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The Moment Of Truth

I was busy and earned a good little package, but I knew there was more. I was doing all my 30 or 40 sessions per week, trying to do the marketing, finances, admin and everything else. I was wearing all the hats and not enjoying it at all.

I had enough pain. It was time to call for some help.

I have always known a Business Coach did for a living, but I was scared to take the plunge and to take on coaching services. Yes, there was a lot of fear that came up. Issues like, can I afford it? Plus the fear of failure and thoughts of what other people where going to say.

Then I attended a sales training course hosted by ActionCOACH. During the workshop, the presenter mentioned a few keynotes, like playing above the line and taking responsibility for my actions and having ownership. This really struck some emotions; I had certainly had enough pain running my own business.

So after finally making the call, my ActionCOACH Business Coach and I got under way. The Alignment Report was first, and as the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Well, I certainly didn’t know what had to be done to run a successful business. ActionCOACH and I put together a plan and away we went.

The first thing we did was to increase prices (wow, what a head shift that was!). I quickly became one of the most expensive personal trainers in Sydney and was defiantly the most expensive in the main gym where I was training.

People certainly took notice of that. Other aspects of the plan involved filling in quiet parts of the day, such as the down times during lunch time and in the early afternoon with special training sessions. Forming strong strategic alliances proved to be very successful within the first 3 to 4 months.

I had increased my revenue (turnover) by 20% in a couple of months and was testing and measuring all inquiries. This provided me with very valuable information down the track.

I then began to realize the importance of working ON the business instead of IN it.

I began training up another trainer and getting him to do some of my sessions as well as more work. This freed me up to do some marketing.

As the months passed, I found myself getting busier and busier. I had formed some strong strategic alliances and was receiving great referrals from them. Systems were in place and they were working very well. Referrals from existing clients were coming in, as we did a promotion involving massages for those who referred on clients who signed up for a set amount of sessions. This was so successful that I had to slow down the marketing campaign – I had become busier than I could cope with.

However, the real challenge began with the next step – acquiring a studio.

Ever since I was 14-years old, I had a dream of owning my own gym – a place where people would come to train, have fun, and enjoy hanging out at.

Well, this dream came true.

I teamed up with an old friend whom I went through university with and played rugby against. We decided to tackle the gym together. We merged our businesses and formed Ignite Health Pry Ltd.

We were then on the hunt … with my ActionCOACH Business Coach being the General back at the Officer’s Mess, and us being the front line soldiers being sent out to receive all the hits and war wounds while searching for, and finding, a business and business premises.

We wanted to start up our own gym from scratch, but my coach convinced us to find an existing one that was doing poorly – one whose owner’s wanted to sell for a reason – as this way we’d get a better deal than having to wear the set-up costs of a new one.

Every Saturday we’d read the “Business For Sale” section of the paper as well as “Business for Sale” magazines.

We looked at dozens over the next few months, putting in offers that were all rejected. Then one day we finally came across a hot one. The ad read, “Gym for Sale. Require urgent sale for personal reasons. Great price.”

Well, after looking at the business and using ActionCOACH’s business buying checklist, this looked too good to be true.

After 8-weeks of negotiations and going back and forth from the solicitors, accountants, financial lenders, and of course, ActionCOACH, we struck a deal.

This is how it worked:

The original asking price for the business was $160,000. Equipment was insured for just over $100,000 and would sell second-hand for around $80,000 as most of it was only 18-months old. They wanted $50,000 for the goodwill/income it was producing. The business had been going for 6 years, however, it showed little profit – the systems were in a mess. The owners were a husband and wife team and she was pregnant with their 3rd child. Furthermore, she was ready to give birth in the next few weeks – now that’s real urgency to sell. Initially my business partner and I were prepared to pay up to $120,000 for the business, as we loved it, its location, and its potential. However, my coach wouldn’t let us do that and he kept saying we needed to get a better deal.

It was as if it was his money that was on the line.

My coach asked what our absolute dream price to pick this business up at would be. He wanted to know the dream price at which we could sell it for a profit the next day without doing anything to it. I replied $70,000, so my coach asked how good would it be if we could get it for $60,000?

I got very excited and asked how could we possibly do that, as the owners had already knocked back offers in excess of $100,000.

My coach said those buyers had now gone, and the owners wanted to sell urgently, so all we had to do was to find out what, other than money, they wanted, and then give it to them, provided we got the business for a great price.

We came up with a strategy and said this was the best offer they were going to get and we were their only option to take over the lease. The final price was agreed on at $60 000, with a clause that we had 30 days from the agreement date to walk away before exchanging contracts.

The learning curve that Darren (my business partner) and I went through was absolutely incredible. I have learnt more in the past 3- to 6-months than I did over the past 5 years of operating my own personal training business.

The gym now consists features equipment on one whole floor. We offer a unique service where we guarantee that one of our expert trainers will look after four members at once, each having their own program depending on their goals and needs. This is a guaranteed personalized service. We also offer yoga groups, boxing groups, massage, as well as a solarium. We have nine trainers, hundreds of members and made a profit within the first 2-months of operation.

When I first started with Pat, the business had a turnover of about $35,000 a year.

We now do that in a month.

Our new vision is to have four of these gyms around Sydney within the next 3 or 4 years. And by that I mean we actually buy the property first, and then establish the gym at the premises.