Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Allison Roberts, co-founder of Fastercise, located in Saratoga Springs, UT, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Fastercise is a fitness program that you can do in 5 minutes a day. It involves shivering for 1 minute at a time. Yes, shivering! This program was developed by Dr. Denis Wilson, MD, a thyroid and metabolism expert. Fastercise is designed to boost your metabolism with these micro-workouts throughout the day.

My name is  Allison Roberts (Fastercise CEO). I used this program to enter a bodybuilding competition eight months after having my first baby. Our customers are people who want to get great fitness results without making fitness their top priority in life. Life gets busy, right? We provide an equipment-free fitness program you can do on any busy schedule. You can Fastercise anytime, anywhere, and you don't even need to change your clothes. Finally, a fitness program that actually works, and pretty much anyone can do it.

Tell us about yourself

To the person discouraged with their fitness, sick and tired of being sick and tired, I've got you. I love fitness, and I believe that fitness shouldn't be reserved just for people with loads of free time and access to expensive gym memberships. What about the people working two jobs to support their young children: don't they deserve great fitness? What about the person who's struggled with health problems for years and just wants their health back? Shouldn't they be able to have great fitness? I want to provide fitness to anyone who's struggled to get in shape in the past. I am so excited every time I hear a customer's success story, from losing the extra weight they've been carrying around for years to gaining enough energy to play with their children. That means the world to me.

I also love working with my dad, Dr. Wilson. We cofounded Fastercise, and working with him has been a dream come true. When I was about 12 years old, I wrote in my journal that I wanted to go to college and study business so I could come home and start a business with my dad. I think he's an absolutely brilliant person who can change fitness for people all over the world, and I want to bring his discoveries to the forefront.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Taking a great idea (Fastercise) and creating a product (our app) that can help people while driving revenue. We've been through many iterations of creating an app that will help people get in shape. I've had to learn how to build an app from the ground up:

  • Designing a great user experience.
  • Deciding which technology stack to use for the app.
  • Testing different features with customers.
  • Deciding on growth channels.
  • Everything in between.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Willing your vision into existence is the hardest thing I've experienced. Doing the actual work of starting a business is hard:

  • You're wearing many different hats.
  • You're running around trying to take care of a million things at once.
  • You're trying to keep your team on track.

But more than anything else, the hardest part is having a vision of what your company could be, of what it should be, and staying true to that vision through all the bumps, twists, and turns you'll encounter. You think when you're starting out that the path to success will be pretty straightforward. But it's not. And being able to keep the faith, to keep the vision that your company can succeed, is a challenge. It's a challenge that's 100% worth the effort.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Don't just start a business for the sake of starting a business. You need to have a real passion for the business and the product you're providing. You need to love it so much that you'd almost be willing to work on it for free. Because if you don't care about your product, no one else will, and you will fail.
  2. Get the best people to be on your team. Sooner or later, you'll need to work with others. Try to find people who will support you, support the product, and support the team. You don't want negativity as you're getting started, as that will slow your momentum or kill your idea altogether.
  3. Find the best information out there, and find a mentor who can help you through the process of starting your business. Try to find someone who's been there, done that. And if you're still looking for someone like that, read books that address what you're trying to do. Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis is a great book, and so is Start with Why. I've relied on those two books heavily.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Change starts small. If you want to change a part of your life, start doing little things every day to help you on that path. At Fastercise, that's what we're all about: doing small things every day that can add up to a big difference. And work better, not harder. Your time is valuable, so don't just do things for the sake of doing things. Flying blind is a bad idea. Create a plan and follow your plan every day. You can improve your plan as you learn, too.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.fastercise.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allison.wilson.503
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fantastic_allison/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondeniseroberts/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.