Since my recent re-branding in November 2023, I have had a long think about what me and my business have been through together. It has most certainly been a labour of love, and we have fallen out on occasion too.
I remember back to 2011, when I first qualified as a Personal Trainer, it was meant to be a 'hobby job' to do outside of my normal employment, but I was suddenly made redundant, and finding no work locally I took the leap to turn my passion into my career! Yep, a humongous leap!
I was already working at the local sports centre, taking Boxercise classes, I had been doing this for a while and it was a good way to meet potential new 1-1 clients to build up my income.
It was a slow build but every business is isn't it? You have to be patient (and broke) and eventually all the hard work pays off. I started with 2 clients, friends of mine who wanted to support me, and also get fit. Then one day at the sports centre, I was covering a class, wearing my PT hoodie (shown above) and at the end of the class a young lady approached me, Tania, who asked how I worked, and could she, and possibly her husband train with me. My little heart leaped at the thought of getting new clients, and very soon Tania was training with me twice a week, and transforming fast.
She soon dropped clothes sizes, entered running events with me and it was noticed that she had transformed, one of the young Mums at the school her kids were at asked how she was doing it, and she pointed her in the direction of me. This soon started years of fitness fun on the beach with the very lovely Colette.
In the background of this, I was working in the kitchen of a local cafe, to try and earn some extra income to keep me and my mortgage going. I got fed there, so that was a bonus, but it was a massive struggle.
Word started to get about about my business, and with many different social media campaigns, including the fabulous, 'Where's Jessy?' competition - I park my van up somewhere in South Devon and the person to correctly guess the location wins a free PT session with me! Things started to get busy.
This next chain of events led to another new client, who is still with me to this day, and I now train all three generations of her family. This is where I welcome Sam into my story.
I was training Colette on the beach one Saturday morning, and a friend of hers jogged by, she asked Colette for my details and soon I was popping over to see her, and her eldest daughter for PT sessions.
My journey with Sam's fitness has stayed constant, even transferring over to virtual, many years before the pandemic encouraged home working and virtual fitness, when she moved from Devon, to London.
I also train Sam's parents, virtually and sometimes her daughters too!
This all pretty much came from me wearing 'that' hoodie on a cover class at my local sports centre. No amount of online marketing can bring the results that did for me. Right place, right time, right branded clothing!
Alongside personal fitness, I had a Kickboxing club, I had actually started teaching before I started Fighting Fit Devon, and I grew it more, finally teaching out of a Boxing Club in Kingsteignton, it was a great club, and over the years I made some brilliant friends, and my very first kickboxer, Steve still trains with me, on Facetime.
There have been so many changes, well, maybe not changes so much, because I still do all the things I did at the start, but I've added, I do like a qualification, and over the years I have studied hard and I became a hypnotherapist, studying hard over the lockdowns. It has been a vital part of my work with some clients, dealing with eating disorders and anxiety. It goes hand in hand with getting the very best out of my clients. I also then qualified in Reflexology and Indian Head Massage.
The pandemic came, I switched most of my clients to Facetime, Zoom and Skype, I was already working this way with one client, so it was easy for me, it was just trying to persuade them to do it. It worked in my favour and most clients and one class are still virtual, to this day. I came out the other side of the great covid-adventure with a much better business model, that could sustain a move.
So.........in 2021, I met the man of my dreams, in North Devon. I lived in South Devon, I spent months travelling up and down weekends to spend time with him, I stayed longer each time, with the power of virtual PT I worked from his house. I then sold my house in South Devon and skipped off 'up North' to Bideford!
It was almost like starting my business over again. The 1-1 boxing clients that I used to train in my teeny tiny gym in Totnes I sadly lost, and all of my massage clients.
The joys of being self-employed eh?
Back to the marketing, flyer drops, posters, all the things!
It's a constant battle, I can only be grateful that my, now husband has been there to support me through this build up again. (yep, we got married in July 2023)
And then, after a Hypnotherapy workshop in 2023, I discovered that the instructor, Tracey, was a business coach, and I also discovered that day, that I was in dire need of her help. I enlisted her to help me in my business, and in November 2023 I re-branded completely! As if moving and starting over wasn't enough?
And here we are now, nearly 3-months on, and I am doing my best to make it work, again!
The journey of self-employment is never easy, but you are doing it for you, every penny you earn is for your business, you aren't earning it for some big corporation, it's for you and your passion.
I absolutely love my job, my business, and so that is why I am willing to put in all the hard work for it.
Self-employment in 5 words........
'Every day is for YOUR benefit'
Comments
Post a Comment