Vernon native opens fitness business in his hometown

Vernon Township High School graduate, Justin Smith is starting a business in his hometown.

He is now a franchise owner of GYMGUYZ, an in-home personal training business that is growing at exponential proportions. Why? GYMGUYZ is effective, works around your schedule and comes to you.

After graduating from Vernon Township High School in 2000, he went to William Patterson University and earned his degree in business management. He worked for a subsidiary of AIG until they liquidated.

“That's when my love of the fitness industry kicked in,” Smith said. “I got certified and started working at New York Sports Clubs in 2011.”

He was promoted to fitness manager in 2013 and his club was dubbed the premier in the area. Smith was promoted again and managed five New York Fitness Clubs. He realized that his boss wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, but he wanted to advance and found a job that came with a hefty promotion as a manager at 24 Hour Fitness in Wayne.

At that point, he realized he'd gone as far as he could in the club fitness industry, so he ventured into the business world again, only to realize he hated it.

“I wanted to be in the fitness industry and I wanted to be my own boss,” he said.

He looked into several different opportunities and GYMGUYZ emerged as the most appealing.

“You get a van with all of the equipment you need plus marketing and accounting tools,” Smith said. “What you don't get is having to spend thousands to open and maintain a gym.”

Smith has employees in place and is focusing on the Vernon area to start. York said that all GYMGUYZ employees undergo rigorous background checks, drug testing, etc.

“I have all of Sussex County as my territory, so in six months, we'll branch out into Sparta, Newton and more areas,” he said.

Smith said his reason for embracing the GYMGUYZ philosophy is simple.

“Everyone wants everything faster and more convenient now, If you go into someone's home, you create a better relationship. And it doesn't have to be a home. I can meet people at a park, their workplace, anywhere.”

GYMGUYZ provides convenient, customized, and creative workouts by bringing the workout to you. Headquartered in Plainview, N.Y., GYMGUYZ is the brainchild of Josh York. He founded the company in 2008 at his parents' dining room table in New Hyde Park.

“I was just kind of seeing how the world was changing,” York said. “We live in an Amazon world today. People want things to be fast and convenient. I realized that people really don't go to the gym, and the most successful gym out there was $10 per month. I obsessed over their business model and realized the whole point was that they were charging all of these people $10 per month on their credit cards but only a tiny percentage were actually using the membership.”

What if the gym, personal attention and results-proven equipment showed up at your doorstep? What if someone who actually cared about your results and helping you reach your goal was there at a time that worked for you? It was these principals upon which York created GYMGUYZ.

The name is catchy, but the business doesn't just serve men. It's for men, women and kids ages 12 and older.

“Each GYMGUYZ van is stocked with 365 pieces of equipment: one for each day of the year,” York said. “It's creative and it's customized and it's the fastest growing fitness franchise out there. We're in 31 states and four countries.”

York credits his businesses momentum to, simply, “energy.”

“You start with energy, be passionate about what you do and paint the picture of what you see,” he said.

Energy is something that Smith certainly has. He's a go-getter, fitness expert and brings years of experience in the industry to his new GYMGUYZ franchise.

“Our certified coaches are trained using GYMGUYZ methodologies, and they employ various techniques and tools to ensure that no two workouts are ever the same. We make sure that workouts are always fun and challenging,” York said. “We've changed the lives of over 100,000 people. There's nothing like this.”