From crisis to clarity: The journey of Spiral Freerun CIC
Where they started
When Spiral Freerun joined DiNN’s Level 5 Big Business programme, they were one of only 11 parkour gyms in the UK, respected, award‑winning, and deeply embedded in their community. But beneath the surface, the organisation was in crisis.
They had been forced into a 10‑year lease on a dilapidated town‑centre property after a flood destroyed their previous facility. With only 48 hours to find a new home, they signed a contract that gave them a year of free rent, but locked them into a building that was slowly crushing them. The rent, service charges, and business rates would eventually exceed £160,000 a year, while their membership hovered around 270, less than half of the 650 needed just to break even.
“Without the funding from Do it Now Now and other funders, we would have shut down. We wouldn’t be having this conversation today.”
The challenges: where the gaps were
A health check at the start of the programme painted a stark picture. The organisation had strong mission clarity and a passionate team, but the weight of the lease was exposing critical weaknesses.
Governance was informal and founder‑dependent. There was no succession plan, and the board’s role was not clearly defined. Administration relied on a patchwork of Google Drive, WhatsApp, and spreadsheets; there was no unified system. Human resources were project‑led and precarious; most coaches were self‑employed, and there were no formal recruitment or performance management processes.
Financial management was the most urgent concern. Bookkeeping was manual and time‑consuming, with no asset register and no internal controls. The previous accountant had made multiple errors, costing the organisation an extra £10,000 a year and leaving them with an unexpected £8,000 VAT bill. Worse, the lease had no early break clause, and the landlord had made it clear they would fight to keep Spiral in the building because, even at zero rent, the organisation saved the landlord £36,000 a year in service charges and rates.
The leadership team was exhausted. Luke, the founder, and his co‑director had been working for months without pay. “It is at a point where all of us have had the same realisation: this incredible product and brand is driving us all to despair. It’s not viable, and nothing will change in two years, five years, ten years if we stay here.”
The support: turning gaps into action
The Big Business programme provided structured training and, most critically, a Critical Friend, a chartered accountant with extensive mentoring experience. Over five intensive one‑to‑one sessions, they worked through the health check findings and built a phased action plan.
The first session focused on financial survival. The Critical Friend helped Luke understand the true break‑even point, the cash flow risks, and the urgent need to automate accounting. He introduced a new accountant who immediately began restating years of incorrectly filed accounts and uncovered the missing asset register.
The second session tackled the lease. Together, they analysed the contract and identified the landlord’s biggest fear as not non‑payment but reputational and regulatory exposure. A youth‑facing CIC operating in a visibly declining centre, with known asbestos, water ingress on electrics, and a leaking roof over the electricity board, was a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The Critical Friend proposed a subtle but powerful strategy: commission an independent safety report, document every defect, and then issue a formal defect notice. The goal was not to fight; it was to make the landlord realise that allowing Spiral to leave quietly was cheaper than repairing the building or facing a regulatory investigation.
By the third session, the strategy was clear. The Critical Friend reframed the issue: “We don’t want to pay rent” is weak. “The increasing popularity of our youth‑facing activities creates extreme economic pressure and massive risk because of the facility’s condition*” is strong. The landlord would be forced to choose between a quiet surrender or a public nightmare.
The fourth and fifth sessions shifted to building a life raft. Spiral set up a new organisation, The Lab Parkour and Free Running Academy, to operate from a new facility in Milton Keynes, a town where the directors actually lived. They began marketing the new location immediately, aiming to build a waiting list of 100 people within nine months. They automated their accounting with FreshBooks, started using AI tools to reduce admin time, and redesigned their customer acquisition funnel.
The results: from crisis to clarity
A clear exit strategy: Spiral now has a documented, step‑by‑step plan to exit the lease without dissolving the company, using independent safety reports and formal defect notices.
A new organisation: The Lab is ready to launch, with a waiting list already being built and a facility in Milton Keynes under active negotiation.
Better financial control: A new accountant has restated years of accounts, corrected tax errors, and is helping Spiral understand its true break‑even point.
Reduced admin burden: Automated accounting, AI tools, and a redesigned customer acquisition process have freed up leadership time.
A reframed marketing message: Instead of “parkour training”, Spiral now markets confidence, resilience, and neurodiverse support – the real value parents pay for.
In their final testimonial, Luke wrote:
“Jay has been instrumental during a very challenging and pivotal period. His guidance helped us think both strategically and practically, encouraging us to explore solutions we had not previously considered. He has not simply offered advice; he has actively helped us problem‑solve. When our previous accountant unexpectedly withdrew, Jay stepped in quickly, helping us source and connect with a new accountant, stabilising what could have been a significant operational setback. The Critical Friend meetings have provided accountability, constructive challenge, and reassurance when we needed it most. The support has been practical, responsive, and genuinely invested in our success.”