Monthly Archives: December 2010

I realize this is an interview with myself which is a little odd. After interviewing other entrepreneurs, I feel that I need to do this interview. I need to do this interview so you will know where I am coming from. So here goes.
1. Give me a little biographical information about you and the businesses you have owned or co-owned.
I grew up in government housing. My mother was schizophrenic and my parents divorced when I was nine. My first business was a cleaning business I started when I was in the eighth grade. I started cleaning neighbors’ houses for $5 per house. The last business I co-owned was The Post newspaper. The Post was almost the death of me. It made apparent some personal flaws.
2. What was the most trying aspect of owning The Post?
Everything! The job was seven days a week, twelve hours a day. That is except on Mondays; Monday was a twenty-four hour day. I was completely exhausted. I didn’t have time to think about what direction to take the paper nor anything else for that matter. Those work hours were simply hours necessary to sustain operations.
Also, financially, The Post was draining. I didn’t take a salary even though I needed to. I pulled out my retirement, maxed out my and my families’ credit cards and sold almost everything I had. I never made a dime on The Post nor recouped any of my/our investments.
3. Why didn’t you delegate some of the smaller responsibilities to your employees?
I should have delegated more. They were all working so hard, I did not want to put any more of the workload on their shoulders. In hindsight, I should have put more work on their shoulders so I could spend time planning and growing The Post.
4. What was the best aspect of owning The Post?
The community completely embraced The Post. It was a different newspaper. We were not politically correct. The same people were not featured week after week and year after year. We quickly, unofficially became known as the local paper for everyone, not just a few. People also enjoyed the uniqueness of some of our content. While most papers buy some syndicated content, we created our own. We had a writer who served in Vietnam who wrote stories about actual happenings in Vietnam. We had another writer who wrote about Leroy the Redneck and I interviewed a prostitute every week.
5. If the community enjoyed the newspaper so much, why didn’t it succeed?
It was entirely my fault. First, I felt sorry for the sales representatives. We were a new paper. I realized it would take time to build up our advertising. Initially, I was only planning to pay our sales representatives on commission only. I then broke down and decided that this was not completely fair. I decided to pay them a salary. They were supposed to be paid 25% commission; instead, they were paid $500 per week until their commission became equal to this amount. The problem was, I kept accepting excuses. In reality, there was no excuse of me paying a person $500 a week when they were only selling $200 a week total in advertising. In reality, their check should have been $50. That was all my fault.
6. What are you most afraid of when it comes to entrepreneurship?
Repeating past mistakes. I have a very stubborn personality. I just won’t quit. I should have closed the post when the losses crossed $100,000. Instead, I doubled that loss and had nothing left before I said enough is enough. The truth being told, if I had anything else to lose, I probably would have kept on going. I just don’t know when to quit sometime.
Also, I have sworn off employees altogether. I just will not have any in the future. No exceptions. If I have sales representatives, they will be paid solely on commission and only be paid when I am paid.

1. Give me a little background information on Underwoods.
We have been in business for eighteen years and we have loved every minute of it! My husband and I run the business together. We manufacture and sell memorial flowers.
2. Is Underwood’s the only business you have ever owned?
No. We have owned several different businesses and had a couple of add on businesses. We have owned a car lot, I sold Beauti-Control makeup, and I have sold Beanie Babies.
3. How do you build a successful customer base?
If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business! You must build a customer base. Part of what has made us so successful is our customer service. One of the things we do for our customers is, after someone passes away, their family is given the first set of memorial flowers for free. Second, we publish our home phone and cell phone on our business card so our customers can reach us at all times. Third, we will meet our customers anytime 24 hours per day. We pride ourselves on the fact that when our customers need us, we are available. Third, regardless of how small, we carry our customers’ purchases to their car. We sell customer service just as much as we sell our memorial flowers. We are hoping to provide memorial flowers online starting in January.
3. What is the best way to achieve long term success?
By putting your customers first
4. What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
The people. I love every person who walks through the door. I care about the people.
5. What is your least favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
I don’t have a least favorite. I can’t think of a thing I don’t like about my job.
6. How many hours do you work in an average week?
At minimum 60 hours and this is just an average. During the month of December, we work twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
9. What would you say are the top three skills an entrepreneur must possess?
First, a good entrepreneur must have good people skills. Whether your business is online, service oriented or other, you have to have good people skills. Second, you must be able to manage your money. A lot of entrepreneurs think hey, the money is rolling in. I can spend, spend, spend. The problem with this is that your business may be seasonal and you don’t even realize it yet. If you spend, spend, spend now, you may not have any money for down times. Also, you want to grow your business. It will be difficult to grow your business if you have no money. Third, you must love what you do. Nobody starts a business and says, I think this is something I could do for a year or two. Owning your own business is typically a long term commitment. If you don’t love what you do, then you won’t be able to follow through and see your business through fruition.

