Unique Physique has a little help from their friends
An entire business community has come to the aid of one of its own by helping a brand new venture get off the ground during the credit crunch.
Two banks – Lloyds and HSBC – showed similar credit crunch courage by providing help at a time when the financial sector itself is struggling to survive.
With support from Business Link in the West Midlands, in three short weeks Sophie Munslow and professional trainer Gary Wilkes secured the lease on a redundant performance arts school in Halesowen, completely renovated it and opened up for business, trading as Unique Physique.
The ambitious young business partners – who have both overcome personal weight battles themselves – officially launched last week where all those who have helped were on hand to toast the pair’s success, including local celebrity Dave Heeley, the blind marathon runner.
Sophie said: “It all happened so quickly. I discovered that the building was empty then the hard work began. Walls had to be knocked down and rebuilt, plumbing needed replacing; the whole place needed renovating.
“If it hadn’t been for all the local businesses helping out we wouldn’t have been able to open at all.
“The builders, Pete Holland and Matt Jones only charged us for the parts and a fraction of the labour saying we could pay the rest off when we were more financially secure, and the plumber worked from 6am-11pm every day for three weeks and then put in a mammoth 24-hour shift the day before we opened!
“The printers Tulleys, have only invoiced us tiny amounts, again until we get up and running, and Duncan Brown the caterer on the opening night is only charging us for food.
“Even more surprisingly when all we hear about is banks struggling, we secured a start-up bank loan from Lloyds, and HSBC are still helping us financially.”
But the support for the ventre hasn’t ended there with BMW stepping in to provide an M3 for the big day, and Aston Martin also supplied a vehicle for a high impact unveiling.
The gym has a range of top end equipment from 100 per cent resistance cross trainers, state of the art treadmills with built in LCD screens, a spin studio with virtual reality moving scenery, and a Nintendo Wii fit pod.
“I was the fat kid at school who no one picked for team games,” Sophie said.
“I began long distance running and swimming then became a skiing instructor. I met Gary when I was at university because I’d started putting on weight and he was my personal trainer; we hit if off from there.
“He’d battled with his own weight problems too after going from 18.5 stone down to 11 stone 12 in just 18 months to get fit after his knees began to creak under his own weight.”
Sophie also approached Business Link adviser Bob Howard for tips on how to avoid the credit crunch pitfalls.
Sophie added: “He told me to set weekly targets on how many clients we expected to recruit and to stick to that number. It sounds obvious but making and sticking to goals worked.”
