Local gym hopes to weather the storm after closing doors due to COVID-19
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- As businesses continue to close throughout Colorado, local business owners, including gym owners, are left with more questions than answers.
Duane Johnston, Owner of Accolade Fitness said, “It's a bump in the road. We will get through it.”
But unfortunately, Johnston says this closure will hit his business extremely hard financially.
“As of [Wednesday] morning, we were refunding $90,000 in dues. That’s a big hit. So we paid our rent, we paid our utilities. Our overhead at each gym is about $50,000 a month," said Johnston.
“But we put some money away for a rainy day and we are prepared to weather it,” he said.
Moving forward, Johnston’s biggest concern is his employees and retaining them after this is all over. In the meantime, Johnston says they'll do whatever they can to help.
“Not only helping them with the unemployment process but also we’ve had many members generously step forward and say, 'we’d like to help pay salaries,' those types of things. We’ve been in business for eleven years, we have a pretty substantial savings account saved up. We will help them maintain their lifestyle as best as we can.”
During this tough process, Johnston says he will look to city leaders and our local government for help.
“I’ve got $25,000 a month [in] rent; I’ll be asking my landlord for help on that," said Johnston. "Our utility bill is $3,000 a month. I’m hoping that they will reach forward and say we understand your business circumstance."
