Russell Sergent has completed and competed in many marathons since he participated in the PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Marathon in 2008. Later that same year, Sergent founded Fleet Feet Sports, an athletic supply store dedicated almost entirely to helping distance runners get the best footwear and other gear to avoid injury and reach their goals. Sergent is now an experienced trainer and participant in marathons throughout the world. He has picked up many lessons training for distance running competitions of all distances, but marathon training is by far the most difficult for him. He loves to challenge himself to test his endurance and his stamina regularly by training for and completing marathons.
The more specific to a marathon your regular workouts are in the weeks leading up to the race, the more your training will help. Russell Sergent knows that training for a marathon can take up to a year to build the necessary stamina and pacing to complete such a long race. Part of planning for a marathon involves pacing. In addition to building up your stamina by running long distances at hard and easy paces, you have to find what distance runners call “marathon pace,” or the pace at which your body will be able to maintain to finish a marathon. Russell Sergent recommends, as a final training program soon before the race, to run one mile at an easy pace, and 14 at marathon pace every other day. Russell Sergent isn’t a personal trainer, so his advice might not work for all marathon runners. He does have the experience to back up his recommendations to customers of Fleet Feet Sports and more. Russell Sergent is the owner of several businesses in the Brookfield, Illinois and the surrounding area. Sergent is from Rockford, Illinois, a graduate of Rockford High School. In 1995, he founded his first business, Pro-Source Distribution, a janitorial supply company that helps over 500 other companies perform their janitorial duties up to their clients’ satisfaction. Sergent set out over 20 years ago to give his customers the highest quality products to that they can perform their best and continue being successful in their own markets. Today, Pro-Source Distributors still supplies janitorial companies throughout the region with high-quality products at low prices.
Russell Sergent founded Fleet Feet Sports in 2008 because he wanted to use his newfound enthusiasm for distance running to help experienced and new distance runners train harder and perform better. Today, Fleet Feet Sports helps runners of all experience levels and abilities by providing the complete fit experience. The company supplies runners and walkers with all of the proper and technically sound footwear, technical apparel, and other essentials to meet all of their individual goals. Russell Sergent wanted to start a different athletic apparel business. He wanted to offer runners and walkers the expert advice in addition to the equipment that will make them run faster and live healthier. Russell Sergent is also the owner of Pro-Source Xtreme, a snowmobiling supply store dedicated to another of his many passions. Sergent hopes to open more businesses dedicated to his interests so that he can help others the way that other experts helped him. Russell Sergent has been working with distance runners to maximize the effectiveness of their training and helping them succeed in competitions since 2008, when he opened his first Fleet Feet Sports stores in Brookfield, Illinois. Fleet Feet became a pet project for Sergent shortly after he ran in his first marathon at PF Chang’s Rock n Roll Marathon in Arizona in 2007. He quickly fell in love with the sport and decided to start his own business dedicated to helping others succeed in their athletic endeavors shortly after he finished his first marathon. Since 2007, Sergent has participated in several full marathons and more half-marathons than he can count. He even participated in the Iron Man triathlon in 2008, and continues to train for his next competition.
Russell Sergent started his first business in 1995. Pro-Source Distributors is a janitorial supply company working with over 500 clients in Illinois and Wisconsin. The experience of working hard to gain a foothold in the market in this region prepared him to start another business closer to his personal interests. Sergent sees Fleet Feet Sports as a reward for being successful with Pro-Source Distributors and building it from the ground up. He gets to work in the industry that he loves and help people find ways to run faster and train harder without exposing themselves to greater injury risk. Any way he can help people live their dreams the way he has is a great reward for him in his business career. Russell Sergent managed to get Fleet Feet Sports up and running by using all of the lessons he learned founding his first venture. He managed to sustain his initial success for Fleet Feet by working closely with customers to find them the best solutions for the training and competitive equipment they needed. As a distance runner himself, Sergent knows the importance of finding the right gear that fits well and supports all of the most vulnerable parts of a runner’s body. A distance runner’s footwear must help him or her protect the ligaments and tendons in the front and back of the knee, their arches, and more. Different runners have different needs for their footwear, as Sergent knows, and he loves learning more about what makes certain footwear and other gear more or less attractive to serious or amateur runners. Russel Sergent loves discussing the advantages of many different kinds of distance gear with customers and partners throughout the region. He recently celebrated his first Fleet Feet Sports store in Brookfield, Wisconsin’s opening in 2008 with a sale and he hopes that he can continue to engage with the community on the subject of running for many more years to come. In the United States, everyone with a dream and enough business sense can found his or her own business. Russell Sergent wanted to take full advantage of the opportunities granted him growing up in Rockford, Illinois. He graduated from Rockford High School and decided to start his own business with the experience and little education he had. Sergent believed he could help people throughout the region with his brand of products and excellent customer service. Over 20 years later, Sergent runs several businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin. He has found great success with all of these companies because he started all of them with successful business practices and philosophies he picked up over the years. If Russell Sergent ever wanted to teach business classes on how to start your own company, he would probably start with a lesson on how to secure funding for your venture. Sergent incorporates several crucial steps for starting your own business into the getting funding step for good reasons. The first step that Sergent took when he started planning his first business, Pro-Source distributors, which over 20 years later, is still one of the top janitorial supply companies in Wisconsin and southern Illinois, was to draw up a business plan. Many business analysts and teachers separate this step from securing funding, but to Sergent and many others, writing a business plan is the best way to secure funding from many different sources. Before investors or loan officers can back a business proposal, they have to see that not only the business leader has the potential to use whatever resources the lender or investor can give them to their full advantage, but also that the business leader is organized and committed enough to spend time setting business goals and plans of action to achieve those goals. Russell Sergent established Pro-Source Distributors as a small business with low overhead so that he could provide his clients throughout the region with excellent prices and customer service. He made an investment in the planning process early in the development of his business so that he could get the funding he needed to build on his dream. Russell Sergent says that inspiration is another key ingredient of a successful business. No one can start a company without first getting the inspiration for an excellent idea that he or she can sell. Sergent knew that he could build a successful company by selling the supplies that janitorial staffs needed throughout the region at low prices. His idea was to eliminate unnecessary overhead and undercut other larger suppliers. Sergent knew his potential position in the market of janitorial supply companies and used it as an advantage. Sergent worked out his strategy for entering the market with a much-needed service as a way of securing funding and creating confidence from investors. |
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