Shaun Karp knows it takes more than big muscles to make a successful business.
The 39-year-old owner of Karp Health Services is a former Mr. B.C. champion bodybuilder, but he believes it’s his big ideas and bottom-line approach that led him to success.
“To me it’s the big picture and I think that’s the key,” said Karp. “First, you have to make sure there’s a customer base and once you find that niche market, then you need to figure out how to service it.”
He graduated from Simon Fraser University in 1992 with a major in political science, but Karp found his passion for personal fitness was the niche market he wanted to serve.
“I was in the gym all the time anyway and people would always ask me questions … so it was a natural evolution,” he said.
Soon after, he became a certified personal trainer, and now his company provides personal training, injury rehabilitation and homecare services throughout the Lower Mainland.
Last year, Karp said his business recorded almost $5 million in revenue and employed 70 staff.
He said good customer service and objective results are the secret to the business of personal fitness.
“We like to provide objective results like show people on paper, ‘This is how many pounds you lost,’” he said. “Because a lot of times people go back to this subjective interpretation like how they feel and that can change on a day-to-day basis.”
He also said his company’s specialization in personal injury rehabilitation has helped it carve a niche in the fitness market that other companies don’t fill.
Although his body-building days are over, Karp has his eyes set on the future with a new abdominal trainer he invented called the Abdometer. He said the device will hit markets next year. •
