Upsize is a magazine with a single mission: to help Minnesota's small-business owners build bigger and more profitable companies, and to connect CEOs with the people, products and ideas they need to grow.
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Suzy: Two reasons: one, because we're in the demographic, and because it's the largest demographic in our country. I think ethically and morally we believe that we can help change America in the right way, because of health care costs. If we don't stay healthy, our children, our grandchildren, the country can't pay for all those health care costs. The other reason is, we didn't want to go to a club anymore that has people who are in Spandex and are 30 years old. We didn't feel comfortable. We wanted to make people feel comfortable. They don't have to feel embar- rassed, if they've never worked out before. Tom Boerboom: It really was a population that was under-served. There are no, or very few, comparable types of neighborhood facilities that do what we do. Upsize: Both of you have a background in providing health care to seniors. How does that feed into your creation of Welcyon? Tom: For me it was significant, because hav- ing worked in elder services my entire career, I've seen people come in to our facilities, maybe because they've had a stroke or some other event. They would come in and get rehab, and start to get stronger. Then over time maybe they'd start with a cane, and then end up in a wheelchair. They were get- ting weaker. The types of programs we have really address that. We can see people get their muscle tone back. That had a big part in what we were trying to accomplish. Suzy: Being a registered nurse, and also working in long-term care, I knew what hap- pens to all of us as we age if we don't remain strong. I also felt that having a nurse as a manager in the club brings a whole other aspect of credibility to this population. That was a strong point in our background. As boomers we have a lot on our mind. Our idea of aging is not what it was 20 years ago. We want to travel, to remain active. Upsize: Tell me about the name Welcyon, which is a made-up word. I know that one major goal was to create a name that you could protect throughout the country. How did you get to that name, and what went into your thinking in creating it? www.upsizemag.com Tom: We actually started with 100 words, and then we Googled them, and Welcyon was the one that came back that was wide open. There was only one hit, I think, from that word. Suzy: There are two facets to the name: the word wellness, and the old word halcyon. People who come to us will get well or have a better health outlook, but they will also come into Welcyon and feel like it's a serene, joyful, welcoming place. Then we had the company that helped us with branding look up the Greek myth, and they helped us find the halcyon bird, which is known to bring peace and calm. Upsize: Why was it important to you that no one else was using the name nationally? Tom: One of the thoughts we had was when people Googled us, or found us on the Internet, which is a major component of doing business today, we wouldn't have to position ourselves against so many other companies. We tried other combina- tions of names, like with the word 'boomer' involved, and there were thousands of hits that were so easy to get confused. It was very odd at first to make up a name. We really had second thoughts. Our partner Paul Contris called and said, 'I don't like that name.' But we were told that it would grow on us, and it really has. Suzy: Our consultants said, find something that's unique, We've had a lot of serendipity moments with the name, too. Upsize: Suzy, you had an experience oper- ating a Curves franchise. What did you learn from that? Suzy: I learned that you have to have systems, and so everything we've done at Welcyon we've recorded: we've written procedures, we've written protocols; we've had a foundation for all of our exercises. Leadership was critical in that exercise, so we talked a lot about what our values are in the company, what we want to be known for. What do we stand for? Because Diane Heavin, the woman who helped found Curves, is a woman of great charac- ter. So we talked a lot about honesty, and fairness, and giving. I also learned from the Curves experience that consistency is very important. You could have one franchise that was operating in this manner and following protocols, and then you might have another one that was quite different. So from the get-go we decided to be very firm about the protocols, about the atmosphere, about how we treat customers. Another thing I learned is, you have to move quickly. This is working, and people are wanting to change their health. And so we're running. We're ready to go with this. But at the same time you have to be thoughtful. Upsize: You said you're running fast. Is that because your competition feels that this is a nice niche? How fast do you have to be, to beat others? Suzy: We want to be first. We will be first. We want to do it as quickly as we can, and we want to sell a franchise in 60 days. We have our franchise documents in place. I'd like to sell five franchises in Minnesota this year. That's aggressive for a new franchising company, but that's our goal. Upsize: What are the most important les- sons you've learned while creating Welcyon? Suzy: Getting assistance with the branding. Finding a consulting company right from the beginning to help us with the decisions. Hiring somebody with great credibility in exercise physiology. We didn't want to just put something out there. We do everything in line with the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines, because we're partner- ing with doctors, rehab units. We need to have a lot of credibility. So we have to have a good foundation of why we do every- thing, from the number of repetitions, to the questions we ask people, to the stretching afterwards. 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