Written by Nick Gies, co-founder
A note on ‘Our Story’ - We believe that to truly have a great business, you need to have a genuine connection with your clients. We want to pull back the curtain and show you who we are, where we came from, and what we’re trying to build. We hope it helps you feel a deeper connection with us.
Let’s Get Into It
Like many small businesses, Speed School didn’t start with a fleshed-out business plan, a tantalizing pitch deck, or some grand vision of becoming a major player in the YYC athlete training scene.
It started with two coaches, a shared frustration, and a pretty casual idea that almost didn’t happen.
Where It Started
Matt and I first connected in 2018 at a training facility where we were both working (the facility shall remain nameless, but if you know, you know). He came on as a Strength & Conditioning intern; I was already a senior coach with about 6 years of experience under my belt. He ended up interning directly under me. We quickly built a solid working relationship and eventually a real friendship.
By September 2019, the working environment at that facility had become increasingly toxic. Rather than pushing through, we both decided to leave and pursue training independently. Coincidentally, we ended up training out of the same gym space, running our own separate businesses, but crossing paths every day.
That overlap continued a growing professional relationship.
A Name on a Whim
Funnily enough, we both lived in Chestermere about 30 seconds down the road from each other. We thought it would be a no-brainer to start offering training closer to where we lived, as there was no real competition in our area.
In late 2019, we started looking at what facilities were available for rent. This led us to reaching out to the local Rec Centre. One day, Matt and I were sitting in the administrator’s office discussing available rental spaces and fees. Somewhere during that conversation, the name “Chestermere Speed School” just popped into my head.
That was it.
No extensive branding exercises. No deep thought. Just a name that made sense.
We both lived in Chestermere. We liked training athletes. And athletes need speed.
As we walked out of that meeting, I mentioned the idea to Matt. He said “Dude, that’s literally the best idea I’ve ever heard” (or something to that effect…), and we went for a coffee to sketch out the bones of what Chestermere Speed School might look like.
Later that night I crafted a very lame version 1.0 of our logo on Canva, but it was ours…
…and we loved it.
Our Grand Vision
At the time, our expectations were incredibly modest. To put it bluntly, we didn’t even have expectations.
The idea was simple: train some athletes together, make a few thousand dollars, and hopefully buy a set of timing lasers we could both use with our other clients.
That was the “business plan.”
There were no grand plans of building a real company. We literally wanted to see if we could make $2000 to buy some tech.
In December 2019, we officially formed a business partnership. We didn’t have a website, client list, or reputation. I’m sure some people thought we were nuts.
In February 2020, about a month before the first COVID lockdown, we ran our very first sessions. This was the official start of the Speed School saga.
Our One Rule
Making a living as a fitness professional is tough. Many doe-eyed trainers leave the industry within a couple of years because they can’t bring in enough to survive.
When we started Speed School, we were both struggling trainers (with wives who wanted husbands who actually made a steady paycheque), and because of that, we made a non-negotiable decision:
We would not take on debt.
Everything had to be funded by the business itself. That meant we didn’t buy anything unless we had cash in the business bank account. No shiny new equipment. No marketing spend. Nothing!
The only upfront cost was a $100 business license. That’s it.
If our bank account started to build up, we then deployed that cash to drive the business forward. Make a couple grand, draw it down to zero. Rinse and Repeat. Things were lean, but this was how we learned what mattered, and what didn’t, in building an athlete training business.
This is still true to this day, which is a point of pride for us.
But to be honest, there were plenty of moments where we really wanted to.
However, this self-imposed scarcity forced us to build an efficient business model using only the tools we already had. It made us intentional with where we spent money, where we spent time, and what actually mattered.
Getting Our First Clients (and Getting Pricing Wrong)
Flash back to the weeks leading up to February 2020. Through pure cold calling and Facebook posting, we managed to convince a handful of local families to trust a new company and to give us their hard-earned money.
Man, that felt awesome. People actually wanted to work with us and give us their money! But we learned a hard, but fundamental, truth:
The Goal of Business is to Stay in Business.
That means you need to actually turn a profit or you won’t be in business very long.
By not valuing the service we were providing, we undercharged our programs.
Like by a lot.
This meant that despite people willing to give us money, we weren’t keeping enough of it to properly grow the business.
Our first year in business, we made a whopping $50,000. Total. Before costs. Split between the two of us. Not very sustainable.
