Business Update for 2009

We are approaching the 15 month mark of owning My Gym in Arvada, CO. With the year ending, I thought I would posts an update on how the business is doing. Just the other night, we reached the highest enrollment the gym has ever had with us as the owners. This was a huge surprise to happen in December when most gyms drop in enrollment during the Holidays. Our enrollment number has been "stuck" for awhile because just about the same number of people are cancelling as the number of people who are signing up. Here's a recap of our enrollment numbers:

October 2008 (when we became the owners) = 88 kids were enrolled
February 2009 (we had a huge open house) = boosted to 130 kids
April 2009 = 134 kids enrolled (our highest until now)
December 2009 = 137 kids enrolled

We are very excited, but still have a ways to go. We have 3 break-even numbers we track and follow weekly. The 1st break-even number of kids = paying the gym's bills. The 2nd break-even number of kids = paying the gym's bills and loan payments. The 3rd break-even number of kids = paying the gym's bills, loan payments, and personal bills (but still not taking a paycheck for savings). We are currently at break-even #2... paying the gym's bills and loan payments. We babysit for a wonderful family who has a 3 year old girl, Kate, and twin one year old boys, Riggs and Jackson. They are good friends of ours now, and babysitting is helping support our personal bills and needs.

We are hiring our first employee who is starting on January 11th. Her name is Chelsea, and she is transferring from a My Gym in Utah to go to school here in Colorado. YEA for being trained already!! We understand that an employee is an added expense, but we are so excited to have her help us! We have reached a point in the marketing part of our business where we feel we need to "spend money to make money". Chelsea will be on a bonus system for marketing where she will be able to make extra money if the gym makes money. We will have goals and rewards to work together towards and motivate each other. Our marketing push for 2010 will start right away with us having a booth at a Denver Baby and Kids Expo January 23-24 and then a huge open house at the gym January 30-31. Since Feb-April 2009 were the best months for us so far, we are entering into 2010 with our heads held high and a plan to double the initial enrollment of when we bought the gym with 88 kids.

I love this quote: "Always concentrate on how far you've come, rather than how far you have left to go." We are celebrating reaching break-even #2 in only 14 months, and we making our goal to reach break-even #3 really soon. Thank you for all your continued support, love, and prayers as we continue on our adventures and dreams! We are thankful for how far we have come, and we are excited for 2010 to bring even more successes!

Thanksgiving Sledding Videos

The video below is of me (Juli) holding the video camera while sledding. It gives you a first person view of the hill we were on. Once I stop, you'll see a kid ride by and then Thomas come down the mountain on his sled. If you couldn't tell, I ended up spinning and most of the time, I was going down backwards.

The video below is of Angela sledding with Jacob on a little hill. Jacob enjoyed it, and kept asking for more "woo-hoo!"

The next video below is of me, proud Aunt Juli, sledding with little Jacob!

This final video is just Jacob sledding down the hill after Uncle Thomas gave him a little push. I think he enjoyed "woo-hoo" more when he was in someone's lap.

Halloween Party @ work

Thomas: ghostbuster

Juli: Ladybug

Thomas' proton-pack

Even families dressed up: Toy Story 2

(Buzz Lightyear, Little bo Peep, Jesse, and Woody)

Lots of people eating pizza (over 40 kids)

More videos of us playing in the snow

We went out to play in the snow while it was still daylight today to get better videos. There is a video of each of us jumping in 2 feet of snow and then burring each other in it. Enjoy watching all four (they are short). We love it!

Videos: Playing in the snow!

It has been snowing since 8pm Tuesday night and the news says it won't stop until around 6pm tonight (Thursday). Schools were closed yesterday and today, so we were able to close. We have really enjoyed the time off! Last night, we went out and played in 23 inches of snow (yes, almost 2 FEET). The videos below are two short clips of each of us running and jumping in the snow. They are kinda dark becuase it was late at night, but you can still see how much we sunk in all the snow - SO FUN! We will probably go play in it today while it's still day light to get better videos/pictures. I'll post more later on tonight of all the snow piling up.

Above: Juli in the snow

Below: Thomas in the snow

I carved a pumkin... for the 1st time ever!

We went to a Pumpkin Patch today that benefited Habitat for Humanity. It was my first time buying a real pumpkin and then carving it. What a fun experience!

Our pumpkins (yes, it was SNOWING!)

Thomas was the expert that had done this before

I found the "guts" to be disgusting (eww, eww, eww!)

