Dan was recently interviewed by Tim Karajas on the Extension Fitness podcast. This is part one of a two part conversation between Tim and Dan.

Today, you’ll hear Tim ask Dan about whether there are clues he can pick up on when first speaking with a business owner that let him predict whether a fitness business will be successful.

Dan talks about the importance of being unique, how to test new ideas quickly, and the importance of designing your business around the life you want to have.

Tim finishes by asking Dan to distil what it takes to be successful in business down to three points.

• Why being different is more achievable (and more effective) than being better than your competition.

• How niching down—sometimes to an extreme—can unlock loyal client bases and long-term business success.

• What a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is and how to use it to test ideas with minimal risk and effort.

• Why quitting fast can sometimes be smarter than persisting with the wrong business idea.

• How Dan reverse-engineered his business to support the lifestyle he wanted as a dad.

• A simple 3-step framework for building a successful business through value creation, marketing, and value delivery.

1. Define a unique problem your fitness business solves and make that the centre of your offering.

2. Build a minimum viable product that looks complete from the outside but takes minimal time and cost to test.

3. Use feedback and traction (or lack of it) to decide quickly whether to evolve or abandon your business idea.

4. Focus your marketing on making your uniqueness obvious, not just your qualifications or features.

5. Deliver an experience so good that clients can't help but talk about it—make referrals effortless.