Footballing twins Adam and Jack Dunkerley began developing an interest in football coaching from the remarkably young age of 12. They completed their coaching qualifications in their teens and began coaching other footballers regardless of ability or gender soon after.
Officially launching in 2020, Adam and Jack created their business Calculated Performance (formerly called AJ 1-2-1 Coaching), a football coaching company offering high-quality, professional and private one-to-one coaching for aspiring footballers.
Their company, based in Greater Manchester, currently work with over 200 players every week, including semi-pro and professional players such Manchester City W.F.C. and England forward Georgia Stanway, Manchester United W.F.C captain Katie Zelem and Huddersfield Town captain Lewis O'Brien.
The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have been testing for the twins and their business, and their journey has been a challenging one.
We found out more with one half of the coaching duo, Adam...
Tell us about yourself and your business
Jack and I are brothers but also identical twins! We do everything together and every decision we make is always a joint one.
We have grown up playing football at a good level. Our dad was always manager of the teams we were playing in! So, football and coaching was always something we have been passionate about and influenced by.
From age 12, we started to coach more as our dad had just set up Junior Soccer League which was basically a group coaching provider. Seeing this and getting involved helped us learn more about sports coaching.
We had been doing this for a couple of years when we realised coaching is what we wanted to pursue for a career. Between ages 14- 18, we got our Level 1 and 2 qualifications in football coaching, and these were our real learning years. We were leading groups by ourselves and this allowed us to develop the skills we needed in coaching and do what we do today.
We noticed the 1-2-1 coaching market, although heavily saturated, was full of people doing it in the wrong way. So, we wanted to get hold of that market and start delivering the service in the right way.
How did you hear about EnterprisingYou?
June 2020 is when we officially became a company. Jack and I knew we had so much more learning to do, as we knew about the responsibilities that came with that formalisation of the business.
It started through a google search and we came across the whole programme. At first, when we clicked, I didn’t believe all that was available. I thought there would be a seven day trial and then we'd have to pay for this or that. I just couldn’t believe all that information, resources and support was available for free.
We started on some business workshops and then we were introduced to our business coach Paul, who has been absolutely fantastic! He’s advised us on areas that without his help and without his input we could have potentially made some bad decisions.
Tell us more about the workshops and the courses provided by EnterprisingYou
Jack completed a KPI workshop and I wanted to be able to direct my staff in the right way so I undertook a recruitment workshop. The courses and specific topics available that are so important to business, were extremely beneficial.
We were able to look at each individual workshop and be like, ‘right, this is what I need to be involved in or this is what we need to know about, to make sure we are both doing our jobs right’.
We both chose courses specific to our own personal development, ensuring we are both pushing the business forward in the right way. Having all those categories and being able to join the workshops, the level of value that the tutors and the leaders of the courses give, the value that these courses are delivering, is phenomenal. The way the information is condensed into digestible courses that are super easy to follow and being able to speak face to face over Zoom, has given a comfort factor knowing that you can learn that information and there's someone to speak to. We have been super happy with the experience so far!
How would you say the business has developed so far with the help of EnterprisingYou?
Massively!
EnterprisingYou accelerated the process so much. We wouldn’t have got to where we are half as fast without the EnterprisingYou scheme. The scheme has allowed us to accelerate our knowledge and implement things much quicker. The workshops give you so much information, which you can take away and use so quickly. Before, it could have taken six or seven months just to find out all the information we needed. But now, it's all there for you in a few workshops. Having all the information available to you right there was what allowed us to accelerate much faster than we would have ever been able to without the scheme.
What was the most beneficial aspect of EnterprisingYou?
The overwhelming amount of information, courses and workshops that are available for free. We have never come across anything like it. We’ve come across other websites and other schemes but you don’t get half as much access or information as you do with the EnterprisingYou scheme.
What would you say to someone that’s thinking about joining EnterprisingYou or that needs some help, guidance with their business?
Take a look at their website as soon as you can!
You'll get lost, in a good way, in everything that’s available to you for free because there's just so much. We started by looking and reading into every workshop available. The more you look into it, the more interested you become. Join your first workshop, and you won’t look back. I say just do it! Go online and find out. No matter what your business is, all the skills you learn in the workshops are transferrable and they have workshops that cover everything. It will help you see and learn what you need to implement in your own business. We just couldn’t believe it took us so long to find out about it!
You can find out more about Adam and Jack and their business here:
- Website: Calculated Performance | Private Training in Greater Manchester
- Facebook: @calculatedperformance
We provide fully funded support to the self-employed and gig economy workers across Greater Manchester. If you would like to find out more about EnterprisingYou, register online or email info@enterprising-you.co.uk.
More information about the EnterprisingYou programme can be found here.
