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Business Plan
Mission To provide a traveling rehabilitation and fitness service for people who have spinal cord injuries in northern England. The goal is to provide a fun and pleasant environment for our clients to exercise without feeling self-conscious. Our aim is to provide the service for free or a nominal annual membership subscription. We will operate as a nonprofit organization.
Business Summary POP-UP GYM will use specialized equipment such as functional electrical stimulation bikes to provide our clients with an experience they cannot find in a normal gym. The equipment and trained staff will set up for the day/half day in prearranged locations. This allows us to reach a much wider audience. We can reach people who live in towns or villages within a 90 minute drive of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kindom. We will provide specialized equipment designed specifically for people with unique needs. Our staff will be trained to work with quadriplegic and paraplegic patients.
Target Audience POP-UP GYM will be specifically designed to accommodate members of the public who have had spinal cord injuries leaving them either paraplegic or quadriplegic. We will have equipment that can be used by all spinal cord injury types, ranging from high-level cervical breaks to lowerlevel injuries. On a case by case basis will also assist individuals with brain injuries, strokes and other types of neurological conditions.
Service Area
! This map displays the catchment area for POP-UP GYM. The colored dots represent locations where facilities would accommodate the gym. We have already contacted several facilities in the area about using their space with very positive feedback. Some of these venues include village halls, schools, leisure centers, community centers, churches and sports clubs.
Services ● One on one training ● Group training sessions ● Cardiovascular exercises ● Weight bearing and balancing training ● Muscle strength and muscle endurance sessions ● The use of specialist equipment ● Spasticity and neuropathic pain reduction
Equipment Most of the equipment falls under the category known as FES. FES stands for Functional Electrical Stimulation. This is a rehabilitation technique where by electrical current stimulates nerves to evoke muscle contractions. FES creates patterned movement of the arms or legs, enabling your muscles to work and perform active cycling even though you may have lost voluntary control of those muscles. Our goal is to have several pieces of equipment that are suitable for the wide range of clients that we will serve. Our clients will range from high-level quadriplegics to lower level paraplegics. Here are some of the pieces specialized equipment we will be purchasing. We have included the Recommended Retail Price-RRP(UK) and the Manufactured Suggested Retail Price-MSRP(US). We have already found most of these pieces of equipment for less than half of the original price. We are currently in talks with cyclone technologies about renting the FES equipment at a highly reduced rate.
Full Flexiser ÂŁ6,000 RRP / $8,500 MSRP A body workout for both manual and power wheelchair users. Motor allows people with full paralysis to still exercise.
FES Leg Bike ÂŁ20,000 / $28,200 Uses functional electrical stimulation to induce muscle contractions power the bike which has numerous benefits.
FES bike ÂŁ2,000 / $2,800 Allows quadriplegics with limited or no arm movement to still get an upper body workout.
Power Plate MY7 ÂŁ1500 / $2100 Scientifically documented, Power Plate vibration active 30 to 50 muscle contractions per second. This work helps stability and enable up to 95 percent of muscle fibers involved in an exercise, achieving greater efficiency in each of the exercises.
At Step by Step foundation we will adapt the exercises to work with SCI clients. Both paraplegics and quadriplegics, looking for the maximum performance in each of the positions in which they usually work: decubitus; sitting; hands and knees; kneeling; and standing.
Vitaglide ÂŁ1500 / $2100 Allows paraplegics and also quadriplegics with small amounts of function in the body to get a cardiovascular/strength workout.
Easystand Glider ÂŁ4000 / $5600 Allows both paraplegics and quadriplegics to stand while exercising their upper body. Weight bearing exercise has numerous benefits.
Standard gym equipment We will supplement our specialized equipment with some standard gym equipment with slight adaptations. We will be limited by the fact that it needs to be transported. Once the specializes equipment is purchased we will research which standard equipment will work best.
Staffing Our goal will be to provide service for at least four high-level quadriplegics at a time. In order to accomplish this goal we will need a staff of at least four personnel. Optimally we would prefer to have five staff members. Therefore, the vehicle we will be purchasing will accommodate five staff members. For safety reasons, quadriplegics on ventilators will be required to be supervised by their own caregiver. • Paid staff will include one full-time personal trainer. Lead personal trainer/physiotherapist £20,000 / $28,000 salary • The physical therapist must be physically fit in order to assist clients with transfers. They must also be extremely knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with special populations. Our goal will be to find candidates that are young, energetic and qualified. • Six unpaid interns from local universities who are preparing to become personal trainers. We would need two interns per day. They would rotate and do one or two days each week. • We will need several volunteers who are comfortable driving large vehicles. They will assist with the loading/unloading and the setting up of the equipment. In addition, they will assist patients use the equipment.
