Gigliola Aycardi E-book

WEGrow

A success story: Gigliola Aycardi Batista Colombian high-growth woman entrepreneur

Gigliola Aycardi Batista: A Colombian high-growth woman entrepreneur | | 2

WEGrow: Unlocking the Growth Potential of Women Entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean 2

About the MIF

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) works to support economic growth

and poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean through the promotion of investment and private sector

development. As part of its program, the MIF seeks to support entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises by

creating a favorable ecosystem for early stage financing through angel investing, seed capital, and entrepreneurship. For

more information, please visit www.fomin.org.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help

build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies over the world. We develop outstanding leaders who

team to deliver our promises to all of our stakeholders. In doing so, we play a critical role in building a better working world

for our people, for our clients and for our communities. For more information about our organization, please visit:

www.ey.com/mx.

This publication forms part of the study “WEGrow: Unlocking the Growth Potential of Women Entrepreneurs in Latin

America and the Caribbean.” It was commissioned by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-

American Development Bank (IDB), to EY. It has been prepared by EY Mexico with the cooperation and supervision of the

MIF’s Early Stage Equity Group. The following people participated in the review process from the MIF: Susana Garcia-

Robles, Monica Pina Alzugaray, Rebeca Granda Marcos, Xuan-Trang Ho and Elizabeth Terry.

© 2014 Inter-American Development Bank. All rights reserved; may be freely reproduced for any non-commercial purpose.

The opinion expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-

American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

© 2014 Mancera S.C. Member of Ernst & Young Global All rights reserved

http://www.ey.com/mx

http://www.fomin.org/en-us/home/knowledge/developmentdata/wegrow.aspx

http://www.fomin.org/en-us/home/knowledge/developmentdata/wegrow.aspx



Gigliola Aycardi was born in Colombia. Her

father worked in customs and her mother took

care of the household. Gigliola lived in Ocaña,

Santander, until she was 13 years old, when her

family moved to Bogota as her father´s work

required him to travel there constantly.

Gigliola holds a bachelor in industrial engineering

from Universidad Javeriana. After receiving this

degree, she began to think about starting her

own business, and enrolled in an MBA program at

the Universidad de los Andes.

HOW DID SHE GET STARTED?

While studying for her MBA, Gigliola took a

course in marketing management, which

required her to develop an idea for a business.

With this in mind, she discussed the assignment

with her classmate Nicolás, who would later

became her business partner. They used one of

Nicolas’ personal experiences as a starting point

for their venture. Since Nicolás had to drive a

long distance to get to the gym, both Gigliola and

he identified an opportunity in the health and

fitness industry, as they realized that many could

be in the same situation as Nicolás. Thus, they

started discussing and developing a business plan

for a new gym. This plan would bring a new gym

concept to the market, as their fitness club would

focus on improving the quality of life and health

of its members.

After finishing her degree and landing a number

of job interviews, Gigliola decided to turn her

university project, called Bodytech, into a real

startup. She kept in mind the fact that before

graduate school she would never last long when

working for others.

“In my last year of school, one of our professors

used to tell my class that we were mercenaries

because we didn´t even last one year in our jobs.”

WHAT CHALLENGES DID SHE FACE?

“People would always say to me: Did you go

through 5 years of college and 2 years for your

MBA just to manage a gym?”

According to Gigliola, back in the day, the

perception of a gym wasn’t that positive. People

had in mind that men would set up small gyms in

their garages for their wives to manage and stay

busy.

On top of all this, access to finance was another

challenge for her and her partner. They brought

their project to different investors in an effort to

find funding to get their idea off the ground, but

these efforts proved fruitless. It was during these

hard times that they heard about Colombia´s

National Guarantee Fund, which is a government-

sponsored guarantor of commercial loans for

entrepreneurs without access to financing,

people just like Gigliola and her business partner

at that time.



Through this fund, they were able to obtain half

of the startup capital they needed, with the other

half coming from their own resources. Gigliola´s

mother decided to help her by taking out a

mortgage loan against her home and loaned the

money to her daughter.

They founded Bodytech in June 1997 and

expected to be able to open their first gym in

October or November of that year. However, due

to financing issues, their project was stalled for

several months. In February, 1998 they finally

opened the first branch.

“It takes a lot of work and passion, as well as

family support.”

Gigliola says that women are used to being the

ones who take care of the home and raise

children. This is why, when a woman decides to

become an entrepreneur, she needs to have her

family´s support to help her find the right balance

between the needs of her family and the needs of

her company.

INNOVATION: PENETRATING NEW MARKETS

Initially, Gigliola and Nicolás estimated they

would have one thousand members by the end of

their first six months, but they exceeded this

prediction within the first month, with over 1,800

customers. They were very confident about their

business, as they have found a business model

that was successful in Colombia, and within a

short period of time they became the number

one sports club chain in the country. Given this

success, in 2002 they began to work on their

expansion plans.

“Bodytech enjoyed a success that we had never

imagined. It exceeded all of our expectations. ”

WHAT ARE SOME LESSONS LEARNED FROM

EXPERIENCE?

According to Gigliola, their success can be

attributed to the following:

1. They have surrounded themselves with people

who know more. Gigliola and Nicolás created

an executive board that has provided invaluable

expert guidance and support that has

contributed to Bodytech´s growth.

2. They have reinvented themselves in response

to global trends in living better, being healthier,

and developing a culture focused on self-care.

3. Their customers always come first and as a

result, they have adapted their service and

product offerings to meet specific market

needs.

Bodytech is a chain of medical sports clubs. As a

company that provides health care services regulated by

the Colombian Ministry of Health, it is dedicated to

improving the quality of life of its members through

regular exercise and health-care products and services

that help people perform, look and feel better.

What sets Bodytech apart is its ability to write medical

prescriptions for exercise. It does this through its team

of sports physicians, nutritionists and physiotherapists

that are able to provide their customers personalized

training programs based on their specific needs for their

continued health and well-being.

http://www.bodytech.com.co

Bodytech is a chain of medical sports clubs. As a company

that provides health care services it is dedicated to

improving the quality of life of its members through

regular exercise and health care products and services.

Its value proposition is its team of sports physicians,

nutritionists and physiotherapists that are able to provide

their customers with personalized training programs based

on their specific needs for their continued health and well-

being.

http://www.bodytech.com



Gigliola knows that the team is the key to the

success of any service company and that a

company is nothing without the people that

provide the service.

“I consider myself a leader who works side by side

with her employees.”

WHAT ARE HER AMBITIONS?

“I want Bodytech to be among the top five

companies in our sector worldwide. We are

currently number 15. To make it to the top five,

we need to have more than 250 clubs and thus,

what we need is people to help us get there.”

Gigliola thought that expanding Bodytech

internationally would be relatively easy, given the

company´s success in Colombia. However, three

years after launching the operation in Peru, she

had to move there to help her company, since it

was not achieving the expected growth rates.

Since Gigliola moved to Peru, Bodytech has

become the country’s number one fitness chain,

and the business is still growing. Recently they

acquired a chain of gyms in Chile (Sportlife).

“It would be a lie if I told you that back when we

started out I thought that Bodytech would

someday grow into such a large company. We

wanted a formal business, but back then we

never thought we would be as big as we are

today.”

Best advice ever received…

Entrepreneurs should

pay themselves a

salary as if they were

employees.

Asking the bank for

more loans to grow

my company without

knowing how to justify

why I needed it.

Greatest mistake ever made…

After deciding to take their company

international, Gigliola and Nicolás

turned to the financial sector to secure

the capital they needed for this

expansion. Since their debt capacity was

relatively low due to the terms of their

other loans, they refinanced their debt

from three to five years. The bank took

this as a sign that they were unable to

repay their loan, and it immediately

froze their drawdowns. Eventually, after

explaining to the bank why they did

what they did, they were able to secure

the funding they had applied for.



WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE SHE CAN SHARE?

Gigliola says that it is important to keep in mind that as entrepreneurs, women do not just have obligations

to their families, but also to their employees, their customers and their business communities.

FROM ENTREPRENEUR TO ENTREPRENEUR, THREE PRACTICAL TIPS FOR BECOMING SUCCESSFUL:

.:

Work, work and work. Fight for your dreams.

Don´t accept NO from anyone. You know

your business better than anyone else. Trust

yourself and believe in what you do.

Be happy doing what you do.

“I´ve been at this for 16 years and before I did not last more than a year in any job. I love what I do.”





We’re making it our purpose to help build a better working world, starting with yours. ey.com/betterworkingworld

Facebook: EY_Mexico Twitter: @EYNewsMexico

www.ey.com/mx

Multilateral Investment Fund

1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20577

[email protected]

Facebook: fominbid Twitter: @fominbid

www.fomin.org

Documents

Gigliola Aycardi E-book