Intially when I opened my box I worried a bit by the globogyms and training studios packed around my location, Since I opened L.A fitness move in 3 miles away. If I had to do it over I would try to put my box as close as I could to the globogym models. They would triple my membership in 3 months!My next affiliate will be across the street from whatever the local globogym chain is.

Merle,
CrossFit USA

We moved to a bigger facility, from 1000sf to 4100sf on Jan 1 and launched a new website the same day.

We also built what may be the most innovative and impressive pullup structure in the CF community. We posted the plans on our site today.

Park workouts in 2005 to industrial, 1000sf shed from 2006-2008, and now, 4100sf temp controlled space. Our path humbled us, shaped our image, and built our character. Wouldn't do it any other way.

Thank you, C,L, HQ and CrossFit!

Craig,
great friggin pull up bars and an execellent job on your new box! We have an inflatable 16 by 9 ft outdoor movie theater we use for workouts outside. Our last event we did a 300 workout with the movie 300 playing in the backround. Can't wait until the release Every Second Counts!

Merle
CrossFit USA

Craig, awesome pull up thingy, thanks for posting the plans as well. We are yet to open a permanent location so it is good to be able to see how others have progressed with it.

Merele, the movie theater sounds great, would love to see that. I just checked and you are only 90 minutes drive from us (well when its not snowing that is)will have to come and check your place out.
Cheers
Matt

I don't want to talk about it.

Thanks for the props. I surely didn't mean to take away from The Cell CF - dynamite website and box, guys.

And since I'm dolin' out credit: Jeremy Jones engineered our 'pullup thingy' and member Damen Nikolakakis put it together in less than a week.

Matt D,
Thanks, where are you guys?send me a link.You are welcome anytime.Thought of one thing I will definately do in the next box. Put rubber across the whole floor!

Merle
Crossfit USA

Craig nice pull up structure...and self proclomation.

We are moving to a new box in the spring!
From a 650sqft garage to 5000sqft free standing structure.
Mark and I are open to design ideas as far as placement of pull up structure (and the pull up structure itself), platforms, bathrooms, office(s), storage, flooring and the like. We would love to hear affiliates' thoughts and ideas on how best to use our space.

GRAB YOUR ZONE SNACK OF CHOICE..THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIT LONG AND I NEED GUIDANCE....NOW!

CrossFit Persevere (South Glastonbury, CT) is in the throws of opening out of our home garage. Our website is up, hours and fees posted.

Today is a snow day for kids....it's 9:20am and I am still in my pajamas when the doorbell rings. There are 2 men dressed in business casual from the TOWN OF GLASTONBURY. My first thought is that they are coming to nose around for any home improvements we have done that they can possibly tax us on...BUT NO.

They are 2 men from the zoning department saying they had received a complaint about a business being run out of our home and we need to file paperwork for "home based consumption business" to happen~one of the men is very helpful, kind, and respectful. The other one tells us to take our website down. We agree that we will take our schedule and fees off the website and fill out "home based consumption business" paperwork. We have to be specific with days/times/# of people looking to train out of our home and wait for approval from the director of zoning.

What I am most baffled by is that someone (in my opinion) feels so threatened that they ANONYMOUSLY call to complain~this person knew of CrossFit Persevere and our website. I can't help but wonder if it was someone linked into the "traditional" gym here in town feeling threatened. What a malicious, mean, "I don't want you to succeed" attitude from whoever made this move.

So, has anyone encountered anything similar regarding doing a garage gym? Perhaps I shot myself in the foot by trying to be diligent and communicative to those interested in CrossFit with posting a fees/schedule page. I NEVER thought I would have the town zoning dept. hot on my tail.

I wish I had the cash flow now to open a box in town. This episode just makes me angry and frustrated.

~Kim Malz
CrossFit Persevere

Would I pick the same location? Sedona? Ummm... No.

So I'm going to post my mistakes in hopes that it may help others. (sorry this is so long but I hope it can help others who may be making the decision to get started)

Reader's digrst version:
I worked gor globo gym (Bally Total Worthless). Only because I was new as a trainer and needed to pay bills (I have a Stay-at-home wife and 3 kids). Was given management position and was expected to sell my soul and work for them for 70 hours per week because I was salary.
My plan all along was to open my own training center but was struggling to get the $$$ and was not able or willing to go in to debt.
Finally got fired, and had a choice: do it now or go get a "real" job! (This was the day before Thanksgiving '07)

I managed to find a small 800sf studio in a great location for only $800/month plus utililties because it is in the oldest/run down building in an afluent town. I had just enough to pay the first months bills so once we paid to get into it, purchased a barbella and stand, heavy bag, DB's -VERY basic and all used from craigslist- we had NOTHING left. SINK OR SWIM!

We are still open after a year now but the typical summer dip in this region put us behind and we have not recovered.

I discovered CF last summer and never looked back. It is exactly what I had been searching for to take my training to the next level.

If I had discovered CF 1 year earlier I would have changed things: I would have moved my family from a condo to a house with a garage and started there. This would currently be saving me about 1,500 per month in overhead. My training center is not much bigger than a 2 car garage anyway but now I'm stuck- can't afford to move. We currently train about 12-15 clients, some one-on-one, which would pay our bills but not with the extra overhead. So now we are under the pressure of trying to outrun our bills- grow our business faster than our late payments!

We are now stopping all marketing except our website and focusing 100% on providing our clients with the most amazing coaching we can! I hope we can afford to affiliate in the next few months.

Morale of the story: Listen to Greg Glassman! Start small and force yourself to the bigger location by filling it with clients first!

My first location was a great starting point... 500 sqft on the 2nd floor in a mixed use complex. I found a super helpful and accomodating landlord.

My second (and current) space is good and bad. The good:
I have the same landlord. I have a great area to play outdoors, with a town maintained running path about 75 meters from the garage door. The folks that run the only other business in my building (a daycare) are super cool. I just took out a wall and expanded last month.

The not so good (at least perceived):
I think my town/city sucks. It's really wierd, but I'm in a suburb on the more affluent side of city - yet the majority of my clients come from the city or the other side of the city! People from this town just don't come and I don't get it.

So my city clients all love it and tell thier friends... to which most respond "That's too far to drive." It's stinking 15-20 minutes!

I guess if I were to do it over again, MAYBE I should have moved to a less accomodating location that was more centrally located.

We'll see how "globe" gym (great location in city) does. Word on the street is they're affiliating. They'll hurt me more by doing a poor job than a good one.

Credit goes to Jeremy Jones for the engineering and design of our pull up structure and box! Damien Nikolakakis, our client, welded the structure. Thanks, Damien.

Nick, Jeremy laid out our whole box, including equipment and wall mural, using free Google Sketch Up design software - easy to use, he says: http://sketchup.google.com. Very, very helpful.

Btw, The Cell has a very nice website to go with their box. Love your events section, guys.

Lisbeth-
My first post got held up in the filter, probably because it was way too long. If you think it could be helpful for aspiring affilliates, cool. If you don't let it post I won't be offended! ;)

All the growth I see in CF is truely inspiring! Thanks!

Kim,

I was in a similar situation last spring. My sister who works for the city informed me I should apply for a home occupation permit (otherwise I would've just up and started out of my home garage) and I got denied. I went in to appeal it and got denied again. I was obviously pretty po'd! I have young kids and it would've been perfect to train people in the early am with my kids just snoozing away in their beds.

Fortunately a friend of mine referred me to a guy who has a big morton building on their property (just outside of town so no city permit needed) in which they do wrestling and he is renting me space for $200/month. It works out great for now and has been a great place to get us going.

Hang in there and you will find something that works! You didn't choose the name "persevere" for no reason!

We too are at the point where we have to look for a bigger space only 6 months after affiliating. If another client walked through our door we would not have the space to host him/her. Since our initial overhead was zero, there is probably nothing we would do differently. Although if we knew back then that we would have to move so soon we probably would have gone bigger from the get go. We have built our box slowly piece by piece and it is going to suck to have to tear it down. I guess it is a better problem to have than to tear it down because we are not getting the traffic we expected. We have found a new box and are thinking of merging with another affiliate. Exciting times.

Leigh Ann~

Thank you! I won't give up! We will hopefully get in with our letter. I am in the same boat as you-stay at home mom, 3 elementary aged kids, husband that travels and it is just ideal to start out of our garage to get the ball rolling and see where our passion takes us!

