April 24, 2017

Meet Erica Soma of LYFE CYCLE in Roslindale

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Soma.

Erica, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have been in fitness my entire professional career in various capacities but always knew I wanted to open a business. I studied exercise science in college at Willamette University in Salem, OR and moved to Boston to go to grad school at Northeastern for my MS in exercise science. I started personal training while in grad school as a way to use my education and make some money and realized I loved working with clients, teaching them what I know about fitness, and inspiring them to prioritize leading a healthy lifestyle.

I worked at large companies like Boston Sports Club and later moved to Equinox but I found my home at Healthworks in Back Bay where I truly felt like I made a difference in my clients lives. I was very successful at Healthworks but from the beginning I was taking business planning classes from the Center for Women and Enterprise, and though I didn’t quite know what the next step was going to look like, I knew I needed to prepare.

After about a year and a half of training up to 45 hours of clients in a week at Healthworks I felt miserable and was uninspired to lead a healthy lifestyle myself. I realized one day that I was no longer enjoying my work life, which was also putting a damper on my personal life. I knew this was the time to go out on my own and give myself time to create the next step and really form the business I had always conceptualized.

Along the way, that business became LYFE CYCLE. Since we opened, LYFE CYCLE has come a very long way. I didn’t know what our RYDERS would expect, what style of choreography they would be interested in, and how our boutique model would work outside of downtown. I can honestly say I was not prepared for what happened after we opened and months went by before I could work out the kinks. Many small business owners say they failed a million times before they were successful, and let’s just say I have a nice list of bumps in the road.

My instructor team has stepped up a lot, and we worked hard to define LYFE CYCLE and our culture. We completely changed the way our space looks with bikes facing a different direction, hand weights during class, new flooring, mirrors, a different lighting system, and a bootcamp area. I added our LYFT class mid- fall as a way to offer more to our students, which has been my favorite part. It really allowed me to get to know our students, continue to build our community, and feel like I truly created a business that makes people’s lives better.

Today LYFE CYCLE is a growing and thriving small business in Roslindale offering high quality indoor cycling and bootcamp classes.

Has it been a smooth road?
As many small business owners say, I was as prepared as I could have been, but I made a million and a half mistakes in those first months that I am lucky to have recovered from. While there were many, many times I doubted it would last, I have always come back to hard work and dedication. LYFE CYCLE celebrated its first year in business recently on March 11th, and I cannot even put into words how much of an accomplishment it is for me.

I knew opening a business was going to be hard, but I didn’t know what the exact challenge would be. My biggest mistake was thinking that I could open two businesses within a few months of each other, and after only a few months of the second location in Peabody, MA I decided to close. Focusing on one business is more than plenty and only after a year do I finally feel (on some days) that I can sit back and breathe. At the time I saw potential, an amazing deal on retail space, and an opportunity in a great area but now I see all of the reasons it failed. While a huge loss and failure, I took those learnings to heart to make our Roslindale location thrive and I don’t know that I would have figured it out without such a big mistake.

My other largest hurdle was choosing to surround myself with the wrong people. Many people cautioned me about having a business partner, but I thought I needed one. When LYFE CYCLE came to fruition I thought we shared important partnership qualities but after feeling true pressure, experiencing immediate failure in our second venture, and realizing how much dedication and grit it takes to become successful I now know why many caution against partnerships. My business partner left the company after last summer for many reasons, and since then I haven’t looked back.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the LYFE CYCLE story. Tell us more about the business.
LYFE CYCLE is a boutique indoor cycling and fitness studio that aims to provide quality cycling and bootcamp workouts in a convenient neighborhood location for a lower price than most cycling studios. We offer a 45- minute RYDE class which is packed with beat driven indoor cycling with intentional and purposeful choreography. Our LYFT class is a 60- minute strength- focused bootcamp designed to feel like personal training for a fraction of the price. Our LYFT student- instructor ratio is capped at 8-1 so class stays intimate, safe, and our students are successful regardless of their fitness level.

One of my favorite aspects of LYFE CYCLE is how we have built a fitness community in the Roslindale area. Most of our regulars know each other and I never need to email somebody about why I haven’t seen them in two weeks because one of our other students has already done it. They challenge each other, encourage each other, and are there for each other for good times and bad.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Fitness has been a growing industry for years and there are always changes. The most important thing for fitness companies is to make sure they serve the need of their neighborhoods. Our goal in our RYDE and LYFT classes has been to provide a great environment, quality classes that meet cardio and strength needs of our students, and be the best option for boutique fitness studios in the area. I have no idea what we will look like in 5 years, but I know it all comes down to serving the needs of the people that walk in the door each day.

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