Shape Up: The Dhairya Udeshi Endeavour, Offering Personalized, Purpose-Driven Fitness Programs
One of the prominent names in Dubai’s fitness industry, Shape Up LLC began its journey in 2017 to offer personalised and group training services to help its clients in their fitness journeys. It was envisioned to become the number one personal training company in Dubai in the next 5 years by serving its clients in the best possible way.
Founded by Dhairya Udeshi, a renowned fitness coach and trainer, Shape Up is headquartered in Sharjah, UAE, and has secured a sizable client base across Dubai, the US, Singapore, and India.
Shape Up’s rich portfolio accommodates an exclusive suite of specialised services and training programs that help people of all ages reduce weight, gain muscle, and increase their stamina. Depending on the client’s choice, training sessions can be conducted online, at home, in the gym, or outside. Further, they specialise in treating clients, suffering from:
• Disc issues
• Knee, shoulder, and elbow pain
• Diabetes
• Blood pressure
• Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis
• Fibromyalgia
Apart from fitness programs, the company also offers life coaching in health, career, and confidence. It has helped Shape Up to diversify its business and get more clients.
Dhairya Udeshi, The Vibrant and Enthusiastic Entrepreneur
Dhairya Udeshi, the Executive Director of Shape Up, is a seasoned professional and leader in the fitness industry. He comes up with over a decade of experience in personal transformation. He has successfully trained 100+ individuals and can bring the best out of his students during his training sessions.
During his job, Dhairya found that not everyone likes to exercise in a gym. People prefer to exercise outside in the open air or their backyard gardens since it saves them time on their commutes. The Shape Up team made this possible and started carrying equipment for outdoor training like weights, battle ropes, resistance bands for both arms and legs, cones for agility, medicine balls, and step-up boards.
With these, the client would never feel like they were missing out on not going to the gym and would get a similar feeling that they were doing a complete workout. During COVID, the company decided to shift their programs online. This step enables the team to take their programer on the global market.
Evolution of the Fitness Industry Over the Years
Over the past seven years, there has been a significant shift in the fitness business about skills, marketing, and clientele growth. When they started the company in 2017, the database of clients was small, and therefore the anxiety was high about how they would get clients.
The first six months were difficult and required a lot of advertising and word-of-mouth recommendations. Eventually, mostly through word of mouth, things began changing, and many customers began to sign up.
Significance of R&D Behind Shape Up’s Remarkable Growth
R&D is crucial to any company’s expansion. Without doing thorough research, a business will not be able to sustain itself for a long time. According to Dhairya, research and development (R&D) should be conducted continuously every three to six months. This would enable a company to innovate and make improvements to keep up with changes in the market.
The Result-oriented Advertising Strategies
Word-of-mouth is the main marketing method at Shape Up. The fitness industry is very similar to the medical industry, where most of the sales happen by word of mouth, as it’s all about trust.
Besides, the team is actively involved in social media marketing, where they share transformation videos and photo posts. Another marketing strategy they use is to post flyers on the bulletin boards of famous supermarkets. Since there is a lot of foot traffic, more and more individuals can view the advertisement, which increases the number of inquiries.
Dhairya’s Distinctive Approach to Leadership
According to Dhariya, leadership is where you need to show direction and take the person along with you. This may be your colleague, or it can be your client. Being a leader is more than just imposing your will on others and giving them tasks to complete.
Instead, it involves leading the individual down the right path and supporting them at every turn. Even with the client, leadership quality is important, as you need to be in charge of the session to guide the client in the session so that the client develops mutual respect for his or her trainer.
Nurturing a Flexible and Friendly Work Culture
The work environment at Shape Up is welcoming and adaptable, with no set 8–9 work schedule. Everything depends on how many sessions are held each day. You might have more sessions on some days and fewer on others.
Dhairya assures his team that they are not working under the pressure of achieving the target. Instead, their focus should be on making customers satisfied and happy.
“Numer is important to survive in the market, but when employees put in their work, profits will happen,” the leading man quoted.
“We believe if the customers are happy and satisfied with the service, they will anyway renew their sessions, which will bring in more customers for us through word of mouth,” he further added.
Achievements and Future Plans
In a journey of more than seven years, Shape Up has solidified its position as a reliable and well-known service provider in the fitness industry. One of the remarkable achievements of Shape Up is the number of happy clients and the positive reviews and ratings the company has received over the years.
Further, the company is planning to expand its presence across different parts of the world and hire more trainers in different fields such as Pilates, Zumba, and yoga.
Words of Wisdom
Dhairya Udeshi advises young entrepreneurs that in business, you will always have ups and downs. What is important is to stick to your basics, keep working hard, keep studying the market, and try different things that can bring in new customers and retain old ones.
Honesty and customer satisfaction are the keys to any business. If you are greedy and running behind money, you may end up losing your customers, which ultimately can tarnish your image.
