A Post On Building Your Fitness Business By Pat Rigsby

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.

About the time we launched our first fitness business together, our “The Only Business Book You’ll Ever Need” co-author, the legendary Robert Allen, released his best selling book: Multiple Streams of Income, which served as inspiration for us as we embarked on building our new personal training business. We were opening this fitness business in a town of just 23,000 people in Central Kentucky, not exactly a perceived hotbed for personal training, so we knew from the beginning that we needed to have multiple ways of generating revenue if we wanted this venture to be a success.  So instead of simply relying on selling one-on-one personal training services like most people who owned similar types of businesses, we created a number of different revenue streams, including:

• One-on-One Personal Training
• Group Personal Training
• Weight Management Programs
• Sports Performance Programs
• Dietary Supplement Sales
• Smoothie Bar
• Workshops
• Corporate Fitness Programs

This approach quickly propelled us to a point where we had over 400 clients in a town where utilizing the typical approach to this type of fitness business might have yielded 1/10 that amount.

And that’s where things really started to take off.  Soon, health clubs and personal training business owners were seeking us out to consult and share some of the strategies that we’d successfully utilized so they could employ them in their own fitness businesses.  These consulting opportunities opened our eyes to the vast opportunities that were available sharing our systems and strategies through information marketing and business coaching.

Over the next few years we developed a variety of coaching programs, information products and seminars helping personal trainers grow their businesses.  Most recently we launched two separate personal training-based franchises, one targeting the youth fitness & sports performance market and the other targeting the adult fitness market. Both are among the fastest growing fitness franchises in the world.

Once we’d positioned ourselves as industry leading providers of business coaching and resources for fitness professionals, we would be presented with opportunities to obtain ownership in other business in the industry where our expertise would be of value.  Now, along with our business coaching and franchises, we also have ownership in a leading fitness certification organization, an equipment company, several niche fitness information-marketing fitness businesses and a handful of other businesses, collectively providing us well over 100 different income streams.

Now we teach thousands of fitness professionals around the world to employ the ‘multiple streams of income’ approach and how simple it is to integrate into a fitness business.  While you may not have an interest in building a fitness business that looks anything like ours, the ‘multiple streams of income’ approach will work in your fitness business too, perhaps even better than it’s worked in ours.   Really it simply starts by answering these two questions:

1. What ‘problems’ do your current offering(s) create?
2. What opportunities do your current customers / clients / patients present?

By answering those two questions you’ll easily be able to identify potential income streams for your business.  Let us give you examples of how we might have answered those questions in our personal training business.

What ‘problems’ do your current offering(s) create?

One-on-one personal training is potentially too expensive for many consumers so offering small and large group personal training allows those than can’t afford one-on-one personal training similar benefits while being available at a much lower price point.  Also, personal training focuses on the exercise component of physical improvement, but there are other factors than can impact someone’s success while trying to achieve fitness goals like nutrition, supplementation and recovery.  By offering weight management programs, supportive nutrition solutions though our ‘smoothie’ bar, dietary supplements and workshops, we can address the other factors that will help our clients achieve their fitness goals more quickly and easily.

What opportunities do your current customers / clients / patients present?

Many personal training clients are either business owners or business decision makers, so they can open doors to opportunities to provide corporate fitness programs or off-site weight management programs at their companies.  Additionally, many clients have children and / or are in positions of influence (teachers, school administrators, coaches, etc.) for the youth population and would see the benefit in, and help promote, youth fitness and sports performance offerings.

Hopefully you’re already getting some ideas for income streams you can develop based on those two questions.  Another great way to get ideas for potential income streams is to simply look at other businesses and see what they do.

Here are a couple examples:

Automotive dealerships don’t just sell cars.  They do repairs. They do preventative maintenance.  They offer financing. Some dealerships even provide things like detailing or car rental programs.

Amusement parks don’t just offer rides and attractions.  They sell food and refreshments.  They sell a variety of retail products from theme-related attire and toys to sun block and sunglasses that visitors might have forgotten to bring.  They also offer paid parking, photographs taken during guest stays, and many have their own hotels that guests can utilize during their visit.

There are thousands of businesses employing the ‘multiple streams of income’ approach, so learn from the successes they’re having so you can create your own.

Once you’ve determined some general ideas of what other problems you could solve for your clients or the opportunities that they could create for you and your fitness business, then you need to decide on the models for your income streams.

Basically there are five types of Income Models you can implement:

1. Service Based
2. Product Based
3. Coaching / Consulting Based
4. Information / Knowledge Based
5. Affiliate / Referral Based

Each of these Income Models has it’s own set of benefits and drawbacks and some may be more appropriate than others for your business, but you should have no problem choosing a couple that you can integrate into your business and add additional revenue – in some cases almost immediately.

So let’s take a look at each of these Income Models in greater detail.  We’ll share an overview of the model and an example of how we’ve integrated it into our own businesses.

Service Based – This is typically the easiest to add to a fitness business, as it often requires little set up and relies primarily on you or a staff member utilizing skills that you (or someone on your team) possess and will be of benefit to your clients and typically compliments your primary offerings. The upside to this type of Income Model is the ease of start up and integration into your personal training business.  The downside is that it’s time and skill intensive.

When we had our first personal training business, the easiest and most obvious Income Model for us to integrate was a Weight Management Program.  This program was basically a nutritional education program delivered by our staff members that helped our clients reach their goals faster and was the perfect compliment to the exercise based coaching that was our primary offering.

Product Based – Product based models are potentially very simple to integrate into your fitness business as well.  The upside to the product based Income Model is that it usually doesn’t require any special skill to offer products beyond some basic product knowledge and this model isn’t as time intensive as the others.

The first potential drawback to the product model is the fact that most products or similar competitors will be offered in other retail outlets so there isn’t as much price elasticity as with the other models.  The other drawback to the product model is that it usually requires an upfront investment for inventory.

Our initial use of the Product Based Income Model was through selling dietary supplements to our personal training clients.  Our clients were regularly investing in supplements to help them reach their fitness goals and often consulted with our staff when choosing what supplements to purchase, so it became obvious very quickly that we should carry our own line of quality supplements and direct our clients to purchase from us.  Not only were there financial benefits to this, but we also now could direct our clients to products that we knew and trusted.  A great win/win.

Coaching / Consulting Based – Coaching / Consulting Based Income Models are great if you’ve established a successful fitness business and are willing to share your business systems and knowledge with other entrepreneurs.  The primary benefit to this Income Model is that the potential financial upside of business-to-business coaching /consulting is typically much greater than providing services to consumers. The other real upside is that it allows you to leverage what you already know and do in your own business by sharing it with others.

The potential drawback to the Coaching / Consulting Based Income Model isn’t really a drawback at all. It’s more of a pre-requisite.  To ethically coach or consult you should have experienced some success in your own experiences. If you’ve successful gotten a certain type of client results over and over – and have a systematic approach that others can model, then this approach is very powerful.

We first employed the Coaching / Consulting Based Income Model by teaching other personal trainers and health club owners how we’d successfully built our personal training business.  This Income Model eventually merged together with the Information / Knowledge Based Income Model and evolved into our two franchises: Athletic Revolution International and Fitness Revolution International.

Information / Knowledge Based – In the Information / Knowledge Based Income Model you simply document what you know and do successfully and package it to be shared with others.  There are many advantages to this model.  Some of the biggest are the fact that you can develop information products to offer to people that normally couldn’t be your clients due to geographic constraints, so essentially the whole world is potentially your market.  There is great leverage with this type of Model too.  You can create a product once and sell it over and over again.  Typically the margins on offerings in this Model are very high too.

If there is any downside to this Income Model, it is that while your market is no longer limited by geography, the same goes for your competition.  When offering an information product or program you will be competing for your prospect’s attention with many more marketers than you would typically face when just selling products or services locally.

We began with the Information / Knowledge Based Income Model with two different offerings at about the same time. One of our offerings was directed to other fitness business owners sharing our systems, strategies and tactics for building a successful personal training business.  The other offering featured my wife, Holly, and was a consumer product called Fit Yummy Mummy, which was a fitness program specifically designed for moms.  In both cases, we simply packaged the things that we’d done successfully in our own fitness businesses and shared them with people who could benefit from the knowledge, but couldn’t work with us face-to-face.

Ultimately both of these initial products laid the foundation for new fitness businesses that have each become category leaders in their respective markets.

Affiliate / Referral Based – This Income Model is very simple to integrate into your fitness business as it basically just requires you to find a product or service that you can refer your clients to, which is complimentary to your offerings.  The upside to the Affiliate / Referral Based Income Model is the fact that it requires very little work on your part to generate additional revenue.  The ‘partner’ that you are referring business to will provide the service or product while paying you a referral fee.  The downside to this Model is that you are putting your relationship with your customer in the hands of someone else.  If they provide an inferior product or service, then you will suffer the ill effects of that. Therefore, if you employ this Income Model, be certain to only refer only businesses of the highest quality.