Best,

Kim

Kim,

Hang in there, I went through the ringer when I first became an Affiliate in 2006 here in Connecticut. Let's just say, CrossFit was not readily embraced. Prior to finding CrossFit, I had been training for about 4 1/2 years, and a fitness manager a few locations as well. And I still was having such a hard time, basically because alot of people was not read to make that change. However I persevered through the support of Lisa and Eddie Lugo, Nicole Carroll, Tony B., Annie S., and the entire CrossFit community. I leaned on them for support, and guidance. And after training out of three different locations, a couple of potential partnerships going sour, I got it to work. And this past October I opened my own box here in Bridgeport C.T.! Believe me it is the most wonderful feeling in the world! Thanks so much Coach G. for allowing me to become a part of such a wonderful community, I love you all! Lisa anything that I can help you guys with, feel free to call me or shoot me an email! And best of luck!
CrossFit Fairfield County (203) 345-7002

Best of health, life, and strength, Keetron

Awesome job, Diablo! I was fortunate to start my CF training with them at "The Shed" in Nov '07. Now, I'm part owner and trainer of my own box.

We're in a small, garage box like Diablo was. We're getting a lot of clients in like Gabe and are quite surprised and blessed. At times I wish we had a larger facility but I feel that it is important to start small. It's better to focus on our training and clients than it is to bring in the big bucks. I'm fortunate to have five amazing partners who feel the same. It's the training and CF community that we value whether we're taking a loss or not. We have all the time in the world to go bigger. Right now, we want to soak up to the cold winter in our "ice box".

Sakura @ CrossFit Solano, Fairfield, CA

#18Keetron~

Thank you for taking the time and keep me motivated! Perhaps I am too naive..why would someone want to squash another person's desire to do good~I'll get over the "emotional" garbage and move on!!

Best,

Kim

Kim -- It happens, sometime is some towns and states more than others. When I started CrossFit Watertown, I had already been training clients out of my garage for about 6 months, with all sorts of craziness apparent -- but a number of my members were also neighbors, so nobody complained. When we became a CF affiliate, my lawyer just shook his head and said, "You need to find a place before Ruth (the zoning officer) comes and knocks on your door." So we did.

Fate (or Ruth's buddies) just knocked early in your case. Check the message boards for more stories like yours. Lots of advice from folks who have been there too. Good luck.

Currently in a 3- car-garage.

Waiting to move into the box for 3 reasons:

1. Don't have the cash flow
2. Working on continuing to improve my training
3. Not quite 'full' at the garage.
4. I have a full time job that pays well but is not very fulfilling.

Maybe I just don't have the balls to cut and do crossfit full time. It's hard with bills and family, etc.

Craig - the original Shed was 1000 square feet? That must include the stairs and bathroom, because the workout area couldn't have been over 450 sq ft.

Well done, Jason.

I hope I can visit you guys soon.

If we got a new box it would be bigger. We've been open only 3 months but I think we will need more space very soon. The location is great. The venue is great. It needs to be bigger...that's all.

I was an affiliate for two years before I opened my box. I tried to get something opened about three times over the last 18 months. I would've done it earlier if I had the chance. I had max. 20 clients pre-box, now we have about 90 after 3 months. We are growing strong and the box is the BIGGEST part of that growth. I think people like to see that you've committed.

Thanks for the comments guys, and thanks Lisbeth for getting us up on the site. I've been an affiliate for a year now and was only able to move into the box after taking on a business partner.

I work full time as a Police Officer, plus have 3 kids, so can't manage group training alone. Doing one-on-ones just wasn't going to pay the rent either.

We don't officially open until February 7th, but so far we've got 6 members training at the box with more coming as quickly as I can schedule them, (about another 25-30!) and learn how to make MBO sing and dance. We've also got a great athlete who is a Sydney 2000 Olympic Gold medalist and 2007 Western Australian Triathlete of the year starting with us soon! Things are certainly humming along.

The good thing for us is that we're the only CrossFit on the west side of Australia (for now), in a city of 2 mill so the potential is there.

Time and money are the limiting factors.

Being an affiliate, like most things in life, is a constant learning process. I've got a long way to go and the box was just a step in the journey.

Adam, your welcome whenever you can get over here.

We started out life over 2 years ago in a small garage with a power rack(where we learned to kip) we had to put it on concrete blocks and weight it down with sand bags, ahh the health and safety of it, a couple of 24KB, a cast iron olympic set, sand bags and a water filled beer keg, on a Sat we would meet at the Glen in Dunfermline for some outrageous workouts firemans carries zeltchers sandbag runs etc up and down hills, and now were onto Mk2 1000sqft, with eyes on doubling that this year, with progression to a 4000sqft some day, well ya can dream!

For those who have problems with the city/county/state, make sure you remember that when you vote. Make sure your clients know this too when they vote.

I'm already straying a bit far into politics.