Debbie Koenig is a entrepreneur who has dramatically expanded her swim school business in the San Francisco Bay Area by focusing on one segment of the market – private swimming lessons for adults.
As she explains below, when Debbie was four years old, she watched her younger sister crawl into a pool. Debbie jumped in and pulled her sister out and was inspired by the experience to devote her life to training others how to swim.
Her interview answers provide a good lesson – when there is a larger and more significant purpose behind the business, it is much easier to grow it. In Debbie’s case, she’s on a mission to prevent accidental drowning deaths motivated by almost losing her sister to drowning, and that is so much more powerful than simply trying to increase your bottom line.
As you can imagine, it has been personally very satisfying working with Debbie as a client, given how wonderful her work is.
Debbie’s business also focuses in particular on training adults with lifelong fear of the water (aquaphobia), which is a good lesson for other businesses in finding a niche, even within the already-narrow world of swim school instruction.
With Debbie’s Swim School going through its major expansion right now, with new locations and staff being added over the next few months, I thought it would be instructive to check in with her to see what lessons she has to share.
How Debbie Koenig Quadrupled Her Swim School Business