Jake Holmes, owner of Pilates United, could be your next boss.

First, tell me about your company.

I established Pilates United with Moji Austell in 1993. Its a fitness studio. Our objective was to give our clients exactly what they wanted and needed in the way of personal training. Today we have two studios, in La Jolla and Middletown, and were planning a third for 2013.

How did you get started in this business?

After college I struggled in the corporate world for a while but found myself poorly equipped for that life. So Moji and I (we were married at the time) decided to start our own business. We didnt have much money so we restricted our choices to businesses we could start with less than 10K. We interviewed several couples who owned businesses together. We discovered that the couples who seemed happiest were in businesses that they were passionate about. We chose the fitness industry.

I have always been an athlete. I wrestled in school and did body building, triathlons and marathons in the Navy and throughout my twenties. Moji was also accomplished in running and weight training. We found out about Pilates when she injured her knee on a training run. My sister, a professional dancer and choreographer in LA, told us to check out this new thing a lot of the dancers were doing Pilates. We tried it once and we were hooked.

We spent the next year traveling to different studios around the country and spent about every dollar we had learning from different instructors. At the time there was no real training or certifications available. Eventually we opened a tiny studio with one piece of equipment in a 10x14 room in a La Jolla health club.

Today were still partners but married to other people and are even more passionate about what we do than when we started. As a side note, although thousands of people have come through our doors both Moji and I still have each of our first clients.

What are the backgrounds of your employees? Are they new to the field? Long-timers?

Weve had several trainers through the years, all from different backgrounds. Rarely do they have professional fitness backgrounds, but theyve all had a passion for it. Some have come to us already trained but the most successful ones weve trained ourselves. We have four long time trainers. We also have a few newer trainers who are also amazing.

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