Real Ryder Revolution

Yesterday, I met with the owner of a local spinning studio called Real Ryder Revolution. Real Ryder has taken indoor cycling to a new level. It's a unique 5-in-1 workout focused on teh entire body, especially engaging the core and burning calories. This new studio is the first of its kind in Michigan and already has two locations - 1 in Birmingham and 1 in West Bloomfield.

We met with the owner to discuss a partnership with Save Our Women Fit and received absolutely positive feedback. The Real Ryder team was totally on board and we are in the process of picking an event date. We are hoping to have the event in the beginning of May. The partnership is great for both parties because we will be able to raise money for breast cancer and Real Ryder will be able to gain great exposure from out marketing initiatives, which will assumedly bring in many new "ryders."

We thought Real Ryder would be a great fit for Save Our Women because they are the hot new club in town and already have the community talking about what a great workout this new form of cycling can provide. We think we can take this spirit and create a team event where people will for teams of four and commit to $100.00 per team. The team will ride for four hours total and we will have local restaurants donate refreshments. Any team to raise over $250.00 will receive free Save Our Women / Real Ryder t-shirts. This will help add to the team spirit and get people involved and raising more money. Another reason Real Ryder is a great fit for us is because they seem to heavily attract middle-aged women - the perfect target to be concerned about shedding those extra pounds before entering menopause. According to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after menopause, being overweight increases the risk of breast cancer by 30-60%! This relationship can be explained mainly by the fact that fat tissue contains an enzyme called aromatase. This enzyme converts hormones called androgens (made mostly in the adrenal glands) to estrogens, and this extra estrogen can increase breast cancer risk.

If you know of a gym, studio, or fitness center that would be interested in having a charity fitness day to benefit Save Our Women Fit, please contact us at saveourwomen@gmail.com.

Why $500K? Can We Do It? Yes!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am setting an objective of raising at least $500,000 over the next 5 years for breast cancer research. I believe this goal is attainable because with 45.5 million gym members in the U.S., I found that 29% of Americans donated to a cancer charity in 2008. While "a cancer charity" does not exclusively mean contributions were made to breast cancer, breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women (next to skin cancer) and it is believed that a large portion of these contributions are donated to breast cancer.

Especially with cause marketing efforts by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast cancer has become a heavily marketed "product" in our society. Specifically, Komen has 16 "Million Dollar Council Partners" who have committed to invest a financial contribution of $1 million annually in the fight to end breast cancer. These partners are recognizable to the masses, with names like Yoplait, American Airlines, Bank of America, Ford, and General Mills, to name a few. Organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and American Cancer Society have already created awareness about breast cancer through their partnerships and co-branding. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Save Our Women Fit is focused on breast cancer prevention through exercise. We aim to promote healthy lifestyles so that we can reduce our risks.

So, with the 45.5 million gym goers in the US, and 29% incidences of cancer donations, we have 13,195,000 people who are current gym members and who donate to cancer. Of this group, we aim to reach a conservative 1.5% (or 197,925 people) through advertising and promotions. Of these people, if we can convert only 20%, we will have 39,585 potential participants. We will ask each participant to raise a modest minimum of $25.00 per event, which will leave us with gross $989,625 at the end of the year (before marketing costs). With these rough numbers, I believe we can easily surpass our goal of raising half a million dollars in the next five years.

And I'm Back...

It's been a little while, but after repeated attempts to locate my forgotten password, I am finally black to blogging!

Today I had my bi-weekly meeting with Prof Nordhielm and we have discovered some next steps for our Save Our Women Fit project.

To recap, we currently have a business objective of donating atleast $500,000 in the next 5 years to breast cancer organizations, with a unique focus on breast cancer prevention. To get people thinking about prevention, we are implementing charity fitness programs called Save Our Women Fit. Save Our Women Fit will invade all types of gyms from local, stand alone fitness centers, to national chains. Through exercise events, we will build awareness about the effects of physical activity and weight control on breast cancer prevention.

Our first gym targets are the Och Fitness Center at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and Real Ryder Revolution - a new cycling studio in West Bloomfield and Birmingham, Michigan. The cycling studio just opened, but has not had a "grand opening" event yet. So far, classes have filled up from word of mouth advertising, but they plan to hold a grand opening event and are interested in linking this occasion with a charity benefit. I am meeting with the owner on Thursday, February 24th to discuss our first big event. More to come then.