SayKay and Cam Brown are known as heavy lifters when it comes to community building in Ferndale, MI. That’s one of the reasons they established CrossFit HCS.

The community-based fitness facility is focused on building healthy lifestyles for anyone and everyone, and is grounded on the fundamentals of diversity and inclusion with the purpose of teaching, learning and practicing health at all levels. Its community service initiatives make it unique.

“Like Chrissy Fleczek, our partner who is a former teacher, I fell in love with coaching because I love seeing people start from one place and want to work to get better. We wanted to open our own gym so that we could experience that all of the time,” said Cam.

“When we started it was just a brand new idea, and bridging the gap of knowledge to become entrepreneurs was the biggest hurdle for us. I just stumbled across the Michigan SBDC, and we connected with business consultant Meri Dembrow. We felt very lucky because she was very well-versed in our business,” said SayKay.

Dembrow helped the Browns focus their passion and ideas into a framework by listening and providing cues and ideas so that over time their business model and plan took shape.

“It was a huge opportunity for us to be able to learn the things we needed to keep our finances in order as well as develop our marketing plan. Meri really helped us figure out the milestones needed to achieve our goals and also push us to new goals,” continued SayKay.

“We started off our gym with a passion to see people move and get better, and wanted to create a space that is a baseline of an individual’s quality of life,” said Cam. “We are focused on trying to make sure everyone has the ability to get great coaching and the attention they need.”

“No matter what your lifestyle is outside of the gym we don’t want you to leave that at the door. We want it to be part of who you are when you’re building on top of the lifestyle you are trying to achieve. We’re all about communities – we want to make sure our facility is somewhere you want to be and you’re excited to be getting healthier,” said SayKay.

“Thank you to the MI-SBDC for giving us the opportunity to understand ourselves, what our business is, and then helping us grow that business and idea – for giving us the opportunity to learn and apply the knowledge to bring a better opportunity to others in our community.”