Bradley, Iron Palace, Gympie QLD

Meet Bradley, the small business owner of Iron Palace, who reached his 5-year business goals within his first year of business.

Iron Palace is an old-school, bodybuilding gym which fosters a tight-knit gym community and world-class athletes. Bradley and his partner have started selling Iron Palace merchandise and have been blown away by the pace at which it is selling. Along with support from their Many Rivers business coach, Tiani, Iron Palace has grown to be more than just a regular gym, but also a brand and apparel line in its own right.

“I have done everything on my own, but to have someone who I could bounce ideas off was the best thing about Many Rivers support. Just simple questions, rather than spending hours looking for answers to simple questions, I can just go to Tiani. It saves me a lot of time and has helped me grow faster than I otherwise would have.”

Read more about Bradley’s business journey so far.

Meet Bradley

My business is an old-school gym called Iron Palace. We offer one-to-one training without the feel of a commercial gym, and we offer a lot of things that commercial gyms don’t. We have world-class athletes training here. Most commercial gyms are about getting those sales, but we are about creating a community of people who want to work hard. I opened on February 1st, 2021, and we are growing quickly.

I did a building apprenticeship during school, and then I moved to meatworks for 7-8 years. I worked at a service station and saved money to do something that I really wanted to do. I had worked at gyms as a volunteer, but in 2014, my father passed away and I found that the gym was a good outlet for me.

When COVID-19 hit, the service station I worked at had a change of ownership. The opportunity to take out some superannuation during the pandemic helped me kickstart my gym.

I worked in leadership and management roles for years and I just wanted to be able to do my own thing. I thought – if I’m leading these teams and making money for someone else, why can’t I do it for myself?

I have a couple of PTs who contract for us. They run their own business out of my gym. Myself and my partner run the show, but we have 20 friends and family who help and without them we wouldn’t be where we are.

Working with Many Rivers

I met Tiani, my Many Rivers Business Coach, towards the end of last year. Someone training at my gym became my unofficial business coach and was giving me business tips. He would give me some ideas for my business and then he introduced me to Tiani who he knew through the Chamber of Commerce. She had a chat to me about what Many Rivers could help me with.

Tiani has done heaps, from business planning, working through cashflow, looking at how Iron Palace is going so far and working with me to see how it can improve. She helped us out with a microloan that went toward our merchandise range including Iron Palace shirts, hoodies and hats. It is a combination of streetwear and gym wear. We bought 50 shirts, and they sold out within the first hour. We put in orders for hats, and they would sell straight away too. It created a big following for our brand and apparel has become an entirely new income stream. People will come to the gym just to purchase mechanise.

Another one hundred hoodies arrived just last week, and the first colour sold out within an hour! All of them sold out within a week. We now sponsor a bodybuilding competition with Iron Palace Apparel.

The business planning. I have done everything on my own but to have someone who I could bounce ideas off was the best thing. Just simple questions, rather than spending hours looking for answers to simple questions, I can just go to Tiani. It saves me a lot of time and has helped me grow faster than I otherwise would have. Sometimes she will give us the phone number of other people to call and talk to if they can help me out with my questions. Without the microloan Many Rivers gave us, we wouldn’t have the range of apparel that we do now. Without that extra income from the apparel, our cashflow would be a lot tighter. We would be managing, but we would not be doing as well as we are right now.

I come from a family where I never thought it would be possible for me to own my own business and now, I have a gym and an apparel line.

Biggest Challenge

I want to find a bigger space within a reasonable price soon because we are growing that quickly.

Biggest Success

We are reaching goals way earlier than I thought I would. Hitting a 5-year goal within the first year. Immediately I start chasing the 6-year goals, but I remind myself it still might take 6 years to get to that goal. It’s a good problem to have, I just need to pace myself.

Biggest Change

It’s been really good. It started as a hobby and has become my job. It’s about trying to manage and balance that. People don’t realise that managing a business is a 24/7 job. I get messages at midnight and to keep a high response rate on Facebook, I need to reply straight-away. We don’t spend as much time with the family because we have less free time but all with the hope that it pays off in the long run.

Future Goals

My coaching has blown up. It is past where I thought it would be even within the last month. I’m investing money in myself to learn from some of the best coaches in Australia. These are mentors that I look up to and they train some of the best athletes in Australia and the world. It is going to be exciting to see where we are going to be in a year. I don’t think we have a big enough car park for all these people!

Thank you Bradley for sharing your business journey. We look forward to working with you as your business journey continues. Follow Iron Place on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated with Bradley’s business journey.

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