How A Local Founder Launched A Beautiful Los Angeles Pilates Studio After Selling Her Fashion Business

Forbes Lifestyle Style & Beauty How A Local Founder Launched A Beautiful Los Angeles Pilates Studio After Selling Her Fashion Business Margaux Lushing Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Wellness journalist covering fitness, travel, design Following Sep 29, 2023, 11:34am EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Founder Maxine Bascue started the stunning Be Kind Studios in LA’s Calabasas neighborhood out of . .

. [+] personal interest once she had her second child. Now profitable and growing every month, she shares how she launched the business.

Source: Be Kind Studios Founder Maxine Bascue conceptualized, named and found a space for Los Angeles’ Be Kind Pilates studio all within two hours. Within a week she signed a lease on a space formerly occupied by SoulCycle. Using capital from the acquisition of her previous business, another bootstrapped out of personal interest, she transformed the space into the city’s most design-forward Pilates studio.

Here’s how she built it. How did you discover your desire for entrepreneurship? How did you start Mason Grey and what were you trying to solve with it? How did you identify farmers’ markets as a first sales/distribution channel and how did you grow from there? I did not follow the traditional route of going to college. It felt like I had worked 150 jobs and was honestly tired of working for other people.

Before Masongrey, I worked bottle service, installed hair extensions, made cakes at Cold Stone Creamery, worked at a plastic surgeon’s office and worked as a sales rep for a hair care brand. While hopping around, I was always looking inward to check on my passions and strengths. I knew I had a deep love and behind the scenes understanding of fashion after years of experience working in sales, production, and fit modeling for clothing companies.

As a lover of being comfortable and cute at the same time, I was on a personal hunt for chic loungewear – I just wanted a fancy robe that felt like me. I conceptualized Masongrey while working as a sales rep for Unite Haircare when the options from Victoria’s Secret and Barefoot Dreams weren’t cutting it. Initially, friends and family brushed off my vision of a cute, sexy, yet comfortable loungewear line.

It felt a little silly at the time, but my mom is a pattern maker and she helped me to curate unique designs. I launched Masongrey as a side project. With limited startup capital, I made robes in small batches of around 20 pieces at a time with the money I made in my day job, using deadstock fabric.

I knew I had to make each design really stand out and saw the potential in leveraging local farmers’ markets as our initial sales channel. At these markets I could get potential customers to touch and feel the product. The first run of printed robes became a hot commodity.

Sales grew, and I started creating 80 robes at a time. It was small enough for a while that if I didn’t have a particular style that a customer wanted,I would make it and ship it for free just to secure one more sale. MORE FOR YOU FC Barcelona Icon Lionel Messi Decides To Leave Inter Miami In 2025, Chooses Next Club To Retire At: Reports One Star Wars Rebels Design Choice Is Making Ahsoka Hard On The Eyes Sen Dianne Feinstein Dies At 90 Longest Serving Female Senator I also did major outreach through social media.

I had a good friend in PR who gave me a list and I leveraged that to build visibility. The brand launched in 2017 before loungewear was everywhere, and it really felt like I was tapping into an untouched market for women who wanted luxurious and comfortable loungewear pieces that looked good. I was still working my sales rep day job even after Shopbop picked up the brand, butI finally left six months after starting the business once it felt right.

The turning point came when Nordstrom approached me on Instagram after seeing an influencer named Sivan Ayla in one of our pieces. When Nordstrom emailed me asking for a meeting, I was a one-person operation, so I faked it til I made it. I hired an assistant through Craigslist and rented a conference room to create the illusion of having a legit office setup.

This unexpected opportunity validated the brand and propelled the business. When did you realize the moment was right to sell your business? Who did you rely on to guide you through the acquisition process? Eventually, I felt like I had hit a wall with the bran and was burnt out. Despite there being so much more room for growth, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

The loungewear industry became saturated, and through the surge of fast fashion, the last thing I wanted was to watch my small, made-in-Los Angeles business sacrifice quality. When I was approached to sell my business, I relied heavily on my husband, Nick, for advice. He’s an entrepreneur in a completely different industry, specializing in aviation, but his guidance and direction were invaluable in making the best decision.

I’m a creative and can see a vision, but he was watching my bottom line and encouraged me to leverage this acquisition as a stepping stone for whatever was next. Post-acquisition, how did you decide to move from fashion into fitness? How did you determine that opening a brick-and-mortar studio was the right move? Moving into an entirely new industry, what were new challenges you hadn’t experienced in your previous apparel business? I wanted to get back into shape after having my second child, and after going to so many local studios, I noticed a gap in the studio experience and the workout itself – it just wasn’t doing it for me. The local studios I frequented felt too traditional, and also if a more challenging class didn’t work with my schedule on a particular day, then my workout was just and left me feeling disappointed.

I wanted a fitness experience that could challenge anyone, at any experience level, in any class. While the Masongrey acquisition process was very much underway in mid-2022, the Pilates idea just happened. I first talked to my husband, and even though I wasn’t a Pilates expert I put together a rough idea including the name of a studio, found a space all pretty much within like two hours.

Within a week I signed a lease. We opened after three months of construction. How did you develop a new Pilates method as someone new to the industry? How did you attract instructors? Developing a new Pilates method was fast but relied on trial-and-error process.

I drew from my own experiences with Pilates, and prioritized creating an experience that elevated every aspect of the client experience. Staff smiles at everyone who walks into the door, we have small class sizes and expert instructors that make each guest feel seen. The method itself uses a variety of modifications that challenge each guest where they are.

I’m sure an investor would tell me to have gone a more cost-effective way, but I wanted to put more money in up-front and then see more money on the back-end to realize my vision. I wanted to elevate every single detail – from free coffee after class to the limewash finish on the studio walls and a marble front desk. The workout experience is key, but the overall experience goes beyond just the workout.

I combined my business operations mind with the talents of our lead instructor Shannon who is a Pilates pro. Our collaboration and our partnership were a perfect fit. Together, we found like-minded instructors.

At the beginning, it felt like I was using every possible route to recruit the best instructors – social media, job listing websites, word of mouth, etc. We slowly built our list of instructors through a thoughtful recruitment process that mirrored the example Shannon had set for our studio. How did you develop a client list? Were you able to rely on any lists you had built from your previous business or did you start from scratch? In the beginning, I didn’t have a substantial client list to rely on, apart from a few close friends in the area.

So I made a choice to establish our first location in a community I knew well – Calabasas. It’s my hometown and I have deep roots in the area. Through word-of-mouth, personal introductions, and the support of those within my social circle, we were able to organically spread the word about Be Kind Studios.

What has been different about growing a fitness business versus an apparel business? What have you learned? In the apparel business, I dealt with tangible products. For this business, I pivoted my focus to making each customer feel as comfortable as possible from the minute they open the door to the moment they leave. Through this approach, three months after our opening, classes were fully booked.

By the six-month mark, we were turning a profit. Now, days before our one-year anniversary, we’ve amassed over 400 members that join us for multiple classes a week, every week. I attribute our success to the strong emphasis we’ve placed on creating relationships and building a sense of community.

At the start of Be Kind Studios, I vowed to never allow my studio to rely on self-check-in. I’ve made it a point to train every single Be Kind Studios employee to single out every guest who walks in the door – whether that be through remembering their name, complimenting their outfit, or staying after class to enjoy a free coffee or matcha with our guests and getting to know a bit more about them. I’m also really hands on.

With the number of new customers rising 20% a month on average, I can’t wait to continue expanding the Be Kind community. Follow me on Twitter . Margaux Lushing Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.