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human capital? How easy would it be to raise
funds with a young business in an untested
industry? Where do we learn the operations
to support the scale at which we wanted to
grow? What if we failed altogether?”
He adds that a lot still needs to be done and
“we have to keep raising the bar and challenging
ourselves to do better always. That’s
the only way we can attract and retain our
members and by so doing, we are bridging
the gap in health and wellness.”
Playing A Part In A Growing Industry
Important one indeed. He entered a relatively
uncharted market and stayed on through
now that fitness has become a daily conversation,
so how has iFitness played its role?
First, he admits that the industry has indeed
grown. “It’s amazing!” he says, then continues,
“The culture has grown significantly in
the last 4 years, especially in the big cities.
There are 3 contributing factors: presence of
more fitness centers/fitness studios, better
health consciousness, and a strong social
factor, which is: the pressure (especially on
millennials) to look good.”
Brand Values And Philosophies
We can actually deduce all that from what
Folusho has said earlier but he says he will
shorten iFitness’ values to: “Convenience,
Fun, Service, Community. These philosophies
all point to our mission - providing a fun,
youthful and functional fitness experience
that promotes a culture of health and
wellness. Our expansion is not in itself just a
spread of branches.”
The fitness enthusiast and entrepreneur
adds, “We want fitness to be an integral part
of the urban lifestyle; not just an option that
you pick and drop at every slight excuse. I
always ask myself a lot of questions which
then turn out to help us in daily operational
decision making. How can we be more
youthful in terms of our look and feel,
remembering that our membership base
is largely the upwardly mobile people? In
planting our branches, can we ensure that
our network is brilliantly laid out to provide
convenience for our members? This means
that we, intentionally, locate our branches
in places that are either densely commercial
spots (work places) or highly residential
spots (close to homes). How do we get
reactions, feedback from our customers on
key areas of our services so we make quick
adjustments? When a member is unhappy,
how swift are we to resolve and institutionalize
the changes we need to make?”
Particular Focus
“First and most importantly, especially in line
with our business model, is the expansion
of our branch network. The bigger it is, the
more people we attract and retain. This is
crucial. Without increasing our footprint,
especially in urban communities, then we
will compromise on reaching potentially
thousands of Nigerians.
“Secondly, we will simultaneously back the
expansion up with a good experience. Recall
that many Nigerians are still not fitness
aware and many more who are aware are not
motivated or willing to commit to living a
healthier lifestyle. Therefore, we have to unlock
the market by providing an experience
(a fun experience) in each of these centers
to inspire our members into embracing the
lifestyle and taking charge of their health.
“Thirdly, improving the skill base of our
team, and by extension educating people
(members and non- members) through our
online channels and even within the branches
will go a long way to help.
“There will also be strategic partnerships
with other organisations within the health
and wellness space to provide services
(some are free), and events to enable the entrenchment
of fitness especially in the urban
communities of Nigeria.”
Staying Consistent
If you want to scale, then you need to pay
particular attention to consistency - no
argument. Folusho says, “iFitness is totally
different. Most of our members come to
the gym nearly every day. iFitness for a lot
of people has become the “3rd place” after
work and home. We are indeed humbled,
grateful and equally excited about this! For
this reason, there’s a lot of pressure on us to
always think ahead. We think of convenience
to members, the functionality of our gym
spaces, in each center, etc. and how all these
translate to good customer experience to
our members.”
The Future
“We are working to see iFitness becoming
the preferred fitness destination for the average
urban youth; that is, we want to be the
preferred neighborhood gym for the average
urban dweller. We will be touching thousands
and millions of lives by God’s grace.
In line with our vision; we will be Nigeria’s
preferred fitness destination.”
We want to keep touching
lives. This gives us a sense of
mission; to be Nigeria’s preferred
fitness destination.
fli
@thesparkng
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