Shannon Dykman – “Former Corporate Workers Jump Thousands In YOY Revenue And Are Opening A MASSIVE Facility In January 2016!”
Shannon Dykman and Kalene Smith know what it’s like to have courage and practice faith.
They both left their high-paying corporate jobs to follow their passions and open a studio of their own called GoTime Training.
But that didn’t come without struggles.
In 2006, Shannon moved to Wichita, Kansas to work as a structural engineer at Boeing. Since he was in a new town, he started getting into competitive bodybuilding to pass the time and studying for his Masters of Business.
Kalene grew up overweight and didn’t find her passion for fitness until she was working at a Fortune 500 company and getting her master’s degree.
Shannon and Kalene started dating, and although the relationship didn’t last, they realized they were meant to be business partners.
While they continued to work their corporate jobs, Shannon and Kalene started an online business. Shortly after, Kalene quit her job and started building the foundation for what would evolve into GoTime Training.
Although Kalene quickly built up a presence through sharing tips and tricks on Facebook and social media, she had no vision, no systems, and didn’t know how to run a business.
But Kalene’s client base continued to grow, and in May 2012, she and Shannon invested their money together to open an 1,800 SF studio.
Six months later, Shannon quit his 6.5-year career in the corporate world and joined Kalene working full-time at GoTime Training.
Neither of them knew how to run a business. When they attended a bridal expo to get more clients, they created marketing materials with their pictures and were expecting big results.
“We totally tanked. We tried to market ourselves and had no clue what we were doing.”
Shannon and Kalene broke up their personal relationship, but they slowly continued growing their business together. They added 1,200 SF to their studio and hired more team members. Although money was coming into GoTime Training, they were all over the place.
“We still didn’t have any concept of business. We were making money and putting it aside, but we paid ourselves virtually nothing, which is hard when you’re used to working corporate jobs where you made a lot of money and now we were paying ourselves just enough to pay the mortgage.”
In July 2014, Shannon reached out to a fitness business owner to ask who she used for marketing, and she recommended NPE.
Shannon presented the idea of NPE to Kalene, and although she was initially hesitant to spend the money, they joined the ACCELERATOR™ program and the numbers spoke for themselves.
“We were terrified to do the Raise the Rates campaign because we thought our clients were going to leave and we weren’t going to attract new clients. I was totally wrong. Our profit margins flourished and in the first 6 months, we grew 32%.”
With the support of NPE, they doubled their pay, added semi-private training, hired an admin, got rid of month-to-month packages, and now only sell long-term contracts.
In December 2014, Shannon and Kalene took the leap and joined the NPE Coaching ACADEMY™ Program, and their business grew like never before.
“When we got into NPE Program, we started to invest in ourselves in terms of our mindset. We decided that it was time for us to get away from calling ourselves trainers. Now we’re fitness business owners and taking control of our business. We manage a staff of seven and are investing ourselves in developing them, focusing on the growth of our business and really becoming leaders.”
By July 2015, they increased 125% in year-over-year revenue and celebrated a #BME the next month.
Shannon and Kalene now manage a staff of seven and continue to take their business to the next level. They’re projecting to have 66% year-over-year growth at the end of 2015.
But Shannon and Kalene have a bigger vision for their business. They’re building a brand new studio with 10,500 SF that will open in January and have office space to teach people how to become personal trainers.
They’re expanding their business more than they ever thought possible, and Kalene gives credit to the company she almost turned away from:
“Shannon brought NPE to me and the investment at the time seemed huge. I’m a numbers person and I was like, “Eh, it’s not worth it – we can do this on our own.’ But I was completely wrong. NPE is the best investment ever and it’s helped us grow our business to where we are today.”