I began this company in 2005.

Over that time I have pretty much thought about FITISM 24/7 (don’t tell my wife).

By anyone’s standards, spending 19 years thinking about one company is a long time!

Over that time there have been 3 questions that have occupied my mind over and above anything else:

1. Where are we going? (vision)
2. Why do we exist? (mission)
3. How should we behave? (values)

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Vision

To be the most trusted SGPT (Small Group Personal Training) brand in the UK

Okay, I think I can guess what you’re thinking... That’s a big hairy audacious goal! And I'd have to agree. I completely appreciate FITISM are far from a UK wide expansion but that is the ultimate goal.

Perhaps the one element I like to focus on the most from our vision is this idea of becoming a trusted brand.

To gain someone’s trust is one of the greatest privileges you can achieve in life.

Trust might be a privilege but it’s not a right.

You have to work at it daily. It can take a life time to build but lost in a moment.

This mindset around trust is at the heart of everything we do. It forms the foundation of why the company (FITISM) exists and guides how we behave as a group of individuals working as a team.

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Mission

To make regular exercise and good nutrition part of your life

We (FITISM) are in the business of helping people improve their health.

We have built a company that specialises in delivering a product based around exercise, nutrition and accountability to achieve optimal health for our clients.

We see an elevated level of health being the output our members want to achieve. To which regular exercise and good nutrition is the necessary input. We see accountability coaching as the glue that makes optimal health become a reality for our members.

We obsess about our product; what it includes, how it’s delivered and the exacting processes required to reliably deliver a world class experience to our members each and every day.

To do so we have assembled and continue to build a world class team of personal trainers, nutritionists and coaches.  

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Values

So... We know where we’re going (vision), we understand why we exit (mission) but how should we behave…?

I have rewritten these values more than I care to remember. The way we behave has been redefined over the years partly due to my time in the trenches, listening, observing and adapting to the fast paced evolution of our business and where we fit as a brand in the every changing fitness industry.

Here are FITISM’s 4 values that essentially drive our company culture…

1. WORK COLLABORATIVELY AS TEAM 


No egos - they don’t have a place, support everyone in the company, actively seek ways to work together, family ethos.



2. TAKE EXTREME OWNERSHIP 


Take maximum responsibility for every aspect of your role to achieve the outcomes that are expected, especially when no one is looking. Accept feedback, put your hand up.



3. ACT WITH A GROWTH MINDSET


Set backs, poor results and challenges will happen, it’s how you respond that matters. Use set backs as lessons to develop and improve skills, knowledge and understanding.



4. MAKE EVERY INTERACTION COUNT


Make coming to FITISM the best part of our member’s day. Engage, interact and give our members your full attention, from the moment they walk into the gym until the moment they leave.

Summary

Ultimately what I have learnt as a founder of a growing company with big ambitions is there is no clear path. You have to figure things out as you go. Everyone looks to you for the answers but rarely do you have them.

Over time you understand that in order to build a business you have to take solace in the fact that there’s no clear path, especially if you are trying to create something that has never been created.

Rarely is there just one way of moving forwards. All you can do is act using experience and the information you have at the time, see what happens and roll with the punches.

But one thing I know for sure is that with a clear vision, a team that unites in a shared mission and acts according to a series of values, progress happens.

FITISM might not be perfect but we’re trying.

Ultimately I believe in a philosophy of progress not perfection. If we get 1% better every day, even if that means having to take 1 step backwards to take 2 steps forwards I’ll take it.

I hope that’s given you a little insight into what makes FITISM tick.

Matt ‘winging it since 2005’ Kay