MeDirected » North Carolina

Nothing could be finer…

mike — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:58:55 +0000

…than to be in Carolina.
I just returned from teaching at another USATF coaching education school. This one was in Brooklyn, NY. NY is the state where I was born and I’ve spent about 2/3rds of my life there in several cities around the state. Having recently moved to the Triangle region of NC (via a 10 month stay in Ohio), my visit back to NY really gave me a deeper appreciation for where I am today. In NC, the weather’s nicer, people are friendly and the dollar goes a heck of a lot further. While nothing can match the energy of a city like New York, I’m at a point where the quality of my life isn’t dictated by the fact that I can get anything or do anything I want at all times of the day and night. I’m loving it where I am NC. It seems to have everything i’d want from the North and everything I’d want from the South with nothing I don’t want from either.

Old Acquaintances

mike — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:15:46 +0000

2 weeks ago I was able to meet up with 2 of my former athletes from West Point as they drove from Georgia to DC. Not too long before that a different set of athletes from West Point came up to visit us and get in a workout at Athletic Lab. Before that I met up with one of my team captains from the track team as he made an ungodly pilgrimage through North Carolina up to Alaska. Before that I met up with my old training partner, who only 3 months later would be in Vancouver winning a gold medal in the 4 man bobsled.

One of the things that I most enjoyed about working at a place like the US Military Academy was the people I was able to meet and develop relationships. I also had many good friends from my youth who have moved very far away. I was concerned that after moving for the 3rd time in as many years that these relationships might be lost so it’s nice to be able to keep in touch and see these people.

As the world becomes more open and people relocate to different cities, states and even countries, there’s nothing better than being able to see old friends.

Free doesn’t Pay

mike — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:55:24 +0000

About 10 months ago I moved from Ohio, where I had been living for a couple months to focus on finishing my doctoral dissertation to North Carolina to start on a new business venture. Before I could open my sport training facility there was much to be done with equipment, finding a location, waiting for lease agreements to process, etc. While doing all this I thought it would be wise to start building a client base by offering to train athletes at parks or high schools. The idea was that I would offer free training to a select couple people in an attempt to serve as an ‘on ramp’ for future clients. I was brand new to the area, didn’t have any network to speak of and I thought this might be good in helping to spread the word so I could ‘hit the ground running’ when I opened up my facility. While I did gain a couple people like this the free training idea wasn’t worth it. Of the handful of people I worked with only a couple are with me today. All of these individuals I trained for at least 2 months before opening my facility. Did they stop training with me because they didn’t like what I offered or weren’t getting results? Hell no! Everyone got much better and loved the training. What happened is that some moved on when their sport season came up and some moved on when it came time to bill them. It was as if they were shocked that the service wouldn’t be free forever. And it wasn’t as if the payment was something that got sprung on them all of a sudden and these were not people who couldn’t afford to pay. I do after all need to make a living. The problem however was mine in the making. I undervalued my services and set a precedent that became too comfortable. In retrospect, I should have provided the same services at a discounted rate and rewarded these first local clients for their early trust and continued loyalty by offering the same discounted rate as long as they kept training with me. As they say, hindsight is 20 / 20 but the circumstances were a nice lesson and provided real world support for a recent quote that made an appearance on the Athletic Lab wipeboard about a month ago:

The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get less than you settled for.

-Dowd.