The carving result!

Corn Maze!

Colorado's Fall (TRUE Fall) is so fun! Last Sunday, we went to a Corn Maze. It actually is only open September & November. They actually plant the corn to grow like the map below instead of plowing down the paths. The first time we went through the maze, it took us 48min, even with a map! The second time, we didn't take as many wrong turns or dead-ins and it took us only 22min. It was a lot of fun!

This was the map! The black lines are the paths, the green around the path was all corn.

It was over my head.

The paths...

Owners for a year!

Today, October 6th, is our 1-year anniversary of owning My Gym Arvada! We had an anniversary party last Friday night to play games & have ice cream (called it "Mymo's Birthday" - Mymo is the My Gym monkey). The members really appreciated us giving back to them, and we appreciated them celebrating with us! We also hand-wrote 23 thank you notes to the families who were here over a year ago, stayed enrolled through the transition of owners, and are still enrolled today. Those 23 families have been especially supportive of us!

Us serving Ice Cream - vanilla or chocolate with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, cherries, sprinkles, M&Ms, gummy bears!!!

Casey & Jessie - one of the families who have been enrolled over a year.

I asked them to smile, but I'm not sure where they thought I was.

The 9 year old on the right wants to work at My Gym!

We had even more than this attend, but these are the families who were able to stay until the end (7:00pm). I'm still laughing at Wyatt, the boy in the front row 3rd from the right, with his finger up his nose.

One Year in Colorado

October 3rd, a year ago, we landed in Colorado to stay. This past year has had it's ups and downs with the business, but it has been amazing! Even with working 6-7 days a week, we still have been able to do a lot around the state to experience all the seasons. Our first day of owning My Gym was on October 6th, so I will try to post pictures from our anniversary party soon. Here is an album of Colorado pictures taken throughout the past year. Enjoy the 181 photos of the snow through the Fall-leaves (the beauty is worth looking at them all)....

Click Here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6241&id=1608542918&l=2095de745d
You can click on the photos to make them bigger and see more info about them.

Fall Open House

Business Update: We had an open house planned for Sept. 11th & 12th. We were shocked how much we lacked new people in the gym during this free event. We had marketed this event like crazy with emails blasts, mass mailers, flyers in the community, posters on other businesses, and in Colorado Parent magazine's calendar section. Unfortunately, we competed with a huge Harvest Festival that was going on that same weekend 2 miles away. They even had a parade on Saturday with over 20 local marching bands who were being judged for the Macy's Day Parade and the Rose Bowl. We know for next year that this festival is always the weekend after labor day. We had to live and learn the hard way about this. It showed we need to be tuned in to the community more. Since the planned weekend was SO slow, we threw together a quick "extended" open house the following Saturday (Sept. 19th) only from 4-7pm. Luckily, this went better! Over the total 13 open house hours, we were able to sign up 17 more kids. We were expecting more with the marketing money we spent, but we are always grateful for each child!

Birthday Parties are on an average low in all the My Gyms right now, though. We weren't able to book any during the open house. This is frustrating as the parties not only bring in money each month, but also introduces My Gym to up to 20 new kids attending the party who may turn into future clients. We were averaging 9 parties a month in April, May, and June, but then dropped to average only 3 a month. October... has zero parties right now (deep breath). This just makes us even more grateful for the 17 new kids, but shows you how much we are hanging on.

I like to put updates on here to show how far we have come (and where we need to be). We took over the gym 11.5 months ago with 80 kids. As of today, we are at 133. Our break-even number is 170. We are making it step by step... goal by goal!

Babysitting Videos

Videos of Riggs and Jackson (Jack) at 8 months old.

Video #1: Riggs (computer left) and Jack (computer right)... playing that ends in spit-up!

Video #2: I was helping Jack get up on all fours, but watch Riggs in the background playing with his pacifier - he puts it in funny.

Video #3: Jack is up on all fours!!! He will be crawling any day now!

Excellence Award

We received a letter in the mail this week from My Gym Enterprises that read:

"Hello Greatly Valued My Gymer, and Heartfelt Congratulations!

It's time for our 2009 Excellence Awards to be presented, and you are one of our very deserving recipients! As you know, our annual awards are usually given at our International or Regional Seminars; but, since these seminars are not taking place this year, that is impossible. We would have loved to present your award in person.

