What You Say vs What You Do

February 15, 2012 By admin 16 Comments

A Post On The Right Way To Build A Business By Pat Rigsby

We live in a society that has made an art out of overpromising and under delivering.

Politicians stump on campaign promises that they have little if any intention of delivering on. It’s marketing at it’s worst. Leaders or prospective leaders telling people what they want to hear through every medium possible in order to get their vote.

Whatever it takes to get them elected.

In the fitness world, every health club on the planet advertises how they’re the solution to give you the body that you’ve always wanted – knowing good and well that once they have your name on the contract they’ll essentially forget about you and be on to chasing the next naïve prospect.

This ‘art’ of overpromising and under delivering certainly isn’t exclusive two politics and fitness – it goes on everywhere. I just happen to see more of it there because it’s so well publicized in politics and I’m immersed in the fitness industry.

The Truth… And The Opportunity

The amazing thing about this trend is that it’s actually presented you with a marketing opportunity – or perhaps a better way of putting it – a position in the market.

If you’re willing to deliver on what you promise… or better yet – OVERDELIVER – you can become that trusted solution in your market that clients love, stay with forever and refer their friends, family members and co-workers to.
It sounds simple – and almost a little ridiculous that simply telling the truth and doing what you say you’re going to do (and hopefully a little more) can actually be a marketing strategy – but it is.

See, everyone says they’re great with service and care about their clients or members.

They say that results for the people they serve are their priority.

But saying and doing are vastly different things.

And now there’s this new trend in the business world where it seems every business out there has followed Zappos lead and identified their ‘Core Values’ (we’re no exception.)

And regardless of how much the want to celebrate it – 99% of the time those are nothing more than hollow words on paper.

It’s not what you say – it’s what you do.

A Case Study: Fitness Revolution

By now you’ve probably seen me write about Fitness Revolution, our personal training franchise (and now also internationally licensed offering).

We launched Fitness Revolution in early 2011, and while most business opportunities in the fitness industry were out there marketing and selling at all costs – we were building our infrastructure. Sure, we were bringing on new franchisees – but they were virtually all members of our network who we knew would be a good fit for what we wanted Fitness Revolution to represent.

Our focus was simply on providing the best systems, tools, resources and support in the entire fitness industry – bar none. We felt that if we did that, we’d carve out a place in the market that would be competition resistant – because it’s a lot tougher to actually deliver systems and support than it is to promise them. Just to give you an example of what I’m talking about – here’s the Table of Contents for one of our FR Blueprints, the Administrative Operations Manual:

Administrative Operations Manual

Section 1: New Leads Protocol

1.1 Walk-Ins- Overview

Greeting, Scheduling, and Tour Script
How to file an “Adult Profile” form- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
How to Set Scheduling Notifications- Completion Plan
How to Add Person to an Email List- Completion Plan
Sending a Personal Email to Prospect- Email Script
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.2 Phone Inquiries- Overview

Phone Inquiry Script and Missed Call/Call Back Script
Taking Phone Call Notes- Completion Plan
How to File an “Adult Profile” form- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
How to Set Scheduling Notifications- Completion Plan
Sending a Personal Email to Prospect- Email Script
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.3 Website Opt-In- Overview

How to file an “Adult Training Profile” form from a website opt-in- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
Email Script- Free Gift Opt-in
Phone Script- 2 Week Trial Opt-in
Email Script- Confirm Orientation or Appointment (If scheduled by phone)
Email Script- 2 Week Trial Opt-in
How to Schedule- Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.4 Inquiry Email- Overview

Frequently Asked Email Questions and Answers
How to file an “Adult Training Profile” form from an inquiry email- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to Set Notification for Non-Responsive Email Leads- Completion Plan
Follow Up Email Script for Unresponsive Leads
How to Schedule- Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.5 Client Referral- Overview

How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to file an “Adult Training Profile” form from a Referral- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
Referral Call Script
Referral Email Script
How to Set Notification for Non-Responsive Referral Leads- Completion Plan
Follow Up Voicemail Script for Non-responders
Follow Up Email Script for Non-responders
How to Schedule- Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.6 External Leads- Overview

How to file an “Adult Training Profile” form from an external source- Completion Plan
How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to Add Person to Email List- Completion Plan
Phone Call Follow-up Script
Email Follow-up Script
How to Schedule – Completion Plan
How to Create a File Folder for a Client Appointment- Completion Plan
Confirmation Call, Email, and Text Message Script

