Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jay Perkins, co-founder of Living.Fit, located in Austin, TX, USA.

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

Our business is Living.Fit (www.living.fit). We exist to make life-changing fitness as simple as possible. We serve major gym chains by teaching their trainers how to move with different fitness tools as well as individual users who take our courses, follow our workouts and use our fitness equipment. We are on a mission to help everyone be the best version of themselves through fitness and nutrition.

Tell us about yourself

I started by working in software sales at an e-commerce software company. It was through that role I learned about e-commerce and various things that can be helpful in trying to build an online brand. With my partners, we discussed several things we could sell online and, through a variety of factors, eventually decided on our products. I think business owners need a lot of sources of motivation to keep going each day. I have not found that a single one will always sustain me. For me, it can be a variety of factors like wanting to create something and reach what I believe to be my fullest potential in business. In order to do that, I must keep pushing every day and never give up on the things that I see are successful for the business. It is also to think that even some of the more stressful things you deal with are actually a blessing because you are building something created out of your mind. In one sense, businesses are just thoughts manifested into the physical world. Everything you experience about our business started as an idea in our heads, so to be able to have the ability to devote my days to making things in my head a reality is a blessing.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I am not done yet, but I think building my first e-commerce brand and exiting it successfully. A lot of literal blood, sweat, and tears went into creating my first e-commerce brand over an eight-year period. To have started a business in my 20's (my first one) and successfully exited in my 30's is the realization of what my younger self wanted to accomplish.

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

I think every business owner's experience is different, but for me personally, it is just the unknown. You constantly have to deal with new challenges and situations you might never have expected. Whether that is a pandemic, supply chain issues, challenges in funding, or finding the right personnel for a role. There is always seemingly some new challenge to try and solve. Everything takes longer and costs more than you would like it to; learning to deal with that and keep pushing forward is important.

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

I think it would be really helpful to build out your marketing and content strategy ahead of time. Ours is one we learned from being in business and adapting, but having a clearer idea from the beginning would be very helpful. I also would set the expectation that things will feel slower for most people. Even if you have the best product in the world, almost no one knows about it. For most people trying to grow a business, you have to be diligent about doing the same things every single day that you see leading to success. You cannot let up for a minute because someone else is out there trying to reach your customer or your customer is spending their money on something else. So being diligent about what works and not giving up for a second is extremely important. I also recommend seeking out experts in your product field. Forming alliances, getting advice and feedback from product experts is a great way to improve your product as well as find supporters for your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.living.fit/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingFit-902949083222595/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/living.fit/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LivingFitApp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/living-dot-fit/

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.

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