The Benefits of Diversifying Revenue Streams (medirected.com)

What a Week!

mike — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:40:50 +0000

I’ve had an incredibly busy and exhausting past couple weeks. Especially the last 2 weeks or so. Don’t get me wrong though…I’m not complaining. I figure if a small business owner isn’t overworked at least some of the time during the start-up phase of a new venture then things probably aren’t going too well. All told, I went 23 straight days working at Athletic Lab with an average workday over this time period being a little over 13 hours. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been going on for all those following this venture:

Mon-Wed: Training, training, training; learned that our biggest competitor in the area will be going bankrupt very soon; met with several employees of said business to consider a future place at Athletic Lab (with existing clients in tow).
Thursday: Meet with out-of-town TPI professional to discuss his potential future employment as manager of our Golf Player Development program….something I’ve been working on but haven’t had time to really get off the ground.
Friday: Training, training, training; the biggest competitor in the area that I mentioned earlier closes doors and files for bankruptcy; I proceed to mount a full-frontal multi-day attempt to pick up some of their members by posting flyers on their door hourly (since other competitors childishly take down all but their own).
Saturday: Morning practice with HPC Elite training group; make training plans for all correspondence trained athletes, catch up on email, do editorial duties for Journal of Sport Science; work on own research project.
Sunday: Stop by just-closed competitor to post signs and flyers and talk with disgruntled former members in need of a gym; hand out flyers at a local road race; move pole vault mat in to Athletic Lab; late night private training session; Board of Directors meeting for Pole Flyers which lasts til 10pm and finalizes their move in to Athletic Lab. Pole Flyers is the Pole Vault club I’ve been working with since I arrived in the area who had been leasing space at the gym that shut down.
Monday: Organize sponsorship of 2 local road races; develop print media for marketing at these road races; training, training, training.
Wednesday: Training from 8am to 9pm; Pole Flyers has their first practice at Athletic Lab from 6:30-9….setting record for most athletes in our facility at one time.
Friday: Normal training schedule; plus late night training session with a visiting elite sprinter who’s come to the Triangle for the weekend.
Saturday: Morning practice with HPC Elite training group; give presentation at the Pitcher’s Boot Camp in Apex, NC; hand out flyers at NC State High School Soccer championship til 6pm; make training plans for all correspondence trained athletes.
Sunday: Early morning practice with visiting elite sprinter; Pole Flyers practice til 2:30; attempted (and failed) installation of in-ground pole vault box in Athletic Lab; clean up of attempted installation (concrete dust EVERYWHERE) that lasts til late in to the night.
Tuesday: Meet contractor to knock down wall at Athletic Lab to expand our sprint track; normal training sessions; develop marketing materials for Vype magazine and also Fire and Rescue teams in the area.
Wednesday: Clients from 8am-6:30 pm with not a single time slot free, even for lunch. That’s the first time we’ve been that busy at Athletic Lab. Some time during that time period, we received an unsolicited call from one of the local professional sports teams. Very exciting and I’m meeting with the head coach of the team on Monday….hopefully to set up training for the team.
Thursday: And on the 24th day I rested and gave thanks for my family and all that’s good in my life.

Why start a business in Raleigh (Cary), NC

mike — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:21:16 +0000

Heading South and Taking the Leap

mike — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:26:59 +0000

Tomorrow I’m heading back to North Carolina. This time however may be more than the visit that I took 3 weeks ago to check out a facility and discuss a potential partnership. When I left 3 weeks ago, it seemed like things were finally moving along and I’d be setup ‘any day now.’ I had looked up the facility on google maps and couldn’t stop thinking about what I wanted to do with it.

But as I’ve mentioned a couple times in my previous entries, I’ve kinda been in a holding pattern since that visit. The property that I had originally looked at was in the process of changing hands as I understand it, and a lease contract restructuring was being worked out with the new owner and my potential partner / colleague. The problem was, so much time was passing that I was getting antsy and kinda worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get in the facility at all. So I started looking at Plan Bs. I checked out other properties that might work. While they were no where near the bargain that the original place was they would still work as a startup location. I’m confident people will come regardless of what it looks like. I also started thinking about more creative alternative options, some of which didn’t even involve having a facility to start off with.

Then last night I spoke with Dan (the potential partner) and he mentioned that the plans for the facility and our partnership may have changed such that we wouldn’t be fully partnering and I would actually be sub-leasing from him rather than co-leasing as a single entity or directly leasing from the owner. While, I’m actually perfectly ok with both of these options the change in plans with the facility and the newly confirmed uncertainty of the situation gave me the extra nudge to act on some of the alternative options that I had thought up while I was in the holding pattern.

