Help continue the legacy of Chicago Aerial Arts

Hi, my name is Ashley and I am the owner of Chicago Aerial Arts. It is so hard for me to ask for help, but here I am, hoping to receive help from the community. I have hit hurdle after hurdle and I am hoping to find some financial help to ease the growth of the businesses expenses.

Chicago Aerial Arts used to rent space from another gym, our intention was to build our student base before expanding. The owner of the previous gym was not allowed to continue business at the location due to zoning regulations. After months of looking for a new location, we hit a dead end. I had the choice to continue to stay at our current location and go through the rezoning process or end my business.

Upon severing this business partnership I had learned that my then business partner was committing financial abuse to the company & had me locked out from all business banking accounts. The past business owner was a hoarder and left the building in disarray, in which me and my team spent thousands of dollars and over 100 hours throwing out his hoard and getting the building in useable condition.

However, I persevered and continued on. A few months later I found out my manager was committing mass amounts of time theft, when he left the company he stole our mail list and then began to promote his business to my students for a fraction of the cost. It caused a humongous riff in our business client base and we are still trying to recover.

I still persevered and went on to rezone the building, this was a $20k expense but we won our case and we received our business license in October.

Sadly, due to our rent going up, the current financial climate, all of the past issues with our old owner and manager and the holidays coming, we are hurting.

We are still a start up, we have no financial backing and in order to keep our doors open for our students, keep our staff employed we are reaching out to receive any help we can. All money received will go directly to our monthly rent. We have systems in place and a business plan to expedite and continue to grow. I want to continue to keep my head up in the Chicago circus community & continue to support my dreams and the dreams of our students.

Thank you to anyone who makes a donation, & those who have read my story.