Why she left a $185,000 job to launch a new fitness chain

Why she left a $185,000 job to launch a new fitness chain.

One of the keys to success in the business world is knowing what you are good at and what you are not good at.

Anne Mahlum, 34, founder of a string of five Washington-area fitness centers called Solidcore, knows her strengths and weaknesses.

“I’m a good CEO,” said the quotable North Dakota native, who gives motivational speeches at $10,000 a pop. “I’m not a good COO,” or chief operating officer.

Mahlum prefers “the action”: Think big thoughts, lead by example, motivate people behind those ideas and put the resulting enterprise on an upward, self-sustaining arc. She has done it at least once with a Philadelphia nonprofit group called Back on My Feet. Solidcore appears to be on a similar — and profitable — trajectory.

“I’m really good at building and creating stuff,” she said.

Then there are some things she is not great at. This entrepreneur-in-a-hurry prefers not to grind through the minutiae essential to running a business, including meetings, spreadsheets, hirings, firings and negotiations.

“I need somebody to handle operations and administrative work,” she said.

I could tell from our phone conversations — one of which took place while she was in a hair salon — that she is accustomed to setting the tone.

“I really don’t like to be told what to do,” she said, adding, “I don’t have a lot of patience for anything. It’s a virtue, and it’s not. I don’t understand why things can’t get done faster than most people do them.”

See what I mean?

Her approach works for her. Solidcore has more than 12,000 clients in about a year and a half. Mahlum expects the company to gross $5 million this year.

She also owns the royalty rights to a Solidcore studio near Minneapolis, which uses the same $6,900 megaformer exercise machines her Washington studios rely upon. Mahlum licensed the Washington and Minneapolis territorial rights to the machines.

Mahlum owns 100 percent of Solidcore, whose 50-minute classes tone up regular folks and celebrities across the region, including first lady Michelle Obama.