Serving an Overlooked Market: Lessons From a Women-Only Kickboxing Gym
Runa Bakshi, founder of the women-only kickboxing gym RKB Boxing in Cardiff, was named the 2026 Start Up Loans Ambassador for Wales, Business News Wales reported on October 29. Her business is small and its finances are not public. Its positioning is the interesting part.
What the business is
- Founder: Runa Bakshi, a mother of two, tax consultant and former competitive kickboxer with more than 20 years in competition, described as black-belt standard. Affiliated with Welsh Boxing since 2025.
- Offer: women-only kickboxing in 45-minute classes, tailored to women of different cultural and religious backgrounds, ages and fitness levels.
- Members described: women new to gyms, women who have never lifted weights, women returning after having children, teenagers, and a client who recently turned 70.
- Adaptations: routines adjusted around religious fasting, and at-home workouts posted on Instagram that members can follow during Ramadan.
- Community: she began teaching classes for a women’s aid charity supporting Black and minority ethnic women.
- Funding: a £15,000 Start Up Loan earlier in 2026, used for commercial kickboxing equipment; the report says it let her expand the class program within a year.
Bakshi said she wanted “a place where women could come as they are.” Her advice to new founders who see a real community need: “Go for it.”
The Start Up Loans Ambassador program, run by the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans scheme for more than ten years, names one founder for each of the UK’s 12 nations and regions; ambassadors spend a year mentoring future founders.
Why it is worth a school owner’s attention
Most martial arts and combat-sports marketing is aimed at people who already want to walk in. Bakshi built her offer for the people who do not: women who would feel out of place in a mixed gym, women whose faith shapes when and how they can train, women who have never set foot in a gym at all. Every part of the offer, from the women-only rule to the 45-minute class to the Ramadan routines, removes a specific reason that person would say no.
That is a transferable discipline. Every school has a group of people in its own neighbourhood who would benefit from training and will never respond to the current advertising. The question is which barrier is stopping them, and whether one program designed around that barrier would bring them in.
Questions to ask about your own market
- Who lives within a 15-minute drive of the school and is absent from your mat?
- What would they need to see before trying a class: a women-only session, a schedule that fits school pickup, an older-adult program, a quieter room, an instructor who shares their background?
- Is there a community organisation, place of worship or charity already trusted by that group that would host or co-promote a program?
- Can you run one dedicated class for a quarter, measure it, and keep it only if it works?
What a school owner should take from this
Positioning is a decision about who the program is for. A school that tries to appeal to everyone is usually speaking only to people who were already coming. Pick one overlooked group, design one offer around the barrier that keeps them out, and tell them plainly that it was built for them.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
“Kickboxing gym founder named Start Up Loans Ambassador for Wales”, Business News Wales, October 29, 2026.
The report gives no revenue, membership, attendance or retention figures for RKB Boxing, so this article treats it as a positioning example, not a demonstrated financial success. The year Welsh Boxing affiliation began is given in the report as “last year”; we have read that as 2025. We have not spoken to the business.
