Meet Lisa Druxman, Founder of Stroller Strides

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For a couple of years I’ve enjoyed watching the company, Stroller Strides grow and become a nationally recognized brand serving moms by helping them find a great innovative way to include young children with exercise. I’ve been inspired by Founder and CEO (Chief Founding Mother) Lisa Druxman and the ingenuity of her business concept that uses her research and professional experience as a group exercise instructor, personal trainer and club manager at some of the country’s finest health clubs. She has lectured and taught at renowned spas such as The Golden Door and Rancho La Puerta. But it wasn’t until she became a mom herself that she realized the need for specialty “mom” fitness. As soon as Lisa’s son was born, she got outside with her stroller. Not having the time to get back to the gym, she created a series of exercises to get her back in shape. Before you knew it, a new workout was born! (from her bio)

You’ll also love reading her columns for women entrepreneurs at Entrepreneur. It was an absolute pleasure to interview. Lisa was honored and named 2007 IDEA Program Director of the Year in the fitness industry’s highest form of recognition. Congratulations!

Enjoy Lisa’s interview:

Who inspired you to be an entrepreneur? My children

What was your biggest obstacle as you were starting your business? What did you do about it? Money was my first biggest obstacle as I needed to make it and didn’t have a lot to spend to get my business started. We grew organically and did very creative things to grow without money such as co-op marketing and hiring some of our first employees in trade for service.

From your “a-ha moment” to first client…what were the 3 most significant things you did to launch? 1. came up with a great name. 2) got my program on the news 3) made every class I taught so great that I knew my clients would talk about it

How did you fund your business initially? I used a very small savings but mainly just invested any money made from the business right back in to it. when we started, we didn’t spend it if we didn’t have it.

When did you bring on a management team and how did you recruit them? We didn’t recruit until years later. I started with an assistant after about a year, then a book keeper. It was probably not until three years into the business that we started hiring our corporate team. It has always been extremely easy for us to find our employees as so many wonderful talented women are looking for careers that are supportive of motherhood.

What is your daily routine? I wake up at 5:00. I either run or do email for an hour, spend a couple of hours with my kids - make breakfast, get them dressed, etc. get my son off to school. Then my daughter will come and take Stroller Strides with me 3 days / week, after that a nanny comes and watches her so I can get about 5 hours of work done. I pick up my son from school and it’s mommy time from about 3:00 - 7:00. I make dinner, bathe kids, put them to bed and work 7:00 - 9:00; 10:00ish - go to sleep

How do you avoid the natural tendency to “burn the candle at both ends” and work too much? It’s the biggest challenge. I am constantly preaching to entrepreneurs that they need to fuel themselves if they don’t want to burn out. I need to walk that talk. So… I exercise almost every day of the week which is therapy to me. Whether it’s a bubble bath, reading a book or working in my garden, I do my best to spend just a bit of time on something that energizes me each day. I submit to the reality that there will never be enough hours in the day to be with my kids or with my work; so I just promise to give both my all when I am in that moment. stay organized and be careful of time wasters. I do a lot to make sure I stay inspired.

How often do you get to do the Stroller Strides routine yourself? I still teach 3 days / week.

What is your favorite “Magic Wand Tip” (business resource, tool, book, etc) for other Start Up Princesses? Great new book - The Janitor. Best business website - entrepreneur.com and score.org. Best piece of technology I ever bought was the piece that attaches to my laptop to give me internet access anywhere

What advice would you give to yourself now if you could go back to the pre-launch phase? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It’s ok to grow slow. Don’t go cheap - It’s better to spend a lot on a good lawyer, tax accountant, etc then to do it cheaply and be unhappy with a later result.

What is the future for Stroller Strides? Stroller Strides will be a company synonymous with all things health and wellness for the pre and postnatal market. It will be a brand well beyond the classes.

Do you have another business idea that you’d like to launch someday? If so, what kind of business would it be? Of course. So many. I can’t identify with people who can’t come up with an idea as I can’t keep them from coming. Sorry, can’t share them now. Just know that it will be tied to motherhood!

Thank you Startup Princess Lisa for the inspiration and for sharing your journey!

This interview was written by Kelly King Anderson, Founder of Startup Princess

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