Everyone at MGE (My Gym Enterprises) is very proud of you and sends their sincerest congratulations! We recognize and appreciate your hard work, your passion and your dedication. We know what it takes to achieve excellence class after class, day after day. You are a shining example of what My Gym represents and have made a real difference in the lives of children and families in your community. Your supreme efforts have not gone unnoticed.

We encourage you to post the enclosed award in your gym for all to see. And, again, our congratulations go to you. Thank you for your commitment to My Gym.

Sincerely,

My Gym Enterprises"

Yes, more than one My Gym receives this award each year, but we are still very excited! The Orlando My Gym didn't receive one last year when we worked there, and this is the 1st Excellence Award given to our location: Arvada, CO (...and this location has been open for SIX years). Thank you for all your support to us for our business. We are making it, but still have a long way to go!

Last October, we took over the gym with 80 kids. Going into September, we will have about 120. Our next break-even goal is 170 kids (this would pay the gyms bills, personal bills, ect... but not a salary for us yet). September 2nd, we are having an Ice Cream Social for our members, but we said that they can come for free if they bring a friend new to My Gym. On September 11th and 12th, we are having a huge Back to School Bash (Open House). We sent out a 1,400 piece direct mailer with our Fall Class Schedule, Open House info, and coupons. We also have advertised the Open House in our local Parenting Magazine and distributed flyers/posters throughout the community. We are calling September "Buddy Month" to our clients. Meaning, if they have a friend sign up in September, they will receive 50% off their month (2 friends signed up = free month) as a friend referral program. As you can see, we are really hoping September will be a break-through, awesome month for us (and then continue on).

My personal goal was to double the gym within the first year: take it from 80 kids in Oct. 2008 to 160 kids in Oct. 2009. We also wanted to try and run the gym the 1st year by ourselves, without staff. We are so close to accomplishing these two goals, and then building new ones. Please help us pray that we can stay on track and achieve far beyond what we can imagine!

NEW CAR!

Goodbye 2002 Honda Civic,

Hello 2008 Toyota Highlander!

We are ready for the snow now with an All-wheel Drive.

We are ready to do some mountain driving on our next day off.

We are ready for visitors with 7 seats and 14 cup holders.

Our Colorado "Family"

My Gym as a company gets everyone together for Annual Training Seminars across the country - divided into only 4 regions. Due to the economy, they did more of a local training session this year. Instead of us having to travel to California to meet with a lot of different gyms for a weekend, we went to the Colorado Springs (about 1.5 hours away) and gathered with the other My Gyms in Colorado for one day. Here are some pictures to show you that it takes a certain type of personality to do what we do each and everyday...

Looking nice...

then silly....

then all fall on each other!

Tunnel man!

YeHAW!

Vote to make us #1

Wow, it's been awhile! I apologize that I haven't posted pictures from both Orlando trips yet, but I promise I will eventually. We had a wonderful time seeing a lot of our family and friends... but now it's your turn to visit us in Colorado! :-)


While you are waiting for pictures and more blog posts, we would like to share something exciting about My Gym and ask for your help...

My Gym Arvada (the business we own) has been nominated as one of the Denver area's best local businesses in this year's A-List competition. Winners in each category will be announced in September on The Denver Channel's website and on-air on KMGH-TV Channel 7 (Denver's News). All winners will also receive a certificate of recognition to post in their business announcing to all their customers that they are the best of the best.

Please help us be the best and be #1 by voting for My Gym Arvada. CLICK HERE to go to the website and then click vote! You can only vote once per person, so if you know anyone else who would like to vote, please pass this along. Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your help.... Go Vote!!

4th of July

It was our first 4th of July in Colorado, as you know. Luckily, we read our city's newsletter in the mail and listened to the news to learn that Colorado bands the buying, selling, and lighting of fireworks. Anyone caught setting fireworks off in this state is fined $999. So... we went to the city of Arvada's fireworks show in the park. We actually parked at a Target and rode our bikes to the park to avoid traffic. We are really loving our bike rack on the car!

What a firework show it was! Pictures are below, but you have to check out the video, as well. You might want to mute your speakers, though, because of the BOOMS... and... the guy yelling and cheering in the video is not Thomas - it was the guy behind us, haha! Like I said, it was an amazing fireworks display, but it was the first 4th of July that Thomas or I had ever been wearing pants and a sweatshirt. It was 58 degrees! Our hands were so cold and shaking while we were taking these pictures and video because of the wind. We know you all have seen fireworks before, but we wanted to share our holiday with you. Enjoy! We missed spending the 4th with family and friends, but we can't wait to see you all oh so soon!!!

