This is a story about a wife, a mother of six, a retired professional who took a potential health emergency and turned it into a thriving home-based e-commerce business.
Rosie started her career as a finance manager at a large dealership. She enjoyed explaining finance options and taking care of the paperwork for families buying vehicles. This is also where she met her husband, Jorge. After a few years of working together, they both decided it would be best if she resigned and stayed home to take care of their growing family.
Fast forward a few years and six kids later. Jorge went in for a medical exam, and it was determined he was at a high risk of having a heart attack. A high-stress job, 14-hour days and consuming junk food for lunch had taken its toll. Jorge was told by the doctor that he was a pre-diabetic, a “walking heart attack”. The part that stuck with Rosie, was the doctor’s final declaration to Jorge. He said, “Change your job, get in shape or prepare a will.” This statement set Rosie on her mission.
The following day, Rosie and her husband went to four different gyms, looking for the perfect trainer. LA Fitness was a no-go, because Jorge had been a member for over 15 years and never lost a pound. He would need a professional weight loss trainer. This would not be easy considering Jorge was 6’3, 275 lbs, and was not accustomed to people telling him what to do. They found the perfect place, “The Camp”. This was a boot camp style workout gym that was run by a no-nonsense guy named Sam. This place would get Jorge back on track with his weight problem. Rosie woke Jorge up every morning at 4 AM. This was the only time he could go, due to his work schedule. She would insist on going with him, not only to make sure he went, but also to make sure he would pay attention to the trainers “barking out their orders,” as Jorge would say. After twelve weeks, Jorge had lost 67lbs and felt great. He now knew how it felt to last the whole day at Disneyland with his children. His medical exams had gotten a lot better, but Rosie was not done. She wanted him out of the car business.
Rosie made up her mind to start working again. Her goal was to retire her husband, or make enough money so he could do something less stressful. Getting back into the car biz was not an option, so she decided to do something related to fitness to keep them both still involved. She thought about opening a gym, with their now close friend Sam, but decided on doing something else.
Fashion meets fitness! Fashion was always something near and dear to Rosie. When they jumped into this lifestyle, Jorge went to the local Big 5 and bought a few shorts and t-shirts. It was not that simple for Rosie. She had to find the latest cutest apparel. She would have to search multiple stores to find clothes that looked and felt great in and out of the gym. This is how and why Squats Fitness Apparel was born.
“Muscles and Mascara” not only describes Rosie, but was also her first fitness tank. She wanted a tank that would look cute and accentuate the female physique; she settled on a pink burnout racerback. After a few decisions with fonts, designs and suppliers, her flagship shirt came to be. She quickly had 25 shirts printed to test the market. She took the shirts to her next workout session to show her friends. The shirts were gone by the end of the day.
Rosie knew she was on to something. She came up with more motivational sayings, phrases all types of women would like, such as “I am My Motivation”, “Faith Fashion Fitness”, and “One More Rep”. Each time she had a new design, she spoke with and asked the opinion of her gym friends and school moms. She would ask her friends about the design, sayings and colors before she produced the shirt to make sure she had customers waiting. She began to take her shirts to fitness expos, local gyms—anywhere that would let her set up a table and sell her shirts. She was on her way.
“OMG” is what Rosie said, when a friend told her she should try selling on the internet. She had a friend design a website and she read whatever she could on SEO and internet marketing. It all seemed like a different language to her in the beginning, but she was determined. She would spend her days watching videos on YouTube on how to sell on the internet and how to sell on Amazon. The orders started coming in. At first, they seem to trickle in, until she viewed a video on Amazon on how consumers prefer “fast and free” shipping. This made sense, but she would have to get her postage fees down. After a trip and counseling session at her local post office, mission accomplished! By changing her packaging to a poly mailer instead of a box and signing up with “stamps.com”, an online postage company, she was able to cut her postage costs in half. It was like a dam breaking. The orders started pouring in. The orders they were accustomed to fulfilling weekly, they were now doing daily. Things were looking good.
Rosie has been able to keep her advertising costs down to almost nothing, thanks to social media. What started as a few followers on Facebook and Instagram, has now grown to over 110K combined. Many of her customers purchase the shirts online and then send Rosie pics of them modeling the shirt, which Rosie then posts on one of her various pages. She calls these women Squats Models, her Fitness Family.
Fast forward two years—Rosie now makes more than her husband does. She now offers Fitness Tanks, bags, caps and custom gloves. She has orders as far as Germany. Even though he has not chosen to leave his job yet, Jorge has been able to take a position that is less stressful and work less hours. Jorge says at the rate his wife is going, he will be able to stay at home and help her by the end of the year.
Rosie list Squats Fitness Apparel as one of her life accomplishments along with raising their six children and attending fitness competitions. She says anything can be accomplished with some determination, friends’ help and “how-to” help from the internet. Her husband states he has never been prouder of his beautiful wife. “It’s funny, because I feel like she made my life when she married me and she now extended it by keeping me healthy. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
