Hectic Lifestyles – Star Business of the Month – August 2014

Hectic Lifestyles

I have always been fascinated by the world of business and knew I would run my own one day.After a sporting accident in 2009, I damaged my knee requiring multiple surgical interventions including an experimental surgery. Due to this I was unable to walk for six months and couldn’t continue my job, so decided to spend my recovery period building something positive out of this unfortunate situation. I started Hectic Lifestyles after identifying a gap in the market and filling it with a product I found in Ireland.

Hectic Sports

Raising initial capital was the first hurdle I encountered as I didn’t want to borrow money from family or banks, so I saved carefully and used this to invest in stock and marketing. To reduce set up costs, I immersed myself into all aspects of business including branding, web design, online and offline sales and business strategy. As products sold, I re-invested profit into the company for further product lines and marketing to expand without debt and saw substantial year-on-year financial growth.

Bal Sandher

Today, Hectic Lifestyles Ltd is a multi-channel, online health and supplement retailer and distributor. We currently run two distinct brands, ‘Hectic Lifestyles’ and ‘Hectic Sports’, selling over 120 different nutritional products to consumers in 150 countries world-wide. We aim to cater to the ever growing demand of customers who work long hours in their jobs and have very little time to go to the gym or exercise. Our products are aimed to assist and maximise their efforts. Rather than selling the products of other companies, all of ours are produced and branded exclusively for us. This gives us incredible flexibility with innovative formulas, as well as the ability to market our brand with complete control. The ‘Hectic Lifestyles’ concept is relatable for a lot of our customers, meaning we have a lot of recurring custom.
The biggest milestone to date was moving to a new, larger warehouse and purchasing manufacturing machinery ready for the recent launch of our B2B wholesale brand, ‘Nutra Direct’. The development of the company as a whole and very swift expansion of Nutra Direct means we are already looking at an additional site to utilise for manufacturing and extra office space.

My vision for Hectic Lifestyles Ltd has always been to become a trusted and responsible leader in the supplements and sports nutrition field by providing the best quality products and realistic, useful advice to consumers no matter their health targets. I want to grow the company to provide local employment with a fun and flexible working culture – our employees are so important to us and we hope that we can nurture and grow their careers as Hectic Lifestyles evolves. We also believe in cultivating emerging talent will shortly be hiring apprentices in various areas through the Canterbury College Apprentice Scheme to offer hands-on work experience.

I’m so proud of how far Hectic Lifestyles has come and most recently won Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Kent Excellence in Business Awards. For the next generation of budding business owners my advice would be:

“Make sure you research your prospective market thoroughly. Planning and preparation is always the key, and above all, work hard – it will all be worth it.”

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Launching the Kent Foundation Promotional Video

So here’s the launch of our brand spanking new promotional video, we don’t really need to say too much here, so what are you waiting for? Get your popcorn at the ready give it a watch and let us know what you think in the comments below:

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Video produced and directed by Foxbite Media which is owned and run by two young entrepreneurs based in Folkestone.

The stars featuring in the video are: