Chris Vurnakes spent his career in sport: selling sponsorships and hospitality, running professional golf tournaments, then leading youth and collegiate sports organisations as an executive director. In April 2025, with two daughters and a third child on the way, he started looking for a business of his own. A franchise consultant showed him several. Most needed premises and a staff of twenty or thirty, and he could see what that would do to the balance he was looking for. Coaching did not.
Before he signed he asked every coach he spoke to the same question: is the balance real? They all said yes. He asked how they found clients, because selling himself rather than a ticket package was new to him, and he asked whether the investment was worth it compared with simply setting up on his own. His conclusion was that he would not have known where to start.
His sector is non-profit executives, because that is where his standing is. Fundraising, team dynamics and time are the problems business owners have, in a different setting. Three months after certification he had three paying clients and was still in his day job until the year end, with a target of eight to ten clients and the option to take on more when his children are older. His first client was a restaurant owner he had known for three years. By the fourth conversation the owner stopped him before the question: we’re in, let’s start next week.