So last night at 2am, I contacted two major sports / fitness facilities in the triangle area. I had done a lot of research and these facilities were specifically selected because they weren’t globo-gym-esque and they were both huge facilities that might be ameniable to what I wanted to do. I was really just seeing if they’d be interested in leasing a small part (1,200-2,000 sqft) of their monstrous facilities out to me and potentially using HPC as a 3rd party provider of training services. This isn’t unprecedented as another prominent athletic development company has been doing this at the Home Depot center in L.A. for some time.

Within 7 hours, the manager of the bigger and better of the 2 facilities had emailed and called 3 times interested in some type of partnership. What’s more exciting than the opportunity to use this potential facility is just how enthusiastic the general manager was. We spoke for about a half hour and we are on the same page with what we want to do. In fact, he is in the process of rebranding the facility and they have a large infusion of money for expansion to make it a premiere athletic development, medical, and sport science center.

So tomorrow, I head back down to North Carolina, this time a little less certain what the future holds but a little more excited about how many options are on the table. I’m packed and mentally prepared to stay for a couple weeks to get things situated enough to where I can get an apartment to live in and bring my wife and daughter down when things get settled. Thursday morning I have a meeting with the general manager of the big facility and we’re going to have some meetings with some of his investors. On Friday, I’m meeting with the owner of the other facility. I don’t know what’s in store but this should be interesting. Six months ago, I resigned from coaching at West Point to finish writing my dissertation and pursue development of my company full time. At the time I thought that my resignation was the blind “leap” in to the deepend that entrepreneurs mention as an all-important threshold. Now I realize that that was just putting on my swim trunks. Tomorrow I take the leap and hope that there’s water in the pool.

Update on my move (medirected.com)
No. 10 Tar Heels double up on N.C. Central

Getting Antsy

mike — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:08:30 +0000

I’m getting antsy. I’ve finished my dissertation writing and have 1 month before my defense. Since I don’t have a ‘formal job’ to go to on a daily basis and I spend my days managing products orders, writing articles & blogs, consulting, and providing training services….I’m getting impatient to move in to the next phase of my business transition. That being, open up a physical address and start training people hands on, on a daily basis again. I’m still waiting to hear about the outcome of the facility in Apex and my eagerness to get going is leading me to think I might just move down to the Apex/Cary/Raleigh area next week. I’ve got an apartment deal already set up from when I was down there a couple weeks back and by moving there I’d at least be able to begin pounding the pavement to make connections, move in to an apartment, incorporate in NC (oddly, I’m currently incorporated in CA), and potentially start making equipment orders for the facility. I haven’t been able to do the last 2 things because I don’t have a physical address in NC. I might even be able to start taking on some clients if I am able to train people at local parks, tracks, or even globo-gym fitness centers. My wife and daughter would likely stay in OH for a while until I get settled. Then I’d go back and drive down with them and all our stuff (which I’d probably leave in OH if I go to NC next week).

Update on my move

mike — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:39:59 +0000

You may have noticed that one thing that was conspicuously absent from my update yesterday was any mention of my upcoming relocation to the Triangle area of NC. The reason there wasn’t an update was because I’ve been placed in a holding pattern. The building that I was going to lease is apparently being sold which makes any leasing agreements impossible. In fact, it potentially puts the use of that building in question because it really is (was?) an UNBELIEVABLE bargain. In 2 years of looking at facilities, this one was by far the cheapest I had seen for the size (3,000 sqft). And I know if I just purchased the building I’d probably be looking to get much more in monthly payments out of it than what the current owner is getting. Sooooo, right now I’m just waiting to hear what the plan is with this facility: whether it’s being sold; and if so, what the plans of the new owner are.