Interview: Scottish Gladiators star Sabre and owner of Dundee's Sweatbox gym Sheli McCoy on how SMEs can learn from the sporting world

“I’m a prime example of never giving up.”

Scotland's Sheli McCoy is an Olympic weightlifter, CrossFit athlete, and has been starring as Sabre in revived BBC TV show Gladiators – while she has also combined her fitness skills with business acumen in her role as co-owner of the Sweatbox gym in Dundee. Now she is also keen to share her insights into how lessons from exercise can translate into the world of entrepreneurship, and has teamed up with not-for-profit, government-backed campaign Smart Energy GB to show how (sometimes controversial) smart meters can help small businesses. (A Scottish entrepreneur to have been active in related fields is Steve Timoney, who in 1995 founded Smart Metering Systems, and in 2022 along with wife Alison bought the East Kilbride-based basketball team Caledonia Gladiators.)

Sheli, can you explain how you came to co-found Sweatbox, and give details on your career as an athlete?

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I always wanted to open a facility that would allow me to combine my range of skills and offer a well-rounded service, so I began to mentally build my dream health hub, now affectionately known as Sweatbox, which is home to both CrossFit Dundee, a registered affiliate of CrossFit, and the Scottish Weightlifting Club, a registered affiliate of British weightlifting.

'In running my business, I feel very grateful working with such an engaged community in such a welcoming environment,' says the entrepreneur. Picture: contributed.'In running my business, I feel very grateful working with such an engaged community in such a welcoming environment,' says the entrepreneur. Picture: contributed.
'In running my business, I feel very grateful working with such an engaged community in such a welcoming environment,' says the entrepreneur. Picture: contributed.

I have worked as a personal trainer for more than 13 years, and have ten years’ experience as a CrossFit coach. I have a real passion for working with others to form habits for a healthy and happy lifestyle, and enjoy using my coaching skills and motivating my members and clients to achieve their goals.

I’ve been competing in CrossFit for ten years and as an Olympic weightlifter for about eight. I only started going to the gym to lose weight and feel healthier and happier, but I fell in love with pushing my abilities and the feeling of personal accomplishment each day gave. I’ve competed in teams, individually and internationally. I feel I owe a lot to these sports as they really gave me purpose at a time I felt I had none.

How can sporting concepts such as marginal gains, goal-setting, perseverance, and teamwork also be applied to achieve success in business? What do you like best about running a company?

Every day is an opportunity to better yourself, your business, and the potential outcomes of your efforts. Something I find helpful is using the concept of marginal gains – incremental improvements that build to significantly boost performance – and the way I apply this in the sporting world can be applied to small businesses too.

McCoy appearing as Sabre in revived BBC TV show Gladiators. Picture: BBC.McCoy appearing as Sabre in revived BBC TV show Gladiators. Picture: BBC.
McCoy appearing as Sabre in revived BBC TV show Gladiators. Picture: BBC.

For us, this looks like using technology to monitor performance, increasing the number of memberships we secure, improving admin and communication strategies, and/or offering more classes, for example. Each of these pushes our business and service forward 1 per cent, and helps to contribute to long-term success. I do the same in my athletic career, where I’m always searching for small improvements every day across nutrition, technology sleep, hydration, mobility etc.

In running my business, I feel very grateful working with such an engaged community in such a welcoming environment, and it’s still overwhelming to know I created those. It’s not always going to be easy, whether it be business or personal goals, athletic or otherwise, but perseverance reaps rewards in all of these endeavours, and I think I’m a prime example of never giving up, even when the going gets rough.

A survey commissioned by Smart Energy GB found that two-thirds of Scottish small business-owners say they want to make changes to the way they run their company, but aren’t sure where to start. What other advice would you give them?

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There are so many business support networks in Scotland that small company-owners can look to for help or to get started. For example, in Dundee, the university has its own entrepreneurs hub where you can talk over ideas and plans, and get advice. I would also suggest talking to your customers to gain insight into what they actually want and need, and how you can better deliver that product or service. Business forecasting with dream scenarios is also something I find really useful, looking at what you could create in six months, and one and three years.

The survey also found that 92 per cent of Scottish small business-owners say they cannot afford to waste energy amid high bills. What is a good way to save energy (and other costs) as a business-owner – athletes must also have to keep an eye on how they use physical energy to be as efficient as possible?

At Sweatbox, we closely watch our income and expenses each month. We are also getting a smart meter installed, so we’ll no longer have to do manual meter readings or have estimated bills. It’s a useful way to ensure we’re only paying for the energy we’re using and it will help us to identify where we can make cost savings. A smart meter is another good example of where marginal gains theory can be helpful in business – a small change that can contribute to long-term business success and overall performance.

I use smart technology every day for insights into my personal energy use too – like my step count, to monitor my heart rate when training, and also to track my sleep. That helps me to improve my overall performance so it was inevitable these habits would transfer to my business approach.

There are so many examples of amazing athletes whom I respect deeply. Many have become business-owners, leaders in their industry, and service-providers leaning on their sporting experience as knowledge and insight into a potential service/product gap. In all honesty, there isn’t a single individual who has impacted my ambition or business acumen any more than my own mother, brother, and friends, who have set examples of hard work and success.

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