1.7 New Leads- Missed Appointment

Missed Appointment Phone Script
Missed Appointment Voicemail Script
How to Set a Notification for a Non-Responsive Missed Appointment Lead
No response phone call script
No response voicemail script
No response email template
How to Schedule an Appointment- Completion Plan
Confirmation Call Script
Confirmation Email Template
Confirmation Text Message

Section 2: Front End Clientele Protocol

2.1 Front End Clientele- Overview

How to Add a Prospect to Your Client Management Software- Completion Plan
How to update client information in CMS software- Completion Plan
How to complete a sale in CMS software (if applicable)- Completion Plan
How to add client to email list- Completion Plan
How to file new front end client documentation- Completion Plan
How to schedule notifications for new client- Completion Plan
Confirmation call script for next appointment
Confirmation Email Template
Confirmation Text Message

2.2 Front End Clientele- Supplemental

Post Card on the Run- Completion Plan
Send Out Cards- Completion Plan

Section 3: New Members Protocol

3.1 New Members- Overview

How to update client information in CMS- Completion Plan
How to complete the membership sale in your CMS- Completion Plan
How to add client to email list- Completion Plan
How to remove client from “prospects” email list- Completion Plan
How to file new client documentation- Completion Plan
How to schedule check-in/follow-up calls with client- Completion Plan
“Thank you” Email Script or Card Script for Referrers

That’s one resource – there are dozens. This FR Blueprint has over 111 pages of actionable information, scripts and templates for one specific area of our Franchisees’ businesses. Sad to say – there are franchises out there whose entire collection of support manuals or resources probably don’t amount to 111 pages.

And that was an obvious benefit to taking the position we’ve taken as a support-focused franchise.

Not only did this approach help us still add 106 franchisees in 2011 with very minimal marketing (we’re at around 120 now) – but it really allowed us to build a strong foundation to facilitate the success of those 120 franchisees and the ones who will come on board in the future.

And that’s what franchising – at least in our world – is about.

In fact, we were just recognized by Franchise Business Review in their Annual Franchisee Satisfaction Awards as:

The #1 Fitness Franchise Overall

The #1 Franchisee Overall (Midsize Category)

Here’ a screenshot:

Every franchise in North America is eligible for these awards and they’re entirely decided by independent surveys Franchise Business Review conducts of franchisees.

So basically they’re determined by what we actually do for our franchisees – not simply what we say we’re going to do.

How You Can Make This All Work For Your Business

Though I couldn’t be prouder of what our business team has accomplished by earning these rewards (The Fitness Revolution Team is deserving of far more than a post for the incredible work they’ve done ) – that’s not the main point of this post.
The main point is this:

If you want to become the premier fitness business in your area – you need to do the things that everyone else won’t do.

You need to truly care about your clients – not just say you do.

You need to put in the work to become the best at your craft – not just proclaim yourself the best.

You need to deliver an extraordinary experience – not just pay lip service to it.

You need to live your Core Values – not just put them in a frame on the wall or on your website.

You simply need to make sure that you’re doing everything you say… and more.

Do that and your competition will become irrelevant because – I can promise you that while they’ll all say they’re going to do the same – 99% of them never will.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success, Fitness Entrepreneur Tagged With: Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Fitness Business Marketing, Fitness Professional, personal training business

Hiring Personal Trainers & Other Staff Members

February 8, 2012 By admin 8 Comments

A Post On Hiring Personal Trainers by Pat Rigsby

dreamstime xs 21602224 Hiring Personal Trainers & Other Staff Members

In our live meetings we get a lot of questions about hiring personal trainers and other staff members so I thought I’d share some thoughts on the topic.

Hiring is tough. I’ve been hiring people for almost 17 years now and also spent about 8 years recruiting college athletes – which I’ve found is almost exactly the same.

The first person I ever hired was a guy that I’d be comfortable calling my boyhood idol.

I fired him 3 months later.

I’ve also fired one of the guys that I’d consider among my 5-6 closest friends.

I’ve probably recruited over 1000 athletes and actually brought about 200 on to my teams. I’ve personally hired roughly 100 employees. I couldn’t tell you how many I fired (a lot) – but in every case I agonized about it.

But what I have found is that the strategy that helped me enjoy success as a college baseball coach in large part through recruiting has the same type of success when hiring employees.

Fitness Business Multipliers

January 30, 2012 By admin 3 Comments

A Post On Building Your Fitness Business By Pat Rigsby

onlybusinessbook1 Fitness Business Multipliers

Recently Nick Berry and I were asked to contribute a chapter to a book called “The Only Business Book You’ll Ever Need.” This was an incredible honor as a few of the other authors were Brian Tracy, Robert Allen and Harvey McKay, all New York Times Best Selling Authors. This book won’t be on the shelves for a couple more months, but I wanted to share an adaptation of our chapter with you as it definitely can help you build your business. Enjoy this sneak peek.

As an fitness business owner, you essentially accept the fact that you’re trading the security that comes with a steady job for the opportunity that comes with owning your own business. But what if we told you that security and opportunity don’t have to be mutually exclusive? Our experience is that not only can you have the best of both worlds, but you can do it more quickly and easily than you probably imagine by creating multiple streams of income within your fitness business.

Grow Your Fitness Business In 5 Simple Steps

January 18, 2012 By admin 4 Comments

A post on how to grow your fitness business by Pat Rigsby

There are hundreds of ways to grow your fitness business and we touch on plenty of them here at the Fit Business Insider. But sometimes when you want to get more clients, generate more referrals or increase your income it really boils down to taking action instead of just knowing what to do.

So with that in mind I wanted to help you grow your fitness business today by getting you to take action.

24 Productivity Tips For The Fitness Business Owner

January 9, 2012 By admin 4 Comments

A Post On Productivity For a Fitness Business Owner by Pat Rigsby

Like you, I’ve got a lot going on. We’ve got a number of rapidly growing businesses that I play a significant role in. I have a wonderful family that I am committed to spending quality time with. I have personal goals and things I enjoy that I need to have time for.

Because of those things I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient, more productive, and to make my time more valuable. So here are 24 productivity tips for the Fitness Business Owner that I think you’ll get al lot out of.

Plan your day ahead – I prefer planning it the night before.

Always work from a list. You should actually have different lists for different purposes. A ‘Goals’ list is for your big picture objectives. Your monthly list is a list you make at the end of the month for the month ahead. Your weekly list is for the upcoming week and your daily list is your weekly list broken down into daily tasks.

Planning a project will likely cut the time spent on the project by at least half. List every step from start to finish, organize by priority and sequence.

By now you know the 80/20 rule- 20% of actions account for 80% of results. With that in mind, get your most important stuff done first.

Think long term. Before starting a task or activity – determine what the long term benefits / consequences will be.

Set big goals. Be clear on them. It will make all your short term decisions much easier. Things either line up with your goals or not. If they do – act. If they don’t – omit.

Be willing to delay gratification and make short term sacrifices so you can enjoy greater rewards in the long term. Every successful person I know has taken that approach.

Average people do what gives them short term gratification. Great ones do what it takes to achieve long term goals even if it’s not as easy or fun in the short term.

Time is going to pass whether you use it to move closer to your goals or farther away. Only you get to decide how you use that time and where you want to be in the future.

Think about the consequences of your actions and behaviors. If you do that you’ll usually take the steps necessary to get where you want to go while those who ignore the ramifications of what they do won’t.

Review your list of tasks and projects regularly.

There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do. – What are my highest value activities? What can you and only you do, that if done well, will make a real difference? What is the most valuable use of your time, right now?

The things that matter most must never be skipped over for the things that matter least.

Continuous learning is a must for success. Make time for it. The need to grow and improve never ends.

Take responsibility and know that you and only you are the deciding factor in achieving your goals.

There is never the perfect time to get started, so start now.

Challenges are there to weed out the average. Keep that in mind when you encounter them.

One of the most powerful words in time management is NO! – You have no spare time, say no early and often to everything that isn’t high value.

If you don’t schedule it – that means you don’t see value in it.

Adding something new to your plate requires you to stop doing something old.

Do the most difficult task first, start it first thing in the morning.

Use time blocks. 25-50 minutes of no email, no phone, no distractions will get you to your goals faster than 8 hours of a normal workday.

Make every minute count. – Create a sense of urgency, an impatience that motivates you to get started.

Focus on getting things done now. Successful people get more done – and as you know…You Get Paid For Done!

There are 24 tips that have helped me and that I think will help you or any fitness business owner. If you have more to share – please add them below.

