Meet Erin Crowe | Entrepreneur & Holistic Nutritionist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erin Crowe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Honestly, it was never my intention to start a business, it was my husband’s. Since the day I met him, he wanted to start his own business. In those early days, he didn’t know what KIND of business he wanted to start but has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

When we first met, he thought about opening a tanning salon. At the time, he worked at a sporting goods store in the same plaza with a busy tanning salon and that’s what planted the idea in his head.

When we got married, he was offered a sales position with an air cargo company and soon was promoted. We moved to Atlanta as a result of the promotion and have lived here for about 10 years now.

Although he had a well-paying, rewarding position at his company, his dream of opening his own never left him.

About 5 years ago, he decided he wanted to make plans to open a large, indoor sporting facility. He pictured batting cages, indoor fields and even a restaurant that we joked we would name “The Crowe’s Nest”.

After a number of rejections from banks regarding financing, he changed course and began thinking of opening a gym. We toyed with the idea of buying a Burn Boot Camp franchise but he was adamant about doing his own thing and not working for someone else.

In 2019, I sustained an injury that changed the course of my life – and his business plan.

I herniated a disc in my back at the gym and had to have emergency surgery. For about a month before the surgery, I was completely incapacitated. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t even stand for more than about a minute.

After the surgery, I could resume “normal” life but my back would never be the same. It was as a result of this unfortunate circumstance that we both decided we should come up with a business to help others not do what I did – a business that would prioritize wellness, self-care and recovery.

We came up with a plan and, in February of 2020, we started looking for retail space to open our facility.

Just before we decided on a space, COVID hit – sidelining our plan.

We waited and tweaked our ideas, riding out the rollercoaster that was 2020 (and part of 2021) and in November of 2021, we decided it was time to open, whether the world was fully re-opened or not!

At first, we admittedly had no clue what we were doing. My husband was still working his 9-5 and I was working our new business, with no business experience and having been a stay-at-home-mom for the past 8 years.

As time went on, I found my feet and got the hang of it – using my personal story as a way to connect with our new clientele.

We are now almost a year and half into this journey and hitting our stride.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year and half it’s that this is A LOT harder than people think and that I’m also much tougher than I ever thought.

My husband has always been the driving force behind this business and, without him, there’s no way we would have made it. His determination and absolute refusal to accept defeat is what has kept us going and striving for success.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our business began as a lifelong dream of my husband’s. He had always wanted to start a business from a very young age. His ideas evolved from a sporting goods store to an indoor sporting arena to a gym, but when I hurt my back in 2019, we both began to think of a business model that could help other people – prevent them from injuring themselves the way that I did from overtraining at the gym. We began to think of a wellness studio, a hybrid between a spa and a fitness recovery studio and Studio Recovery was born!
Our services include an infrared sauna, a dry salt therapy chamber, cryotherapy and even nutrition counseling and IV nutrient therapy.
I work in the studio full-time and am the “face” of the company while he works in the background, running numbers, analyzing and making sure we have all our ducks in a row.
At the end of the day, we are a team and running this business together is something that is both rewarding and challenging.
We have two small kids at home, are active in our community and don’t have a ton of spare time but every day we keep pushing because we know all of our hard work is going to pay off in the end.
Has this been easy? Absolutely NOT.
This has been the most challenging thing either of us has ever done but we wouldn’t change it. We continue to learn every day and are excited for what the future holds.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are super outdoorsy people so the first thing we would do is go hiking somewhere or take our friends floating down the Chattahoochee River. Even since we moved to Georgia 10 years ago, we have loved floating down the river. We have our own tubes (you can rent them at the river but we go so much, we have our own!) and we drop in around the Cumberland area, just across the street from Ray’s on the River. A typical float takes about 2 hours and we always bring snacks, adult beverages and music. After our outdoor adventure, we would most likely get cleaned up, drop the kids at grandma’s and head to Unwine’d and Tap off Due West Road or to the Marietta Square for some food and drinks. The square has a great restaurant called Taqueria Tsunami and is just a cute place to walk around and hang out.t.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
In my entrepreneurial journey, I have met some amazing people. I’d love to shoutout my friend and fellow female business owner, Ashley Inglese. Ashley owns Hotworx in Marietta Square and is a bad-ass business owner with so many creative ideas. I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with her and love working on business-to-business projects together.

I also want to give a shoutout to my friend Sarah Fisher. Sarah owns NinjaFit Atl and is a leading partner with a global wellness company. The moment I met Sarah, I felt this instant connection. She is kind, warm and genuine. She is a successful business owner (in my opinion) because of her integrity and because she genuinely cares about people.

Website: studiorecovery.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studio_recovery/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64548795/admin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiorecovery

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/studio-recovery-marietta