With $50,000 in the bank, Alexis Perkins committed the same amount to a new website and app for Chair One Fitness. The investment would give her seated dance fitness business a way to reach people beyond the classroom. Making it meant putting the money she had available behind a business she believed could grow.
“I was very, very scared,” Perkins said.
She went ahead anyway.
Chair One Fitness already trained instructors to lead classes. But that model left people out. Someone unable to leave home, or living somewhere without an instructor, could still struggle to access a workout. Perkins saw an opportunity to bring the program directly to them through an app.
The decision followed another moment when the business had to change. During the pandemic, canceled training bookings disrupted her ability to certify instructors in person. She secured space at Gather in Newport News and worked with a collaborator to rebuild the training for Zoom.
Participants joined from Canada, Australia and the Philippines. Moving online expanded the company’s reach, but delivering the same eight hour course repeatedly still depended on Perkins being there.
She recorded the course next, allowing the business to sell training without requiring her to teach every session live. The app extended that approach to the workouts themselves, creating another way to serve customers beyond her own teaching schedule.
Building those products was only part of the bet. Perkins also had to get them in front of people who could buy them.
As Chair One Fitness expanded into corporate wellness, she researched conferences attended by potential customers. Assisted living operators could purchase training for their teams. Human resources professionals could help bring the app to employees.
When efforts to reach one conference went unanswered, Perkins searched its website and reviewed previous events. She spotted a company she had worked with before and contacted it, offering to lead a warmup during its session.
The company was attending as a vendor instead, but the conversation gave her another route to pursue. She secured a contact, sent her pitch and landed a spot.
Her approach was to keep finding a next step, even when the first attempt produced nothing. Investing in the platform meant continuing to look for ways to put it to work.
About a year after the website and app investment, Perkins was discussing the company’s revenue with her executive assistant. She had told someone that instructor certification remained its largest source of income.
Her assistant pointed out that the financial report said otherwise. The app was the company’s leading revenue generator.
“We did it,” Perkins recalled saying.
The financial report confirmed that her investment had opened a substantial new revenue stream. A platform built to reach people outside traditional classes was now generating more revenue than the instructor training program.
Perkins describes her willingness to move before the fear disappears. “I do things scared,” she said.
Chair One Fitness won Start Peninsula in 2020 and participated in the Virginia Cup in 2025.
Watch episode 330 of Fervent Four with Alexis Perkins for the full conversation about the investment and the work behind it.