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success, Fitness Entrepreneur, Personal Training Success Tagged With: Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Fitness Business, fitness entrepreneur, pat rigsby, productivity, time

My Best Fitness Business Building Tip

January 4, 2012 By admin 2 Comments

Fitness Business Building By Pat Rigsby

I had a coaching call with a fitness pro the other day and I gave him some advice that I consider to be the best advice that I can give someone – but it comes with a disclaimer: it is also advice that I’m hesitant to give because it could potentially give someone the idea that they don’t have to ‘do the work’ – which obviously goes against everything that we teach.
So the advice that I gave him and that I’m going to give you now is this:

Determine your strengths – then build your fitness business around them.

So let me back up for a minute…

The fitness pro I was talking with already runs a strong business and has enjoyed some success in his marketing efforts. He told me that he knew that I was a fan of public speaking and networking but he hadn’t really done much with either of those marketing tactics. Instead of telling him that he needed to dive right into those two – because they are two of the most powerful ways available to any fitness pro to grow their business…I surprised him and told him not to do either of them.

Did my thoughts about public speaking or networking change? Of course not.

But after talking with him a bit and discovering that he had some other real strengths that he could leverage to generate more clients – and would clearly enjoy more – it was obvious that the best solution for him wasn’t going the networking and public speaking route.

He needed to play to his strengths.

So why is this scary for me to give this advice?

Because given to the wrong person, it can be misconstrued as a free pass to be lazy.

This particular fitness pro has already used social media and his writing skills successfully to grow his business. Suggesting more ways for him to leverage his use of social media and his writing talents even more makes sense – because he’s already proven that it has success for him.

But put that same advice in the wrong hands and you get a situation where someone who’s never proven that they can write worth a damn and haven’t had any success with social media now think they don’t have to ever get out from behind their computer to build a six-figure business.

In fact, back in our old Personal Trainer U. days there was a guy on the forum that did just that…he got on the forum and whined about how he’d written 3 articles and submitted them to article directories, put up a couple blog posts – and he didn’t have any clients to show for it. The economy was to blame. There was no way that trainers could be successful right now.

My response was simple: “How many prospects are in your home office right now? If the answer is *zero* – then get off your ass and go where they are.”

Needless to say – he didn’t post anymore.

But that’s my fear when dispensing this advice – people mistaking their strengths for what’s just easiest.

But I’ve believed that this approach was the best way to go for quite a while.

When I was coaching baseball, it took me a couple years to quit trying to be a clone of the coach that I admired most. My strengths were different than his. Once I realized that, I became a much better coach and our teams got much better.

I followed this same approach when it came to dealing with our opponents too – instead of worrying about detailed scouting reports and trying to exploit opponents weaknesses, I wanted our players to focus exclusively on playing to their strengths.

Heck – we’ve built an entire franchise around this approach. Allowing fitness professionals to play to their own individual strengths instead of trying to churn out cookie cutter businesses.

Now you may not think that this advice is anything special – but here’s why it is…

Once you determine your strengths, buy going all in and leveraging them to the maximum you’ve done 3 things:

You’ve separated yourself from everyone else because you’re playing to your unique talents, assets, passions and skills.
You just made running your business a lot more fun because you can focus more on doing what you’re best at – and feel confident that it’s a good choice.
You just set out on the fastest route I know to build a powerhouse business.

Another way of putting this is ‘doing more of what’s working.’ Seems simple, right?

Well, most people don’t do it. They jump from one thing they’ve had some success with to something else that requires completely different talents or skills instead of finding more ways to utilize the strengths that led to the successes they’ve had.

To use our business as an example – one of our strengths is relationships. Really, everything that we’ve built has been founded on building relationships with fitness professionals and trying to provide the best solutions they need to build the Fitness Business they want.

So one we recognized that relationships were at the core of our business, we started to do things like:

Hold more live events to spend more time in person with the fitness pros we serve.
Do more coaching calls so we can learn more about the people we work with and how we can most effectively help them.
Create a Customer Experience position on our team so we could make sure that we’re providing the best possible service to the people who trust us to help them grow their business.
Build franchises so we could have a family-like relationship with a select group of fitness pros who shared the same values we do and what to work with us as closely as possible.

There are plenty of other examples, but you get the picture.

So how can you leverage your strengths to build your fitness business?

If you’re a relationship person, do more networking. Focus more on referrals. Create more complete solutions for the people that you already work with. Build a community in your business so strong that it attracts the type of clients you want more of.

