<p class="blog">Fitness Together Florida Studios</p><p>We are all starting to band together to increase the Fitness Together brand down here. The 400th studio opened last week in Pembroke Pines, Florida: <a href="http://www.ftpembrokepines.com/"><u><font color="#800080">http://www.ftpembrokepines.com</font></u></a> </p><p>I obviously, am extremely excited to be apart of this studio. We have started off the way I like it. With a lot of interest and people lining up to fill slots. We already have a great team in place. My Manager from Fitness Together Fort Lauderdale: <a href="http://www.ftfortlauderdale.com/"><u><font color="#800080">http://www.ftfortlauderdale.com</font></u></a> decided to partner with me on the opening of my 2nd studio, Meaghan Vecchia and she is doing a tremendous job - learning about build outs and Building departments and the unreliability of getting a business open in Florida.</p><p>We joined together with most of the other Florida Studios and TarlowLoring created the website so we all have a common landing page for cooperative advertising: <a href="http://www.fitnesstogetherflorida.com/"><u><font color="#800080">http://www.fitnesstogetherflorida.com</font></u></a> </p><p>We sent out an 80,000 household postcard that has set the phones ringing for all of the studios that participated and has brought us some wonderful new clients.</p><p>Branding and Cooperative advertising for small businesses is the key to their success!</p><p>Without the brand recognition, you are just another business.</p><p>What sets you apart from other businesses? Where is your niche? How can you distinguish yourself from the business down the street.</p><p>That is what my head has been wrapped around the last few years of being a small business owner. Such a totally different experience than being a General Manager for Equinox or when I was a GM for NYSC. The marketing was handed to us and we just needed to close the deal. Stick to our quotas and collect bonus&#39;. </p><p>When I worked on Madison Ave for Carlson &amp; Partners which became Roberts and Tarlow as a Producer, it was still the same kind of set up. I certainly was doing a lot more thinking about marketing and getting the brand out because I was working in advertising but essentially was still playing with someone else&#39;s money.</p><p>I moved down to Fort Lauderdale because I saw a pocket of opportunity that didn&#39;t have the kind of branding that I was accustomed to and I knew that I could eventually sink my teeth into this market. I certainly have learned about the hard knocks of owning the Small Business instead of collecting the paycheck and at the end of the day walking away from most of the problems.</p><p>The first year a chunk of my roof blew off of my house and off of my business during Wilma and I started getting scared. Scared doesn&#39;t make me run. Scared makes me roll up my sleeves and steam forward like a baby bull which was my nickname as a kid. I get pissed off when I get scared and stupid or not have the attitude of &quot;bring it on&quot; &quot;I&#39;m ready for what life is throwing my way.&quot; and I muscle my way through the obstacles. </p><p>I have learned that is what makes a successful small business and what sets the small business owner apart from the other business owners.</p><p>So all I can say is, through my now twenty something years of business experience I am excited to be the one who has the reins in my hands. I am excited to support and help grow the younger generation of entrepreneurs into their own top brands.</p><p>2/29/08 Leap Year</p><p>Wendy Tarlow, President</p><p>&nbsp;</p>