Growth: 6% per year. TAM: about 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and roughly 44 million more have low bone mass (osteopenia), with women the large majority. Narrow to women aged 50-65 who are recently diagnosed and willing to pay for a supervised strength program, roughly 2.5 million people; at your ~$425 average 12-week price that is about 2.5M x $425 = ~$1.06B, rounded to ~$1.1B. SAM: this is an in-person cohort service, so the serviceable market is the newly diagnosed women you can reach through PT-clinic and DEXA referral partners within driving distance of your studio, on the order of 1,500-2,000 willing buyers per year x ~$425 plus graduate membership = ~$750,000/yr. SOM: matched to how you actually operate. Operations runs one active cohort at a time (hard ceiling of two live sessions) and financials sees a revenue spike about every 3 months, which is 4 cycles per year, NOT 6. So the realistic year 1-2 line is 4 cohorts x 10 people x $425 = ~$17,000 in cohort revenue, plus the $39/month graduate membership at roughly 20 average active members (4 x 10 grads/yr, about half retained) = ~$9,400, totaling ~$26,400. This fits your 10 hours/week (shared with your existing business), your $2,000 budget against the $1,400 startup cost, and the 8-week runway to first cohort revenue.

Differentiation: You win because you occupy the empty middle: MelioGuide is cheap DIY with no supervision, OsteoStrong sells machine sessions, and BoneCoach/Dr. Lucas charge $2,000-$13,000 online with no hands-on loading. You deliver in-person, benchmark-documented progressive loading (grip strength, sit-to-stand, timeline to DEXA re-scan) at $350-500, backed by a menopause-and-bone-health certification and, critically, direct PT-clinic and DEXA referral partnerships that national online coaches cannot access. Your program-design skill produces the documented safety protocol clinicians will trust enough to refer to; your motivation and client-relationship strengths defeat the fracture fear that keeps these women out of generic gyms and drive graduate-membership retention. This niche is too specific for the crowded generic perimenopause coaches, and the clinical-referral channel is your defensible wedge.

Competitors

Customer segments

• Newly diagnosed referral clients (core): Women 50-65 sent by a PT clinic or DEXA center after an osteopenia/osteoporosis scan, told to lift but scared, ready to pay $350-500 for supervised 12 weeks.
• Post-discharge maintainers (graduate membership): Cohort graduates and PT dischargees who need ongoing progressive programming and re-testing; they feed your $39/month recurring membership.
• Prevention-minded perimenopausal women (45-55): Family history or early bone-density concern, not yet diagnosed, seeking a credible, low-fear on-ramp to load-bearing strength before a diagnosis.

Sources

• Bone Coach | Stronger Bones Solution Program (Osteoporosis & Osteopenia): https://bonecoach.com/
• Bone Coach Membership Program Upgrade ($1,999): https://bonecoach.com/products/membership-program-upgrade
• Mayo Clinic Connect: Anyone worked with Kevin Ellis the Bone Coach (pricing discussion): https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/anyone-here-have-worked-with-kevin-ellis-the-bone-coach/
• Inspire: Bone Coach program discussion (OsteoStrong, MelioGuide mentions): https://www.inspire.com/groups/bone-health-and-osteoporosis/discussion/bone-coach-program/
• The Bone Coach Osteoporosis & Bone Health Podcast (Apple Podcasts): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bone-coach-osteoporosis-bone-health-podcast/id1483975147

The people who pay are women 50-65 who just got an osteopenia or osteoporosis result and were told to lift but are frightened of breaking a bone; they buy now because the diagnosis is fresh, scary, and their doctor or physio gave zero next steps.

Messaging angle: Just told to 'lift weights' after your bone scan? A supervised 12-week program that shows you exactly how to load safely, with numbers that prove it's working.

Pricing logic: $450 for the full 12-week supervised cohort works out to roughly $18.75 per attended session (2 sessions/week x 12 weeks). The direct alternative, 1:1 physio or personal training at $75-120/session, costs a client $1,800-2,880 for the same duration, so you are priced at a fraction of individual supervision while still delivering hands-on structure. OsteoStrong runs $100-300/month with passive machines; Buff Bones is $20-40/month but deliberately low-load and cannot claim progressive bone loading. Sit at $450 (founding cohort $300 for testimonials + DEXA re-scan results), then convert graduates to the $39/month membership, which lands inside the Buff Bones/Bold subscription range but with in-person benchmarking they lack.

Funding: Self-fund the full $1,400 from your $2,000 budget: it fits comfortably and leaves a $600 buffer, so you do not need debt. Use founding-cohort deposits to recoup part of the outlay, not to finance it.

