A Crushing Defeat – An investment pitch gone horribly wrong

One of the lowest points of this entire experience was that pitch to my friend and her financial advisor. I am an eternal optimist; I always assume that things will work out for the best. So when I learned that they had agreed to meet me, I thought that this was a done deal! Carol put together a great power point presentation highlighting the success of the Anytime Fitness franchise, and I had a some numbers showing the great returns that current franchise owners have enjoyed so far. Now I have no formal business background, so I had no knowledge of collateral, exit strategy, repayment plans etc. My plan for the meeting was to sell this vision, and present myself as a driven, energetic and passionate entrepreneur. I entered the door brimming with confidence – then it all went downhill from there.

The meeting was at my friend’s house. When I entered, the financial advisor was plopped on the couch. I walked up to him, big smile, arm extended for a handshake, and he just remained sitting. He gave me a half-hearted handshake and I could see he was sizing me up. I’ll admit it, I don’t give off an entrepreneurial, businessman-like vibe. Some days I need an extra large coffee just to elevate myself to “laid back”. Still, I kept a confident demeanour and proceeded to start with the presentation.

Right from the start, I felt that the financial advisor didn’t have a high opinion of me. I never really had the chance to make an actual presentation because I was asked a question after almost every sentence. I understand now that he was really only interested in the numbers, and rightfully so; his job is to protect his client. However, as important as numbers are, when you’re a potential investor, you are investing more in the person. If a potential investor doesn’t believe in you, it doesn’t matter how great the numbers look on paper because they don’t think that you have what it takes to replicate those same profits. I got the feeling from him that I was just another friend looking for a handout from his client. He was clearly disinterested during the power point presentation. He looked at the returns on investment and in so many words said, “This seems too good to be true”. I knew that when I left the meeting, I wasn’t going to get the funding. It was a sinking feeling. My mouth was dry, my face felt cold, and it was a long drive home.

 (The song that kept me going through this tough stretch)

In retrospect, the only thing I can really blame the financial advisor for is focusing solely on the risks and ignoring the opportunity. The biggest lesson I learned here is that you have to make potential investors feel that their money is in safe hands, and that you are also taking on the financial risk. I did neither. It’s always easy to make imaginary decisions about money you don’t have, after all, there are no real risks. Those decisions become a lot tougher when you’re dealing with you own hard-earned money. Whether you have $1000 or $100,000 of disposable income, there will always be reasons why you shouldn’t risk your hard earned money. That is the reality when seeking an investment. Why should someone trust you with their hard earned money? What if your vision doesn’t pan out and you lose that person’s money? As someone seeking an investment, you have to show that your investor’s hard earned money is in capable, responsible hands.

What I learnt from that meeting

As upset as I was about that meeting, the financial advisor made me realize some important truths:

• When seeking an investment, you have to show that you are also taking on some risk. I went to that meeting and basically asked them to invest 100% of the money and I hadn’t put a dime in.
• If you really have no money, you should at least show that you’ve made some effort require funding from somewhere else. Even if you only get a relative to pledge $1000, and you sell your beat up old –insert crappy car brand here– for $500. These things show potential investors that you’re putting your money where your mouth is and that you are taking on a great deal of risk too.
• If you don’t have cash, you can use your car or house at collateral. Before this venture, ‘Collateral’ was an action-packed movie starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. (Two thumbs down)

This meeting took place in September. I spent the month of August focusing only on this opportunity and didn’t look into any other forms of funding. That was very short sighted of me. I assumed that my friend would be sold on this vision instantly and it would be smooth sailing from then on. In essence, I wasted a month and I was right back where I started. I was frustrated because I saw the amazing opportunity that was in front of me but I couldn’t grab it because I had no money. Since I had yet to put any money in, I had the chance to walk away. I knew that Carol and I had the capabilities to make this vision a success. I knew this was a very rare opportunity – to get in on a proven, successful franchise when it’s still new to Canada. I was sick and tired of watching opportunities pass me by because I had no money. So when Carol said that she would understand if I walked away, I said “No, if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging”. (I actually said that…lol) – I swung.. and I landed another opportunity.

Next post: I compiled a list of every single person I knew. I was so desperate that I even included people who I hadn’t spoken to in years. I locked myself in my room, and started emailing, texting and calling… I swung.. and I connected.

Taking control of your diet and reducing your health risks

I just wanted to share this great video of Dr. Oz explaining the process of weight gain and why it’s so dangerous to your health. He also outlines some really simple steps you can take to start losing weight today. Sorry I couldn’t embed the video to the blog.. blame Oprah! Just click the link to view the video. I’ve written out the main points of the video below. Enjoy!

