November 29, 2017

Meet Aaron “Aro PerFit” West of Almost PerFit Fitness in NRG Park

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron “Aro PerFit” West.

Aaron “Aro PerFit”, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
If I had to name my story I would probably call it, “The boy that decided to dream”. It all kind of started on accident. It was summer 2104 and was a recent graduate with my bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the great University of Houston.Though I had just graduated, I was having a really hard time finding a job because of a graduation technicality. It was mostly my fault for failing to read the fine print in the graduation application process, but none the less I was educated and broke. I had been employed as a personal trainer in local fitness chain gyms all through college but I wasn’t making much money.

Most of my clients couldn’t afford the training at the gym for extended periods of time so I would often lose a client before they reached their fitness goal because of financial reasons. I always felt really bad about losing a client because they couldn’t afford the training that the gym was charging. I started to feel as if I could really help more people if I could do things my way and control how much I charged. After a long conversation with a friend of mines about a dream I had of starting my own personal training business, I was ready to get started. Acting solely on my dream and positive feedback from my friends I decided to start training a few clients outside of the gym for a lower cost and “see how it goes”.

Suddenly, I started to make more money than I had ever made especially what I was making training at the local gym so I decided to go for it and go into business myself 100 percent. My personal training started as a service that provided those on a tighter budget with quality commercial grade personal training at a considerably lower cost and it grew fast. Within 4 months my fitness business “Almost PerFit Fitness” grew from my training in a park to me owning equipment and training in my very own personal training studio. After 3 wonderful years of business, Almost PerFit Fitness is still committed to helping whoever we can reach their fitness goals.

Has it been a smooth road?
The struggles of a first-time entrepreneur have defiantly matured me into something completely different than I was 10 years ago. I think as an entrepreneur I’m never satisfied with anything other than perfection so I strive for it daily in many areas of life. Because of this, I’m now more of a problem solver now as opposed to the younger version of me since life as an entrepreneur is all about responsibilities and solving problems. I try to solve current and future problems. When I’m not thinking of ways to further or better my services I’m thinking about ways to provide even more services to more people. If I really had to speak to one struggle particularly it would probably have to be balancing being owner, sales manager, administrative staff and technical staff simultaneously.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Almost PerFit Fitness is fitness for anybody and for whatever reason. If you’re excited about fitness because you would like to change how much you weigh were excited with you and we can help. If you’re excited about fitness because you want to just become more active, we can help, from children to elderly. I try not to limit the services of Almost PerFit Fitness, I simply teach exercise and nutrition to all who will listen. I would say we specialize in weight management as well as remote online personal training

I’m most proud of inspiring positive change in people and being able to witness it happen right before my eyes. The “personal” part of personal training is what sets us apart. We deal primarily with clients on an individual level in a private setting as opposed to the group training of most facilities.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Houston is a great city for a personal trainer looking to start a fitness business. Houston had a very diverse market of people who like all types of fitness from yoga to power lifting if you have a fitness specialty Houston will defiantly have a market for it somewhere. I believe Houston is a great broad market to test several forms of fitness business before expanding it to the narrower markets of other areas in the US.

Pricing:

One-on-one custom personal training rates (including a custom meal plan) starting at only $55
Online/ Mobile personal training rates (including a custom meal plan) starting at less than $2 a day
Fitness Competition training prices (including a competition meal and workout plan) starting at $100

Contact Info: