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Starcycle Fitness Studio Aryanna Duquist BUS& 101 Feb 11, 2023…
Starcycle Fitness Studio Aryanna Duquist BUS& 101 Feb 11, 2023 Introduction-
The purpose of this essay is to analyze a small business in depth including the history of the establishment, how the business is run and organized. This essay will also go over how small businesses differ from large organizations such as Walmart or Amazon, and how small businesses are important to the community and the economy. It’s also important to remember that small businesses rely on the community for support and to remain in business.
Business Description
Starcycle is a franchise based out of Lake Oswego, Oregon. Co-founder Dionne Del Carlo says she created Starcycle to be a new kind of exercise developing a 45 minute cardio ride mixed with music, inclusivity and serious results. This franchise owns and operates many different studios in 15 different cities across the United States. Including one in Felida, Wa that is owned by Salina Philbrook. This is the business discussed in this paper. This is the only studio owned by her and she is the sole proprietor, which means she owns the unincorporated business by herself. Salina opened StarCycle Felida in October of 2017. While the cycle classes are the main function of the business. They also offer child care services and sell merchandise. StarCycles mission is described as, “a new kind of indoor cycling class that was inclusive, badass, and mindful.” (Starcycleride.com).
Business Background
When speaking with Salina I asked her what are some challenges when it comes to owning a small business. She said right now it’s “hard to find staffing and it’s hard to get people to want to come into the studio.” (Salina Philbrook) This has been a challenge since the pandemic. Salina has extensive background in the business world as well as boutique fitness studios. Both her and the general manager Marilyn Trycer have worked at Barre 3, a fitness studio just down the road from StarCycle Felida. Salina has been in the industry for 18 years and has owned other businesses in this time. Marilyn also works at Barre 3 as an instructor so these two businesses are very connected and help each other out.
Stakeholder Model StarCycle has many different stakeholders that contribute to the inner workings of the business. This includes customers, employees and suppliers. Clients are the main stakeholders as they bring in revenue and profit. Without clients Starcycle could not operate. Employees play an equal part to clients as employees create the environment of the company as well as teach the classes or sell the merchandise or memberships. Suppliers are used for the bikes themselves as well as the merchandise. All of this shows why these people are stakeholders in the company. Without them there wouldn’t be a business.
External Factors – Economic The economy is very important to a business like StarCycle because its main revenue is from clients. When the economy is growing a business like StarCycle flourishes. But when people dont have money to spend, such as now when the US is in a recession it makes it harder for small businesses. Inflation has gone up 8% in just one year compared to the gradual 2-3% it normally raises.To counteract this prices have increased and the people who are able to afford it help keep the business afloat. During the pandemic as well people did not have access to disposable income which was also a challenge for starcycle as they opened in Felida a few years before the pandemic. Salina went into 2020 debt free and exited with a struggling business. It has been a slow climb to get back to where she was before the pandemic. She says if she was the sole income she would not have been able to afford to keep StarCycle running.
– Political/Legal StarCycle has very little political issues or legal requirements at this moment in time. StarCycle has all of the necessary permits and legal documents needed to run a business as well as up to date on all building maintenance. During the pandemic StarCycle did have a political issue due to masks and vaccines. They mandated vaccines and you had to provide proof of vaccination and wear a mask when in the studio. This also caused turbulence with some clients. But since the pandemic has come to a slow end there is less political backlash.
– Technology Technology is a big part of how this company improves their marketing strategies and advertising. StarCycle uses many different social media platforms to stay up to date on trends in order to help the company grow. StarCycle uses Instagram to advertise their business through sales and offers. They use instagram to show their amazing marketing skills through fun and colorful posts that are inviting for new and current clients. They also use email and text notifications in order to interact with new and current clients. Since Starcycle is a franchise company each studio owner has their own separate instagram and other social media to promote the individual studios. They also use Technology to hire people and get new recruitments for instructors.
– Competitors Starcycle has a lot of direct and indirect competition from other spin studios to other boutique fitness studios. These include StarCycle Vancouver, CycleBar, Barre 3, and Orange Theory. And while they offer different things than StarCycle, many clients choose one or the other when deciding which studio to join. Especially because of the economic challenges facing many people today. They don’t have competition from local gyms such as Planet Fitness or Golds Gym because those are not the same instructor based workouts.
