Sift Talent's Matthew Evans speaks to Jamie Ward, chief executive of PayasUgym, to find out what he’s looking for in a financial controller.
Jamie Ward and Neil Harmsworth came up with the idea for PayasUgym - a start-up offering cheap day-passes and flexible memberships at local gyms - while training for a sporting event back in 2009. After getting frustrated with the available options they decided to launch a business to make it easier and cheaper for people to go to the gym.
The business is growing quickly and is now working alongside more than 2,200 gyms, allowing customers to purchase discounted gym and fitness class passes throughout the country, and has ambitions to grow further still.
Jamie Ward said the next logical phase in the growth of the business was getting an interim financial controller (FC) on board to help drive the business forward.
PayasUgym is entering this new stage, but Ward said they have always kept a clear focus on financial controls.
“One of our investors and board members has acted as an interim financial controller. Following the last round of investment, which saw some early stage venture capital come into the business, we decided that we needed a next level financial controller with specific experience and skills to help us.
“By that I mean someone with experience in e-commerce business and experience of a business with a high volume of transactions,” he said.
Ward explained that they have 25,000 transactions going through each day and so consolidating those at the end of the month is not a straightforward process.
On the key skills and strengths the business is looking for in a financial controller, Ward said the person must be able to work with other teams.
“We are looking for someone who can work effortlessly with other teams - from the development teams to the marketing and sales teams. They will need to consolidate information from all the different teams,” Ward said.
In addition to being very good with numbers and having an understanding of what their requirements are at this stage of their growth, the candidate will need to be able to take a strategic view, he explained.
“Having an understanding of cash flow management and an ability to pull together the relevant reporting and upwards manage and advise on those aspects of the business,” Ward added.
To help drive the business forward, Ward explained that people who grow and develop within the business are those people who are fully engaged and have bought into the concept.
“We want someone with a positive attitude and a high level of motivation and they need to want to work in a high pace, high growth environment.
“This is not a corporate; we don’t work in that manner. We need somebody who can swim within a fast paced environment,” he added.
The initial job to be done is quite transactional and data heavy, but following that they want somebody who will be able to interpret the analysis themselves rather than just produce analysis.
On the medium to long-term plans for the business, Ward said that in addition to UK growth, by 2016 they want to have launched within a new region.
“The ideal scenario is that each year after 2016 we will roll out into a new region every few months by having in place a packaged blueprint model ready for launching where we see a new opportunity,” he explained. “We see opportunities in both Europe and globally. We’re operating out of a £5bn UK market and a £70bn market globally so there is plenty of opportunity for us to go out into a number of different regions.”
He added that the fitness industry has been "archaic" in its business model and in its approach to adapting to change.
“Consumers will drive the change and the early adopters will be the winners, both in terms of gaining new customers and in building customer confidence in their products. The markets will always adopt the best way to use it and if gyms are not adapting to the new model they will not get the new wave of customers coming into the market,” Ward said.
For the full interview with Jamie Ward visit our sister organisation Sift Talent.
Payasugym make it easier and cheaper for people to go to the gym. No sales people. No fuss. Find the right gym for you and get fit on your terms.
Would you like to work at Payasugym? well good news they are hiring. Learn more or contact [email protected] or call 0117 3144624.