"The money for the project, I could not find half a year. And then by chance did it for half an hour ": the success story of the owner saykl studio Rock the Cycle Oleg Rudakov

Oleg Rudakov

Founder cycling studio Rock the Cycle.

How did the idea of ​​business

I had no experience of the business, so the error in the startup process has done a lot. On the other hand, now, when I am asked: "This is some kind of American franchise?" I am proud to say that we are all developed by ourselves.

On the fitness market, I came in as a public relations specialist. Initially led fitness World Class brand marketing, then Bosco coordinated communication at the Olympics in London and Sochi. I often interacted with the trainers, he began to ride a bike. After Sochi interest in the work faded: the big goal has been achieved.

I wanted to do something different. But do not just earn by selling concrete or sleepers. I wanted to give people value, he believed in himself. And then I floated my love for bicycles. If our climate you can ride only four months a year, but what about the rest of the time? That's how I came to the idea of ​​saykl studio. In America, they are already being rocked, but they still were not really in Russia.

We knew about this destination only people from the sport. Others asked: "cycling - this is when the bikes with nails nailed to the floor?" When I ran the Rock the Cycle, the first lesson was free, so that man could feel cycling on itself. Now we offer newcomers welcome-paid package of three workouts. But to come to this, we are with other studios were long educational work. Talked about cycling, we tried to make it through the media and fashion gloss. It was a big PR-campaign, which helped shake up this direction in Russia.

What is cycling

In cycling there are two schools: American and European. First - catchy and fun: you are pedaling to music. The second - the most intensive training in the minimum time, where do you keep track of all the indicators. We tried the two systems to "marry": to provide complete information about the class, but it does not give a man bored.

For example, we have developed your application. There, the user enters gender, age, weight and other anthropometric data. The app communicates with the bike, captures all the parameters, and then sent to the cloud, how many kilometers you are replayed, how many calories burned and so on.

On the big screen in the hall displays the load of each cyclist. Circles are painted in different colors depending on the intensity. When the coach yells, "I want you all to be in the red zone!" - it is necessary to enter the maximum load for himself. Experienced athletes need to do is to put some effort and a newcomer - others. It turns out that the lesson of the group, but individual load, sharpened by each person. There is a block with a dumbbell, not to ignore other muscles.

For those who want an interesting exercise without any numbers, there is a disco on the bike Rock the Party. There, too, will have to sweat, but it's fun. there is a lesson Rock my TripWhere we travel to different corners of the Earth. At the weekend there are sessions Rock CinemaWhere we watch different movies.

Peak attendance here in January, when people want to start a new life. Our advantage over the fitness studio - low entry point. The client does not need to buy a subscription for one year for 30-40 thousand, you can pay 1000 rubles for three workouts. The second peak - spring: all are preparing for the holiday season, and with cycling, you can pretty quickly get in shape.

Search for investors and the business plan

The money for the project, I could not find half a year. And then by chance I did it in just half an hour. Faced with the investor is literally on the street, had a pitching on the fly without any training. He gave 100% of the funds for the opening. I think I was able to infect it with their enthusiasm. I was burning with the idea. By the way, there is still that way and choose employees: hungry for knowledge, with glowing eyes. I can not take someone with experience and a crown on his head, that nothing will learn.

I can not really tell a lot about our environment, but my task - to return the borrowed funds with interest in four years.

Our monthly income exceeds the cost of business content, so that in this way the business pays for itself. As part of the investment - yet. Dividends as long as I do not get, because all the profits shoot on premature repayment of the loan.

Naturally, the cost of which I outlined in the business plan does not coincide with the real. For example, a lot of extra money ate building. I rented a room of the former bank, and there was - the depositary had to break out the iron plates of the walls. Then it turned out that the ventilation system is in a deplorable state. Redo everything was expensive and time, opening a studio in life was threatened. I've never been overweight, but at that time I lost 9 kg.

Positioning and advertising

Initially, we have positioned ourselves as an alternative to a fitness club. But it was a mistake. In fact, our competitors - is a cinema and restaurants. We compete with them for free time customer, who decides whether to twist tonight pedal or drink a beer with friends. Reservations, we also like the movie: go to the site, choose a session time, place, ie bike and pay card.

We often run non-trivial campaign, such as cross-promotions with restaurants. Our coaches nutritsiologi-developed nutritious menu for Eataly restaurant. It is given to all guests, and we were talking about at this place. Now the advertising should not be measured only the final sale, because it does not work. When people see your brand for the first time, it will not run to buy the service. And when he met your brand in a magazine, and then I saw the menu at a restaurant, then a friend of his wrote a positive post - he will think: "I must and I try."

In the month of advertising it takes 7% of the budget.

Collaboration with inflyuenserami work well, but this area varies greatly. Previously, the best came from advertising millionaire bloggers. Now people are losing confidence in them and to listen more to mikroinflyuenseram. When a person has a few thousand subscribers, but he knows his audience and friends with it, listen to it longer.

Complexity, mistakes, conclusions

I do not separate the history from its blunders: everything happened as it should. The main thing - do not make mistakes crush you, you need to get up and go forward. But some conclusions for myself, I did.

1. When you start the first business is very important mentor figure, a mentor. A man with whom you can consult to help look at the situation from the outside. I did not have enough psychological support.
2. Optionally, trying to cover his own strength all at once. I was engaged in the construction site at the same time, I developed a website, application, CRM-system. This was hard. Sometimes we can take ready-made solutions, rather than invent something from scratch. If the business for you - self-realization, it makes sense to do all of their own. If it is primarily an instrument of income, you can borrow ready-made solutions.
3. Place for the studio should be available to your customers. For example, I took a room between stations «Belarusian» and «Mayakovskaya»Where there is a lot of business centers. Discover cycling studio in a former bank branch appears only if you are very much like the construction.
4. The choice of the landlord - a very important step. It should be responsible for it like a person's identity, which rents business space. I had problems with the landlord that I was able to solve, but I know those situations when a business out of it was closed.
5. Assemble a good team is not as easy as it seems. It may take a lot longer than you had planned to find a cool trainers. At the start of the team's better to take from outsource, such as cleaning, bookkeeping.
6. The demand for your service is easy to overestimate. For example, I analyzed the cycling studio in New York and there at 5 am - a full house. In Moscow, this topic did not work: it is a city that loves to sleep. Fill in the studio in the afternoon, when our target audience works in the office, it was difficult.

Should I start a fitness business

fitness sphere - not the easiest. There are no windfall profits, but many risks. If someone says to me: "I have a few spare million rubles, whether I should go into the fitness business?", I would say that, probably not. There are many other areas where increased income will be much easier. But if a man says to me: "I can not live without fitness, whether really to make money?" I answer, that's real. But we need to consider whether you're willing to do this seven days a week 24 hours a day.

For instance, our Moscow studio for three years and I'm still in it almost constantly. It can not speak in favor of the management system, which I have built. But as long as I prefer. I see that are better things in my presence. Or maybe I'm just a buzz from it and want to participate in everything. I like to see people who have never played sports, fall in love with him. I am proud that we have customers who have started to walk into the studio immediately after opening and train with us until now. We even have two pair, who met in the studio and got married. This is the coolest part of my job - here are the inspiring stories of people.

Business can be started without money, without the most detailed business plan, without any ideal conditions on the market. But you can not start it without burning eyes. If you live in this business - all the rest will follow in the process.