Internal Factors – Target Market The main demographic for StarCycle Felida is 24-55 years old. Mainly women make up this pool but men are welcome and encouraged to also do StarCycle. This does change from studio to studio. Across all StarCycles there are many different ages 18-55 is the main demographic for all starcycles. StarCycle Felida has many regulars that are men.
– Management Management consists of the owner Salina Philbrook and Marilyn Tycer the general manager. These two work together to create a welcoming environment for clients and employees. The type of management is supervisory management due to the general manager overseeing the employees on a day to day basis. This leaves less work for the owner who oversees the technical side of the business. As for the leadership style StarCycle uses participative and democratic. The studio does not employ many people at a time as only limited class times are available. This makes it so each employee has leadership roles taught to them by Marilyn. Having trust within the business is something that Starcycle has and it really reflects that leadership style. Receptionist/Childcare workers are alone at the front desk during shifts but Salina and Marilyn are always a call away to help. This gives the front desk workers and instructors a sense of leadership and freedom but also shows the trust of Salina in her employees. Some decisions still need to be made by the owner or general manager that employees do not need a say in but for the most part employees are very valued in this area.
– Employee Recruitment Strategy StarCycle uses Instagram ads and other digital advertising to look for potential employees. When considering an employee they look first at the resume for proper grammar and spelling. One thing that matters a lot to Salina is recommendations. She wants to see the personality of her potential employees. An outgoing personality and sales background is very important to getting a job at StarCycle. As well as other skills such as dependable, energetic, outgoing, personable, and organized. During the hiring process they look for people over the age of 18, and require a sent in resume to start this process.
Impact of the Pandemic
During the global pandemic Starcycle faced many challenges due the nationwide lockdown. The biggest challenge was completely shut down for a year, and three of those months there were only 5-8 bikes in the room, where the normal amount is 23. They have struggled to get back to pre-covid operations. Due to the shutdown Salina had to find different ways to help keep her business open and keep her client list up, so in doing so the started to film 2-3 classes a week for clients to do at home. With these videos she rented out bikes to people in order to take these classes, and help get money in on top of the membership payments from clients. Salina had to find ways to keep her business open, so she did not pay herself and used the PPP loan as an advantage to pay her employees during this time. A paycheck protection program (PPP loan) was a way to continue to keep employees on payroll during this time through the Small Business Administration, and was made for small businesses who have a small amount of employees. The main and biggest reason she maintained to stay open was the supportive community and the loyal clients who continued to pay their membership during the shutdown. Even now a few years since the beginning of the pandemic, challenges are still coming in due to people not wanting to go in-person for their fitness anymore. But as time passes classes get more and more filled and it continues to go back to pre-pandemic. StarCycle now fills its classes with up to 23 people and offers multiple classes per day.
Conclusion
StarCycle is a small business that has been through a lot and the community has helped them stay afloat during hard times. It runs smoothly and cares for its employees and clients. Its a great example of a small business that is like a family and helps the community and the community helps them. StarCycle is proven to only grow from here and everything from management down to the equipment is amazing. They are just getting over the pandemic and much more is to come from this small business in the future. Bibliography
“About.” StarCycle, 6 Oct. 2022, https://starcycleride.com/about/.
D.K. Row, The Oregonian. “StarCycle Puts a Spin on Familiar Indoor Cycling.” Oregonlive, 28 July 2013, https://www.oregonlive.com/small-business/2013/07/starcycle_puts_a_spin_on_famil.ht ml.
Nickels, William, et al. Ise Understanding Business. twelfth ed., McGraw-Hill, 2019.
Salina Philbrook Interview (owner of StarCycle Felida)
Write a Peer review for this project. Peer reviews are all about constructive feedback. Indicate any areas for improvement, and how you think they can be improved, any areas that are missing (keep in mind that this is just a draft, it doesn’t need to be complete at this moment, but a reminder of information that is missing can be helpful), and feel free to indicate how the textbook might be helpful in clarifying concepts.
In your peer review, be sure to consider items like the formatting, sources (is an interview with someone who works at the company scheduled?), and content. You can use the term paper rubric as a guide. Your peer review should be about couple paragraphs long. Merely telling someone that they did a great job will not earn any points!
Student gives constructive peer review feedback to at least two (2) students. Feedback should be based on the criteria in the term paper project description or the term paper rubric and should be at least two (2) paragraphs in length.
