Alpha Uno Athletics is a top-notch training facility with a specialty in Olympic weightlifting, owned by Veronica Rodarte and Rodney Martin Jr., founded in 2018 out of their garage. Alpha Uno Athletics’ has been a customer of Finli’s for about four years, and has grown so much in that time that they’re now graduating onto a more robust, gym-specific platform. We’re so proud of them and happy for their success, we wanted to share their story with you.
The Business’ Early Days
In early 2020, Veronica and Rodney moved their business from their garage to a dedicated 1,200 square foot space. Everything was looking up–then the pandemic hit. They were supposed to have a grand opening, but still to this day, have never had the chance. All they hoped, at that time when gyms and other companies were shutting their doors to the public, was that they could stay in business. And they did.
Alpha Uno Athletics’ Finli Journey
When they started the business, Veronica managed the financial aspects on a sheet of paper. The gym didn’t even have a way to accept electronic payments, requiring all dues to be paid via cash, Zelle or Venmo.
After some time, Veronica moved on to using Excel to create the gym’s schedule and keep track of member information. Everything was in there, from member names to how they paid to what their due date for payment was, and the follow-up for this was all manual.
Weeks after getting the new space, Rodney and Veronica had to close the gym due to covid. Then they had to figure out how to keep the business going. They began offering classes via Zoom and Instagram Live, and also were able to use the yard of a charter school down the road to host outdoor workouts.
It was during this time that Veronica saw an ad for Finli. “I saw that you were helping small businesses during covid, and that the solution was really affordable,” she said. “So, we figured we’d give it a try. I’m so glad we did; Finli has been incredibly helpful to us ever since.”
Reduction in Workload & Stress
Throughout Alpha Uno Athletics’ lifetime, Veronica has run the gym’s operations while also holding down a full-time job. When she started using Finli, it helped to take the manual workload off of her so she could focus on her job and other priorities. The platform’s invoice automation and CRM freed up her time, and reduced her stress.
“Transitioning from our manual processes to Finli was so easy,” said Veronica. “They’ve been there for us since day one, and have always been super responsive to our questions and needs. It’s because of Finli that we were able to succeed early on, and have been able to not just stay in business, but also to grow.”
Growing, Growing, Graduating
When Alpha Uno Athletics started, they had two or three classes on their schedule. Fast-forward to today, and the gym has grown considerably, offering six or seven different types of fitness options for everyone from kids to seniors. They started with roughly 10 members back in 2018, and now have around 60 members–and counting.
“Having Finli helped us bring on all these members, track their journey with our gym and handle payments seamlessly,” said Veronica. “The recurring invoicing was extremely easy to manage and sustain, requiring very little from us, and depositing the money was smooth. We never had any issues.”
Now that Alpha Uno Athletics has continued on its impressive growth path, Veronica and Rodney are graduating from Finli and moving on to a gym-specific platform that offers robust functionality for their growing needs (like offering class reservations, an app for members, etc.). While we’re sad to say goodbye, this is ultimately our biggest hope for every Finli customer: that they’ll succeed so much, they eventually grow beyond us.
“If it wasn’t for Finli, I’d still be managing the gym on an Excel spreadsheet, and struggling under the stress and workload,” said Veronica. “We’re Finli’s biggest fans, and are so thankful for the role they’ve played in helping Alpha Uno Athletics to reach its highest potential.”
Are you ready to give Finli’s easy, affordable invoicing, payments, CRM and reporting platform a try–and experience major growth of your own? Sign up today!
