Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Lucio.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
After moving back to my hometown of the Morgan Park/Mt. Greenwood neighborhood, I realized the closest barre place was located in Orland Park IL. My husband (boyfriend at the time) convinced me that franchising was not the way to go and really motivated me to do it all on my own. Since I already had my personal training certificate from NASM, National Academy of Sports and Medicine, I knew that a comprehensive barre certification was next.
After receiving my certification from the International Ballet Barre Fitness Association, I started offering 1:1 personal training sessions via Skype and at the local park in the Morgan Park Community. I took out an LLC in my name in March of 2015, and started teaching barre and cardio classes using a wall and playground bar as “the barre.”
Once I started to gain clients I bounced around and rented space at three existing studios (where I also met my now Manager Caitlin Cody) before finally taking the leap of faith, and rented out a studio of my own. With my husband and my friend/partner in crime Caitlin Cody, we opened the door to our studio in the Mt. Greenwood community in July of 2015. We just opened our second studio in Frankfort Illinois of August of 2017.
Has it been a smooth road?
Owning a business never is and probably never will be a “smooth road”. We made a lot of mistakes from ordering the wrong flooring and wrong equipment to navigating the ins and outs of Mind-body software. But the best part about making mistakes is that you always learn from them. I still work full time as a school administrator for a Special Education Cooperative, so without my husband doing the books and other important tasks, and my manager keeping anything and everything in line, I couldn’t do it without them. Let’s not forgot about our awesome staff and the strong tribe of women who make the magic happen every day.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Barre It All Fitness story. Tell us more about the business.
Barre it All Fitness is a small boutique fitness studio for women offering a variety of cardio, strength, and yoga classes. All cardio workouts are centered around the HIIT method (high-intensity interval training, which is the fastest way to burn fat in trouble areas) while strength workouts are centered around barre and a metabolic effect method that focuses on rest based training.
Barre movements use high reps and low weight in order to elongate and strengthen muscles while the RBT (rest based training) method used in the signature Metabolic Effect class, gives women an opportunity to build overall muscle mass. You can get your cardio, strength, and yoga on under one roof. Class offerings include Barre, HIIT, Barre-oxing (cardio kickboxing with a barre twist) Bootcamp, Tabata, S.W.A.G (Zumba HIIT moves with a barre twist), yoga sculpt, vinyasa yoga, and Metabolic Effect.
New classes that are currently being added are E.M.O.M. (An opportunity to max out every muscle in just 20 minutes) and HIIT and Flow (30 minutes of HIIT, 15 minutes of strength, and 15 minutes of stretching.) Barre It All is about empowering women and pushing clients to be the best versions of themselves. What sets us apart from the rest is that routines in each class change consistently, so clients will not be doing the same workout over and over.
Basically, your muscles will never get bored! More importantly, we are the cheapest studio around us believe that every woman should have a place where she can call home and not have to pay an arm and a leg for it. We offer unlimited classes for just $100.00 a month or a year in full for $970.43. Not into commitment? We also offer affordable class packs that never expire. New clients can also take advantage of the new client special which is two months of unlimited classes for just $100.00 per month!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I don’t see my business stalling anytime soon. My vision for other locations include state-of-the-art studios with multiple group fitness rooms, showers, spray tans, braid bars, and rooms equipped to provide heated barre and yoga classes. We want others to have the opportunity to bring Barre it All back to their hometown for an affordable rate so franchising options will be available by 2020 if not sooner.
Pricing:
- New Clients: Two months of unlimited classes for $100.00
- Pay in full for the year for $970.43 or get unlimited monthly classes for $102.16
Contact Info:
- Address: 3203 W, 111th Street Chicago, IL 60655
7950 Lincoln Highway Frankfort, IL 60423 - Website: www.barreitallfitness.com
- Phone: (872) 256-1397
- Email: info@barreitallfitness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barre_it_all_llc__fitness_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Barrelove773/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Barrelove773
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/Barrelove773/
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