See Dr’s OZ’s video

Important points from the video:

• The best predictor of health is not your weight, but you waist size
• You ideal waist size (at the bellybutton) is approximately half your height.
• Increased fat around the abdomen increases your risks of coronary artery disease, diabetes and hypertension.
• Losing just 10 pounds can decrease your risks for heart disease, diabetes and arthritis by half

Steps you can take to start losing weight:

• High fibre breakfast
• Snacks smaller than fist
• No food within three hours of bedtime
• Exercise for 30 minutes, daily.

Ideal waist size according to your height:

Height                Waist size (inches)

5’2                                   31

5’5                                   32.5

5’8                                   34

5’11                                 35.5

6’2                                   37

                   Building a company from the ground, up.

“La..la, la la, wait ’till I get my money right”. Those were the first words I heard every morning for a full year as I trekked through knee-high snow to the bus stop. Four years later, Kanye West’s “Graduation” is still one of my favourite albums of all time. More so because the words in this album felt like they were written for me, especially “Can’t tell me nothing”… “You can’t tell me nothing”. I tried singing it grammatically correct, “You can’t tell me anything..” but it just doesn’t sound or feel the same. Still, even when I hear this today, I remember the snow, I remember the walk, and I remember the hunger I still feel now, to succeed.

Fast forward to 2011,  my team and I are about 8 weeks away from opening the first of two, and hopefully more, 24 hour gyms. It’s been a fascinating journey getting to this point, filled with events and stories that seem too outrageous for belief, but they happened – and over time I’ll share all of them with you. I want to say thank you for visiting! I’m really excited for the opening of our North Ajax Anytime Fitness club. It’s been a year of planning and hard work but it’s all about to pay off, hopefully!

Going from no money, no collateral and loads of debt to owning a 24 hour gym in 12 months

THE IDEA:  Creating opportunities… sometimes all you have to do is ask.

July 27th, 2010 – I got a text from my friend Carol. She asked if I had a few minutes to have coffee before I head in to work at Extreme Fitness. When we meet she asked if I’m still open to the idea of going into business for myself by opening a gym (In 2008 we tried to open a personal training studio, but nothing materialized because of the economic recession and overall bad timing). Honestly, I wasn’t interested in being a business owner, not in the traditional sense anyway. After our failed personal training studio attempt, I had tremendous success making money online and saw the potential to make a very comfortable living from my home. I decided to focus my energy on this blog and a book I had been working on for a long time. But I didn’t tell Carol that. Instead, I listened to her idea. I wish I could tell you that from the second I heard her vision, I was excited and ready to go. On the contrary, I had a raised eye-brow and a puzzled look on my face, “Anytime Fitness? Never heard of it”. I thought Carol was asking me to manage her club. Though I wasn’t completely sold on the idea, I thought it would be cool to at least manage a gym and still have time to generate income online. But she wasn’t interested in hiring me, she wanted a partner. In addition to not being completely sold, there was another problem… I HAD NO MONEY. I wasn’t flat broke but I certainly didn’t have $100,000 lying around. That was the rough estimate of what I would need to contribute.

However, never being someone who says no to an opportunity before looking in to it, I said I’ll think about it. I was flattered that she’d at least think of me for a big venture like this. Now, common-sense would suggest that I should have just said no and stop wasting Carol’s time; after all, I had no money. That was true, but I knew people who did. So I looked into the Anytime Fitness website, learnt a little about the company and was impressed. I sent some basic stats and general information about the company to a few friends to see if they’d be interested in backing me. That very night, a good friend of mine said that I could make a pitch to her and her financial advisor. I wasn’t handed a cheque, but I was given an opportunity.

I never ended up getting funding from my friend. Her financial advisor “advised” against investing in a 27 year old personal trainer with no collateral, no business experience and a one-page, half-baked spread sheet. But here’s the funny thing about getting an opportunity; whether it works out or not, the vision begins to feel real. Once that vision feels real, then it becomes possible. When it feels possible, you discover that it’s doable. I still had no money, but I was given the opportunity to get it. Less than 12 months later, we’re 8 weeks away from opening the doors. It all started by creating an opportunity. All you need is the opportunity to make your vision feel real. Create your opportunity.

Next Post: Read about the investment pitch that went terribly wrong. Sometimes people just don’t believe in you. Learn how to handle defeat and discover the mistakes I made, along with the positive things I learned from the meeting.

CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO