Nick Ferguson, 2009 Anthill 30under30 winner

What is 30under30?

30under30 is an Anthill initiative that was launched in early 2008 to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among young Australians. Each year, we invite our readers to nominate young Australian entrepreneurs deserving of recognition for their outstanding entrepreneurial endeavours. Anthill’s editorial team then trawls through hundreds of applications and identifies and profiles the top 30 Australian entrepreneurs under the age of 30. The process culminates in an event held in Melbourne where the 30 winners will network and celebrate. We’ll be releasing this year’s Anthill 30under30 winners over the next couple of weeks via our Twitter account – youngest to oldest.

Name: Nick Ferguson

Age: 19 (b. 1990)
State: SA
Industry: Fitness
Company: Sustain Fitness

At 19 years of age, Nick Ferguson is our youngest 30under30 winner for 2009.

He is owner and founder of Sustain Fitness, a fitness advisory and resource development company he launched in 2007 while still in Year 12. During that year, Ferguson was hospitalised with a severe illness. He used the time to channel his drive and commitment into entrepreneurial ways.

Sustain Fitness involves so much more than Nick playing drill sergeant to sweaty clients. He offers public speaking and seminars, group fitness classes, fitness advising, goal-setting consultations and resource development.

“I whip people into a new direction to help them reach heights they never before thought possible,” says Ferguson. “From fitness, to career paths, to releasing entrepreneurial flair, I help people take action and plan out an approach to their goal, anticipating and eliminating their roadblocks and maximising their chance at success.”

After suffering a 75 percent cut to income in January this year, due to client budget cuts, he re-evaluated his product/service offerings as ‘luxury’ and tailored a condensed service into a ‘do-it-yourself’ step-by-step model that removed the need for a trainer and resulted in an extra $5k in its first month.

Currently in his second financial year in business, Ferguson and has had 100% revenue and profit growth in the space of one year. He’s forecasting similar healthy growth for this financial year.

According to Nick:

I started Sustain Fitness while studying Year 12, a personal training course and working at a gym.

Therefore:

(Study 1 + Study 2) x (Employment 1 + Business Building 1)

=

(Social life 0 + Sleep 0 + Money 0 + Craziness factor 10)

Most importantly, in 18 months, I have solved problems for 2 companies, 54 clients, 7 CEOs, 5 managers, 12 athletes and one budding business. Mine.