BC Business
Founder and CEO
AGE: 27
COMPANY: Vibes Fitness Inc.
“Relying almost solely on word-of-mouth marketing, Vibes Fitness now includes four franchised locations in Victoria and one corporate-owned studio in Vancouver”
The Story: Growing up with four brothers and playing golf in a town with very few female golfers, Thunder Bay, Ontario, native Jessica Cruise was used to being outnumbered—which would prove good training for the future entrepreneur. In 2008, armed with a diploma in golf course operation management from Victoria’s Camosun College, Cruise took a sales job in Kelowna with a condo development company. On a whim one day, she decided to do a free trial workout on vibration equipment at a nearby gym. While she knew nothing about the technology behind the machines, the results surprised her: driving home the same day, she recalls trying to put her foot on the clutch “and my quads were shaking—they were so fatigued.” She bought a month-long membership, fell in love with the machines and realized the business potential in crafting a customized workout where people would receive instruction from a personal trainer on using the highly efficient, low-impact equipment. “The machines were amazing,” she says, “but the people running the gym were not training people on them; they were essentially just renting them out for 15 minutes.” Less than a year later, the first Vibes Fitness opened in Victoria.
Markers of Success: Relying almost solely on word-of-mouth marketing, Vibes Fitness now includes four franchised locations in Victoria and one corporate-owned studio in Vancouver. Cruise has plans to open more locations in the Lower Mainland and eventually go nationwide, but finding the right owners is her priority. All of her franchisees are former clients, she notes: “We want people who love what they’re doing.” —Alix Drabek
Meet Jessica Cruise and the rest of the 2015 30 Under 30 winners at this year’s celebration event!