My Experience with Groupon

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Charles

I’m not well aware of the public reputation Groupon holds, but for me, it was a negative one. Being the director of a tight-knit, small community gym, I was concerned about all the horror stories I had heard indirectly about how running a Groupon deal destroyed their business’ positive atmosphere. After debating for some time, I decided to give it a go – at least once – to see what would happen. Here are the results:

Groupon’s Service

I dealt with a very nice woman named Carly who, despite being very eager, was not pushy at all. Coordinating calls with her and figuring out details were a breeze and I’m actually quite shocked at how quickly RocPK was able to get a deal put together and featured.

If there is any negative experience I had, it would be their unwillingness to allow the business to choose their discount rate. For Rochester Parkour, no matter how I would push, we could not run a deal without a minimum 60% discount. As a service provider, our services are already priced incredibly fair and I’m not one to artificially inflate prices simply so we can run a “deal.” Running the deal at their terms was border-line stupid and under-cut our value significantly.

The Offerings

Instead of selling memberships, we decided to simply sell a bundle of class packages as well as private sessions to better determine what Groupon’s membership was more interested in. There were 4 options in total: 1, 3, 5, and 10 classes which were priced at $13, $15, $20, and $35 respectively. The deal ran for 3 days and each option was capped at 50 each to ensure that our small gym wouldn’t get bum-rushed.

The Results

Interestingly, the deal sold-out in ascending order starting with the 10 class package, then the 5, and the 3 and 1 nearly missed selling-out. At this point I was worried. Within a 36 hour time-frame, we had sold at least 1 class to over 150 brand new people. Scared and excited, we braced ourselves for the impending surge…which as of me writing this, has yet to happen. This deal is almost 1 month old and we have yet to be surged. Our classes have gone from a consistent 3 people to a seemingly pleasant 5 students. Why this happens to be the case, I have no idea. Perhaps the surge will hold until right before the deal ends.

Running a Groupon deal ultimately made sense because we are a service provider and thus, have a changing value to the people we advertise to. For us, our gym runs at around 20% of total capacity so there’s no real harm of over crowding if that number grows to 30 or 40% from extra people who value the experience less. Chances are, they will learn to value the service at the same rate as our other members, and if they don’t, then I don’t want them there any way – thanks for trying it out.

In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience I had with Groupon. Rochester Parkour will definitely look at running more in the future but under different terms and with options that make more sense to build what we’re trying to build. The most important factor for me was for RocPK to make some much needed money in the short-term with little or no atmosphere change in the classes for the older members. To me, this was a win-win and am happy with the result.

Please comment with your experiences

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Take Flight and David Belle, No Evidence? [Update - Looks Legit]

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Charles

I’m not about talking about people who I’ve never met, nor am I about mob mentalities or carrying pitchforks. However, an interesting situation has been brought up concerning a popular Parkour clothing company, a less popular business man, and the “founder” of parkour David Belle.

I’ve never met David nor have I met Adam. The former I know a good deal about through my friendship with Steven Käser, the latter not so much. What I do know is that I’ve never really been a fan of Take Flight because of the way it advertises itself and how they do business. This feeling makes me skeptical of a few things.

Recently, the website DavidBelle.com launched as did a Twitter account carrying DavidBelle’s name. David Jones, a prominent member of the national American community and also a skeptic ran a whois search and found something interesting:

DavidBelle.com is owned by TakeFlightApparel.com – owned by Adam Dunlap. Adam backed himself up in a Facebook log saying:

David choose everything and makes it how he wants it, but he’s not going to do the coding for his own site or webmaster it himself. Would you expect that from Usain Bolt? Michael Jordan? Brad Pitt? Jackie Chan? Eminem? Any high profile actor/celebrity? What about Bruce Lee? Lee has a site (www.BruceLee.com) and he passed away a long time ago. His daughter managers it. I don’t see a problem with that do you? How is it any different with David?