If you’re great at writing, make sure you’ve got great copy on your site. Blog like crazy. Guest blog for local bloggers. Write a column for the local paper. Build out dozens of autoresponders. Send press releases every week. Send a great weekly newsletter. Write free special reports that you can get in the hands of prospects. Write direct mail sequences to send out in your area.

And that’s not even beginning to touch on how you can leverage your strengths as a coach to own a particular niche market.

So your goal should be this:

Figure out what your real strengths are. The things that you’ve proven that you’re better than the rest at – the things you’ve done well to grow your business. The things that you not only enjoy doing – but that produce results.

Once you’ve determined those strengths – figure out as many ways as you can to start leveraging them to build the business you want…and start implementing those ideas.

That’s how you can build a great fitness business that you’ll love owning.

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success, Fitness Entrepreneur, Personal Training Business Tagged With: Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Fitness Business, Fitness Professionals, personal training sales

Tips From 2011 To Grow Your Fitness Business in 2012

January 1, 2012 By admin 3 Comments

A Fitness Business Building Post By Pat Rigsby

dreamstime xs 22564951 Tips From 2011 To Grow Your Fitness Business in 2012

I want to make sure you’re starting off the New Year right – in the right frame of mind, armed with the right information to be successful in growing your fitness business. So I’ve put together several of the most valuable, content packed posts that you can go back and review to make sure your stage is set to make 2012 your best year yet. Enjoy!

Large Group Personal Training – Vs – Bootcamps…What’s The Difference?

December 13, 2011 By admin 15 Comments

A Guest Post On Large Group Personal Training By Steve Long

Mastermind Member, Fitness Revolution & Athletic Revolution franchisee Steve Long just put together a great guest post on the differences between bootcamp and group personal training. If you train in any type of group environment – this is for you. Thanks Steve!

The other day I was invited by someone to attend a bootcamp that they had been doing. I gladly accepted the invitation because I saw that this could be a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about what is out there, and maybe have a little fun in the process.

Now as someone who has been running “bootcamps” for over 2 years and doing personal training for 8 plus years I know a little bit about how to execute group training. I’ve never actually attended a bootcamp before I started my bootcamp, but I’ve heard plenty about other bootcamps and I wanted to experience the difference between the norm and what I was calling bootcamp. This process has led me to consider not calling my bootcamp by that name any longer. Here is why.

Bootcamp

My alarm goes off at 5 AM to wake me up for the workout, which is no biggie for me, I’m used to it. Although, I would have rather done an afternoon workout, I can understand that a lot of people like to get their workouts in early so I was glad to join this group of go-getters for an early workout.

I show up early at the freezing cold park where the workout takes place to meet the instructor and fill out some paperwork. I understand paperwork is completely necessary to get to know your clients. I realized quickly however that I could’ve just slept in an extra 15 minutes because the instructor didn’t get there until about 5 minutes prior to the workout beginning. The instructor gave me a sheet of paper to fill out. Contact info, how I heard of the bootcamp, and if I’d had a heart attack lately were the depth of these questions. I was a little upset to see that after I gave the instructor the sheet of paper I had just filled out he just said thank you and put it in pile along with the other new peoples sheets. He didn’t even look at it. What was the point of the health history if you aren’t going to look at it, but oh well; I’m healthy, so lets move on.

By this time I’m already a little skeptical, but willing to put it aside to get a good workout on. Ugh, I’ll make this quick. The workout consisted of the following:

1. Running laps around the park for 10 minutes
2. Forming a line and doing random amounts of pushups, burpees, jumping jacks, squats, and lunges. I love all of those exercises, but the programming left a lot to be desired.
3. Running laps and taking breaks to do more jumping jacks, jumping on park benches, more pushups, and more burpees.
4. We finally ended with about 20,000 sit-ups, crunches, and more mountain climbers.

Even better yet, I had a non certified trainer who was a drill sergeant want to be, yelling at me the entire time telling me to work harder. Naturally when I started getting too tired to do the some of the exercises in good form I dropped down to an easier regression of the exercise. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get hurt, but that’s a no go in this bootcamp. Work hard and do what everyone else is doing in bad form maggot! That’s what it takes to get results. Sure, if the results you are looking for is bad posture and injury. This guy either didn’t know what good form was, or just didn’t care.

To give the bootcamp some credit however, everyone was working his or her butt off, and it was really cheap.