1. What motivated you to start MoCo in Motion?
My son invited me to run a half marathon with him and I decided to teach myself how to run. I ran my first 5k January 2, 2010 with two of my boot camp recruits. We trained two weeks in advance and after I ran the 5k I knew I wanted to run.
I learned that all counties surrounding Montgomery County had a running team and that’s what motivated me start a running team for our county. I taught the first GetFit StayFit Learn to Run March 2010. This first Learn to Run are the ones who named the MoCo inMotion Running Team. Many submitted suggestions for a running team name, but MoCo inMotion is the one that won through an online program where everyone had the opportunity to vote.
I would like to say that teaching fitness was a calling. God placed me where I am today and this is one way, of many, how I serve Him. He has given me the gift to have a genuine concern for ones who want to have a healthy lifestyle. My greatest reward from teaching any fitness class and from teaching any nutrition class is seeing my clients change from the inside out.
I have the ability to show people and teach people and convince people and motivate people to become more than they thought they could ever become and do more than they ever thought they could do. All I ever ask from any of the people under my instruction is to give 100% and I will prove to you just how much you can accomplish.
2. I know that right now, you aren’t charging for any of your programs. Do you plan on charging in the future?
I may charge to teach my Learn to Run classes in the future just to cover the costs of materials to takes to teach. As with all the classes I teach, if I do charge, the costs will be very minimal.
I also may charge an annual fee to the running team and the walking team to cover costs for t-shirts and advertisement. I will not make a profit from the teams, but I feel we need to become an official running/walking team and a fee must be charged in order to do this. I plan to write bylaws for both teams and appointment officers for both teams in the very near future.
3. Outside of your day job, approximately how many hours per week do you usually work on the business?
The actual teaching; I spend approximately 4 – 5 hours per week. I write work out programs, nutrition plans; I spend much time answering e-mails from ones with fitness and/or nutrition questions. I do have to have my personal training time to keep my endurance up to where it needs to be so I can deliver quality classes.
I do personal training when time allows. I would say I spend 1 – 2 hours in the evenings dedicated to my GetFit StayFit MoCo inMotion business. Weekends are when I spend the bulk of my time at the computer preparing and researching how I can become a better leader in the fitness industry.
4. Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?
Most definitely. I started teaching fitness in 2000 and in 2002 GetFit StayFit was born. I wanted a name that would describe what I stand for. I have always said that getting fit is just half the battle, staying fit is key.
Being an entrepreneur, the financial responsibilities involved can be stressful at times because I do not charge enough for the time and money I spend to run my business. The passion I have for GetFit Stayfit, which is helping others live a healthy lifestyle, leads the way and I put the financial obligation on the back burner. I don’t want ever want to turn anyone away needs my help because they cannot afford to pay for my services. As long as I have a full time job and I am able to take this financial risk, I will continue to do so.
I realize the time I spend preparing for classes; you cannot put a dollar figure on that. I guess you can say I volunteer my time for the most part.
My husband is my biggest support. He has told me many times, I would teach for free if it ever comes to that, he knows how dedicated I am and he knows the passion I have to help others.
5. What are your future plans for MoCo in Motion?
I would like to teach more Learn to Run classes and Learn to Walk classes to encourage our county to get out and move. I would like to see the MoCo inMotion Mini Milers grow. I need to find a way to bring all the MoCo inMotion Teams together so each one can encourage the other. My biggest plans for MoCo inMotion are to have official 5k’s in our county as well as Fun Run/Walks. We can do great things in our county from all three teams with proper instruction. I am always looking/dreaming/researching ways to offer fun ways to GetFit and Stay Fit. My boot camps was and is what got me started big into fitness and what led me to branch out and create MoCo inMotion .
6. What have you learned about yourself during this start-up experience?
I have learned that it is okay to ask for help. I have always been the type, no matter what it took; I needed to do all the work and all the teaching. I knew if I wanted to continue to teach boot camp, ball class, kettle bell class, write work out programs for my clients, the time I spend at my computer preparing for boot camp graduations, and start MoCo inMotion Running Team, MoCo inMotion Mini Milers and MoCo inMotion Walking Team; I needed to find ones who would volunteer to help me.
Letting others help me has been the most difficult of all. I have a special way I teach and I am very big on safety and I know I am held accountable for any liabilities. To be honest, it scares me each and every time I stand before a group and teach so therefore; having others help me teach, scares me even more. That is why I am in the planning stages of teaching my coaches. I admit I did jump too soon by allowing others to help me because I have not properly trained them. That is my next step and that will happen very soon.
Learning how to oversee the teams without actually being there is a struggle for me. As long as I am in the know what is going on from the MoCo inMotion coaches and volunteers, I am more at ease. Having my time with the team once per month helps to relieve the stress of allowing others to coach for me. Members of the walking team do contact me regularly with how things are going. I did not ask they do this, but I am glad they do feel comfortable enough to talk to me. Surveys are a great tool to find out from others how you are doing and I use this tool often. I am always learning and I am always willing to change to help others achieve their goals.
7. What type of planning did you do before you started any of the walking/running teams?
First you have to see if there is an interest. I am big on sign ups and registrations. I must know how many I am working with and who I am working with. I need the face-to-face contact with ones who want to be under my instruction.
Before I even hold a registration or sign up time, I prepare the lay out of the walking or running program. Normally, no two walking or running programs are going to be the same. I always learn so much from the previous programs I write and put into action. I learn what works best and what needs to be changed. The two Learn to Run classes I taught were not the same and I am sure the next walking class wills not the same as the one that is being taught now. Change is key in my business because that is where motivation comes from. I think I changed the walking program five times before I was happy with it. Much planning goes into everything I do. I do not do anything in haste, much thought and research goes into anything I do with GetFit StayFit.
I write the programs, I design the logs, I am big into sending out weekly tid bits and all of those are created before I start up a walking or running class. Motivation is number one! If I cannot motivate you to get moving, I have lost you.