Strategic Development for Fit Girl Training

MBAS 891 – Work Plan

Date Submitted: December 16th, 2013

Project Name: Strategic Development for Fit Girl Training

Project Client: Robin Prest

Project Manager: Kezia Burke

Project Advisor: Anthony Habra

Target Completion Date: April 14th, 2014

Project Opportunity:

Fit Girl Training is a privately run start-up company created by Robin Prest.  Fit Girl Training is a personal training business containing multiple components including personal training, online training and nutritional planning. Robin is the sole proprietor, manager of the company and one of the trainers. Fit Girl Training currently has a 500 square foot studio in the west end of Kingston and estimates that it will approach $40,000 in revenue this year.

Fit Girl Training operates in the fitness industry and, because of the services it offers, competes against other personal trainers, online trainers and established gyms. The industry has been growing rapidly over the past few years providing Fit Girl Training with huge potential clientele but also with an increasing number of competitors.

Robin has a number of ambitious goals for the company including:

- Open a larger gym in Kingston by next summer

- Open a Food Prep Service through Fit Girl

- Launch a clothing line

However, Robin’s background is in Health Sciences so she has returned to school in order to study business and marketing. She has significant constraints on her time and is looking for help developing a long-term strategy for Fit Girl Training moving forwards.

In particular, it is very likely that Robin will need to take out a loan in order to finance the growth of her business but does not currently work with any kind of financial advisor. She would like help assessing her loan candidacy as well as looking in to the possibility of obtaining investors. The main objective of the project will be to determine how Fit Girl Training should differentiate itself and remain competitive in an industry with increasing rivalry.

Strategic Context:

Fit Girl Training’s vision and mission are as follows:

Vision:

Fit Girl Training will be the GO TO training company for women around the world looking to create healthy lifestyles, healthy mindsets and a healthy bodies.

Mission:

Creating a positive environment for women to believe and achieve their fitness and lifestyle goals.

As such Robin has been developing a well-aligned strategy that is based on offering a complete suite of resources for her clients. She develops individual fitness and nutrition plans, offers one-on-one training in a private facility, offers online training for clients not located in the Kingston area and is available to her clients 24/7 via email and phone in order to support her clients throughout the process.  She uses her personal story as well as her hands-on support in order to differentiate herself from other personal trainers.

In line with her vision for being the go to fitness company for women, Robin would like to launch a Fit Girl clothing line and offer a prepared food service in order to help her clients meet their nutritional goals. Robin’s goals for the next 1-3 years are:

• Complete website by year end
• Launch apparel line by year end
• Attend 3 learning sessions/ conferences on entrepreneurship, marketing and social media by year end
• Find a investor by year end
• Find a rental space to create a small gym within the next 1-3 years
• Hire employees to work in the gym within 1-3 years
• Purchase large equipment within 3 years
• Open franchises in Ottawa/Peterborough

Robin’s current strategy could be quite effective, however, she is currently facing constraints on her time and resources due to her return to being a full-time student. In order to create a sustainable long-term strategy for Fit Girl Training a much more comprehensive analysis of the industry, potential consumers, and Fit Girl’s core competencies must be completed.

In addition, it is very important to complete a financial analysis in order to assess the timing and feasibility of Robin’s goals and to create a financial plan (in terms of loans and investors) in order to finance ventures that are determined to be good for Robin’s business in the near future.

Scope:

After speaking with Robin about her current status with Fit Girl and her plans for the future, four main goals have been identified:

1. Move in to new permanent space in downtown Kingston in June/July 2014
2. Update pricing
3. Improve promotion
4. Begin steps to launching clothing line and prepared food service.

The scope of this project will thus begin with a thorough analysis of the industry, consumers and core competencies of Fit Girl Training. Only after these analyses are complete can Robin’s goals be assessed. The project will then cover a financial analysis of Robin’s budget for 2014 and

pro forma statements in order to determine the financing required for Robin to move in to her own space and a recommended time frame. The project will also include recommendations for an ideal pricing structure as well as examine the most efficient and effective methods of promotion for Fit Girl training.

Finally, IF time allows the project will look in to what additional resources Robin would need in order to launch her own clothing line and prepared food service. This is a more long-term goal for Robin so given its reduced significance this will only be covered if the rest of the project is completed faster than expected and there is time remaining.

Out of scope for this project will be Robin’s goals of opening franchises in the areas surrounding Kingston.

Objectives:

The main objectives of this project are divided into two categories: objectives for the project advisor and objectives for the project client. Objectives for the project advisor have specific due dates as indicated in the table below. Objectives for the project client will all be completed by the due date for the final business plan (March 14th) but will be worked on throughout the course of the project as per the project schedule. The objectives/deliverables to the advisor are determined by the MBAS 891 outline. The objectives and deliverables for the client have been decided upon in order to provide the client with a thorough analysis of the company and industry in order to develop a long-term strategy as well as to help the client meet her specific goals.