• Personal savings staging: Deploy $1,400 of your $2,000 budget across the 8-week pre-revenue window, front-loading the $600 certification and delaying the $350 equipment purchase until deposits are in. Catch: leaves only a $600 personal buffer, so keep current-business income covering household costs during the ramp.
• Founding-cohort pre-sales (deposits): Collect $50 deposits from 8 founding members (8 x $50 = $400) after the free workshop. This recoups roughly 29% of your $1,400 outlay, not most of it, and de-risks equipment spend by confirming a cohort will actually fill before you buy. Catch: deposits are only non-refundable if you say so in writing up front.
• Revenue-first bootstrapping: Run the free 'Your safe first 5 lifts' workshop using borrowed or minimal gear, sign the founding 8, then buy the full equipment set from deposit cash. Covers the discretionary $350-450 of startup cost. Catch: adds 2-3 weeks before you can deliver a polished first session.

Assumptions

• At least one PT clinic or DEXA center referral partner reliably sends 3-5 osteopenia-diagnosed clients per cohort cycle; without it this stays a slow cold start (the idea's stated main risk).
• Cohorts of 8 run at $450 regular ($300 founding for testimonials), staggered so a new cohort starts roughly every 6-8 weeks.
• Your 10 weekly hours cap you at 2 concurrent cohorts (each = 2x1hr sessions + ~2hr admin/comms = ~4hr/week), which sets the ~$4,400/month revenue ceiling seen in later months.
• About 30% of graduates convert to the $39/month membership, building the recurring layer that softens between-cohort dips.
• Gross margin holds near 65% after per-session space rental (~$100/session block) and per-client materials; it drops fast if you underprice founding rates below $300 or rent premium studio space.

You run FortifyHer as rolling 12-week cohorts of 8-12 women plus a $39/month graduate tier, so a typical week is two small-group coaching sessions, benchmark tracking, and one referral-partner touchpoint. Once a cohort is live the rhythm is deliver sessions, log benchmarks, nurture the next cohort's waitlist.

Tool stack

Delivery workflow

1. Enroll and screen: Prospect books via Acuity, completes a health/readiness form, and pays deposit through Stripe; you confirm the osteopenia diagnosis and any PT restrictions.
2. Baseline benchmark: Week 1 session: measure grip strength, sit-to-stand reps, and current load tolerance, logged in TrueCoach as the fracture-fear starting line.
3. Deliver supervised cohort: Two 60-minute small-group sessions per week for 12 weeks, coaching progressive loading with hands-on cueing for 8-12 women at a time.
4. Track and adjust: Update each client's benchmarks weekly in TrueCoach; anyone stalling or in pain gets a modified progression before the next session.
5. Re-test and document: Week 12: re-measure benchmarks, produce a one-page progress summary, and prompt clients to schedule a DEXA re-scan with the referring clinic.
6. Convert and collect: Offer the $39/month graduate membership at re-test; collect final payment and request a testimonial plus permission to share re-scan results with the referral partner.

Suppliers

Weekly time budget

• Cohort session delivery: 4h/week
• Benchmark tracking and program adjustments: 2h/week
• Referral-partner outreach and workshops: 2h/week
• Admin, billing, and intake screening: 1.5h/week
• Protocol refinement and graduate content: 0.5h/week

At 10 hours/week you can safely run one active 8-12 person cohort plus a small graduate group, roughly $3,000-6,000 per 12-week cycle before space and tool costs. The ceiling is your two live sessions; when a second full cohort waitlist forms, first outsource benchmark logging and intake admin (a virtual assistant, ~$15-25/hr) so your hours stay on coaching and referral relationships.

Positioning: For women 50-65 recently diagnosed with osteopenia, FortifyHer Method is the supervised group-coaching service that turns a scary 'lift weights' order into a benchmark-tracked 12-week plan, unlike generic gyms and apps that leave fracture fear unaddressed.

Name options

• FortifyHer Method
• BoneStrong Collective
• Loadwell Coaching
• AfterScan Strength
• Fracture-Free Fifties

Palette & voice

Logo concept (FH): An 'F' whose crossbar extends into a subtle upward bar-path arrow, with the 'H' formed by two vertical strokes joined by a bone-shaped connector. Set in a rounded geometric sans in deep plum (#2c2233) on cream, with the arrow accent in warm terracotta (#d98a5c) to signal safe upward progress.

