Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Igor Klibanov, CEO and Owner of Fitness Solutions Plus, located in Toronto, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My business is personal fitness training, and my customers are people with what I call the "Big 4 + 1." The "Big 4" being high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis. The +1 is menopause.
Tell us about yourself
Up until grade 12, I thought I was going to be a computer programmer. My dad was a computer engineer, and thought it would make sense for me to follow that career path as well. Too bad that I didn't care much for computers and didn't have much of an aptitude for them. To this day, I'm probably in the last 10% to adopt new technology. The only reason I don't use a rotary phone anymore is because they don't sell them. Yeah. I'm a dinosaur. A 28-year-old dinosaur.
So going into grade 12, I still thought I would be a computer programmer. Therefore, one of the courses that I picked was computer programming. Fortunately, only 2 other people picked computer programming, for a grand total of 3 people in that class. Because of insufficient registrations, the school had to cancel that class, to my delight. Awesome. I was left with a spare class. A spare meant you could spend 1 hour, 3 times per week doing whatever you pleased—either catching up on homework, or sleeping, or whatever.
But, I heard that there was an exercise science class running. That seemed to be up my alley, but it was a tough decision to make: free time or exercise science class. Extra work or no extra work. After much deliberation, I decided to go with the exercise science class, while over 90% of my peers chose free time. My teacher in the exercise science class was Suzanne Gluchy, and thanks to her, I actually started to consider the possibility of a career in fitness. The middle of grade 12 came, and it was time to start selecting which programs and universities you would apply to. I chose (without initially telling my parents) kinesiology at York University.
And then my parents found out. You know what happens in a Russian household when you disobey your parents? The guillotine comes out. So after some long fights with my parents and them trying to talk me out of it, I didn't back down and did end up going to York University for kinesiology. Looking back at it now, it seems like a bunch of huge flukes that I ended up where I am today…
You may read the full story at this link: https://www.fitnesssolutionsplus.ca/blog/origin-story.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Growing my business 12-fold without any background in sales or marketing, publishing 8 books on exercise and nutrition, performing over 400 speaking engagements to some of Canada's largest corporations, winning multiple "Young Entrepreneur" awards, and more.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Initially, it was lead generation. Once that problem was solved, it was hiring good people.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be analytical - analyze what works and what doesn't.
- Expect more failures than successes. Learn from the failures, and move on. For the successes, do more of them.
- Keep reading and generating new ideas on how to grow your business.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.fitnesssolutionsplus.ca/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorklibanov/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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