Group Personal Training

Leaving that bootcamp made me realize that I had to write this article. I had to let people know there is a better way to train large groups, but still get people to work hard, and work smart at the same time. I’ve been working hard over the last few years with some of the best in the industry like BJ Gaddour, Mike Robertson, Jared Woolever, Pat Rigsby, the people at FMS, and many others and have found a better way to train groups.

So what is the difference between “bootcamp” and group personal training? It’s huge. Lets begin.

Assessments: Having someone fill out a piece of paper and throw it into a pile without looking at it is a disgrace. Group personal trainers require some sort of screen or assessment. I currently use the FMS screen to make sure I know what’s going on with my client’s bodies. I will also go over the client’s health history and goals with them to make sure we know exactly what they want and exactly what they need.

Typically Inside: Workouts don’t have to be inside to be good, but it sure is nice. It also allows you to be able to have access to lots of strength training equipment, which is essential in a well-rounded training program.

Exercise Progressions: Everyone is different and everyone has different needs. If you aren’t going to do an assessment (which is crazy) you at least need to have different levels of difficulty for each exercise. At the bootcamp I tried to regress, but was yelled at. In group PT you are praised for being smart if you drop down. It’s about working as hard as you can at the appropriate level for your body.

Certified Personal Trainers: If someone who can’t put in the effort to get certified is training you please run as fast as you can away from that bootcamp.

Well Thought Out Programs: Random workouts that change by the minute may be fun, but if you want a real program that produces results it should follow some sort of training guidelines. You get results by learning exercises and tracking your progress. If you are just doing random exercises you will get random results. Programs should be based on your needs to get you the results you are looking for. How is a random workout going to give the 50 different people in the bootcamp the same results when each person is different?

Less People in the Workout: One coach can’t train 50+ people well. Indoor group PT typically has less people to make sure the coach can correct your form so you can improve.

Nutrition Intervention: I know a lot of group personal trainers and almost all of them include some sort of nutrition information or nutrition counseling in their programs. If nutrition is forgotten in your bootcamp, forget that bootcamp.

All of the Benefits of Bootcamp Without All of the Negatives: Outdoor bootcamps can be fun, low cost, and provide group support. That is the draw of bootcamps in the first place. Group PT offers all of these benefits without any of the drawbacks that I discussed above.

This article has been a long time coming. Anyone who knows me understands my strong dislike for generic crap training like the bootcamp I attended. It’s my mission in life to increase the quality of group training in America. I hope this article will make a small splash in that happening. I know the readers of this blog will understand the importance, so if you know anyone that may like this article please share it with them. If each person who reads this makes a vow to increase the quality of his or her bootcamps and/or group training I know I’ve begun to make the difference I’m trying so hard to make. Thank your for reading and for going the extra mile to do what is right.

Steve Long

Filed Under: Bootcamps, fitness business, Fitness Business Success, Personal Training Business Tagged With: Boot Camps, fitness bootcamp business, Fitness Business, Personal Training

Running Your Fitness Business Like Disney

November 30, 2011 By admin 3 Comments

A Post On Running A Fitness Business By Pat Rigsby

disney Running Your Fitness Business Like Disney

I just returned from our annual trip to Disney World and, as usual, I’m enamored with how well they do everything. While I obviously am focused on family and fun during these trips, I can’t help but notice how well they operate their business and any number of lessons any fitness business, big or small, could apply to what they do.

You Sell Experience and Experience Sells You – Disney World isn’t known for the tallest or fastest roller coasters, but the theme and the experience they wrap around the coasters they have are what separates them from the rest. It’s really that way with everything they do, from having popular characters in many of the restaurants for visits and pictures to offering ‘Fast Passes’ so you can circumvent long lines to enjoy your favorite rides.

Disney works tirelessly to maximize the guest’s experience – and it’s easily their best selling tool. From what I’ve read, over 80% of guests return – and that’s at a pretty steep price tag. Outside of return visitors, their best source of traffic is referrals – again, based on the experience they provide.

