When we think of who inspired us to start the business a few names come to mind.  Both of us worked under Mark Fitzgerald at Elite Training Systems in Whitby, Ontario.  The culture and family Mark built at Team ETS was very inspiring for both of us. Mark trains a wide variety of athletes from the weekend warrior, to minor hockey players, to NHL players and Olympic athletes.  Mark does an incredible job of not only training athletes from all walks of life and backgrounds, but he also makes everyone feel as though they are part of one family.

The founders of Full Tilt Cycle were also very inspiring to us when making “the leap of faith.”  The passion and the life changing stories that Erin Marshall and Sadie Cavanagh were able to tell us about their Peterborough location was extremely inspiring.  They are an integral part of the Peterborough community in so many ways, and that is something that we are striving to create for Durham.

The power of networking has been a big reason for us getting off to a successful start.  Despite not having our grand opening yet, we have over 1100 followers on instagram and have had many people purchase passes and memberships during pre-sales.

We have chosen to partner with a few people in the community who have a large network.  We have donated class packs for giveaways on instagram to help build brand awareness.  We promote one another and in return, all business get ahead.  We have found working WITH others through online platforms such as instagram has been a huge benefit for us getting our name out there!

The biggest advice we can give is follow your passion, find yourself a good mentor and surround yourself with positive people! It is no secret that starting your own business is hard!  If it was easy everybody would do it.  With that being said, if you are doing something you are passionate about it is SO rewarding and totally worth it!

We firmly believe that having a good mentor will make you sink or swim.  There are so many things to do when opening a business, having a mentor be able to guide you through the process and steps make it much less intimidating. We would love to give back and mentor someone who is thinking of starting a business.

Lastly, surround yourself with positive people! There will be times when you are discouraged and down.  It is imperative to have a network of positive people around you to pick you up during these times.  There will also always be doubters and negative people, but you need to drown those haters out and tune into your positive support group!