By Josh Leve, AFS Founder & CEO
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it, keep looking. Don't settle." - Steve Jobs
I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a focus group/roundtable with some of the brightest studio owners in the San Francisco Bay Area. At AFS, we always jump at the chance to assemble these types of events. It's essential that we fully understand exactly what our members are going through.
The purpose of this dinner was simple. Learn about both aspiring and current studio owner buying habits but also identify ways to support these individuals with the information and resources they seek. The dinner was a resounding success. For nearly 3.5 hours, five owners and one aspiring owner from around the bay area compared notes, shared stories, and provided key insight into their backgrounds, businesses, and future plans. 
At the end of the day, we wanted to learn about...
- If their an aspiring owner, when do they plan to open
- How long they've been in business
- What are their specialities
- What’s the one thing if you improved would make the greatest impact on your business
- What are the go-to brands in equipment and accessories
- How they buy equipment and where they go to purchase
A special thanks to Brian Kane at Precor for taking care of the bill! Along with Khaled Elmasri, founder of the Nor-Cal Fitness Summit for introducing us to several of the attendees seen below. Thanks everyone!
Featured from left to right: Joseph Chlubna (EQ Fitness), Josh Leve (AFS), Randy Green (Mercury Fitness), Brian Kane (Precor), Creig Nakano (Training Slate), Christopher Wood, John Heringer (Fast Action Training), Steph Haddad (Haddad Training).
Josh Leve is responsible for the strategic development and growth of the Association of Fitness Studios. Josh brings more than 10 years of sales, consulting, advertising, marketing, operations, and retail experience to AFS and has spent more than a decade in the fitness industry.
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