A WAVE of personal challenges, business success, and family milestones has resulted in one St Helens businessman being labelled as the "busiest man in lockdown".
During a particularly trying time, Steve Cooper learned that his mum passed away with cancer on March 16, 2020.
Just seven days later, the UK went into lockdown and Steve had to close his Rainhill fitness studio down and refund thousands of pounds worth of personal training sessions.
However, with a desire to stay positive, Steve decided to capitalise on the opportunities that the pandemic presented and push forward with personal and business goals.
With a background in the health and fitness industry and foreseeing the trend in home fitness, Steve and his business partner created 'Northern' in March 2020.
Importing and manufacturing "high quality" fitness equipment for home gym enthusiasts, the business has expanded to support CrossFit athletes and competitions around the UK as well as becoming a sponsor for Saints RLFC.
Looking into other business avenues, Steve, along with business partners Hannah, Sam and Chris (owners of the Stanley Arms) spent ten months renovating a historic Rainhill building to establish the popular eatery 'Carouse'.
With a team of dedicated people helping him with each business venture, Steve was also able to achieve a first-class honours degree from Salford University while re-opening his Rainhill fitness studio and re-building his clientele.
After a whirlwind journey throughout the pandemic, Steve "topped it all off" by asking Hannah to marry him last October and, along with his 4-year-old son Elliot, welcomed their second child Rosie into the family six weeks ago.
Steve, 32, said: "During lockdown, I saw a few opportunities and I decided to just go for it.
"I tried to keep positive and not wallow in self-pity, and made sure I got some really good people with the experience and skills to take ownership and facilitate the businesses.
"It's not been my effort alone and I've been heavily dependent on a lot of other people to keep it all together."
In addition to helping his businesses to succeed, Steve explained that the proficiency of his business partners has granted him vital time to spend with his young family.
Steve added: "My family lead a very busy life where we always strive for achievement. We don’t have endless family money to plough in to new ventures [and] we have had to navigate a sharp knife edge to achieve all of these things.
"Despite all the challenges of lockdown and COVID, I really believe it brought the best out of us. We spent time together as a family and are closer than ever."
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