If this were the truth, then I would say that David was had. If you are a prominent world figure, you DO NOT allow your name as a domain name to be in the legal control of another person or entity who you are not sponsored by. Bruce Lee has a website, yes, owned and operated by his own flesh and blood. Jackie Chan’s website is owned by Solon So, the producer of almost every one of Jackie Chan’s films. David Belle is represented by an agent name Vince Fisher. So I went to his website here and attempted to find him linking to his own client’s website. He doesn’t. He has a link for Twitter, but the link is broken.

What relationship does David Belle have with Adam Dunlap? None, besides what he tells us. As a skeptic, I refuse to accept that because Take Flight is not a business I respect. Hopefully, this will continue to get attention until the correct information is released. In the meantime, don’t give shady businessmen your money. Don’t be made a fool of.

Update 10/11 – Thanks to Jean Wainer for the information. Seems like David is behind the project and is working with Adam, who also appeared in the photo.

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Hard at Work

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Charles

It’s been about 4 months since I last posted to this blog. It’s been so long that I almost forgot my account name and password. I’ve been busy is all I can say.

Four months ago I posted on the Rochester Parkour Gym and how great the opening went. It surpassed my wildest dreams. That day on April 15th, we brought in over 80 people to this tiny hole in the wall and became the first parkour center in New York State.

As wonderful as that was, what followed was not as pleasant. Following that grand opening was a roller coaster of emotions that would have me see some of the highest highs and the lowest of lows. I apologize to anyone who knew me through this Summer. There were days where nothing could drag me down, but there were also days where I would swear I was going to close the gym and give it all up.

As the days and months continue, those latter emotions tend to feel less and less severe and the waves are beginning to feel more calm. We are beginning to achieve a harmony and it serves as an example of what hard work and a heart full of passion can accomplish. The Rochester Parkour Gym was established without any sort of start up loans or grants, and while things would definitely have been easier with them, I am proud to state that in our 4th month of business, we’ve broke even for the first time.

As wonderful as it feels to write a rent check knowing that it was completely sustained by our services, we know that the hard work doesn’t stop here. I want to reach out and say thanks to all the wonderful people that banded together this Summer to take the punches. As traceurs we know that feeling that breeds deep inside us that pushes us to fly when everything else says crawl. You all are prime examples of what it means to live out your passions and lead a life for others. This accomplishment could never have been seen without your dedication and willingness to sacrifice.

Here’s to the months and years ahead, brothers. I couldn’t be more proud to share this with you.

Charles Moreland
Executive Director Rochester Parkour

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Rochester Parkour is My Life

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Charles

For those of you who actually follow my blog, you know how this goes. I write and write and write, and then a project comes, and I disappear for quite some time. Eventually, I will come back. I love writing and I love to share my experiences, however, time is not on my side.

It has been three months since my last post, My Vision, but I am proud to say I have achieved my goal. Rochester is now the home of New York state’s first dedicated parkour facility. The community has a place that can evolve and change to better serve their needs as well as house them from the troublemaker that is the weather six months of the year.

In addition to this, Rochester Parkour took out no loans to build the facility and is not in any sort of start-up debt – another one of my requirements. The Rochester Parkour Gym was started by college students, with no real savings, for less than $6,000 (AFTER first month’s rent and insurance down-payment), in under three months.

We still have a long ways to go and still have so much more work ahead of us, but I’m damn proud of this gym and I’m damn proud of this community. We don’t have youtube showreels, massive media sponsorships, or super-mario blocks; Instead, we have each other and a community based on positive, strong relationships. These relationships are and will be stronger and more valuable than any video ever could be. Our parkour is not found in the traditional way; our parkour is found in how we treat other people.

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My Vision

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Charles

I threw my computer down, looked at Graham, and simply said, “I don’t care anymore!”

