinced another potential investor to let me pitch my idea to him and his business partner, I knew that I had to be better prepared with a financial forecast and detailed cash-flow. So one autumn Sunday afternoon in October, Carol and I went to work on doing just that.

We started around 2pm on Sunday afternoon and worked away, line by line, item by item, how every single dollar would be spent. At about 6pm, I got a call from my son’s mother who insisted that I pick him up and watch him for a few hours. It was a 25 minute drive each way, but when you need to take care of your child, you drop what you’re doing, and you get it done. Carol was very understanding and continued plugging away while I went to get him. When I returned, I had my 11 month old son in one arm, and a stack of papers in the other. He had attachment issues back then so he refused to let me put him down – I secretly didn’t mind. However, it was hard to be productive while trying to entertain a baby in a small apartment; but we kept working away.

Midnight passed and we were still working on the spreadsheet. I had no intention of going to bed until everything was complete, and I realized that Carol has the same mindset. As exhausted as we were, we both kept plugging away and encouraging each other; that’s when I really realized that we were going to be a strong team. We worked relentlessly through the night until finally, at 6:15am, we were finished. Over 16 hours spent on that spreadsheet, but it was complete. After taking Carol home, I came back to bed, slept for 3 hours, and was at the gym for my 11am client. Carol also had work the next day.

That night I realized that I had a partner who is as hungry and passionate as I am about this company. That spreadsheet is the foundation for all the future spreadsheets that were eventually created, and it helped us land the perfect investors… more on that later

Remember:

• When the initial excitement of a new project wears off, that’s when commitment, discipline and dedication come in.
• Carol and I recite this every time we hit an obstacle with this business: “If getting rich was easy, everyone would be doing it”. It’s a simple but effective reminder that building a successful business is supposed to be challenging.
• Lastly, in the words of the late Steve Jobs, whose Stanford commemoration speech really inspired me to follow my dreams: “Stay hungry, stay foolish”.

Watch his speech here:

On this, the eve of construction for our first Anytime Fitness gym, I wanted to share some thoughts about the last 13.5 months:

• Have a sense of humour. (That’s me at 1am – those are the drawings I submitted the next day for our building permit). The one thing that made this challenging year manageable was our ability to laugh. You’re going to run into countless setbacks when you’re starting up a business, it’s inevitable; just remember that everything will be ok if you persevere. Find the humour in a tough situation – it really helps. The biggest laugh for me and Carol is that we actually thought we could open this club in December 2010… Serious L.O.L!

• Things always have a way of working out. No matter how hopeless a situation may seem, a solution always exists, it’s a matter of how hard you’re willing to work for it. Never say something can’t work unless you actually try it.

• Hopeless situations can inspire true genius. I’ve personally encountered situations over the last year where I honestly felt like I was completely out of options. However, tough situations force you to think outside the box; it challenges your mind to be more creative, and in the process, builds grit and character.

• Take time to see how far you’ve come. (Carol holding the coveted building permit – it took us 4 months of hell to get this).  I can honestly say that it hasn’t sunken in that in less than 24 hours, work will finally start on our gym. Imagine how we were feeling 6 months ago – we were hoping to open in July. If 6 months ago, someone had said that we won’t start construction until September 15th, we’d be completely devastated. However, today I’m very excited.  In times when it seems like there is no end in sight, take the time to look back on how far you’ve come. Don’t look at the coming 6 months, pat yourself on the shoulder for the previous 6 months where you kept working; this helps to keep you motivated.

• Enjoy the journey. As challenging as this year has been, I know that 5 years from now, when we hopefully have 6 clubs open, this will be the year that we remember the most – the first club. I’ve grown so much in the last 13 months that I honestly wouldn’t change anything about it. If the last year has taught me anything is that there are no problems, only opportunities to succeed. Every obstacle that you encounter and overcome is another badge of merit to you; validation that you do have what it takes to succeed! Remember the little victories, the hard work, the sacrifice, the quiet moments – embrace everything.  

Now, the next chapter begins – It’s all smooth sailing from here! Right?… haha not quite.. but BRING IT ON.

An amazing and inspiring speech by Apple co-founder CEO. 

This week I’ve decided to take a break from the story-telling to share some of my other business attempts that didn’t quite work out.

