From 2007 to 2009 I did a lot of projects in the South African fitness industry. At one point I had almost a dozen clients. I’m not going to mention the companies by name, as all off them, except two, closed down in the wake of the 2009 global economic crisis. One of the companies that survived is Cycle Pro Academy.
I started working with the owner of CPA in 2008 and I’m still working with him and his wife on their businesses. CPA offers indoor cycling (spinning) courses with certification at various levels. They mostly service the greater Johannesburg area, but every second or third year they offer the courses in other major cities. The course is gruelling but popular, and various gyms and other health facilities have contracted them to present the courses at their venues.
Over the years I have redeveloped and redesigned the website on two separate occasions, and each time I was able to create something that spoke to audience and increased the number of registrations. With the last overhaul the client gave me the following brief:
- A clean website with black and white photos.
- We want to update the website ourselves, so updates must be easy to do.
- We have a tight budget.
A very short brief, and easily done. The best option was to go for a WordPress website, since themes are readily available and can be changed fairly easily through CSS and PHP. Also, it has an easy-to-learn content management system. Using a theme brings costs down significantly, freeing up the budget for content production.
The site is still running and the business is doing well. The clients have made some changes to the site over the last few years, but most of the original website that I built for them is still available here. Below are some screenshots of the site.
