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A BOOMING BUSINESS
A Booming Business By Rachel Debling Vintage Fitness finds success
through a clear understanding of the Boomer generation and a strong com- munity presence.
Fitness goals are usually pretty stan-
want to schedule their sessions before work or late at night, says Billowits. As a mother with young children, she finds that daytime classes and train- ing sessions are a better fit with her lifestyle. While Vintage Fitness originally be-
Vintage Fitness fi nds success through a clear understanding of the Boomer generation and a strong community presence.
BY RACHEL DEBLING
dard fare –a tighter butt, fewer inches and abs of steel are perhaps the most common. But Erin Billowits, founder of Vintage Fitness, a training company that caters to the 50-plus crowd, is hap- pier when her clients have more cre- ative objectives in mind. “One client told me it was important
for her to be able to paint her own toe- nails,” Billowits recalls. So with every hamstring stretch, she reminded the woman of her special goal. "Having something personal to reach for is a huge motivator." The Toronto-based company has
been helping seniors get healthy for more than five years. Billowits found- ed the company when her corporate marketing job began to feel stale. She had taught group exercise classes part- time for 15 years, so she saw starting her own business as an opportunity to meld two of her loves – exercise and marketing. Billowits recognizes that fitness
goals for the boomer generation often go hand-in-hand with lifestyle needs, not superficial wants. She asks all of her clients during their assessments to list at least one lifestyle-driven goal they want to accomplish in their time together. More often than not, these goals – like being able to walk a hilly 5k while holidaying, playing with grandkids on the floor, and easily get- ting up and down stairs at home – are more important to them than any weight loss or benchmark ever could.
Targeting a booming market
For Billowits, targeting the baby
boomer demographic was a no-brainer. “From a business perspective, this is
where the market is going,” she says. “The boomer demographic is coming of age, and they have more disposable income.” There’s a practical reason too: because most of her clients are retired boomers, they tend to be flexible with workout times. Younger clients usually
38 Fitness Business Canada September/October 2009
gan as a one-woman show, Billowits now employs four personal trainers who cover the GTA teaching group classes, providing personal training sessions and presenting workshops. A deep compassion and understand- ing of older adults' fitness needs is one of the qualities that Billowits believes makes her team shine amongst the competition. And all of her personal trainers, she points out, are over the age of 30, which reflects the experi- ence that the company possesses.
Reaching out to the community
The company works with two im-
portant community programs to bring fitness where it is needed the most. For Home Instead Senior Care, Billowits offers workshops on topics such as fall prevention and “walking 101.” The quantitative data she provides to the organization (for example, percent- age improvements in strength) helps the seniors organization to report back positively to its funders and secure ad- ditional money for future health and wellness programming. Vintage Fitness also works with
Leap of Faith Together (LOFT), a non- profit organization that supports low- income seniors in community housing. Billowits admires the program that makes fitness accessible to those who, for lack of funding, would likely not become involved. “The great thing is that I have low-income seniors partici- pating in the same high-quality pro- gram that those in more affluent areas receive,” she says.
Spreading the word
Billowits believes that traditional
advertising avenues, like newspapers and flyers, are far less effective than the publicity she receives from con- tributing to articles, like those like a recent series in the Toronto Star’s Health section. She finds that when she is quoted in an article, the traffic to her website rises dramatically.
Despite the general perception that
the older population isn’t tech-sav- vy, Billowits has seen an increase in online client interaction over her five years in operation. She sends a month- ly newsletter that highlights upcoming classes and offers wellness tips to her 300 clients and contacts to keep her brand in customers' minds year-round. Billowits has also incorporated some
grassroots approaches in her market- ing strategy. She currently provides free classes to two “ambassadors” in exchange for hyping her business at their church groups and bridge clubs. A personal training referral program provides clients with a free workout when a friend signs up. “The offer of the free session alone is often incentive enough for clients to chat with their friends about personal training,” notes Billowits. Making it easy and accessible for
her team of trainers to schedule class- es and personal training sessions is im- portant to Billowits. She recommends using a web-based program like Easy Facility to log schedules. The program allows the entire team to check avail- abilities and lets them instantly up- date their schedules from wherever they may be. "For a business that isn't fixed to a facility, I find that helpful," she says. Overall, Billowits says the key to
success when working with older adults is to expect the unexpected. "Don't go in with stereotypes about
a client’s abilities," she explains. "You have to look at each individual client separately because age is often not a very good indicator of what they can and cannot do."
Quick Bits Name: Erin Billowits Company: Vintage Fitness, Toronto,
www.vintagefitness.ca, 416-951-7978 Qualifications: BSc, MSc, Ontario
Fitness Council Group Fitness certifi- cation, Can-Fit-Pro Personal Trainer Specialist and Can-Fit-Pro Older Adult Fitness Specialist
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