Two women that have Created a Multi-Million Dollar Fitness Brand and Community

Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott

women that are self made. Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott are experts in fitness, nutrition and all things wellness, which led them to co-found Tone It Up. Tone It Up is a fitness lifestyle brand that reaches millions of women committed to wellness with each post across their social media channels and within their expansive community. Since launching the company in 2009 with a $3,000 investment, Dawn and Scott have built a women’s healthy lifestyle community, offering workout content, nutrition guidance, recipes, and a network of support encouraging women to share their journeys towards better health.

Dawn and Scott believe they do not have customers, instead they have a community of engaged women and a multi-million dollar business with 40% growth year over prior year. This year they are tracking for even larger growth numbers with numerous projects including their own PerfectFit Protein and a clothing collaboration with Bandier.

“It was our love of fitness that brought us together,” Dawn said. “We literally met at the gym, and soon discovered we both lived in Manhattan Beach. Scott’s skill set as a personal trainer and budding Youtube fitness expert combined with my sports and fitness modeling background provided a complementary combination that worked well on and off camera. In the beginning, we never said ‘let’s start a business.’ We said ‘let’s have fun, capture it and share it with the world’ in hopes to inspire other women to workout. We also made a conscious decision to call our company “Tone It Up” rather than naming it after ourselves (think Karena and Katrina Fitness) like many others in the fitness space. We wanted to create something bigger than ourselves. We wanted to help women Tone It Up.”

Photos from a Tone It Up Retreat

we really didn’t have a business plan or strategy, and in retrospect this freedom was a tremendous advantage,” Scott said. “Without the pressure of a destination in mind from the get-go, we have been able to make Tone It Up more about the journey for us and our community members. In 2009, we would walk down to the sand or a lifeguard stand with a camera and tripod in hand and hit record. In 2016, although our business has grown tremendously, you can still find us doing much of the same, but now we’re on Snapchat or filming our latest Beach Babe workout.”

  

“Launching Tone It Up did not require much financial investment, and to this day we remain self-funded without angels or VCs,” Dawn said. “We can’t say we haven’t been offered to take on outside investment, but deciding to not do so has, without a doubt, kept us focused on the bigger picture and the integrity of the brand in tact. Initially, it took less than $3000 to get things moving. We purchased a camcorder, MacBook with iMovie and the ToneItUp.com domain for $600.”