Investment Opportunity, Investors Wanted

INVESTORS WANTED - CardioTrek.ca

Hello!

My name is Charles Moffat and I am a certified personal trainer.

I am looking for investors in my personal training business called "Cardio Trek" because I want to expand the operation. Let me elaborate on the things I want to expand.

#1. Website - Right now I am using a blog format for the website (CardioTrek.ca), but I would like to expand the website and add a lot more content in an effort to attract more clients and provide helpful advice to the people visiting the website. If you do a Google search you will see the website has over 300 pages already because I have been working on it since December 2011 (I started it before I even got my certification).

#2. Online Advertising - If you go to http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cardiotrek.ca you will see an assessment of what I have done so far to improve my online presence. At the time I am writing this there is 68 sites linking in, but if I had a larger marketing budget I could get a lot more sites linking in - especially a lot more local websites in Toronto, since local clients is my primary source of income.

#3. Offline Advertising - I have been doing no offline advertising so far. Just word of mouth. And I suppose you could say if its not broke, then don't fix it. But I would like to be doing more to attract clients locally, even on the street level. That means advertising in newspapers, local magazines, street posters, etc.

#4. Graphic Design / Stationary - I designed the logos myself and I think they look pretty good. But they could be improved. I also don't have any business cards, pamphlets, brochures, etc. I have been using my website for everything so far and relying on my own talents for graphic design.

#5. Hiring More Personal Trainers - I want to attract other personal trainers to my business. They will work on commission, so they only get paid when they get clients, but in order to attract other personal trainers I need to build my business to the point that I have an excess of clients knocking on my door. Some personal trainers also operate on a referral system, whereby if they don't have the time to take on new clients they refer the client to a different trainer and take a referral fee. I think that idea however destroys the brand name of a company. I argue that it is better to have multiple personal trainers working for the same brand than to have a trainer giving away clients for a mere referral fee.

#6. Studio Gym / Dojo - Right now I am operating out of public parks, private condo gyms, condo pools, etc. I go wherever the clients need me. But for a long term goal I would like to open my own dojo for personal training. I call it a dojo because I also teach archery and boxing, and boxing gyms are too intimidating, whereas I want clients to feel more relaxed. I have this as a long term goal because most personal trainers operate the same as I do - without a gym and going where the clients need them. But if I eventually got this it would mean

I would have an edge over the competition.

WHY SHOULD YOU INVEST IN CARDIO TREK

Well, its already profitable. I just want to make it more profitable and professional.

As a business model my goal is to make personal training more fun and enjoyable. That is why my clients keep coming back for more, because I make exercising fun. They lose weight, they have fun doing it, they are seeing results, thus they keep coming back for more. It is a no-brainer as a business model.

WHY AM I DOING THIS

Several reasons really.

I think it is past time I freed up some cash so I can spend it on the website, advertising, etc. Having the extra capital means I will be able to invest in the future of my company and see a lot more clients, start charging more for my services, expand my business over time, and eventually get that dojo (although that is a long term goal).

I was tempted to post this investment opportunity on Indiegogo or Kickstarter, and I may still decide to do that, but for now I want to see what kind of investors I can get by advertising this investment opportunity on my website, craigslist, kijiji and other locations.

If you are familiar with buying, investing, donating to things on Kickstarter or Indiegogo and similar websites then the concept won't seem that alien to you. I think crowdfunding / crowdsourcing is a great way to make investments in new businesses.

I am doing it this way because I want to maintain the controlling ownership over my company and I don't want the hindrance of a bank loan as I want more freedom to control what things I am using the money for.

GUARANTEE ON YOUR INVESTMENT / RISKS

So here is the thing. I am already profitable despite the fact that I have operating out of mere blog website.

But what I am looking for is investors willing to set forth $50,000 in my business, which I will spend on the website, advertising, graphic design, hiring more staff, etc.

Depending on how much is left over I will have a choice to make. I can use the remaining proceeds to open the dojo by renting a space, or I can return the leftover funds to my investors.

I prefer the latter because I think it would be better to build up the marketing and reputation first BEFORE investing in an actual location.

My intention here is to make a private stock offering of 50,000 shares total - at $1 per share. Thus my investors can invest as much or as little as they want. Up to a cap of $50,000 obviously.

Unlike public stock offerings, which causes the prices of a stock being traded to fluctuate up and down constantly I have no interest in doing that. Instead my intention is to give an annual compound interest rate of 10% to my investors initially.

Now you might think there are risks to investing in my business. Well its true. There are risks to investing in anything. I might die tomorrow in a freak accident. Without me the business is worth nothing. You might even think "How do I know I can trust this guy?" Well, tell you what. Hire me as a personal trainer for a session or two and don't tell me you are thinking of investing in my business. Just think of it as research on the quality of my work as a personal trainer. If you don't think I am up to snuff then don't invest in me. It is that simple.

INVESTING + REPAYMENT ON YOUR INVESTMENT

My plan is to buy back your stocks over time. I will be setting aside $500 per month to buy back roughly that many stocks per month (adjusted for the interest rate over the time period since the investment), or more depending on my monthly profits.

This is what I also mean by returning the leftover funds to my investors. Once I have raised the necessary funds to get the business rolling faster, if I have any funds left over my intention is to paying you off immediately because I see the dojo as a long term goal and a separate project (I might do a separate crowd-funding campaign for the dojo). Lets say for example I raise $50,000, but I only use $40,000. The remaining $10,000 will be returned to the investors soon afterwards with very little interest on it.

My intention also is to pay off the small time investors first. I would rather have several large investors than a whole bunch of small time investors. I am making the minimum investment $100 for 100 shares. You can invest whatever number you want to invest, as long as it is over $100.

Why? Honestly, easier bookkeeping if there is less people on the list of stock owners. My intention is to keep track of each investor by taking down the following information:

Name, Phone Number, Email Address (for Interac E Transfers), Date Funds First Sent/Received.

Using the date the investment was received I will be able to calculate the interest owing on the stocks. So for example if you are a small time investor and only invest $100, then you will probably be one of the people who gets paid off very quickly.

You will know you have been paid off when you receive a lumpsum payment via Interac E Transfer. Depending on the size of your investment you might be waiting several years to see a return on your investment and I may split it up into several smaller payments. Once the payment has been sent the accruing interest will be ceased and you will be considered to have that portion of your stocks paid in full. You cannot refuse a repayment.

All investment deposits are to be made via Interac E Transfer, payable to cardiotrek@gmail.com. When filling out the transfer on your bank website please use the question "name of business" and "cardiotrek" as the answer. You might think you can come up with an easy to guess answer, but I would rather not risk it because if its that easy to guess - anyone could guess it anyway.

Once you have sent your deposit please email me the following information: Name, Phone Number, Email Address (for Interac E Transfers), Date Funds First Sent/Received. I will record this information and your investment will be listed in descending amount by the size of your investment. The people at the bottom of the list (with the smallest amounts) will be repaid first after the total of $50,000 has been achieved.

Any investments above and beyond $50,000 will be refused. I might go over the total a little, but any amount over the top will be used to pay off smaller investors sooner.

TORONTO INVESTORS FIRST

It is true that I am also wooing friends to invest in my business, some of whom live overseas. But ideally I want to attract investors locally from Toronto.

Why? Because I think people should invest in local businesses. It helps boost the local economy. Investing in sweatshop factories overseas may be more profitable (because its basically slavery), but investing in a local business makes strong economic sense because you are boosting the economy of your home, which creates a stronger cyclical effect on the local economy. Even if you don't invest in Cardio Trek, I do recommend you invest in a local business first before sending your money overseas.

I also believe you will be able to hopefully notice the effects of my improved advertising campaign, etc. It will be a happy coincidence if you are looking in a newspaper someday and notice an ad for Cardio Trek and say "Hey, I invested in that company years ago and the guy paid me interest on my shares. It was a rather unusual way of raising capital!"

Plus local investors also make good local word-of-mouth advertising. That means if you are friends with someone who is overweight and they are complaining that they can't find a personal trainer who is fun to work with - hint hint - then you can point them towards my business. A non local investor wouldn't be able to scratch my back and scratch their investment that way. (An especially motivated investor might even help promote my website just because they're so nice. It won't earn them any extra cash, since I am paying the shares interest as if it is a loan, but its nice anyway.)

The same goes with if you invested in a local restaurant. Chances are likely you would be going there to eat yourself fairly often, and you would be encouraging friends and colleagues to try that restaurant too. Local investors are more valuable to a business.

TRACKING MY INVESTORS

I will be maintaining a public list of my investors on my website CardioTrek.ca. Just look for the link that says "Investment Opportunity" at the bottom of every page and click it.

On the page will be a lot of the same information you are already reading along with a list of my current investors, listed by their first name and the initial of their last name (for privacy purposes). Beside each name will be a number of how many stocks they purchased.

I already have three investors at the time I am writing this, as three friends have already volunteered to be my first investors.