Starting The Boxing Shop was a dream that started with $0 and a lot of hard work.
I’ve heard many comments both direct and indirect about how we are “so lucky because we have a big club” yet everybody laughed when I said im going to open up a full time boxing gym, ” you cant make boxing work,your better off staying in your job and do it slowly” well 14 years later we now have the Gym,Athletes, School programs, employees from our students and a community group that cannot be beaten (imagine if I had have stayed in the job I hated and done it slowly….20 years plus it would have taken me to have any success).
Most people don’t know that building from my mates backyard shed to where we are now, drawing zero dollars for many years has been a struggle, but one I would not change.
After growing from day one,my aim after many meetings was actually to open The boxing shop at Chandler in the current badminton space. I actually believed I was going into a meeting to sign a lease when the bomb was dropped.”sorry mate but we have decided to stay with Badminton as our tenant”,I felt hollow and lifeless as the meeting continued and I couldn’t get out of the building quick enough,I sat in my car in the car park for a few hours just going over the thoughts in my head and driving myself crazy thinking ,where did it all go wrong?
Looking back now this was the best thing that could have happened to me as I pulled together all my contacts and resources and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I was training a university group at Griffith,Nathan Campus ,twice per week where an old football coach of mine was the guy who had set this up,after the meeting with Chandler I had a 6 pm class at Griffith , as I walked in sheepishly and said to my old mate,”you don’t want to open a boxing gym do you” ,Maybe said Marty,and as they say the rest is history.
We talked terms and as I was on the bones of my arse financially,i needed a lease where I didn’t have to pay rent for a short time,so we arranged that I would provide classes and Boot camps for students and staff to help fund my way as I got started.
An other small problem was,not only did I have any money,I also had no equipment other than 4 pairs of gloves and 4 pairs of focus pads,so I had to think outside the box as to how I could deck out my boxing gym without any equipment.
I organised a meeting with Madison sports to discuss the opportunity that Id been given with Griffith University ,to cut a long story short, we came to terms in the meeting and I walked away with a 70% equipped boxing gym just minus a few items including a boxing ring ,so i was ready to open the doors in Feb 2007.
As Ive always said,you have to think outside the box if you want to succeed,You have to do what others are afraid of doing,Who cares if you fail,at least you had a go!
Listen to The Podcast to learn more about the Early days Starting in a backyard shed
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-boxing-shop-started-in-a-shed/id1443803831?i=1000424545882
Gareth Williams