They say that behind every overnight success is ten years of hard work. This definitely applies to me even though we haven’t opened the doors to our first club yet. To get to the point where Carol and I now stand is an achievement in itself because we had to overcome countless setbacks. However, every aspiring entrepreneur has had their fair share of failures. If you think about it, in business you’re probably going to have more failures than you do successes. Before Anytime Fitness, here are some of the things I’ve dabbled in over the last 10 years:

• E-Commerce website:  After high school I became a computer programmer in hopes of building an e-commerce website that would allow customers in the Caribbean, specifically Guyana, to purchase products online and have it shipped to them. The site was built and functional, but Guyana was well behind the times when it came to handling transactions over the internet. Shipping to Guyana also posed a problem. This never took off.

• Import clothing:  Imported brand name clothes and shoes from factories in China, Taiwan and Malaysia and sold them on eBay and at my school (Seneca College). The first 6 months were great; my business partner and I were raking it in and getting more and more orders. The catch – Factories in those Asian countries disguised the shipments as cheap household items (coasters, table mats). Whenever we opened a box, we usually had to peel through a layer of plastic plates, or novelty calendars until we found the “hidden” brand name shoes and clothes. I didn’t want to do this forever so I cashed my chips in and walked away with a few thousand dollars. If you feel like the people you’re doing business with are not doing things by the book (like misrepresenting items being shipped), walk away. There are no shortcuts in life, nor in business.

• Clothing design: My friend and I came up with the idea to create a brand that caters to the Caribbean market. The idea was to have the clothing designs be specific to a certain country – highlighting national pride in a sense. The first design aimed to visually capture the words sung by Damian Marley in his song, “Welcome to Jamrock”. I’m really proud of this shirt because I saw it all the way through – from concept to design, manufacture to sale. I sold dozens of these on eBay.

 - This is the design. Thanks to Rustom who turned my vision into reality!

• : I tried to duplicate the success I had with importing clothing and re-selling it. This worked well for a while but it became a hassle to trek back and forth from my apartment to the post office every time I needed to ship something. So then I looked into drop-shipping. Drop shipping seemed attractive because I never had to order anything and store it. I went with a company called SIMPLX. Let me say that this was one of the worst things I’ve ever gotten myself into. Simplx is a huge rip-off. $248 to sign up, products already marked up making it very hard to mark up anything for your own profit, and they charged my credit card twice and refused to give me a refund. I eventually got all my money back after weeks or persistence. I was just happy to get my money back.

• : Some of you may have heard or even tried Amway. Amway seems great but really it’s just another pyramid scheme. I went to the meetings, signed up, tried them out, and lost about $200. They say that for every sale made from your website, you earn points. How much money you make depends on how many points you earn in a month. What they don’t tell you is that at the end of the month, your point total goes back to zero. So if you have bad month and you come 2 points shy of earning some money,  those points won’t roll over into the next month. In other words, if you need 100 points to get paid but get to 99, you get NOTHING.

• : I became an Amazon associate in 2009 and sold products online for a commission. Amazon has so many great products at discounted prices and in many cases, shipping is free. Also, since Amazon is such a reputable company, people never hesitate when purchasing from them. I made $5000 in 3 months and used the money to buy my first new car  

• Personal Training management website: When I started getting more private clients for personal training. I thought it would be great if I had a website that would allow clients to log in and keep track of their progress. I would be able to monitor their progress and upload new workout programmes to their profiles from my computer. They would be able to be anywhere in the world but still have the access to their file and of course, to me! There are a few website like this but they’re confusing to navigate and not as efficient as it could be. I started preliminary work with this but it requires a lot of work to get off the ground. This project needs a team of at least five dedicated people with knowledge of fitness and programming.

• Personal Training Studio: I started this project with Carol, my current business partner. We started the initial leg work required to get the studio up and running but it was difficult during the economic downturn in 2008. This never materialized but ended up being the most important thing that never happened. I’ll explain this in detail in its’ post.

• E-Book: I wrote a book in 2009-2010. It discusses the importance and connection of emotional and physical health. I talk about my personal challenges with weight and how a healthy mind is the key to a healthy body. This is what I was working on when Anytime Fitness came into my life. I’ve shelved this for now because the opportunity to co-own my own chain of gyms was too good to pass up. Who knows, I might get this book out one day

 So, have you ever tried to start your own business? I’d love to hear your experiences. Leave  a comment below!