My husband and I have a passion for helping people and to improve their quality of life. We both quit our jobs and started our journey in helping others, and to follow our passion.
We started an outdoor boot camp with only 2 people in December 2014, with no money to our name. For the first few months, my brother supported us until we got on our feet. In January of 2015, we relocated to a High school where we had the chance to provide our clients with better training facilities, and we also helped the school by providing free fitness programs in line with their sports programs.
Our client base grew from 2 people to 60, and in the month of June 2016, we decided that we wanted to provide our clients with better services and have a more professional training facility. We relocated our business 2km away from the school to an indoor venue where our clients could be protected from the outdoor elements, and make it possible to provide better facilities, and a sense of pride, not only for ourselves but also for our clients.
July 2016 is where our troubles began. After the move, our client base dropped from 60 to 30 and the worst part is that the clients that left did not even come to look at the new premises, they did not even give an explanation as to why they no longer wish to be part of our boot camp family.
We sold almost everything in order to keep our doors open, our cars, motorbikes, computers, television, living room set etc. In December of 2016, we had to increase our prices in order to keep our business alive. The price increase was still more than half of what other facilities charged for the same services. We emailed our clients explaining why we had to increase our prices and did a comparison with other facilities to show that we are still the lowest priced. After the price increase, our client base dropped again from 30 to 20. It was shocking to say the least, to see how little people cared about what we have sacrificed to provide top class services at the lowest price, and not to mention the amount of debt that we made in order to get the new premises.
We can boast that we are the only indoor training facility that offers more than 128 individual different exercises, 32 circuits and training formats.
From July 2016 to date it has been a long and heart-breaking journey. We have lost everything more than once, trying to live our passion and not to mention the damage all the stress has done to my marriage, but we are still together and doing our best.
December of 2017 when it came time for our member contract renewals, we got another shock. Majority of our clients did not want to renew their contracts and when asked why they no longer want to utilize our services, we got no response. With the number of clients remaining we cannot even cover our household costs, not to mention our studio rent.
Currently we are a few months behind on our studio rent and we have sold everything that we possibly could. The stress is killing us, we hardly sleep, and I know this sound dramatic, but we feel utterly hopeless and we both cry most of the time, and we have even contemplated ending it all. I don’t want to die and I don’t want my family to die. We have nine cats and live in a garage. We can’t buy new clothes; our sneakers have holes in the soles. This is our last hope of survival!
Any support will be highly appreciated and will be put to good use. Paying our outstanding studio rent, getting our business back on track. Improving our quality of life, but most important of all, keeping myself and my family alive. We are at the end of our rope. Please HELP!
Yours sincerely
Werner Pietersen