"Is now really the right time to open a new facility?"

Nothing like an honest question from one of my Pinnacle Senior Coaches and Leaders. “With so much going on in Hong Kong and your transition back to the UK only a few months ago, is it really a good idea to launch a new facility and stretch our capacity”. If there was ever a doubt why I value strong leaders and empowered conversations in the Company then this should assuage doubt.?

We discussed the question in detailed and I hope to have informed through my responses. To help all other on the fence entrepreneurs, as well as anyone else who may read this, here are my reasons why we launched Pinnacle UK.

1. Most importantly this is what we know how to do and what gets me out of bed. We are passionate about offering scientifically backed, team based S&C solutions for the general public and recreational athletes, in conjunction with offering salaried career opportunities for exceptional coaches. We offer best in class (in my humble opinion) for this in Hong Kong and we were excited to offer athlete and coaching opportunities in the UK. As long as we have the energy to get out of bed and launch a new facility, it will always be our ‘bag’.

2. Fitness entrepreneurs never struggle with a business idea or even the individual work ethic, often they succeed or fail based on systems and administration. Think: Website | Lead Generation | Sales | Bookings | Accounts | Recruitment and the list goes on… As we teach in our year long Tier 3 mentorship course, we have robust and refined systems in place that have iterated and improved year on year. The UK is no different and we have the business resources to apply signifiant pressure into a young and often silo’d market where PT’s try to go alone and often fail. If you have scrutinised your systems and are prepared to been shown where you are weak then why wait?

3. Which in turn is why we believe in learning by doing and showing the way. We mentor gym leaders and industry businesses on how to scale operations and grow their business, we would be hypocritical to not show the way. It’s easy to throw opinions and ideas at someone else but the best experts in the field are the ones who have been there and are ahead of you. Bin the noisy influencer crap, we put our money where out mouth is and learn rapidly in the process. Our footprints are how we have developed a strong knowledge in this business.?

My final reason for launching Pinnacle is simply a matter of timing. Right facility, right partnerships, right location to launch, as well as the right time to apply pressure to our senior staff in Hong Kong and delegate to them. We have launched other facilities with the wrong staff ‘back at home’ to look after the ranch, but with a strong brand and exceptional leaders in Hong Kong, now is the time to change lives on these colder shores too.

New businesses (and long term businesses) are a cash game and no one wins in the first few months let alone weeks but the phone is ringing, the profiling system is reporting, and our new athletes are working hard and getting results. We are proud of our multi-disciplinary approach to fitness and its wonderful to support individuals and teams with our clinical and S&C model here in the UK. Eyes on to the rest of our Q1 targets and thank you to my leaders for critiquing our decisions.?