Update 5/4/2020: We were really hoping to receive word today that we’d won the FedEx Small Business Grant Award. Unfortunately, this was not our year to be chosen. Our disappointment, however, cannot overshadow how proud we were to have been considered as a top 100 finalist. We are indebted to all of our wonderful Fluid Runners who voted for us and cheered us along the way. We always have you and next year! Congratulations to @beachtraxsd and thanks to @FedEx for offering this competition and believing in the work of small businesses.
Update 3/16/2020: We are so happy to announce that we were selected as a top 100 Finalist in the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. Out of thousands of entries, we were selected to move on to the next round. Follow us on social media to watch our journey.
Update 3/22/2020: The second round of the contest asks these 100 companies to answer the following questions: “What is your passion as an individual and as a business owner, and how is that passion reflected in your business?” This is our submission.
FedEx Small Business Grant Application Overview – March 2nd
We are excited to be throwing our hat into the ring to compete for the FedEx Small Business Grant. This is our first contest submission, so we’re hoping for beginner’s luck! Luck alone is not going to do it however. We need lots of votes to even be considered. We’re hoping our amazing community, fans and friends can help us proceed to the next round. Based on previous submissions and winners, there is going to be lots of great competition. You can find our application here, but we recommend you read below about why we think Fluid Running would be a great candidate for the FedEx Small Business Grant, and consider giving us a vote to help move us on to the next round.
Elevator pitch
“We offer the only app based deep water running system. It’s a full body, cardio workout that everyone can do even those with chronic pain.”
We were limited on “characters” for this, but it really does sum up Fluid Running. We have customers at the top of their professional sport, and those suffering from pain so severe that it makes it hard for them to walk. It’s our amazing customer stories that motivate us to spread the word and make Fluid Running available to those who need it the most.
Tell us about your business
What inspired you to get into it
Six weeks before the Chicago Marathon in 2000, a special race for her and her siblings to support JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund), Founder, Jennifer Conroyd, tore a calf muscle. She discovered deep water running, and ran solely in the water for those 6 weeks. She went on to not only run the race, but qualify for the Boston Marathon. She knew this was something special, and created a workout based on it, and began her mission to educate the world about this amazing zero impact workout. Learn more about Jennifer
What you sell/service you offer
For many, our service is offering the ability to exercise again. If you’re an athlete training for a marathon, and you injured yourself, or you have pain in your knees and want to lose some weight, we can help you. We developed an amazing workout, and we packaged it up in a way that anyone can do it, in any deep water pool.
What makes your business stand out and how it impacts you, your community or the environment.
With Fluid Running, we get to hear nearly every day how thankful people are for our product, and that makes doing what we’re doing so worth it. Read or watch some of our testimonials. We bring people together with a common purpose of improving their health and wellness. We can’t think of a better business to be in.
How we would use the grant money
Chronic Pain Customers
While we feel that the Fluid Running H2Go workouts are great for everyone, we know that with some special attention and better understanding, we can make a bigger impact on our customers with chronic pain such as those with arthritis, lymphedema, fibromyalgia and other diseases, and increase outreach into those communities . Listen to Marti Dotson who suffers from Lymphedema, talk about what a difference Fluid Running has made in her life. We’ve heard similar stories from countless others, and we know that with some attention in this area, not only can we reach more people like Marti, we can make our product a better experience. Our small team needs to grow to accomplish this goal.
Shipping and distribution
In order to keep costs down, we are using a basement as our warehouse, and dropping the orders off at the post office as they come in. Prior to some recent press, while not ideal, this was manageable. It’s no longer manageable anymore.
Since we know that there is a great global interest in deep water running, we have acquired costly trademarks to allow us to enter those markets. We are ready to go global, but need a partner who can help us grow there.
Our video submission
Wrapping up
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We believe that the FedEx Small Business Grant program and everything it offers would give us the boost we need to take things to the next level. Win or lose, we feel fortunate to have been part of the contest. Please consider voting for Fluid Running so that we can show how this exercise can change the world! If you’re willing to help even more, please use one of the links or images below to spread the word on your social media. Thank you so much!
Help share our story
After you vote, please consider sharing Fluid Running with your friends and loved ones. You can share it on Facebook or Twitter, or use one of our images below for your story or post. Thank you.
