3,000 days of business teachings. Letter to May 11th, 2014 self.

Dear Tom,?

Tomorrow you will set your alarm for 04.30 and open the doors on your very own gym. It is May 11, 2014 and with the support of your incredible (and unfathomably patient) wife and your co Founder and Business partner you have spent all your future children’s inheritance on a few squat racks. Welcome to gym ownership. You will f**k up a lot, and knowing you you will deny it for just long enough to make it worse and then pull yourself out of the hole with more work than it would have taken in the first place. You will work hard enough and change enough lives to be fortunate to open up multiple facilities but I urge you not to regard facilities as success and spend much more time with the people of your business than the landlords! Regardless I wish you the best for the first 3,000 days and offer you 8 pieces of advice, one for every year of business ownership I know you will be celebrating sooner than you think.?

1) Sleep more.

You will wear it as a badge and be ‘proud’ to close at 22.00 and reopen at 05.00 Redbull in hand. Remember you are selling health and must educate better. Those around you deserve your scheduling experience (employees) and your scientific insistence on more rest (athletes). Nothing good in your world will come from less sleep and you will be a more patient, empathetic, caring, and creative person when rested. NB: not perfect, but better.

2) Design your business around knowledge not time.

You will forget to educate others and then got pissed when they aren't doing it correctly. When you can only afford to pay yourself or when you are exhausted (see Point 1) you will be a poor teacher to others. Step back from transactional time for cash loop and design space to lead and teach. Ensure capital and time to not have to coach 50+ hours per week yourself or you will be left collecting the pieces when your staff feel abandoned which they will.?

3) Everything must be about your people. Teach.

There are 24 hours, 7 days in a week. Your vision is bold, brave, and big, you cannot do it alone. Even if you could it would be lonely and harder than it needs to be. When you start you will hoard information and fail to develop enough leaders in your Company and find out the hard way what the room looks like when you leave despondent staff without your mentorship. Staff or clients, spend 5x more time than you currently think you need to ensuring they have the tools and information they need to excel. If they do, your brand will.

4) Scrutinise who you listen to. Everyone is an expert with your money.

Everyone can own a gym and everyone can be a PT in the park, especially those that have abs and big arms. Maybe. But that doesn’t mean anyone has the right to tell you how to run your business. Many will try. I urge you to take two courses of action;

a) always say thank you regardless of the feedback; sometimes the same people who tell you early on that you should do something differently become loyal clients and offer better advice later, telling them where to go on day 1 would be a mistake:

b) only action advice based on tenure, no one else deserves your cash or time. If you respect that the person giving you feedback knows you and your business well and has been loyal and kind, then you’re winning. Unsolicited advice from others tends to be at best a sell (especially if said individual is a ‘Youtuber’ or ‘flogbooker’) or at worse a distraction that takes you away from your core value adding.?

5) Accept that people won’t always like you (or some ever at all).

Try to be a kind, fair, and generous business owner and accept that everyone has their agendas and your business is not their life. An employee salary might help but even that is a scrape if the guy next door adds 10% and poaches. If you are honest then you can sleep (see Point 1 again). Leave those that don’t like you to their opinion and go about your day with a smile anyway. You probably won’t accept their feedback for a different manufacturer of chalk anyway and they will soon be out of your life.?

6) Have enough cash in the bank for 6 months.

Nothing exists on paper to teach you what you will need to know on the coal face better than time. Pressure adds up against the clock and you will make mistakes and fail. Allow yourself at least half a year of worst case scenario operating costs so you can ensure your valued staff and relationships are protected. Everything will pass and your main job is to ensure stability to be operating if the world (or you) need to recalibrate. Many don't.

7) Celebrate frequently.

There is a reason we love sport and achieving something collectively that appeared to be impossible. Allow yourself the humility to celebrate milestones (anniversaries, birthdays, renewals, results) and never get caught up arrogantly ignoring small wins. Losses and battles will always be there so crack open a beer and celebrate no matter how small the success.

8) Do it all again but laugh more second time round.

For God’s sake take yourself less seriously. You have your health, both mental and physical, the family and business partners from a postcard, and the stupidity to chase an idea and keep getting up every time you were expensively wrong. Remember that everything else in life is far more important than your job and enjoy yourself more. Before you know it you will wake up and it will be 8 years since you started and laughing with your friends every step of the way will make it much more worthwhile.?