Luckily, we still had our own personal training businesses on the side to keep the lights on and keep the dream alive a little longer.
Once we started to understand profit margins and cash flow management, we started cooking with gas. We were able to start paying ourselves a regular wage and had spare cash to help take Speed School to the next level.
COVID: Brutal, But Clarifying
February 2020 was probably the worst time to start a business.
About a month after we opened our doors, COVID hit.
And then came lockdown, after lockdown…after lockdown.
But there was an unexpected upside. TIME.
We had weeks of forced downtime that allowed us to improve our business.
Better offerings, redesigned systems, improved processes. We iterated constantly.
I can honestly say that I don’t think Speed School would be what it is today if we didn’t have this time to work on the business.
Key Lesson: Don’t let perfect get in the way of good enough. Your first crack at something won’t be the finished product. You just need to start and refine as you go. That’s been the Speed School mantra for everything we’ve done as a business.
The Garage Era
In the early days of the lockdowns, the majority of our programs ran out of my garage.
At first, my wife wouldn’t even let us use the whole space—we were limited to half the garage.
2 thick rubber mats. A pair of squat stands. A single bench. A weight vest and a few kettlebells. This, with a few other odds and ends, was what we had to work with (see for yourself!).
It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked.
Part of me still longs for those days when I could wake up on a cool fall day, pour myself a cup of fresh coffee, step into my pair of worn out Birk’s, and walk 20 steps to my garage with a handful of sleepy high school kids ready to get training.
You don’t realize what you’ll miss when you are focused on making ends meet…maybe there’s a lesson in there somewhere?
Expansion
By 2022, we started thinking, “This Speed School thing is actually kind of fun…and maybe it could become a bigger part of our income.”
Why shouldn’t we take this thing to the next level?
At the same time, it became clear that Chestermere wasn’t the market we wanted to scale into.
It lacked facilities. The client base was small. If we wanted Speed School to grow, we needed a bigger market.
We both ran personal training businesses out of Calgary, and thought, why not take our Chestermere model and transfer it to the big city?
That’s when we started offering programs in Calgary, while still running our Chestermere sessions. We ran sessions after school for our Calgary athletes, and then 1 of us would head back to Chestermere to run our other programs.
After about a year, we realized running programs in two locations was spreading us too thin.
We made the call to shut down Chestermere and focus on our Calgary location.
Going All In (Together)
By late 2023, Speed School was generating more revenue than either of our individual training businesses. The administrative burden of running our own businesses, while trying to grow another, was taking its toll.
That led to a big decision: we combined everything.
Everything was brought under one business—Speed School.
“Short-term pain leads to long-term gain.” For any independent contractor, this is a tough move. In the short term, you take a financial hit because revenue is now shared. But long-term, it created space.
We could rely on each other:
One of us could coach paid sessions,
Or focus on sales calls,
Or actually take a real vacation.
That flexibility mattered more than we realized at the time.
The Tiny Gym Phase
After deciding to focus on our Calgary location, the location we set up shop in was very small —less than 800 square feet of training space. Better than the garage days, but not ideal.
We knew we needed to expand. We just had no idea how.
Then, through sheer luck, everything changed.
The landlord of the facility we trained out of (which we were subleasing from another gym) decided to end that lease and offer it to a different tenant. That kicked off a mad scramble to find a new home for our athletes.
Fortunately, in March 2024, the same gym we were subleasing from found a new space just one block away—over six times the size!
We moved into the new facility in July 2024, with minimal downtime to our programs.
And that’s where we still are today.
This new space has allowed us to more than triple our capacity, bring on support staff, expand our offerings, and allow us to pursue a stronger vision of what we want Speed School to be for our clients.
So much for our grand vision of making $2000 for sprint lasers!
The Future
I’ve always struggled with vision boards and ultra-detailed goal setting. Creating a precise picture of what I want my future to look like has never felt quite right.
When you’re building a business, too much can change along the way. Locking yourself into a rigid vision can limit growth or hinder other opportunities.
That said, having a general direction matters. It gives you something to measure against, and a way to course-correct if you start drifting too far from what you actually want.
As my boy Seneca said, “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable“.
So where do we want Speed School to go?
There are a few things that excite us:
Hire some full-time staff
Build a thriving in-house sports therapy clinic
Have our own facility
Do we have a timeline? No.
Is this a complete list? Definitely not.
Will we fail at some of this? Very likely.
But are we excited to continue this crazy ride? Hell Yeah!