COVID-19 has not stifled growth for Stacy Baugues and PowerUp Fitness
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center recently completed its “The Works 2020” start-up accelerator with seven participants. Over the next several weeks, we are spotlighting them in a series of articles. Today’s feature is on Stacy Baugues and PowerUp Fitness.)
The COVID-19 pandemic has not stifled the growth opportunities for Stacy Baugues and PowerUp Fitness, her start-up that we first spotlighted last October in this teknovation.biz article.
“I had eight sites on board when that article posted,” she told us recently. “We now have 65 sites across 16 states using our traditional programs and five accounts in four states using our virtual option at about 90 sites. We wouldn’t let a global pandemic slow us down, instead we pivoted, focusing on our new virtual fitness classes.”
As described in the October 2019 feature article, Baugues first conceived the idea for a youth-focused fitness start-up in graduate school, but took a different career path for the next seven years before reviving the concept in June 2019. She launched PowerUp Fitness with two offerings – “PowerUp Your School” and “PowerUp Fitness Classes,” the latter for centers – and had a third product in the planning stage named “PowerUp Peanuts,” focused on two- to five-year olds at daycares. All are now available under the “PowerUp Programs” brand.
Since then and with the advent of COVID-19, it’s been a whirlwind for Baugues as she has worked to respond to the many ways the coronavirus has impacted families, schools, daycares and fitness centers. With schools and many daycares closed for two months before the academic year ended, she saw an opportunity to launch a version of the fitness product in the virtual world to which so many of us have quickly grown accustomed.
Today, the asynchronous “PowerUp Premium Virtual Classes” package includes 15 instructor-led fitness classes – each lasting 30 minutes – that include warm-ups, exercises, and activities. Each of them is based on the instructor module utilized to deliver the start-up’s signature “PowerUp Your School Program” for grades K-8, but in a video rather than “live” mode.
The titles are catchy with descriptions like “Motivation Monday,” “Workout Wednesday,” “Fitness Friday,” “PowerUp Challenge,” “Pump It Up!,” “PowerUp Prime Time,” “1-2-3 Pop!,” “PowerUp Performance,” “Push It with PowerUp,” “PowerUp Perfect Start,” “Pow!,” “Purely PowerUp,” “PowerUp Party,” “Pep in Your Step,” and “Proud to PowerUp.”
“Our design for the virtual classes has been intentional,” Baugues says. “They can be used in any space and any place. No equipment is required, making it easy for families to ‘Turn on, Tune in and PowerUp’ anywhere.”
There are also a number of bundling options for users. For example, parents who want to offer the instruction in an asynchronous mode at home have four options under the “PowerUp Parents Packs” that are based on the age of the child. Each digital download module can be purchased for $89 or they can subscribe on a monthly basis for $12.99, where the videos will be updated periodically. There are also three bundles for schools, ranging from 24 to 144 lessons.
Baugues says the virtual programming is mobile friendly even in the absence of Wi-Fi. “We believe demand for virtual programming will continue after COVID-19,” she adds.
As far as participating in “The Works 2020” offered by the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, Baugues says “it has been great,” particularly “learning so much from others in the cohort. Having people believe in me and the idea I’m pursuing (has been) so valuable.” She also talked about the importance of establishing OKRs (objectives and key results).
“I’ve accomplished some of my OKRs already,” Baugues said proudly. One is to add a full-time marketing person and two interns to help handled current and anticipated growth.
She also recently participated in the Bundled Initiative, launched by Courtney Jones and underwritten by Launch Tennessee. In a recent blogpost, Baugues said, “Bundled provided PowerUp Fitness with the support needed to bring my vision for a new product forward from conception to product launch within 60 days. We also predict a long-term return value far exceeding what we would’ve been able to do otherwise, on our own. Because of this opportunity and the support through Bundled, our company to expand its presence into California and Pennsylvania — markets we had not yet been able to penetrate.”
