BIO: Andrew Bryant, CSP is a Global expert on Self Leadership, a C-Suite Advisor, an Award-Winning Coach, and a Best-Selling Author.
STORY: Andrew invested heavily in a gym with the plan to offer service-based health and wellness. Low-cost gyms came up and swallowed his business.
LEARNING: Understand how to get in and out of a business, test your market first and know what your customers want, not what they need.
“Sunk cost does not account for the learning.”
Andrew Bryant
Andrew Bryant, CSP is a Global expert on Self Leadership, a C-Suite Advisor, an Award-Winning Coach, and a Best-Selling Author. English by birth, Australian by passport, Singapore by PR, and Brazilian by wife, Andrew is adept at moving across cultures.
Andrew is on a mission to ‘wake people up’ to their best possible selves, which he does through his Conference Keynotes, Leadership Team Facilitation, and Coaching.
He is Leadership Faculty for Singapore Management University, where he also contributes to the Women in Leadership Program and is most proud of the work he has done building self-esteem and confidence for at-risk teenagers.
Andrew’s first degree is in physiotherapy. He worked in hospitals for a couple of years and later with sports teams.
Andrew decided to bring together his medical and sports experience to create a wellness center. So he bought a gym. Andrew had always been critical of gyms because they were poorly managed, and there were many myths about fitness. He planned to bring science to fitness as a physiotherapist.
Andrew overly invested in the gym without realizing that he was paying for things he didn’t need to pay for. Then he hired the best human resource graduates from the local university to be personal trainers and paid them a lot. He believed that would make the difference. Andrew invested in equipment, real estate, and staff.
Andrew focused on offering service-based health and wellness, and it worked for just a little while. Then the fitness craze hit Australia, and low-cost gyms sprouted everywhere. These gyms weren’t selling service; they were selling hope. While Andrew was charging $49 a month for a subscription, the new gyms would charge $49 a year. The low charge obviously attracted people, and this drove his customers away.
The biggest mistake Andrew made was not realizing that his business model was flawed. Instead, he continued investing more and more money until he ran out.
Test your market first with a minimum viable product to see if things are going to work out before putting all your money into the product.
Look for someone that you trust and spend time arguing against your idea and pick holes. This will help you see if your idea is viable.
When creating your business plan, remember to include an exit plan should the business fail. If you don’t have an exit plan, you don’t have a business; you’ve just bought yourself a job.
Before you enter a market, look at the dynamics in that industry. Consider how the...
