{"id":49485,"date":"2026-04-23T16:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-grandparents-took-me-to-the-little-gym-when-i-was-a-kid-years-later-they-helped-me-buy-it\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:11:19","slug":"my-grandparents-took-me-to-the-little-gym-when-i-was-a-kid-years-later-they-helped-me-buy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-grandparents-took-me-to-the-little-gym-when-i-was-a-kid-years-later-they-helped-me-buy-it\/","title":{"rendered":"My grandparents took me to The Little Gym when I was a kid. Years later, they helped me buy it."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69d68bc7f36fd1a78c051f53?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Sarah Cantera headshot\"\/><figcaption>Sarah Cantera now owns the Little Gym she went to as a kid.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Sarah Cantera<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Sarah Cantera started working at The Little Gym when she was 14.<\/li>\n<li>Now, she co-owns the gym with her mentor, who also bought into the business young.<\/li>\n<li>Accepting her grandparents&#039; loan was scary, but she was confident, she says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sarah Cantera, co-owner of<\/em> The Little Gym of Salt Lake City. <em>It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I quite literally took my first steps at The Little Gym near where I grew up in Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n<p>From the time I was a toddler until I was a teenager, I absolutely loved going to the gymnastics and play space. My sister and I went every Friday night, and often had our birthday parties there. Other activities, like ballet, were more structured, but The Little Gym was a place for me to have fun.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69d68fe11a512d0a63e739d0?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Little girl at gym\"\/><figcaption>\n<p>Courtesy of Sarah Cantera<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By the time I was 14, I was too old to participate in programming at The Little Gym. I wasn&#039;t ready to leave it behind, though, so I started working there. At the time, I thought I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up; I was a bossy older sister who liked being in charge. <\/p>\n<p>Before long, I realized that my love for the gym could lead to a different career.<\/p>\n<h2>Another young woman believed in me<\/h2>\n<p>Around that time, a woman named Betsy bought the gym. She was only 26 herself and had been working in the gym since she was 16. I looked up to her and was impressed by the way she taught herself everything about running a business.<\/p>\n<p>When I was 16, Betsy took me with her to the national conference for The Little Gym. The fact that she put that belief in me was amazing. By then, I knew I wanted The Little Gym to be my career, and after the conference, I was determined to work as hard as I could to make it happen.<\/p>\n<h2>I went to college, even though I probably didn&#039;t need to<\/h2>\n<p>When I got back from that trip, I started taking on more responsibility. I wanted to show the gym&#039;s managers that I was capable, even though I was young.<\/p>\n<p>My family expected me to go to college. I knew I wanted to own a Little Gym, but affording to start my own business felt far off. In the end, I don&#039;t think I needed a college degree, but going was a good experience.<\/p>\n<p>While I was in school, I helped open a Little Gym in a nearby community. After college, I moved for my now-husband&#039;s job, and I helped run gyms in Chicago and New York City. Those experiences were invaluable in preparing me to run the business.<\/p>\n<h2>I tried applying for loans, but couldn&#039;t get one<\/h2>\n<p>I reached out to Betsy once I knew I&#039;d be moving back to Salt Lake City. I was excited to work at my home gym, but she had an even better proposition: she invited me to buy into the gym as a 50\/50 owner.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69d6927acc468aeec524d012?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Owner headshot\"\/><figcaption>\n<p>Courtesy of The Little Gym<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I knew immediately that I wanted to do it. I had no reservations, but I wasn&#039;t sure how I could make it work financially. I spent about seven months talking with banks about getting a small business loan, but wasn&#039;t able to get one to buy into the business.<\/p>\n<p>That&#039;s when my grandparents offered to take out a home equity loan for me. Accepting that offer was scary: I knew that my decisions would impact my grandparents&#039; lives. And yet, I felt confident I was ready for this step, and that Betsy and I would be great partners.<\/p>\n<h2>Betsy now treats me like an equal<\/h2>\n<p>As an owner \u2014 especially a younger owner \u2014 I&#039;ve had to learn I can&#039;t please everybody. I love our members, but they definitely share their opinions, and sometimes argue with me because they know I can make decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Betsy has known me since I was a kid, but she treats me like her business partner, not like a child. We meet at least once a week to talk about business and life. We have a really great relationship on both fronts, and I&#039;m so glad to have her as a mentor.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#039;t wait for my own children to be at the gym. I felt like I grew up in this gym, but they really will. That&#039;s something I&#039;ve been looking forward to for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Cantera now owns the Little Gym she went to as a kid. Courtesy of Sarah Cantera Sarah Cantera started working at The Little Gym when she was 14. Now, she co-owns the gym with her mentor, who also bought into the business young. Accepting her grandparents&#039; loan was scary, but she was confident, she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}