Management We are exploring alternatives for the legal setup of POP-UP GYM. We have been advised from Aspire and Matt Hampson Trust that we may be able to come under the banner of their charity rather than set up our own. This would be our preferred approach.
Board of Trustees Drew Graham and Gary Graham will be oversee the operation. Gary Graham has over 30 years of business management and sales experience. In addition, Gary spent some time educating himself visiting specialized gym facilities in Colorado. Drew Graham is a quadriplegic and has recent first-hand experience in this area. Drew spent over a year rehabilitating at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado. This facility has state of the art facilities. This experience gave him invaluable knowledge regarding gym facilities for disabled people. In addition, prior to Drew’s accident, he was a professional athletic's coach. He has a Bachelor's Degree in human performance and physical education/business. These skills will be invaluable and lend themselves to running a facility like this.
Capital Expenditure Requirements Vehicle - Large van or 4x4 truck with a trailer Used £10,000 GBP / $14,000 USD Gym Equipment - Six core pieces of specialist exercise equipment including at least one FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) cycle. Most of this equipment will be purchased second-hand to reduce initial outlay. Used £30,000 GBP / $42,300 USD Office Equipment (computer/mobile phones) £1000 GBP / $1400 USD Fundraising ideas • Our initial funds will be generated by “The Colorado ReRun Project” and it’s volunteers. The goal of the American fundraising facilitator is to find 100 runners who will conduct their very own personal fundraiser. Each volunteer will be running a race of their choosing around various parts of the world with the goal of each raising £500 GBP / $700 USD • We will launch another ‘Drew Day’. The last one raised £10000 GBP / $14,000 • Drew will continue to sell his paintings which are created by painting with his mouth. He has raised over £700 / $1000 • A charity concert. Drew has many contacts that have volunteered to perform for free.
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Strengths ● Innovative concept/clear identity ● Relatively low-cost start up ● No rental obligations ● There is a gap in the market for this type of service ● Low fixed overheads ● Driven leadership ● Flexibility of business plan Weaknesses ● New and untried business model ● Sourcing specialized equipment can be difficult and expensive ● Limited financial resources ● Reliant on volunteers
Opportunities ● Ability to reach 50 new spinal cord injury patients per year ● Expand to include patients with other neurological and physical disabilities ● Expand the service to other parts of the country ● Use contacts in the media to get free publicity ● Possibility of NHS referrals Threats ● Reliant on donations and fundraising ● Insurance, health and safety legislation ● Lack of interest from potential users
Marketing Strategy • Drew’s video shares the vision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZi3vEFohA The video will be sent to potential location providers and potential users • Social Media. The spinal cord community is quite small but I am confident that I could reach out to a significant number of people through Facebook, word-of-mouth and advertising. I could also use posters at places like James Cook, networking through Spinal Injuries Association (SIA) and ASPIRE, Matt Hampson Foundation and Re-Gain. We are currently in the process of setting up a website and also creating a Facebook page. In addition to digital marketing, our van will be a mobile billboard with the name of company written all over it. This is our logo. We spent numerous hours testing several different versions until we eventually came up with a logo of which I feel proud.
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! These are the three different versions of the logo. The top one represents the main logo that will be featured on the van. The second logo will be used for applications such as the Facebook profile picture. The third logo will be used on our uniforms/T-shirts as they will be green. We wanted our logo to look professional and corporate while at the same time portraying what we do. Description of logo symbols • • • • • • • •
The patient in the wheelchair that’s in the “O” represents the disabled community. The user of the chair is dynamic and pushing to move forward. The arrow pointing upwards in the “U” represents moving upwards The arrow in the “U” represents the north of England The U/arrow represents the pop-up concept or the roof of a building The arms on the “U” present somebody exercising We chose green because it represents the color of recovery/new life and the word "go". The color green has great significance to me because I ran for the Gosforth Harriers and the Adams State University Grizzlies, whose colors are green and white.