Today we’d like to introduce you to Angel McNamara & Makeda Richardson. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Fight into Fitness was founded by Angel McNamara in 2008, and later Makeda Richardson joined in as COO of the business. Angel started her career with Baltimore Boxing in Fells Point under Jake “The Snake” Smith in 1999. She trained for three months and then started competing as an amatuer and in 2003 began competing professionally.
Once Angel retired as a professional fighter, she helped her sister lose about 40 lbs. in three months. With that success and loving the process of helping someone, that passion helped fuel the desire to start a fitness business.
Angel’s first start with group training was teaching women how to throw punches. She would travel to open parks and rent spaces for those interested in her classes. Later, Angel would secure group class instructor contracts within Arlington County, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Federal Reserve Board, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and other government agencies and organizations around the 495 Beltway.
A turning point occurred when a member of the Arlington Senior Community Group approached Angel about checking out Rock Steady Boxing. Rock Steady is a non-contact boxing fitness and training program for individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. This was around the time that Makeda was brought on as part of the business. Both booked a flight to Indianapolis, Indiana and returned as certified Rock Steady Boxing coaches and owners of Rock Steady Boxing Montgomery County (RSB MoCo).
Makeda had such faith in where Fight into Fitness could go because she had attended Angel’s classes and experienced significant results. When she brought up the idea of partnering up with Angel and at least updating her existing website, Angel’s initial thought was, “I don’t have time for this.” However, with Makeda’s business background and a strong desire to help, she was able to convince Angel to make the time.
So now the race was on to find a location to house RSB MoCo classes. Angel and Makeda were able to sublease space for classes for about three years. After that time was up, in November of 2019, they secured their current space for Fight into Fitness Boxing Training and Fitness Gym and Home of RSB MoCo.
Future goals for Fight into Fitness are to have a larger space to continue hosting sanctioned boxing events and maintain the community gym. Another goal is to be more owner-operators and potential franchise owners with more boxing gyms in the DMV area.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We’ve had our fair share of struggles with our business. However, if we weren’t passionate, determined, and resilient, we would not have persevered. The challenges we have and continue to encounter are being a Black and Native American woman-owned small business, securing an affordable space for what we love to do, being able to pay ourselves, and being shut down twice in four years; once two months after we opened our doors due to COVID-19 regulations and the second time was one month after COVID-19 regulations were lifted due to structural damage caused by a new tenant moving in next door. During both of these incidents, with the unwavering support from our devoted community of members we were able to pivot our operations quickly to continue sharing boxing. The costs was great, but we continue to recover.
As a small business, we have limited access to cash for financial growth, we are often hidden gems in the competitive market, and we struggle to make ends meet while balancing the demands of business and family in a struggling economy. Fatigue is real, and it can often have you questioning whether your passion to do what you love and the determination to push forward is enough.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
We specialize in the following formats:
– Boxing for Competition, Amateur USA Boxing
– Boxing for Fitness
– Group Fitness
– Personal Training
– RAD Self-Defence for Women
– Rock Steady (boxing program for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease)
– Virtual Group Training for 55+ (Senior Community)
We are experienced in business and boxing and enjoy bringing boxing to all ages and all backgrounds. In addition to the traditional boxing client, we work with the senior community, youth, and individuals with unique abilities.
We are also the first two women of color to ever do a sanctioned boxing event in Montgomery County.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
It’s not just one quality or characteristic but a combination. In this type of business, you have to have tough skin, dedication, patience, stamina, and resilience. These qualities and our desire to support and care for our members grant us overall success.
Fight into Fitness will continue to stay in the fight to survive and thrive with them leading the charge.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fightintofitness.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fightn2fitness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fightintofitness/
