Longevity Fitness Charleston

Longevity Fitness Charleston

Jennie Brooks has been immersed in wellness and fitness her entire life, from her own competitive athletic pursuits to training Olympic athletes and teaching Pilates around the world. After apprenticing with Master Pilates instructors in California, she returned to her hometown of Charleston, where she worked as the Director of Personal Training with MUSC Wellness and launched her first company, Females in Training (or F.I.T.), a personal training and bootcamp group fitness program. As her clientele continued to grow, Jennie was ready to take the next step in her entrepreneurial journey, setting her sights on opening Charleston’s first full-service boutique wellness and fitness studio that would offer group classes, private training, acupuncture, massage, and more.

We teamed up to plan, launch, and grow Longevity Fitness Charleston, combining Jennie’s wellness expertise and our experience developing and scaling multiple high-end brick-and-mortar businesses.

The dynamic warm-up

Jennie approached our team with a vision for a unique fitness studio in downtown Charleston -- a spa-like environment that would offer Pilates, TRX, and cardio classes, as well as massage, nutrition and other holistic wellness services. She had already scouted a location (an empty penthouse space with tons of potential), but wanted a business concept that could eventually scale and be replicated across multiple locations.

With these goals in mind -- and a target open date on the calendar -- we took a deep breath, did a few stretches, and got to work.

First, we developed a thorough business plan for Longevity Fitness Charleston, providing Jennie and her team with a roadmap that would guide all forthcoming strategic decisions. Then, we put together a detailed budget, even helping to create and price memberships, individual classes, class packages, and wellness services and determining pay structures for instructors and studio staff. While we built a startup and operating budget for Longevity, we also created financial projections and implemented financial projections to help Jennie plan for growth and be better equipped to scale in the coming years.

Jennie was quite busy working and offering private training throughout the pre-launch phase, so our team stepped in to oversee construction of the penthouse space. We budgeted for and ordered all of the fixtures, furniture, and fitness equipment, coordinating with the general contractor to develop the space layout and ensure successful installations. During this phase, we also secured all necessary insurance and permitting for the space.

As the build-out came closer to completion, it was time to put operational systems in place. We set up the studio’s booking and billing on MindBody, implemented project planning and task management in Basecamp, and set up all of Longevity Fitness Charleston’s marketing channels. Tapping into our background in hospitality, restaurant and private club management, we also created a staff manual that Jennie could use to train and on-board employees. Since the trainers and front desk staff are such a key component of the business, we also assisted with interviews, helping Jennie select and hire team members who would offer a high level of service and help her build and foster a positive, supportive wellness community.

Off to the races

We successfully opened Longevity Fitness Charleston in November 2015 and, thanks to budgeting and a solid pricing structure, the business was profitable in the first year (any small business owner will tell you that’s no easy feat)!

By the second year in operation, Longevity was named by Charleston City Paper readers as Charleston’s Best Pilates Studio, and was featured in multiple local publications, Well + Good, and Town & Country magazine. In collaboration with Istrian-Italian Travel (our founder Christy’s second business), we helped launch the studio’s first overseas luxury wellness retreat in Croatia in June 2018. As Longevity Fitness enters their third year in business, the studio remains profitable, the membership community continues to grow, and we are ready to bring Jennie’s dream of multiple locations to life!

We recently conducted a market analysis for the second location, a significantly larger space in an exciting area in Charleston. We’re currently developing an opening strategy and refining all of the current operating systems to ensure consistency across two physical locations. As this expansion plan takes shape (and before we begin renovations, equipment ordering, and marketing for the new space), we’re also gearing up for Longevity’s second wellness retreat in Croatia in June 2019. It’s certainly a busy time, but with the right strategic plans and systems in place, we know Longevity Fitness Charleston will only continue to grow.

Are you looking to open a luxury brick-and-mortar business? Want to grow a membership community (and your revenue)? Or perhaps you’re ready to expand your existing footprint? We’d love to help along the way. Please contact us below to set up an introductory consultation!