Your Fitness Business Takeaway: Focus on making the experience your clients have with your business stand above the rest. Remember, they probably aren’t experts in your craft so differentiating you solely by your skill as a professional isn’t enough. You need to find ways to make certain that they have a more enjoyable time with you than they could with any other trainer. Your rewards will be better retention and many more referrals.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success Tagged With: Fitness Business

If You’re Not Growing Your Fitness Business, Here Are Some Fixes…

October 23, 2011 By admin 8 Comments

A Fitness Business Post by Pat Rigsby

dreamstime xs 12641346 If Youre Not Growing Your Fitness Business, Here Are Some Fixes…

When it comes to running a fitness business or any other business, you’re either getting better or worse. Don’t believe all that ‘The economy is bad so I just don’t want to lose ground’ stuff.

It’s crap.

I’ve just never understood that mentality. It’s a defeatist attitude and I want zero part of it. If you’re reading this, then you shouldn’t want any part of it either.

Leave that to your competitors.

I remember when I was coaching baseball I’d look around at these coaches who’d been doing it for years and every season they’d lose a couple more games than they won. Every season.

I just couldn’t have imagined living like that. Being below average – every year. And in sports it’s pretty much black and white. Win as many as you lose, you’re average. Win more and you’re above average. Win less and you’re below average.

If you went to work every day, year after year and were below average – I’d say that it’s time to find another profession. Heck, we won about 70% of the games I coached and I was far from satisfied.

Business is the same.

You didn’t start a fitness business to be average or worse.

You started your business to build something you’d love and be proud of. A business that would be better than the competition. A business that would give you and your family the financial security and personal freedom you want.

You set out for fitness business greatness. (If not, this blog probably isn’t the place for you.)

Well, greatness is a choice.

So is mediocrity.

Which are you choosing?

You choose what you are every day with your actions. It’s no different than your clients. If they want great results, they choose every day through the effort their training, through their eating and through their recovery. They basically wear their choices.
Fitness pros teach this every day, but they seem to sometimes forget it when they are evaluating their business.

It’s really that simple though.

You choose.

This is the critical place to start. Taking personal responsibility. Never blaming other people or outside circumstances.

When you take responsibility you are in control. When you don’t – you’re a victim.

As a fitness business owner you MUST be in control. If you’re playing the victim, quit. Today.

Are We Clear?

So by this point you’re either…

1. Offended because you like the whole ‘victim thing’ and the ability to blame your failures on someone else…or…

2. You take full responsibility for everything that goes on in your business. You want that on your shoulders. You know that it’s what makes being a fitness entrepreneur special – the ability to create your own economy. The ability to have the type of impact that you choose.

#1′s, please exit to your left.

If you fall into category #2, read on.

Look, taking responsibility doesn’t mean that there won’t be bumps in the road. Speaking from my own experiences, we face them every week. But I don’t believe in failure. At all. When you face a problem, you don’t dwell on it. You find a solution.

Heck, when I coached – I never really believe we lost. We just ran out of innings to stage our comeback.

Business Isn’t Easy

But that’s to your advantage. Look around at all the businesses in your community. Now think back 1 year. Think back 2. How many of them have evolved and improved? Some that were around 1-2 years ago went out of business. 95% of the rest look the same and probably would be thrilled to have not lost any ground in that span.

You’re better than that.

You should expect growth every year. Yes, every year.

So what if you’re not getting the growth that you want?

First you need to identify why you’re not getting the growth that you want.

And that’s one of the real challenges to owning your own fitness business. Sometimes you feel like you’re on an island. You don’t know exactly what you need to work on and you don’t have anyone to ask.

Well, you’re welcome to lean on us. In fact, if you want to set up a free Fitness Business Assessment Call with one of our consultants to see what you need to work on, just go here:

Fitness Business Assessment

We’re happy to help.

If you do know what is holding you back, here are some suggestions on fixes…

You’re Not Getting Enough Leads – You need to have lead sources in place that are effective enough that they provide you a minimum of twice as many leads per month as you need to need to convert into clients to reach your financial goals.

My recommendations are that you need a minimum of two external lead sources and two internal lead sources going each month as the basis of your fitness marketing plan.

Once you have your 4, determine how many leads each of those strategies are producing each month and how many of those leads are being converted into paying clients.

If any of your 4 are not producing at the level you want, then you either:

Replace them
Improve them

My favorite lead sources are:

Networking
Public Speaking
Groupon or Living Social
Facebook Ads
Business of the Month Promotions
Fundraisers
Joint Ventures
Referrals

And you have to have goals. Otherwise you’re like a ship without a rudder. You don’t know where you’re going. Set a goal of 20 or 30 or 40 leads (or more) per month and get there.

You Don’t Have a Good Front End Offer or Offers – How are you turning your leads into paying clients? Maybe it’s a free trial, a paid trial, an assessment or a Transformation Contest.

Maybe it’s several of those or different front-end offerings like clinics or workshops.
No matter what, you need some way for a person to try out what you do while incurring minimal risk as part of your fitness marketing plan. My suggestion is to have several ways throughout the year.

So how can you fix front end offers…here are a few of the strategies:

Determine what strategy or strategies you will be using. Once that is decided, determine who each of those offers will be made to…Deal of the Day buyers might be presented with one offer while Business of the Month lead might get another.

Figure out how often you’ll rotate offers to your ‘main list’ and what those offers are. Offers get stale after a while, so one month you might present a 2 week trial and the next month a 21 Day Drop a Dress Size promo.

Determine how you will build value and sell your core offerings during the front end offers.

Remember – the primary reason for having a front end offer is to convert leads into long term clients.

Some of my favorite front end offers are:

Free Special Report
Free 1 or 2 Week Trial
Body Transformation Audit (i.e. – Assessment).
21 Days for $21
Tighter Tummy in 10 Days For $10
$100 Plastic Gift Cards
Groupon-like Offers – One Month for $29-39
Transformation Contests – 4-8 Week from $20-99.
Camps
Workshops
Clinics

Your Core Offering(s) Aren’t Solid - Your Core Offerings are the foundation of your business, so everything else centers around them.

The Core Offerings we see have the most success are:

Semi-Private
Small Group
Large Group / Bootcamp

How can you fix them or improve them?

Are you the best in your market at what you do? If not, do the work to become the best.
Determine what is the most effective use of your time as a professional. What offerings to deliver based on your space, schedule and the client base you want to serve.
Look at your pricing and margins.
Are you doing everything you can to maximize results, retention and referrals?

You Don’t Have (Strong Enough) Backend Offerings – Most fitness pros drop the ball on the Back End. The Back End is basically comprised of:

The ‘problems’ created by your Core Offerings
The opportunities your clients potentially create

So when it comes to optimizing your Back End Offerings, here’s where to start…

Determine what ‘problems’ your Core Offerings create. Because a client participates in your Core Programs, they want certain results. So what can you provide that isn’t addressed in your Core Programs but will help them achieve their goals faster?

What is addressed in your Core Programs but your clients want more of?

Once you’ve figured that out, then determine what opportunities your Core Clients create. Your clients can potentially:

Be your primary source of new leads through referrals
Open doors in the community for everything from Corporate Programs to public speaking engagements

You’re Not Getting Leads To Take Advantage Of Your Front End Offers – if that’s the case then:

Decide if your Front End Offer is strong enough.
Determine if you’re building enough value in it.
Look for ways to remove the more of the risk / fear associated with taking advantage of your offer.

If You’re Not Converting Trials To Clients – then you need to…

Look at the points where you are presenting you Core Programs – are you presenting them early enough during the Front End Programs?

Determine how you’re building value in your Core Programs and see if there are ways that you can build more personal value for the prospect.

Work on your fitness sales presentation.
Look at different pricing strategies.

If You’re Not Generating Back End Revenue – then here are a few ideas:

Look at when and how you are presenting Back End Programs.
Do you build strong enough relationships that your clients trust your recommendations?
Determine if the ways that you’re asking for fitness referrals are the most effective approaches for your business model.

If You’re Not Making Enough Money In Spite Of Having A Solid Number Of Clients - this happens more than you’d ever imagine. Here are some solutions:

You don’t manage your expenses well enough. Take inventory of them and reduce them.
You have outsourced too much of the training too fast so you’re not netting enough of what you generate.
You don’t use a billing / CMS system so you lose track of money.
Your prices are too low or you discount too much.
You don’t do enough on the back end to maximize you dollars per clients.

If You’re Overwhelmed – I’ll close with this one. All fitness business owners run into this at some point. Here are the fixes:

Plan your day the evening before. I live by this.
Set daily and weekly goals to keep you on track.
Make sure to do 3 things every day to improve your business no matter what. Don’t get caught up trying to do EVERYTHING everyday. But you MUST do something.

Is there something else you’re facing in your fitness business that I can help you with? Something that needs a fix? Let me know below and we’ll work on it.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

Filed Under: fitness business, Fitness Business Success Tagged With: Fitness Business, fitness pros