Where in the world are we?

I meant to post this way back when we moved to Colorado (9 months ago), then again when we were having blizzards and then hail storms.... but it never happened between not having Internet at home like we do now and then our computer crashing. Below you will finally find pictures of where we live. Nothing beautiful or exciting, but something that will give you an idea of where Arvada, Colorado is when you hear about our storms or anything on the news. The first picture is of the whole state of Colorado. Arvada is about 20min away from Denver. You'll see in the second picture that we are a little north-west of Denver, closer to the mountains. You'll also see where we are in relationship to DIA (Denver International Airport). As a side note, the other My Gyms that we occasionally travel to are in Highlands Ranch (2nd picture) and Colorado Springs (1st picture). Well, now you know a little more about Colorado and where we live in the world!

Colorado

Arvada, CO

Hail

We knew we were moving to snow, but one thing that has been a surprise is HAIL! It has hailed 4 times in the past two weeks. One of those times, Thomas was playing basketball outside at a park while Juli went to Target. When Thomas called Juli to tell her it was about to rain, she checked-out right away. However, before she got outside, it was hailing really bad. She was so concerned about Thomas that she ran in the hail (OUCH) with her groceries to the car, drove in the hail, and picked up Thomas who was standing under a port-a-potty roof at the park. It was an adventurous afternoon! After that storm, we tried to get video and pictures for you. The video here is of slow hail, but hopefully the pictures show you how crazy it gets!

This was a picture of hail piling up at our sliding glass door. We emailed it to our local news, and it was shown on TV minutes later (picture of our TV below; ignore the date - my camera was wrong) during the weather report.... see our names?

Thomas got a handful of the hail after the storm has stopped. We should have made a snow-cone with it!

Micah's Graduation

As I mentioned in an earlier post this month, Thomas and I took a quick trip to Orlando for a day to surprise Micah (Juli's brother) at his High School Graduation. Here are the pictures and videos from June 3, 2009....

Thomas and I showing that we were actually there at Micah's graduation ceremony. The nine fingers were for Class of 2009!

This video is of Micah actually graduating (Micah David Waits)

Picture of Micah's face: the shock he had when he saw us there.

This video is of Micah's full reaction to our surprise. After the first 30 seconds, the "videographer" didn't know the camera was still on, so you can stop the video then.

Us with the proud graduate from Apopka High School.

Even though the trip was so short, we really had a fun day! To top it all off, we got to see our 18 month old nephew, Jacob (below). We can't wait to visit again soon: Juli goes July 8-12 and we both come July 18-26!

Juli's 3-point shot

I couldn't make a 3-pointer when I played basketball in high school. Now that Thomas and I have been casually playing basketball at a park, I can do this!!! Haha, Thomas took a video so you would believe me. We finally have internet at home, so I'll try to post more photos, video, and info about us soon!!

Jacob Videos!

Last Tuesday, Thomas and I took a quick trip to Orlando. We got in about 11pm Orlando time Tuesday night, and we were back at the airport at 5pm on Wednesday to fly home. It was a really fast trip with 11 hours of traveling, but it was worth it to surprise Micah (and my dad) at his High School Graduation. Video and pictures of that surprise will be added here soon, but here are a few short videos that we took of our time with Jacob. He is a cutie!!! Thank you Angela and Adam for taking us to and from the airport, letting us stay with you, and adjusting Jacob's schedule for us to spend the most time with him. We can't wait to come again and stay longer!!

Happy Anniversary...

Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa Hobby!!

52 years is an amazing example of selfless love and devotion! Thank you for that, and we miss you soooo much! We love you, Thomas and Juli

ELMO Pictures - finally!

Here are the pictures from our Elmo Open House we had earlier this month. Neil (Thomas' step-dad) was in town earlier that week and decided to stay to be Elmo for us. We could not have done the event without him! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH NEIL!!!

Juli showing how Elmo came....

Thomas showing the body of Elmo...

Neil as Elmo!

ELMO!!!

...being silly

...in the ballpit!

Hope this one isn't too little, but it's the only picture we were able to get from a member who came to the event. If we get more of us dancing and playing games with Elmo (or even video), I'll post them right away. It's been weeks since the event, and the kids still ask for Elmo. A 4-year old even pointed to our back room and said, "Mom, Elmo is back there". Everyone had a blast and we hope to bring Elmo back to My Gym every year - you up for it Neil? haha