Back to Locker Room

Kaizen Strength, Craigavon

Conleth McAlienden, owner of Kaizen Strength Training Gym has been a long time friend of ours here at BLK BOX. His journey is the perfect example of how to grow a business. The gym is based in Aghagallon, a few miles between Lurgan in Northern Ireland. The story of Kaizen’s inception and growth over the past few years has been intertwined with that of BLK BOX. Conleth gives an overview of how he has grown his business from coaching a small number of people to running an extremely successful business model with 200 members.

Phase 1 - The Inception of Kaizen Strength (1- 15 members)

I was always an avid gym-goer so after some feeling around I decided I wanted to become a coach. I reached out to Gregory for advice and he pointed me in the direction of some solid resources on coaching, business and marketing and lent me books to help me along. The knowledge gained from those initial classics like ‘Think & Grow Rich’ , ‘How to Win Friend & Influence People’ and ‘How to Make Even More Money in the Fitness Industry’ and others formed the fundamentals of my business knowledge that stands to this day. I had a modest amount of money available, I purchased a Wall Mounted Squat Rack and a few weights. I painted, floored and kit out a small adjoined garage and started training my first few clients. That helpful advice, book donations and general kindness would form the basis of Kaizen Strength’s relationship with BLK BOX. In a world of quick sells and shady business tactics, the fact BLK BOX has been built on delivering value for the customer a reason behind its growth.

Phase 2 - A New HQ (16 - 50 members)

After 6 months in our modest facility, we made the jump to a larger unit. BLK BOX worked closely with us based on how we operated, what we had planned and what we wanted. I had a vision of how I wanted the gym to look. BLK BOX were able to translate this into a CAD drawing that could help me bring this vision to life. The order was turned around promptly and we got moving. In a short space of time, my dream gym was a reality, the team at BLK BOX helped me bring that to life. We now had a new facility to use as a vehicle to deliver our approach to training to a larger audience.

Phase 3 - Maximising Space (50- 65 members )

Towards the end of 2017, as our training systems evolved we were starting to reach the limits of our gym layout. In a space around 900sqft we needed to make use of every inch with our growing member base. We invested in converting our existing 3 Bay Wall Mounted Rack to three Small Group Training Pods with interconnected storage. This switch allowed us to expand our timetable and open up more memberships without having to concede the standards that had led to our initial success. The fact that the entire BLK BOX rack range is modular allowed us to easily make this switch. It has also allowed us to make each Pod a fully independent training station kitted with dip, hip thrust and other attachments that make programming for Groups significantly easier.