focusinterview.
with Samantha Wardman of CornerPost Marketing
Business
Duncan
T
Marchant
ell us about your background their needs. In doing so, we have introduced: and how you came to be in classes for prostate cancer exercise; heart moves Coffs Harbour? rehabilitation; baby boomers and seniors groups, I actually spent five years in catering to our member’s needs. Also, the atmoCoffs from age two ‘til seven, besphere of our club is very welcoming, and our fore moving to Canberra. I returned again about staff really enjoy giving back to the community 15 years ago but only spent two years here, as by helping members to become the best they the opportunity to manage my first business can be in terms of their health and fitness – and dragged me away again, but it never left my they have fun doing it! thoughts for too long. I think once Coffs gets in Being locally owned and community oriented your blood, you always want to return; so, back means we play an active role in our community in 2008 my wife and I made a great decision to sports groups and schools, with every local high raise our little family back here, and we have no school in the area attending the health club for intention of leaving ever again – we’re hooked school sports, which gives us a great amount of for life! joy. We are also a registered training organisaCoffs Coast Health Club has become quite tion for personal trainers, and we take immense a force in the fitness industry in this area. pride in employing locals, school-based or otherHow are you achieving your goals with wise, to become a part of our dynamic team. your business? What inspires you about the fitness and After observing the region’s fitness industry health industry? for many years, we decided to get Seeing the evolution of the people we involved and raise the bar. Our touch and the goals they achieve is goals are very different inspiring. The physical and psyto those of our comchological benefits of exercise My wife and I also petitors, as we focus are undisputed, and helping t lost our very firs on making a genuine people in your local comhing house and everyt2003 positive difference in munity evolve to a better e we owned in th res. We our community. We quality of life is what we fi sh bu ra Canber physical ng hi don’t have scary sales are all about. yt er ev d ha us, and people, we focus What changes have you taken away fromto rebuild we were forced ratch.” heavily on personseen in the industry over our lives from sc alised service, and we the past few decades? enjoy providing plenty of I got into the industry 16 variety for our members to years ago, back when most help achieve their fitness and gyms were local family businesses. health goals. We also take pride in Now as one of those local family busithe career opportunities we offer locals, from nesses, we have to compete with multinational traineeships to Indigenous and Non-indigenous franchised companies. school-based leavers. These big companies have certainly brought You mentioned that Coffs Coast Health more investment to our industry, but will never Club is different to your competitors. What be able to replace the personal touch and care makes you stand out? for our community that we provide – in the end, Our focus is very much on people and people still need people. I think the other big helping them at every step of their journey to thing that has changed in the industry is the achieve their goals, which means we listen to level of variety now afforded to people in the
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46 coffs coast focus.
types of exercise one can choose. There have also been increases to the professional care standards and regulations, which has also benefited consumers. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in business in Coffs Harbour? I love being in business here in Coffs. The networks are great, the people are down to earth, and the employees truly care about the business they work for, as well as the customers that they serve. The only challenges we face come from people that don’t stand for those same ideals. Being a successful business owner, are there any tips to success that you can share? I believe that discipline, communication and resilience are the three most important attributes to have in your business life. You must always put people before profit, to succeed over the long term. Do you have a mentor? Tell us about him/ her and how they have helped you in your career/life? I don’t really have a single mentor as such. I like to analyse everyone and copy their good lessons, while leaving behind the bad ones. I am very lucky to have the most supportive wife, kids, family, friends, business partners and colleagues on the planet around me and without them, I would not have been able to achieve a thing. Success does not come without its challenges. What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career? I started managing and owning businesses at a very young age and it was hard to get people to believe in me, until I could show them what I could do. That just made me more determined to succeed and was great for my personal development. My wife and I also lost our very first house and everything we owned in the 2003 Canberra bushfires. We had everything physical taken away from us, and we were forced to rebuild our lives from scratch. That event reinforced the needs of discipline, communication and resilience and helped us to
achieve what we have today. You recently were a finalist in the prestigious Telstra Small Business Awards – congratulations! What did this accolade mean to your business? It was a great experience for the team and gave our Coffs Coast Health Club family a lot of confidence in the work that we do. We were in the top 0.5% of over 5,000 nominations for those awards, and it has certainly helped to raise the profile of business in Coffs. We love having a club that our members and the local community can be proud of. We all know how important achieving a good work life balance is. What are your interests that help you to achieve this balance? My main interest outside of work is my family and friends. I coach my son’s soccer team, I also read with his class at school, I take my daughter to dance each week, and I watch them play tennis. This is very important to me – having this time with the ones that are most important to me. I also love playing all sports, but especially cricket with the bandits, golf with the goats and soccer with the mighty lions! We heard you are now involved in the Australia Personal Training Institute. How did this come about, and what does it entail? We provide real time training, in a real gym environment for anyone looking to become a personal trainer. Successful students gain the ‘Certificate IV in Fitness’ qualification, which allows them to practice as a personal trainer. We also provide mentoring services for anyone completing the personal trainer qualification through our course, any online courses or at our local TAFE. Our goal is to see more qualified and more experienced trainers out in our community to help get the region happier and healthier! If you could give one piece of advice to any business owner or aspirational professional, what would it be? ‘Put people before profit‘. Thanks Duncan.