Hypothesis: At least 2 local PT clinics or DEXA centers will actively refer osteopenia-diagnosed women to FortifyHer within 2 weeks, producing 5+ named leads for the next cohort. (budget $140)

Interview questions

1. Walk me through the day you got your osteopenia diagnosis: what did the doctor actually tell you to do?
2. What have you tried so far to follow the 'lift weights' advice, and what happened?
3. What specifically scares you about lifting weights right now?
4. Where did you go looking for help after the diagnosis, and what did you find?
5. Who, if anyone, have you asked about how to start safely?
6. How much time and money have you already spent trying to solve this?
7. Tell me about the last time you felt confident exercising: what made it work?
8. When you picture getting stronger safely, who do you imagine helping you and why?

Success criteria

• At least 2 clinics or DEXA centers give an explicit yes and share the page or refer a named patient.
• 5+ qualified leads (diagnosed women aged 50-65) enter from referral or landing page.
• 4+ paid $50 deposits toward the founding cohort by end of Day 14.
• 2 of 3 interviewees confirm fracture fear and name $350-500 as reasonable for supervised group coaching.

Kill criteria

• Zero clinics commit to referring after 5 pitches, confirming the clinical channel stays a cold start.
• Landing page draws under 10 signups and zero deposits despite partner sharing.
• Interviewees consistently say they would rather use a free app or generic gym and will not pay above $100.

Grow the founding 8-person cohort through clinical referral partnerships (PT clinics and DEXA centers) as the primary motion, warmed by free value-first workshops to those partners' patient lists, so acquisition stays inside your 10 hours a week and $2,000 budget.

Path to 100: Because delivery is capped at one supervised cohort of 8-12 and month-3 revenue targets $2,400 (8 clients x $300), the near-term goal is filling the founding cohort of 8, not chasing volume. Weeks 1-3: lock at least one signed referral partner and join the three online communities, spending most of your 10 weekly hours on clinic relationships since that is the wedge. Weeks 4-6: run one free workshop to a partner's patient list and convert 3 attendees plus 4 direct clinical referrals and 1 community contact into the 8-person founding cohort at the discounted $300 rate for testimonials and re-scan data. Weeks 7-8: cohort starts, hitting first revenue at week 8 within the stated timeline while Meta ads quietly gather cost-per-lead data for later. Beyond the first cohort, documented benchmark outcomes and re-scan testimonials become your referral fuel: each 12-week cohort of 8-12 plus the $39/month graduate membership compounds, and reaching 100 served clients means running roughly 10-12 back-to-back cohorts while the proven $53 Meta channel and additional PT partners scale lead flow to keep every cohort full.

Entity: Single-member LLC formed in your home state (assuming US; check your state's rules).. FortifyHer works with a medically fragile population (women with osteopenia/osteoporosis where a fracture is the exact risk you are managing), so a client injury claim is your highest-exposure scenario. Insurance is your first line of defense: a claim about your own coaching reaches you personally under any structure, which is why the liability policies this plan recommends matter most. The LLC adds a second layer, keeping business debts and contracts away from your personal assets (home, savings) in a way a sole proprietorship does not. At $350-500 per client across cohorts of 8-12, revenue is real enough to justify the ~$100-300/year cost. Upgrade when: Elect S-corp tax treatment once net profit clears roughly $40-60k/year (payroll tax savings start to outweigh added payroll/accounting cost). Add a second entity or reassess only if you hire coaches as employees or open a physical studio.

Setup steps

Licenses

Insurance

Contracts you’ll need

• Client services agreement + assumption-of-risk waiver: Defines the 12-week scope, payment terms, cancellation/refund policy, and documents informed consent to strength training with a bone-density diagnosis.
• Physician-clearance / medical intake form: Captures the client's diagnosis, medications, and doctor's go-ahead so you are loading only cleared participants and have a record if questioned.
• Referral partnership agreement: Sets terms with PT clinics and DEXA centers (what you can say, no fee-for-referral if it triggers healthcare kickback rules, how patient info is shared) so the clinical channel stays compliant.
• Website terms of service + privacy policy: Required for online sign-ups and any health data you collect; discloses that you are a coach, not a medical provider, and how you store client health information.

Tax basics

• As an LLC owner you pay self-employment tax (~15.3%) on net profit on top of income tax; the LLC itself is not taxed separately by default.
• You will likely owe quarterly estimated taxes (IRS Form 1040-ES) since no employer withholds for you; set aside roughly 25-30% of profit and check your state's quarterly rules too.
• Your certification, insurance, equipment, waiver legal fees, and software are deductible business expenses; track them from day one, and note the IRS lets you deduct up to $5,000 of startup costs in year one.
• Handling client health data (diagnoses, clearances) may create record-keeping obligations; you are generally not a HIPAA-covered entity as a coach, but confirm and store intake forms securely.
• Whether your coaching/membership fees are subject to state sales tax varies by state; verify with your state department of revenue before assuming they are exempt.