OnerActive’s Krissy Cela on How She Built a Million Dollar Fitness Empire

Now I see that being an immigrant helps me understand people and has contributed to my success. I now run two fitness businesses that together have grossed over $70 million.

My parents taught me to work hard

When I was five, my family traveled from Albania to the UK via Greece by lorry and then by small boat. About five years later we received our British citizenship. I didn’t know what was going on then, I thought it was a holiday. But I struggled with clashing cultures at home and abroad. I wanted to be like the girls at school, but then I would come home and be told to dress and act differently.

But as I got older I realized that not all cultures have the same approach to life and you have to encourage people to be proud rather than suppress it.

My mother was an exceptionally hard worker and I had a lot of tough parents. When I came home from school, I prepared the food and cleaned the house. That was my norm. But it taught me that you have to work hard for what you want and that you can’t give up.

I joined the gym after a breakup

I hated physical education at school and always tried to get out of it by saying I was on my period. It seemed to me that the kit we were supposed to carry was also shaken. For me it was a waste of time.

I also had a mustache and hairy legs, but in Albanian culture, teenage girls don’t shave, so I didn’t want to bare my legs in PE.

It was insecurity that made me join a gym for the first time at the age of 17 – I was heartbroken after my boyfriend cheated on me and thought that if I changed my appearance I would be happier .

At first, I only did cardio because the weight equipment seemed intimidating. That was about 12 years ago and there weren’t the fitness influences we have now. The only women I strength trained were professional bodybuilders or powerlifters, who were not identifiable at all.

After a while though, I realized that I hated running. I had never seen women in the weight room, but I was intrigued and gradually started dipping my toes in. I educated myself on proper form.

While my focus was initially on aesthetics—and now I’ll admit it was an unhealthy obsession for a while—going to the gym soon became more about my mental health. It became my safe haven and somewhere that always made me feel great, even when my results fluctuated.

I exploded on Instagram, making $13,000 from fitness PDFs in an hour

As my confidence grew, I started posting on Instagram, partly to record my progress and partly just because I wanted to show myself off – I thought I looked good! I was training as a waitress and studying for my law degree, so I didn’t have much time for social media, but my following grew and grew.

Strangers started messaging me asking for fitness advice and I knew at that moment I had to qualify so I did a personal training qualification.

As more and more people started asking me for advice, my then friend and now business partner Jack Bullimore and I came up with the idea of ​​selling training PDFs.

We created downloadable docs and after launching in February 2017 they exploded – we sold £10,000 ($13,000) in the first hour and went on to make around £60,000 ($80,000) a month . It was insane amounts of cash for me. I was 22 years old.

I looked at Jack and said, “We can’t keep making PDFs, they’re a dead end.” So we started developing our workout app, then called Tone and Sculpt. It launched in January 2019.

It was teething and I learned a lot, but I really wanted to create something that would help women get into strength training because I hadn’t done that. What strength training does for your mind and body is profound; it is so powerful.

In April 2022 we decided to rebrand as EvolveYou because we decided I didn’t like the name Tone and Sculpt. It was good for SEO, but it went against our message and ethos, which is that strength training is about more than just how your body looks.

Being pregnant with my first child showed me how much my body is out of my control, and so if you’re constantly chasing aesthetics, you’ll never be happy. I’m not as lean, muscular or strong as I used to be, I have more jiggly things than I used to, but I’ve never felt more confident.

I used my savings to launch my gym wear brand

With EvolveYou making good money, I was able to save a lot and launch my clothing brand, Oner Active.

It’s designed by weightlifters for weightlifters, and I launched the company with two co-founders, brothers David and Lukas Kurzmann, in 2020. I’d been lifting for about six years and never felt like I could find the clothes I wanted. to wear, so I decided to create it.

I’m the creative director now – I knew I needed other people with expertise in areas I know nothing about – but I know what the products should be and I’m the majority stakeholder.

We had no external investment, it was all savings. My parents were a homemaker and a truck driver, I was given no help or assistance and had nothing to fall back on.

Oner Active revenue in 2023 was just under $60 million, and our year-over-year growth was nearly 100% (Business Insider verified these numbers). I think the success of the brand boils down to two things:

1. We are inclusive and accessible. We make modest clothes, use diverse designs, and our prices are affordable.
2. We created a community. We show behind-the-scenes content and hold hands when we make mistakes, and I think that transparency helps build a relationship with customers.

Meanwhile, Evolve You earned $11.2 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

I also want to make a difference to girls and younger teenagers, so I launched a school initiative called Project Power.

We hosted workshops in schools emphasizing the importance of physical activity and donated £270,000 ($355,000) worth of products to around 3,000 schoolgirls – we saw many without sports bras and thus running around with their hands over their chests. .

People underestimate me

Being a young entrepreneur has its pros and cons. I know I experience “privilege enough”, but I try to use it to benefit others, whether it’s through the initiative of schools or the jobs my businesses provide. I’m not using the privilege to get a free drink.

But on the other hand, I’ve had countless incidents of people firing me. I used to get really offended and feel like I had to prove myself, but now I care less about other people’s opinions.

Even if you don’t believe in me, I still will. i believe in myself

My advice to anyone starting a business is that it’s okay if people don’t believe in you, as long as you do. The biggest advantage you have is that people underestimate you, because then you constantly surprise them.