Story behind Equally Fit

​Guess what? The business has been approved to conduct business in the state of Arkansas as a foreign business. However, I still have to wait till early to middle of next week to conduct consulting sessions online. Why? I have to create a DBA, aka Doing Business As for the business. Why do you ask? Part of this new journey is being completely open with some things I had to navigate early in my life or career that ultimately helped shape me. I mainly learned by a sink or swim principle, and this story almost sank the business just as it was getting its foot in the door. Let me take you back to very late 2019 when the business was called Puzzle Piece Fitness LLC, which was created in June 2018 in preparation for the studio after being a DBA for me as Puzzle Piece Fitness. If you don't remember the business got a whole lot of buzz in the media that even went internationally that year. This was beyond amazing for the business in terms of brand awareness. However, due to being a small company just starting off, I dismissed creating a trademark for the business. Thinking my business was unique enough and was created early enough that I would be fine without one for the time being. Boy, was I wrong. One random day, I got a random Instagram message asking me if I knew of this trainer across the country. I'm leaving their name and business out to leave it to speculation. I knew of them and their business. Even though their business name sparked a similarity close to mine, I believed their purpose, along with my earlier usage, would ensure my safety. Nope. I received a cease-and-desist letter shortly after this message stating to change the name of my business. This put me in a tailspin. I was furious beyond reason. I spent a lot of money on this brand that just got international attention, just for someone to undercut a person apart of a population that they were supposedly helping. I got my lawyer involved and was then referred to a trademark specialist lawyer. When I discussed the situation with that lawyer, I was told that battling this in court, even with previous usage on my side, could cost over 100k dollars. I was just breaking even with the business and could not afford that kind of payment just to keep a brand. I was also told that I could just create a DBA and not create an entirely new business as the IRS did not care; the trademark is just for public use. Thankfully, around this time, the autism community was going away from Puzzle Piece, so I decided that it was time to evolve the brand entirely and focus on helping more than the autism community. Thankfully if I try hard enough, I can be creative at times. Numerous searches, both at the state level and the trademark office, to come up with a new brand name that fit the direction of the business. Then I had to create the logo. Again, I am not artistically gifted, but I could not afford to hire anyone for a second time to create one for me. So, I sketched one out, and my artistic sister (who is an amazing architect) put it together to get the logo that Equally Fit has today. I made sure I got it trademarked this time, and my lawyer had it framed for me. That brand, I think, helped me survive the pandemic and ultimately get more recognition down the line as I was able to pull in clients with other disabilities into the gym to work with.
This is one of the situations I endured that led me to want to start business consulting. If you have a business and want to become better than ever, I can help you with that as someone who has endured all the lessons the hard way and succeeded, so you do not have to. Email me to schedule a free 15-minute talk to discuss your needs and find out how I may be able to help you.