James Gill – Entrepreneur of the Year 2019

Since James Gill won Entrepreneur of the Year in the Southwark Business Excellence Awards 2019, he has been unstoppable.

Bodytonic Clinic, based at Canada Water, is up for three Institute of Osteopathy Awards and the business continues to go from strength to strength. James has just taken on a new clinic manager for the company HQ and two satellite sites in Stratford and Watford, and credits his Awards win for attracting the best candidate for the job, saying: “Being an award-winning clinic has helped in terms of the calibre of people who wanted to work with us.”

He urged any businesses considering entering the Southwark Business Excellence Awards to go for it. “It’s not about ego,” he said. “It’s about recognising your team and the people around you. It’s an evaluation about where the business has got to. It’s a good process to go through.

“Marketing-wise it’s been fantastic recognition and the Awards night was great, The X-Factor man calling out my name on the night of the Gala Dinner, was definitely a highlight!”

Acknowledgement of his efforts to drive change in the osteopathy industry is crucial to James.
He said: “We are a growing company, trying to do something to change the mould in how osteopathy businesses are run. We feel it’s worked well and we’ve had some recognition for that.”

Part of the progression involves making the osteopathy workplace a more pleasant place to be. James set up his clinic because of disappointing experiences working for people who “overpromised” and “undelivered”. Instead, he wanted to “create an atmosphere where people can flourish”.

“We always try and make work fun and inviting, a place where people can grow and are comfortable to say how they feel,” James said.

“One of the reasons why I won Entreprenur of the Year, I think, was because I talked about the team really passionately.

“We say that you come to work to learn whether it’s something professional or personal. Therefore if you’ve not learnt something from us, if we’ve not taught you something, then we’ve not done our job properly. If we have then it’s fantastic and if you move on, we hope you take the skills you’ve learned and they apply to your new opportunity.”

Bodytonic was delighted to be shortlisted for Practice of the Year at the iO Gala and Award Dinner in November. James was also shortlisted for Principal of the Year and Kemmy Gichaba was a  finalist in the Associate of the Year category.