Gonzell and Deb are some hard-hitting entrepreneurs: Read their story below, as they reflect on opening Turner’s Boxing Club — a new boxing training facility located in a former warehouse along East Street.
The ‘Why’ Behind their Business
Deb: He’s wanted to do this for a long time. He has a real passion for boxing, and a real passion for helping & mentoring people. Turner’s Boxing Club will combine the two. It’s not just about boxing -- we want this to be a place where young people feel like they fit it.
Gonzell: A lot of kids go into gangs or get into trouble because they don’t have anything that’s theirs. I want them to have a good spot to turn to instead. It doesn’t matter who you are when you come in here. I just want to see kids coming out of here doing positive things.
We’ve only been open a few days and you can already see the kids coming in here opening up to each other. They’ve never been around each other and now they’re all jumping rope together and learning to jab and working the speed bag together. We’re building a positive place. And we’re going to build some incredible boxers while we’re at it-- I want to put Frederick on the map when it comes to boxing.
Biggest Challenges to Starting
Deb: Convincing people that boxing was going to be a good thing was one major hurdle for us. Getting the landlords comfortable with the idea was a challenge, for sure. Some people hear boxing and they think fighting and trouble… you know -- lots of noise and rowdy people. We had to explain this business is about health, fitness, and goals. We’re training people to get in shape, and teaching them how to defend themselves and have confidence.
Gonzell: In opening a business, financing is a challenge. We didn’t have any previous business experience – normally to get loaned money you need to have a history to point to. How do you do that the first-time round? We got lucky that we found a great fit with our bank. But we still have to be smart. We both are still working other jobs to make this possible. We have to pay for our home life and our business life. We keep the two separate. We make sure we do everything right. You can’t spurge on the wrong things. You have to stay smart.
Building Their Business:
Gonzell: At first I was looked at going into a franchise – that comes with some positives, but also some negatives. They make you pay to use their model. And then, there are some limitations on what you can and can’t change. I finally decided – ‘You know, what? I’d rather just do our own. We can make our own franchise one day.’
Making that choice definitely took away some of the support we could have had through a franchise system. It was more of a risk, but it let me shape it completely to my vision. And now, we’ve got a real nice set-up. I visualized everything that goes in here. I took a little bit of each gym I’ve been to and pulled out the best.
Deb: It wasn’t easy though. It was a lot of work. For us in particular, a lot of the work was getting the building in good shape. It’s a 70-something year old warehouse. We liked the vibe of the building; the exposed beams really made it feel like a “real” boxing gym. But a 70-something year old warehouse is not something you just walk into and open up. It took a lot of work pulling it off. Gonzell was here every day for months since we got the lease signed. Well, except Father’s Day. We got him to take off Father’ Day.
Local Resources that were Helpful:
Deb: We’ve been running into the right people. We’ve had people in our path to get us to where we are at: A gentleman we ran into when we were toying with starting a non-profit – he gave us a ton of information on starting a business, our representative at M&T bank, Sherman Coleman with the County’s Economic Development, Mary Ford-Naill at the City’s Economic Development, other business owners we chatted with, our neighbor who helped us with our business plan & now is helping with our website.
Gonzell: You’re never supposed to forget the people that help you get where you are. We truly appreciate all of them. We know how important they were to us.
Advice to a New Business Owner:
Deb: Be nice to people. Frederick is a growing city but it’s still small enough that people know each other. As a business owner, you are constantly networking. We can go into a store like Lowes or Home Depot and they know us. They say “That’s the boxing lady” or they say “oh, hey Gonzell!” It’s been real positive – like I said before, we’ve received a tremendous amount of support & help through people we’ve met.
Gonzell: Starting a business, really you just have to be a regular person. For that matter… for you to do well in anything, you just need to be regular. Regular and respectful. People react well when you’re a down-to-earth person. If you work hard at a goal and you can stay regular and respectful -- you’ll go a long way.