I repeated this several times, got up, and just started pacing. I was supposed to be excited, at least, what I was doing was supposedly exciting. I was typing up my course schedule for the new Rochester Parkour gym – kids classes, teen classes, adult beginners, adult intermediates, women’s classes, on and on and on. And yet, the longer I looked at this multi-colored chart, the more stressed and irritated I became. This was wrong. Why? It’s not me.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t stand structure. I see the restriction of time as something to rebel against, not conform with, as everything in me says that we as a culture wrongfully attempt to micro-manage way too much of our lives. And yet, I love teaching parkour! I love the look of anxious frustration and the smile of fulfillment. I need that in my life for it to feel complete.

But the teaching I do is different than others. That’s what I realized. I love teaching parkour, on Saturdays, in Manhattan Square Park (or High Falls or wherever in Rochester) with Rochester Parkour. I’ve never had a curriculum because a curriculum is structure. It is an attempt to make the role of teacher easier by allowing the preparation work to happen before the actual class. Sometimes this is useful for safety reasons, but considering our track record over the last 4 years, I’m not worried. Teaching for me is as much parkour as playing tag is: I react based on the student as the man being chased reacts to his pursuer. It’s a push and pull game that is constantly evolving and adapting instantly. It flows like a conversation, something I’ve learned through my time as a personal trainer as something that cannot have predetermined talking points because it feels fake.

This is what makes Rochester Parkour so amazing. There are no students and no instructors there on Saturdays, merely people moving and flowing and creating conversations of multiple forms. If there is structure, you would never know, and I suppose an appropriate critique to what I’m saying is that good structure is one that goes unnoticed.

I was upset not at the structure, but at myself that day for not realizing that I was simply attempting to follow the path already defined by others out there. Primal Fitness has its path as Parkour Visions has theirs, as APEX and Urban Evolution theirs. And while they are physical representations of paths to success, they are not the only paths. I have chosen a different one.

I see these other gyms very much like martial arts studios. Some of them have curriculums, most of them spend significant portions of time teaching classes. This is good because they have followed their community’s culture. It works for them. So when I plug their algorithm into Rochester Parkour, I get an error, because Rochester Parkour does not function like a martial arts studio; we function like a rock climbing gym. The openness is what separates us, and thus, has guided my vision for the new gym.

My vision for the Rochester Parkour gym involves this openness and involves the preservation of everything previously mentioned that makes us great. I do not want the conversations to change because of the new setting, I want them to grow more in-depth because of it.

Rochester Parkour will stay open the way it has been in the past and will function based on our model:

1. Openness
2. Fluid instruction
3. Positive atmosphere
4. Encouraged creativity

The gym will bias open gyms as its main form of teaching, by way of supervisors: members already a part of the community who are not just great athlete’s, but great instructors, who pass on the values of Rochester Parkour. Supervisors will always be in the gym during open hours available for questions, direct guidance (one to one or one to a few instruction), or indirect guidance (instruction by example). Teaching will happen in a flexible fashion as it has been for the past 4 years. This will continue to allow the conversation of movement and instruction to evolve with the creative bursts, rather than the creative bursts coming from the guided or predetermined structure for that moment. Classes will be held, but will be biased to beginners and those looking to stay within the confines of that structure.

The role of the supervisors gives people an added incentive to become great athletes, great instructors, and great community members. I like these people. I WANT these people in the gym and I will find methods to make this so.

Fluidity and flexibility is ultimately what I want. I want to put people in an environment that is open to both beginners and experts. I want a space that will allow you to be creative when you have a spark of intelligence (or silliness). I want a space that teaches play, with the understanding that play is different for everyone. We don’t try to define play, we simply adapt to another person’s understanding of play and guide them there.

I don’t teach fun; I allow fun to be expressed and then mold it before tossing it back into the air and letting it fly. I don’t teach parkour; I allow parkour to be expressed and then shape that understanding keeping in mind the individual. I want an army of individuals, not an army of one.

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