We’re National Fitness Awards Finalists! A story about where we started…
A few weeks ago MyGym was offered the chance to enter the National Fitness Awards. They’re essentially like the fitness industry Oscars - it’s a black tie event held every year, and the prestige within the industry for the winners is huge. Even getting to the finals is a massive achievement. In getting there, a small independent gym in Stockport, We’re up against the best gyms in the country (and lots of the not-so-good ones with a lot of money!)
We’re especially proud of getting to the final because it has been a tough journey for us since starting MyGym.
When you come into MyGym now you’ll see a state of the art strength and conditioning gym, full of great equipment. What you see today isn’t how we started though.
Across this 3 part series, we’ll tell the story about MyGym. How we built it during a lockdown.
In part 2, we’ll talk about lockdown and how we dealt with it.
In part 3, we’ll talk up to the present day and what we have planned…
MyGym… the Genesis
The building that now houses MyGym was a clothing factory in its previous life. It was full of sewing machines, it contained an ironing room and there was rack upon rack of clothing that was in various stages of completion. There was everything from wedding dresses to kids fairy costumes - all ready to be finished, checked and shipped to various parts of the world.
There was even a Porsch 911 parked in the corner. Shame it didn’t come as part of the lease deal!
Here’s what the building looked like before it was a gym! What you’re looking at is the area that’s now the changing rooms and where the cardio kit lives…
After a gruelling 2 year battle (thanks, Council. You were a nightmare to deal with!) to get the deal done, we took the keys to building in May 2020. This is the building once the sewing machines and clothing racks had been removed…
We started the building process in the dying days of May 2020 - cast your mind back to those heady (certainly sunny at least) days…
It was the depths of the first lockdown. Building materials were expensive. Working practices were limited by Covid restrictions. There were materials restrictions and getting hold of anything was taking a lot more time than usual. There were stock issues, daily price rises and supply problems.
Despite that, we worked around the clock. We’d get on site at around 7 in the morning, knocking down walls, saving parts of the building we could re-use, painting walls, skirting boards, hiring skips, sweeping up plaster etc. It was like this for 12 weeks - we had to transform the place. Walls had to come down, new ones put up, glass taken out, carpets lifted etc. Imagine renovating a house… then imagine that house is 8000 square feet.
Slowly, MyGym started to take shape…
Whilst the days were spent building the gym, the nights were spent researching computer systems, setting up websites, organising standard operating procedures, putting together a marketing plan, getting a business bank account set up, ordering everything, from equipment to hand driers. We had the legal paperwork to complete, broadband to hire, insurances to sort, a team to build, uniform to buy. The list didn’t end.
You know when people say starting a business isn’t easy? They mean it.
There were decisions upon decisions, all having to be made quickly and accurately. We didn’t have a huge budget to set the gym up, so we had to be careful with every penny. All expenditure had to be checked and justified. Some things simply had to wait.
The biggest worry was still to come though…
Equipment delays…
We’d ordered 1500kg of bumper plates in late May - three months before we needed them . There’s normally around a 4 week turnaround, so the plan was to order them and keep them stored in a corner. It’s better to be early and store them, than late and not have them. We expected delivery in early July at the latest.
In late June, we were told there’d be a delay of “a couple of weeks at most”. Fine - we had another couple of months or so ahead of us, so time to play with.
June turned into July, and there were still no sign of weight plates. In fact, there was little sign of much else. A whole gym’s worth of equipment was delayed, so we were getting things in dribs and drabs. A kettlebell here, a treadmill there. No whole-hog delivery.
July turned into August. A few more bits arrived. Our barbells and our squat racks were brought in and installed. It was really starting to look like a gym now!
We reached a point where we could see the end of the build in sight, so we set an opening day… Saturday 29th August 2020. We were going to host an opening party on Friday 28th. Friends, family, local press, potential members etc.
There was a problem though… we still didn’t have any weight plates!
To highlight the scale of this issue, weight plates to a gym are absolutely vital. Not ‘quite important’.
VITAL.
Weight plates to us are as important as planes to an airline. Paint to a painter. Meat to a butcher. You get the point. We simply couldn’t operate without them.
As a strength and conditioning gym, we needed a particular type of weight plates, called bumper plates - thick weight plates made with rubber. They’re designed to be dropped safely and are used for the sport of weightlifting. They offer a versatility that the other types of plates don’t. Plus, our business model was built around a certain style of training, so we couldn’t get any other type.
With a week to go, and no sign of any plates, times were desperate. I was ringing around EVERY single industry contact I had, trying to get hold of bumper plates. Everywhere I turned I got the same answer… “sorry mate, we’ve got literally nothing in”. On the Wednesday, David and mines old boss gave us a number of a guy who he said may be able to help. We got in contact with him and he had a cancelled order of 750kg of black bumper plates we could have!
OH MY GOD! We’re saved!
I offered to hire a van to come and collect them myself (they were in Birmingham) that day. I didn’t need to though, they offered a delivery service. They were delivered on the Thursday night - I could have kissed the delivery guys when they arrived!
Opening night party…
On the Friday, we were scrubbing the decks, fitting the final pieces in place. We still had tradesmen working in the reception area until 10 minutes before the opening party. The catering chefs were set up in the car park, the floors were still drying from being mopped and the final tools were being packed away as guests started arriving.
We made it. Just!
The opening night was a huge success. We had around 100 people turn up to see the place and the feedback was fantastic - we’d built a gym unlike any other gym in Stockport. A life goal had been achieved!
Our first day
The pre-marketing plan had helped it feel like a real business - we had around 50 people signed up as members, so when we opened on the 29th of August 2020, we were a proper gym. People started to come in to train - our first every customers!
We had a fraction of the equipment we have today, our broadband hadn’t been connected yet (another delay!) and there was an issue with the direct debit software that meant we hadn’t been paid for any memberships when we were supposed to have been, but we were operational.
We opened a gym in a pandemic, surrounded by big chain competition. The project was delivered on time and on budget.
Now we just had to grow the thing… a story we’ll save for part 2!