Gradient Movement, a fitness business founded with Ownr in 2019, is inspiring active living and nutrition among people.
From lunchtime fitness enthusiasts, competitive athletes to Olympic weightlifters, Gradient Movement curates custom workout programs to help their clients move anywhere and achieve anything. Ownr speaks to Justin Tamane, the Co-Founder of Gradient Movement about creating a global fitness community and the slow grind of entrepreneurship.
What is Gradient Movement?
Gradient Movement offers dynamic and personalized workouts, programs, and coaching for functional fitness enthusiasts, olympic weightlifters, personal training clients, sport specific athletes like runners and hockey players, CrossFit athletes and gyms. We are launching nutrition coaching soon. Through our dedication to understand a client’s goals and ability to adapt to their specific needs, we’ve been able to design effective programs for all facets of fitness and sport.
Read more about how to start a personal training business
What led to the creation of your fitness company, Gradient Movement?
Gradient Movement is a business that started out of an attempt to scale up a passion. We are two coaches who aspire to make training and being active a part of everyday life, for everyone. We truly believe that you can move anywhere, and achieve anything.
We have a strong commitment to help others reach their goals. We wanted to reach more athletes and fitness enthusiasts beyond our immediate vicinity. Formalizing Gradient Movement as a business meant that we could play a bigger role in people’s athletic pursuits, provide more resources, accountability, and create a global community.
Read more about reasons for entrepreneurship
What do you remember about the initial days of starting a personal training business, and the first few challenges you had to tackle?
Like most businesses in the early days, we had many brainstorming sessions and delegation of tasks, but very few were actually completed. It turns out there is no “How-To” book on building a business and most tasks are going to be absolutely new.
One of the biggest initial challenges was conveying our high-touch approach and service across digital channels. We quickly had to figure out how to show the amount of care we put into designing programs and pushing our clients to reach their goals across social media and the internet.
We want each and every post or digital interaction to be intentional and meaningful for our clients and broader audience. Along with the social channels, we spent a great deal of time building our website ourselves. We want to be part of the process, through every step, just like our workout programs.
What has been your biggest success or earliest win with Gradient Movement?
The biggest success so far has been to share more of our clients’ successes, whether it is the first pull-up, a 5K personal best, or helping a client get through a training session pain-free. Knowing that we play a role in the success of our clients is the win that we are seeking.
What has been the most difficult thing about running your fitness business so far?
Setting up the business was incredibly easy with Ownr (this is not a shameless plug, we are seriously grateful for how easy things were!) Accounting has been a breeze with Wave, however, website design has proven to be a challenge. Yet, we are determined to learn and take this project on through all stages of our business as it evolves.
What does a typical day look like as a personal trainer?
A typical day includes writing workouts and client programs, as well as testing programs. Additionally, we spend a great deal of time communicating with clients through check-ins. Marketing efforts, social media management, and engagement with prospective clients is also increasingly becoming a large part of our day.
Was there anything you wish you knew before launching a fitness brand?
We have truly enjoyed tackling the challenges and obstacles of entrepreneurship as they come. Aside from maybe knowing a lawyer who really enjoys advising and writing contracts for free, I don’t believe there is anything that we wish we knew before launching.
Any tips you’d like to share with other entrepreneurs looking to start their own fitness business?
In short, enjoy every aspect of the process. Nothing is going to work exactly as you imagined, your financial model likely had some unpalatable assumptions, and it’s going to be a slow grind. At the cost of sounding clichéd, just keep reminding yourself that if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
Learn more about Gradient Movement –
Instagram: gradientmovement
Facebook: gradientmovement
LinkedIn: gradient-movement-performance
Website: www.gradientmovement.com
Email: [email protected]
This article offers general information only, is current as of the date of publication, and is not intended as legal, financial or other professional advice. A professional advisor should be consulted regarding your specific situation. While the information presented is believed to be factual and current, its accuracy is not guaranteed and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author(s) as of the date of publication and are subject to change. No endorsement of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, products or services is expressly given or implied by RBC Ventures Inc. or its affiliates.