Fitness Business Multipliers

January 30, 2012 By admin 2 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.

Fitness Business Owner Of The Month – January 2012

January 29, 2012 By admin 4 Comments

A fitness business owner success story by Pat Rigsby

Each month here at FBI we’re going to start recognizing a Fitness Business Owner of the Month. We hope to not only recognize fitness entrepreneurs for their successes but also to inspire other fitness pros to move forward in their business endeavors.

The winner will not only get a public ‘pat on the back’ in the form of a post like this, but they’ll also receive a 1 hour coaching call, free admission to the live event of their choice and a product of their choice from what we offer here at FBI.

Grow Your Fitness Business In 5 Simple Steps

January 18, 2012 By admin 3 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.

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

The Evolution of Group Training In Your Personal Training Business

November 27, 2011 By admin 4 Comments

Group Training Done well Can Be Great For Your Personal Training Business. A post by Josh Henkin

It is becoming the norm, heck, every conference and personal training business program seems to be promoting the evolution from one on one training models to more group oriented training. It is hard to argue with the rationale with a temperamental economy and more options for the general population to participate in a variety of fitness classes, group training does make a lot of sense.

As more training facilities move towards developing their group fitness models from a financial perspective, the question has to be raised are we also offering the right training models to make these programs successful?

Starting A Personal Training Business… Successfully

September 26, 2011 By admin 3 Comments

A Post on Starting A Personal Training Business By Pat Rigsby

Over the past week I traveled to Boston to run an Athletic Revolution franchise training and Connecticut for our first ever Elite Training Workshop.

Along with the great opportunity to spend with our new franchisees and the over 80 motivated fitness pros that attended the Elite Training Workshop, I got the pleasure of seeing first hand the success that Dave Gleason and Tyler English are having.

dave gleason Starting A Personal Training Business... Successfully

Both Dave and Tyler are part of our Athletic Revolution and Fitness Revolution franchises and it makes me feel kind of like a proud parent to see two businesses being such great representatives of the two brands.

It was just a couple of years ago when Dave was an in-home personal trainer who wanted to follow his passion and start a youth fitness business. He became one of our first franchisees with Athletic Revolution and within his first year had positioned he and his wife Andrea’s business as the pre-eminent youth fitness and sports performance business in the Pembroke, MA market.

Now, just a couple years later Dave is already close to opening his second location and seeing his dream really take shape.

Not much before the time that Dave made the jump to opening his facility, Tyler English was making the transition from health club trainer to starting a personal training business of his own.

tyler english Starting A Personal Training Business... Successfully

While still training in a club he joined our Bootcamp Blueprint program when we launched it and soon after left the club to launch a small bootcamp by renting space from a martial arts studio.

Within just a couple months he was ready to move into his own space.

Fast-forward a couple of years and Tyler has 2 locations and is moving his main location into a brand new (being built now) 8100 sq. ft. building.

So – how are these two guys – and their teams (a key part of each of their successes) doing so well and expanding while over 80% of small businesses fail?

Personal Training Systems In 3 Steps

September 5, 2011 By admin 3 Comments

A Personal Training Systems Post By Pat Rigsby

Most fitness pros start their own fitness business wanting to impact more people, make more money and enjoy more freedom.

They want to be their own boss and do things on their own terms. Unfortunately, most who do make the leap to owning their own fitness business often find themselves working 14 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week and never seem to have enough time to do everything nor enough money to hire someone to do it for them.

So what’s the secret to breaking this vicious cycle?

Start putting personal training systems in place.

But most fitness pros think that creating systems is some really overwhelming task.

That really couldn’t be further from the truth.

Really, a system is just a step-by-step process that you follow to complete a particular task so that you get a specific outcome.

Don’t you already do this by designing programs for your clients instead of just letting them do whatever they want?

So instead of reinventing the wheel each time you need to do something, you have a written checklist of steps that you (or your staff) can follow to complete the task “your way”. By creating personal training systems, you can easily teach someone else how to do what you do, then hand off the tasks so you have more time to focus on more important things.

dreamstime xs 17722779 Personal Training Systems In 3 Steps

The Personal Training Business Plan

August 17, 2011 By admin 17 Comments

When I’m talking about developing a personal training business plan here, I’m not going to discuss a SWOT analysis or how you can develop a pretty document to go get bank funding.

No, instead I want to cover the practical nuts and bolts of developing a personal training business. So let me go ahead and map out a working personal training business plan for you here: