Meet Sebastian Ferrari, founder and CEO of FITSTUDIOZ

Sebastian Ferarri is the founder and CEO of FITSTUDIOZ. Seb proved himself to be a driven entrepreneur at a very young age, launching his first motor sport business, Bubble & Kick Racing, in partnership with his brother Nico back in 2008 when he was just 18 years old. Bubble and Kick went from grassroots/entry level motorsport to high end endurance racing. Building cars for prestigious circuits such as Spa, Belgium and Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi.

Tell us about the founder behind the brand.

The funniest thing is that when you tell people you own a successful fitness business, people automatically assume that you’ve always been active, taken part in lots of sports and eaten your greens. That definitely wasn’t the case for me, it never came naturally, though I think I was always a natural-born entrepreneur - so that’s how my journey began.

I started off in Motorsport, which is still a real passion of mine, and launched my first business, Bubble & Kick Racing, in partnership with my brother Nico back in 2008 when I was just 18 years old. Bubble and Kick went from grassroots/entry level motorsport to high end endurance racing. Building cars for prestigious circuits such as Spa, Belgium and Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi.

Throughout that time, I felt like I was always in a constant battle with my health and fitness. But I finally got it together and embarked on a programmed exercise regime working with a Personal Trainer. I lost 44 kilos in total and it was this transformation and lifestyle change that ultimately spurred me to pursue a new career as a Personal Trainer. I qualified as a Level 3 PT in 2015, and went on to launch Proven Personal Training Limited, whilst also working at my local council gym in my hometown of Greenwich, South East London.

During this time, I was also coaching as a motorsport instructor, representing brands such as BMW and Alfa Romeo. After hurtling around UK circuits at over 100mph lap after lap each day, I’d then take off my race boots and sling on my PT shirt. I still do it from time to time, though since I launched FITSTUDIOZ back in 2018, that became my main priority.

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

It was during my time working as a Personal Trainer in my local gym that I started to get the itch for a better way of doing things. I became frustrated with the archaic industry model for freelance Personal Trainers working in gyms. You are immediately locked in to crazy monthly rental prices, which means you have to train a high volume of clients before you start to make any profit. In a profession where passion is at the heart of everything you do, you want to ensure you’re giving every one of your clients 100% focus and attention - it shouldn’t be any other way. But the model forces you to take on more clients than you can manage. When that happens, nobody wins and no one is left satisfied. Trainers burn out and clients become frustrated.

Likewise, you are often restricted to coaching only members of that gym, as many won’t allow you to bring in your own clients from outside. Many of the clients I had didn’t even use the gym independently and only joined so they could hire a personal trainer. None of it was practical, none of it made sense - for trainers or their clients - so I wanted to find a solution that was better for everyone.

The result was FITSTUDIOZ - a completely new concept at the time I launched in 2018. It’s effectively a coworking fitness space, offering a series of bookable booths or micro-gyms, where trainers can coach their clients as little or as often as they need on a PAYG rate. I wanted to build a platform where trainers could thrive without limitations and with more flexibility, which in turn would mean better quality training for clients and on the whole, a model that makes Personal Training more affordable for everyone. I guess if I was describing it to a stranger in one line, it would be “a WeWork for Personal Trainers”.

How well versed were you in the planning and strategic growth of your business? Did this come easy to you?

I’d built and run a couple of successful businesses before I launched FITSTUDIOZ, and yes, I’d say I had a pretty clear vision for it when I started. I always wanted it to be a multi-site facility to allow maximum booking flexibility and I’d also explored the idea of launching a franchise as a way of making that happen. Then Covid happened.

When you start something new, you try and think of all the possible things that could impact your business plan and growth strategy, but no one could have predicted a global pandemic. It swept in like a bolt out of the blue and yeah, it knocked me and pretty much every other fitness business out there sideways. So the plan effectively went out of the window overnight and it just became about surviving until the world recovered.

Immediately after the restrictions were lifted, it didn’t make sense to go into expansion mode straight away. I think some fitness entrepreneurs thought people would come flocking back to studios straight away - but they didn’t. Clients and trainers were skeptical and a lot of people had become used to training on Zoom and in the parks. So it was a soft approach at first, working hard to build trust again. Naturally, I was at an advantage because it’s not your typical packaged gym set up. It’s just one or two clients with a Personal Trainer, which meant we could reopen pretty quickly and soon the studios started to fill up again. In the first official month that gyms could reopen, I even allowed PTs to book the booths for free on a first-come-first-served basis. Without them, there is no business, so I had to show my support for their situation before I could start turning a profit again. Luckily, it all picked up and all three sites are pretty much back on track.

So now, it’s about revisiting that plan. 2022/23 is going to be a big year for me and FITSTUDIOZ. The growth plan is back in play and the franchise package is developed and ready to go, which will support further expansion of sites across London. So watch this space!

What does your business offer its target audience?

In a way, FITSTUDIOZ has two main audiences - freelance Personal Trainers and of course, their clients. I’d argue in our case that it is the PTs themselves who are our primary customers. They are the ones who book our spaces to train their clients and so, they’re the ones we’ve always needed to engage and convince that our model offers more support and value than the standard gym route.

Unlike being locked into a gym-based contract, FITSTUDIOZ enables you to work and thrive as a freelance Personal Trainer. The platform is designed to empower you to take the reins of your own coaching business - no more extortionate gym rents, no more hustling for clients in the confines of a single gym. At FITSTUDIOZ, you can move between locations, book training rooms as little or as often as you need, expand your customer base across the city and feel empowered and supported to be your own boss. We help connect Personal Trainers with clients through our website and app, and allow them to conduct their consultations at the studios free of charge. Essentially, our motto has always been “If you’re not making, then we’re not taking” - so it makes sense to build everything in a way that supports and nurtures their independent business.

But the end customer is also the consumer, who gets the luxury of an affordable personal trainer and a completely private micro-gym style unit to train in regularly. That’s definitely something a lot of consumers worry about when hiring a freelance PT - where do I train? Some people are completely fine with being outside, but some like that privacy and some really need the equipment (i.e. for strength training), so FITSTUDIOZ really does offer everyone the best of all worlds.

What’s the single most important decision that you made that contributed to your business?

Speaking honestly, I think I probably made that decision in the last 3 months - and that was the decision to invest more in marketing and PR. Up till this point, we’ve really succeeded based on my industry contacts and word of mouth. The Personal Training community is pretty tight, we talk and we support each other. But your connections only stretch so far and there comes a point where you have to invest in order to cast the net wider and attract new talent and with them, their client base. Covid really impacted the fitness industry in a big way, but now we’re coming out the other side and I’ve got some pretty aggressive growth targets for the business over the next year or two, so again now is a really important time for us to be shouting about who we are, what we do and why we’re different.

I’ve just started working with a marketing agency called Crowdify, who are supporting me with everything from developing new, exciting content on web and social, to creating the visuals for our upcoming OOH advertising campaign with Global media, that will see around £50k’s worth of ads pop up across the capital promoting FITSTUDIOZ.

What’s more, I’ve just hired Visible PR to come on board to support me with earned media. PR is so important in terms of telling our brand story and communicating exactly what we can offer to both freelance PTs and prospective clients, so it’s a really important piece of the puzzle, from a consumer and a trade perspective as well.

I guess all of this is really about putting FITSTUDIOZ on the map. When I launched the business it was a completely new concept and there was nothing else like it in the fitness space - and honestly, I don’t think I really maximised that at the time. And there’s still nothing identical to us in terms of being a dedicated Personal Training multi-micro-gym space. However there are a few similar competitors starting to emerge now - with the option of individual training and PT bookings - so now the game is on and it’s about vying for that top spot.

With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap. How do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?

As I said, when I launched FITSTUDIOZ there was absolutely nothing like it on the market and still to this day, I don’t know of any other studio or gym that offers the same model exclusively for freelance Personal Trainers - being first to market with any product or service always helps. However, one of the most innovative things is the business actually operates behind the scenes through the tech we use to operate the studios. It was an app that we developed in-house specifically for FITSTUDIOZ, allowing PTs to book their booths seamlessly at the click of a button. That’s not new, but there’s a lot more to it than that. The app also acts as a key and a central operating system, allowing them to unlock each site, access their booth and control the functions of the studio, from the lights to the air-con. It means that each site is completely self-serviced, with no need for permanent front of house staff. You can even book contractors through the app when something goes wrong - say a light needs fixing or the air-con stops working, you can report it, find a contractor and have them out the same day to fix the problem. It’s all about being smart and efficient. When we sell the franchise, it will also come with a license for this technology too.

What plans do you have for FITSTUDIOZ over the next two years?

After the fallout of the global pandemic, the fitness industry is now starting to recover and consumer confidence in returning to gyms and fitness spaces is finally starting to get back to pre-covid levels - so now is the time to take the plunge! I’ve got huge growth plans for the business over the next 12 months, with a view of opening at least 4 new franchises across London. What’s more, we’re also going to be launching as a franchise. This is a decision that’s again based on giving other freelance PTs and fitness enthusiasts the chance to share in our success and build their own businesses.

Do you prioritise self-care as an entrepreneur?

Launching a new business is hard work. It takes time, patience and money and yes, it can be really stressful. You lose sleep, you worry about things, but the adrenaline of it all just sort of keeps you going. It’s so easy to get swept along in it all, but you can easily burn out if you don’t take a step back from time to time.

I think because I work in the business of health and wellness I really do try to stay on top of my own wellbeing. I push myself to the limit and I think that’s a healthy thing to do in a lot of respects, but the key as an entrepreneur I’ve found is knowing your trigger points before you reach the end of your rope so to speak.

I've gone from 18 hour days lying under cars in the rain pulling engines out. Having drivers paying big bucks to gain milliseconds each lap. Stress has been in my life for a while now. From that I've adopted a really positive attitude - it’s easy to focus on everything that’s yet to do, but I always try and look at how far I've come, break down what's left to do and always take a step back. As an entrepreneur, who's also very decisive, you have to be your biggest critic and that can be tough.

Lastly, I think a huge part of self care is about sharing the load. As your business grows successfully, so do your responsibilities and workload. For example, I had toyed with the idea of opening a fourth studio not too long ago, but I realised I needed a team behind me to help me manage that additional load, which is what I’m in the process of doing now. Identifying your limits is important to maintain growth and balance in your life.

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. How are you combating that feeling whilst pushing forward?

This is a conversation that I often have with the freelance trainers who work across the studios, because let’s face it, they too are all small business owners trying to push things forward, just like me. But in that sense of things, I rarely feel alone and it’s one of the benefits of the model.

I often get asked, “how do you build a sense of community at the studios if everyone is freelance?” - but you’ll be surprised. We have a lot of active PTs using the platform and because I travel across the studios so often, we all get to know each other. It’s like a big family and we support each other, give each other advice and really act as a support network for each other - which is important in an industry that’s typically associated with long, unsociable hours.

I think for anyone who’s trying to make a go of a business, no matter its size, it can be a lonely journey at times. But once I’d launched and FITSTUDIOZ had started to gain some traction among PTs, I never really had the chance to feel lonely - I think that’s one of the benefits of this ‘collective’ style model. Yes, the success of FITSTUDIOZ naturally lies with me as the sole owner of the business, but it’s success comes down to us all putting in the shift and providing a great service to the clients who train across the studios, so in that sense, it feels like we’re all in it together - it has a higher purpose and vision that we all buy in to - and that helps you keep pushing on, knowing people are as behind your idea as you are.

How is digitisation empowering your business?

It’s interesting because during lockdown, digital services effectively stopped the PT industry from going under, and being able to still coach clients using apps like Teams and Zoom was a game-changer. Fast forward to post-pandemic as we’re reverting back the other way again. While many people still do class and PT on digital formats, I’m not sure it’ll ever really replace the experience of training in a dedicated fitness space with a coach. Human beings are by their very nature, social creatures, so that peer-to-peer interaction is still really important to people, even when it is just you and your Personal Trainer.

For me, the digital innovation within the business really comes from how we set up the studio booking and access systems. It's all run through a digital, automated system that allows trainers to seamlessly book booths via an app, whereupon they can gain access to their booth whenever they want and whichever studio they choose. It’s smart and it means that the studios can be run a lot more efficiently without the need for full time front of house staff. Again, it's all about keeping overheads down so those savings can be passed on - from me to the PT and from the PT to their clients. Everybody wins.

What’s the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves

Oh wow, I don’t know if there is a single question really? A good entrepreneur should ALWAYS be asking themselves questions, day after day - about what’s working, what needs to change, how to improve and how to grow and build.

The one thing I try to do a lot is to put myself in the shoes of the end user, be it the Personal Trainers using the spaces, or their clients - and ask how does FITSTUDIOZ look and work for them. What are the barriers? Is there something missing? What would make me come to FITSTUDIOZ over my local gym? For me. every decision needs to have the end user in mind and how it'll affect them. What may benefit me, could be a huge negative for another, so it’s important to think broadly. Business is of course about being successful, but we’ve all seen what happens when entrepreneurs get too greedy or consumed with what’s working for them, forgetting about the ones who buy their products and services in the process. It’s rarely a happy outcome and not a place I want to end up.