Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and fitness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alex Shaw, owner of Whiskey Weight Loss, located in Plano, TX, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Whiskey Weight Loss is an online coaching service that helps whiskey drinkers shrink their gut without giving up their bourbon, scotch, and rye. We flip the traditional restriction mindset that is often associated with weight loss on its head. Instead of removing entire food and beverage groups, we focus on optimizing exercise and nutrition strategies to create room for the things our clients enjoy the most - sitting down with a nice pour.

Tell us about yourself

I have been into fitness and working out since a weight loss transformation in my teens, and helping people lose weight has been my career since my early 20s. I followed the traditional path of paying my dues as an intern before becoming a Personal Trainer in a big commercial gym.

The global pandemic of 2020 hit the personal training industry hard. It pushed me toward developing an online service so that I could continue to help my customers. So I created an online training service to do just that. At the same time, I was falling deeper into the online whiskey community. We would grab different bottles and compare thoughts and tasting notes. After hearing from friends about how traditional diets didn't allow them to continue to be part of the whiskey community, I realized there was an underserved market of whiskey drinkers who needed a weight loss service that would allow them to drop pounds and inches without giving up their favorite adult beverages.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Whenever I have a client who makes an amazing transformation (like losing 6 inches from their waist in 12 weeks), I consider that one of my biggest achievements. My enthusiasm for the business is always driven by how I can help people.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

In school or college, there is always a teacher to show you how to work through a problem you don't understand right away. As a business owner, you have to figure it out for yourself, and no one is coming to the rescue.
There is a lot of pressure that comes with that, but I also believe that is why owning a business can be so rewarding.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Keep overhead as low as possible when you open. Your business will evolve and change in ways you didn't even consider during your first 12 months, so being flexible financially is incredibly important.
  2. Create relationships with people in parallel fields who have an audience for your product. One of the best relationships I have made was with someone launching a bourbon brand who already had an audience to whom he was willing to let me provide value to.
  3. When marketing, choose one thing and get really good at it before spreading yourself too thin. If you try to learn Facebook ads, Google ads, network marketing, YouTube ads, and email marketing at the same time as a new business owner, it's hard to be good enough at any of them to create traction.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://whiskeyweightloss.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexshawfit/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.