Meier Fitness LLC

My name is Scott Meier. I graduated from a small private school in 2009 with a degree in Exercise Science: Health Promotion. At that time my plan was to work at a YMCA or Recreation Department and run their sports programming. Unfortunately at the time, there wasn’t much out there for me. At that time I turned my part time job in to a full time job as a Teller at a Credit Union in Cedar Rapids, IA. During that time I had to go in to work early or stay late to work out. I didn’t want to do that so I started looking in to opening my own gym.

That is where Meier Fitness LLC came from. In 2011 I opened my own 24/7 gym in my home town of less than 800 people. At that time I reached out to other franchises like Anytime Fitness and Snap Fitness to see about opening one of them. I found them to be overly expensive for myself and my small town as well as not very helpful when talking with them. Because of that, I decided to do my own thing. I got a small loan from my grandma and a small SBA loan from my Credit Union. I opened in August of 2011. I did research to see what equipment I would want to use and went to my local Push Pedal Pull and outfitted my gym. 

I continued to work full time at the Credit Union while running the gym. I eventually moved to Des Moines where I progressed in my financial career. While living in Des Moines, IA I would drive back on the weekends to take care of the financial things while my parents took care of the day to day. This eventually got hard on both of us and so I decided to sell. In December 2015 I sold the gym to a local family who are still running it today. At that time I let my business expire but reopened it in the winter of 2024 to open the Augment Wellness Franchise.

Since then, I’ve been everything from a teller to a VP of Lending at different Credit Unions in the Des Moines area. I’ve also sold fintech nationwide. After my last role as a VP of Lending, I decided that I wanted to get back to my fitness roots. I left the Credit Union and became the General Manager of a different fitness franchise, Stretch Zone. With the ownership team, I helped them open two studios. We opened one in Waukee, IA in August 2023 and one in Ankeny, IA in October 2023. During this time I started looking for other opportunities for myself to again open my own fitness franchise. I started researching them and found Augment Wellness. They are a recovery fitness studio that specializes in heat/cold water, compression, and sauna therapy. 

In the fall of 2023 I purchased three territories with the thought to open one in Waukee, IA, one in Ankeny, IA, and a third in Cedar Rapids, IA. I’ve been working with multiple banks and all of them have said that I have the resume to open a business like this but I don’t have the security needed as my wife and I rent our home. I’m reaching out here to get the help I need to fund my dream. There really isn’t anything like this in the area that specializes in all of the modalities that Augment Wellness does. I plan on working in the studio and it will bring multiple jobs to the area as well. I’ve already found a location that I’m working through the LOI and Lease with and have gotten 2 construction bids back. 

Had the first bank I was working with not have declined me when they did (they had been telling me for 6 months that the security wouldn’t be an issue), I’d already have signed the lease, picked a contractor, and be working towards opening in Mid July/Early August. Based on the purchase needs and construction costs, the total out the door amount would be roughly $750k. I will be getting $64k in TI and was planning on putting down 10% to be able to do this as an SBA loan. That would roughly make the net amount needed just over $600k. I’m asking for around $300k to help decrease my loan amount and to get up and running.