We had the opportunity to interview Isaiah Grant from Dream Fitness Client Academy. Read about his journey as a small business owner and how his past health issues inspired him to create the thriving business he has today.
Tell Me About Dream Fitness Client Academy
We have been in business for four years. Initially, we began as a digital agency; working with local businesses and with online coaches from a broader perspective.
Fast forward, we decided to go very niche in regards to working with fitness and health coaches. We have a 13-week implementation program to show the coaches how to go from being a person who has a hobby and turn that hobby into an online coaching business. A business that enables them to have time and financial freedom.
Our motto is helping folks get off the coaching hamster wheel so that they can ultimately have the freedom to work when they want to work.
We leverage systems, people, and different products and processes to help them actually scale and drive more impact to their audience.
What Inspired You to Start Dream Fitness Academy?
I was born and raised in a single-family household where my mom was personally disabled. At an early age, I had to be resourceful and learn how to build meaningful relationships with people and ultimately learn how to execute and get things done.
From an early age, I was an entrepreneur. As you can imagine, in middle school, I sold everything: pencils, erasers, CDs. Ultimately, fast forward to eighth grade, I was sitting in my science class, and I was doing a year-long project on diabetes and ironically was diagnosed with diabetes during that class year. This was a pivotal stage in my life. I decided to get my own health and wellness coach, who helped me get rid of diabetes and helped me see the importance of being physically, mentally, and spiritually fit.
After spending 5 years in the corporate world, I was ready to become a small business owner. I decided to leave and start my own agency. I was inspired to impact other financial or fitness and health coaches, like the individual who impacted me in eighth grade.
What’s the Best Thing About Being a Small Business Owner?
I think it’s the discovery and the process of developing as a leader and realizing that you’re your biggest bottleneck to your business. The more you can fire yourself from each of the different core departments like marketing, sales fulfillment in your business, the bigger you’ll grow.
So for me, it’s been a lot of the personal development associated with being a small business owner that has been the most enjoyable. From outside the business, the impact of being able to see these fitness and health coaches grow tremendously in terms of being a business owner. That drives me to be even more of a leader for my company and for the people we serve.
What are Some of the Challenges You’ve Faced as a Small Business Owner?
A huge part of my company is systems. We live and die by systems and numbers. Prior to this year, we weren’t crystal clear in regards to our numbers and our KPI.
We’ve become more clear on our value chain which is marketing, sales, and fulfillment. We’ve identified the top KPIs in each of those buckets. One of the huge parts was figuring out the right people who can manage those systems. It was hard for them to figure out what those numbers were without understanding the true health of our finances.
That was one of the reasons why we ended up with FINSYNC. We saw that you guys offer cash flow management and a concierge service that would help us with the people planning of our business.
It has been super easy working with you guys to hire a bookkeeper who is almost playing a CFO role for us at a fraction of the cost and investment. She’s helping us with budgeting, forecasting, and also seeing our actuals for cash flow expenses.
What Prompted Dream Fitness Client Academy to Start Using FINSYNC?
During the earlier days of COVID, we were in the process of applying for several different loans and grants and that’s when FINSYNC was recommended to us as a great financial tool.
FINSYNC gives you clarity around your cash flow, business expenses, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and also helps with managing your books. One of the things that stood out to me was the ongoing support.
Did you Consider Any Other Software Prior to FINSYNC?
We were previously using QuickBooks but found it to be very challenging. Their software was not as user-friendly as FINSYNC. At first, it was a helpful tool, but it didn’t necessarily stay up-to-date. We constantly had to sync our accounts.
What are the Biggest Benefits Dream Fitness Client Academy Has Experienced Using FINSYNC?
We have been able to get more clarity around our numbers and most importantly the user-friendliness of the tool. Getting rid of the accounting jargon has been great and the ongoing support.
I would say the value that’s given at the price is great. In addition, having our bookkeeper, who is serving as not only a bookkeeper but also almost like a CFO, the investment into her, and into our business is very reasonable. With FINSYNC, you see the value and the investment are completely reasonable.
What Advice do you Have for Those Who are Thinking About Owning Their Own Business?
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- Fall in love with creating systems, they help you replicate yourself and delegate out to other people who are just as good as you are.
- Become in love with the numbers. Numbers are important to learn about the growth and bottlenecks in your company.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. When searching for a new tool for our cash flow management, I asked FINSYNC for a demo. I was not sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an amazing tool with an amazing support group.
- Invest in yourself constantly, so that you can continue to become a better leader, meet people, lead systems, and impact the overall growth of your company.
If you’re looking for more helpful tips, the FINSYNC blog is a great resource. Maybe your successful business will be featured one day!