14 Thoughts About Launching a Successful Fitness Business

I love starting a new fitness business.

I love jumping into existing businesses and trying to find ways to double, triple or quadruple their profits.  Right now we’re owners or co-owners of over a dozen fitness businesses and I can’t imagine going back to being an employee.  If you’re on the verge of launching a business of your own or interested in improving your current fitness business – here are some thoughts that will help you:

1.     Pain and Urgency. That’s  what sells. Solve a problem or fulfill an important need to a specific group of people. Nobody cares about you until they know you’re in it for them.

2.     Identify the problems your prospect has. Provide the solutions, particularly the ones few others solve well.

3.     The price of what you offer is based on the value it creates for the client. Not what you want to charge.

4.     You need to learn how to make your business systems-driven.  Otherwise you’re just taking on a 24/7 job.

5.     Don’t wait on the right time. Unfortunately, there never is a ‘right’ time.  There’s right now or there’s not doing it.  You pick.

6.     Bootcamps or other group training, Leasing space from health clubs and Infoproducts are the ‘easiest’ starter businesses. They have less overhead than other options.  Bootcamps are the easiest of the three to get going.  Successful infoproduct businesses are the toughest.

7.     Wealth doesn’t come from money; money comes from wealth. That’s not a riddle. Lottery winners who run through all of their money are a prime example of this. Money and wealth are distinct terms; if you don’t have the right belief system you will not make money.

8.     Don’t let your business hold you hostage. Entrepreneurism is about building a business to serve you , not the other way around.  This is accomplished by design, not accident.

9.     “If I could only deliver $10,000 of value to 1000 people.” Get out of the mindset of getting  people to give you money and think in terms of first delivering them value.  If you want to be better than the competition, think “how do I give $10,000 worth of value to a 1000 people… and will you give me $1000 in return?”

10.  Playing business vs doing business is one of the main reasons of failure. Working on perfecting a website or ‘networking’ on Twitter instead of getting out and public speaking or actually selling stuff.  Stop playing business, and do business — get the business running. There isn’t a single ‘real’ fitness business failure who would say that it was their lack of a great website or not enough time on Twitter that caused their failure.  And there aren’t any rich fitness professionals in the world that got their businesses off the ground by having a perfect website or by focusing on Twitter.

11.  Worrying about perfection. In Alcoholics Anonymous they say ‘progress not perfection‘. Pretty darn good motto if you ask me.  If you have an idea for a business, a program or a product, launch it quick and dirty; if it’s successful, then polish it. Look to fail as often and as cheaply as you can and move o.  Most successful people had one thing in common: speed of implementation. This is what differentiates the successes from the failures. Successful people are fast implementers.

12.  Broke people have a disrespect for marketing and selling. Nuff said.

13.  Give plenty of value away for free. The prospect will think “if the free stuff is great, the paid stuff must be amazing.”

14.  Don’t reinvent the wheel. That’s why we launched a youth fitness / athletic performance franchise (Athletic Revolution) and why we created Bootcamp Blueprint.  So smart fitness pros could focus on using proven systems instead of wasting years of time and tons of money trying to figure out what we’ve already put together.   So invest in proven systems or at least model what works.

What do you like?  What would you add?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.

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