sportsinjuryclinic.net

Mike is a qualified Sports Injury Therapist with a degree in Physical Education Sports Science and Physics. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and has been a teacher sports massage and sports science. Mike competed at National level in the Decathlon and is an experienced Hill Walker.

We spoke with Mike to find out more about his company:

Your name: Mike Walden

Position / title: Managing Director

Company name: Virtual Sports Injury Clinic Ltd

Website:

www.sportsinjuryclinic.net (and www.return2fitness.co.uk owned by my other company)

Your company / website vision statement / goal:

To provide easy to read sports injury information without the jargon 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):

Sports injury information. Basic information about an injury is available for free but more advanced rehabilitation, stretching, strengthening, sports massage, strapping and taping is available to subscribers only.

We also sell sports medical & rehabilitation products on our sister retail sites.

Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your previous jobs / companies?

Yes. My first business aged 14 was copying videos and renting them out to my mates – except I got the settings wrong and they all came out black and white.

Previous jobs include Army Officer Cadet – I spent 5 months at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and hated every day. I left – probably because I don’t like being told what to do and always think I can do things better.

I also ran a sports injury clinic and fitness training consultancy for 5 years. From this I went into teaching and qualified as a teacher of science & physics up to A-level but then got my first job teaching sports science.

I started the business whilst teaching with £20 second hand PC, a modem costing £10 and a copy of an Internet magazine. Total initial investment £33.50. We expect to turnover £250 000 in our second year of the retail site.

Have you got any qualifications? Please tell us about yourself academically?

I have done far too many qualifications and have promised myself I will not do any more.

I have O levels and GCSE’s, A levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry, Degree in Physical Education, sports science & Physics, Diploma in Fitness Training & Sports Therapy, Post Graduate Certificate in Education with Qualified Teacher Status.

Ironically although they have probably helped by training my mind I use virtually nothing I have learnt in Education (except for the Diploma in Fitness Training which was the shortest of all the courses). Virtually everything I do today is self taught.

How / when did the idea of your website / company come about?

As a sports injury therapist I estimated that only 1 in every 5 injured athletes I talked to would bother to make an appointment and get an injury fixed. I realized that left a lot of injured athletes that could log onto a web site and find some information with very little effort. I created a ‘Virtual Therapist’ that would ask the same questions I would as a therapist and demonstrate the tests I would use to narrow down the injury possibilities.

Once I had created a web site that lots of people would look at I would then figure out how to earn from it. If you have 100 000 people in your shop each month you are bound to sell something to some of them.

If you could give readers of this book one piece of advice what would it be?

Be determined and be obsessed. Everything in moderation is fine for most people but no-one ever achieved anything special by doing it in moderation.

That one is from me as far as I know. But a few other quotes have influenced me:

“If you want to be a millionaire, why do you spend so long sitting in front of the TV” – I read this in a magazine, put the magazine down and started playing with my PC.

If you are not a millionaire then you have not done everything within your power to become one.

There is no such thing as try – either do, or do not. Your choice.

Who are your role models / mentors and why?

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