Our director Claire Baker shares her advice for entrepreneurs after celebrating 20 years in the fitness industry…
- It’s okay not to be good at everything
Ask for help in the areas that you’re not sure about. When I started running YBFIT Training i had lots of knowledge on fitness and health but my experience of marketing and running a business was limited! So I sought out help and I learnt from experts in their areas: be that finance, marketing or sales.
- Learn every part of your business
Although you should get advice from outsiders, no one should know your business like you. You need to have one eye on every part of the business, even if you have outside help in some areas, you still need to know what’s going on in each area of your business.
- Choose business partners wisely
Business can be unpredictable – you don’t want your partner to be as well. I’ve had a personal experience with this at YBFIT Training and my advice to entrepreneurs starting their ventures would be to really carefully consider who you enter into a commitment with. You can rely on yourself but if things get difficult, can you rely on your potential partner to put in everything they can to make sure the business succeeds? And are you sure that your relationship with them can endure that can of hardship?
- Trust your instincts
Be confident in your decisions because there will be people left, right and centre telling you otherwise. As an entrepreneur, you’re already shaping your own future, you’ll be making decisions every day as a business owner so you need to learn to listen to cancel out the white noise around you and stick to your guns.
- Work on the business instead of in it! I struggled with this at first – I was trying to do everything in my business on my own and whilst the day to day tasks were getting completed, I didn’t have the time to look at the long term strategy of the business. Outsource jobs that can be done by someone else, ‘you’re not an admin person’ I was once told when I was close to burning out and he was right!
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Do a self-audit, look at your strengths and weaknesses and be really objective about it. Write down a list then plan how you can make sure that you are playing to your strengths and outsourcing your weaker areas, or taking training to improve them.
- Commit to it and be consistent
It takes time and that is okay – if you’re committed you’ll get there. Nothing happens overnight and you will have days that feel like you haven’t progressed but keep pushing forward and you will.
Remember if it was easy everyone would be doing it, so keep up the good work 😉
Yours in Fitness Claire x