We initially utilized this Income Model by referring our personal training clients to a massage therapist.  The massage therapist provided a quality service to our clients that we did not offer and paid us a referral fee for every client we sent.  In addition to those benefits, the massage therapist also referred their clients to us for our services to make this a great reciprocal relationship.

By determining what problems you could solve for your clients or the opportunities that they could create for you and your fitness business and the income models you can employ to address them, you can not only add tens of thousands of dollars to your bottom line and better serve the people you work with, but you may also lay the foundation for new fitness businesses that enjoy even greater successes and profits than the one you have now.  We certainly have.

Dedicated to your Success,

Pat

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.

Our January Fitness Business Owner of the Month is Greg McClellan, Owner of Elite Athletes in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Greg and his business Elite Athletes have been in operation for over a year and a half and in that time have grown to serving anywhere from 100-225 clients with a team of 3 full time and 2 part time trainers.

They offer one-on-one, small/large groups, sports specific training and nutrition coaching with their primary market being youth fitness & sports performance.

Greg is a great example of the opportunity the fitness industry offers.  In just under a year in business he’s grown to over 100 clients and has a staff helping to deliver his services to create leverage in his business.  He’s not only employed multiple streams of income into his business, but he’s also tapped into one of the true goldmines in the industry – youth fitness / sports performance.

So Congratulations Greg!  I’m excited to name you Fitness Business Owner of the Month and look forward to giving you your well deserved prizes of the coaching call and the product from the FBI collection of resources as well as seeing you at a live event of your choosing soon!

If you’d like to be considered for next month’s Fitness Business Owner of the Month, please contact our Customer Experience Manager, Lee Ann Salsman at leeann.fcg@gmail.com for an application.

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.

Step 1: Choose A Strategy For Fitness Business Growth

Like I mentioned, there are dozens of things you can do to grow your fitness business, but I don’t want to overcomplicate this so we’re going to limit the list to things that you can do which won’t cost much money, are relatively easy to implement and can be started immediately. Here are your options:

• Add an upsell at the Point of Sale
• Switch your month to month clients or clients that pay by check into 3, 6 or 12 month clients on EFT.
• Raise your rates 3-5%.
• Launch a Reactivation Campaign
• Add a Point of Sale Referral Request
• Launch an evergreen Referral Program
• Create a Joint Venture with another local business
• Collect Testimonials from your successful clients
• Launch a Transformation Contest
• Hold a 3 Day Promotion
• Hold a Workshop
• Create a Downsell Offer

Now it’s time to decide which strategy you’ll use over the next several days to grow your fitness business. Will you ask your new clients to upgrade to a bigger program or a special bundled offer? Will you initiate a joint venture with someone who can send you clients right away? Will you raise your rates?

Which strategy should you execute first?

That depends on what you already have in place, the assets you have available (database, space, time, etc) and what has the most potential upside for your particular situation.

Honestly, I don’t care. I just want you to do SOMETHING. Take action and reap some rewards. Then choose another one and do the same.

So pick one strategy and get started.

Step Two: Create Your Plan

Once you’ve decided which strategy you’re going to use, you need to develop your action plan. You need the details worked out, the timeline in order, specifics about any other people (like staff members or JV Partners) that might be involved and items / materials needed to execute the plan.

This plan is basically your outline for your new growth strategy – so make sure you’ve done your preparation.

Here’s an example:

72 Hour Promotion

Dates: January 25th – 27th

Offer: Launch of 6 Week Nutrition Coaching Program. During 72 Hour Promo the price will be $197. After the promotion it will be $297.

Needs: 3 Days Worth of Promotional Emails (4 emails in all). Flyers to be handed out in the facility. A dry erase board for internal promotion. Course materials. Course details (dates / times / description).

Other People’s Involvement: Other staff members should know details and be able to enroll clients.

Incentive to Buy: $100 off the program if purchased during the promotion.

That’s about it. You can certainly get more detailed, but that would be enough to build on.

Step Three: Produce The Materials

Whether it’s simple email broadcasts to your list, a form that clients can use to give you testimonials or new price sheets reflecting your increased rates – you’ll need to produce the emails, scripts, flyers, forms, content and whatever else is needed to execute your strategy.

For a Testimonial Request Campaign, here’s an example of the materials you might need:

• Testimonial form – online or offline
• Script to ask for testimonials to be used in person or on the phone
• Email to request testimonials

Step Four: Prepare Others To Do Their Part

If you are enlisting staff members, joint venture partners or clients to play a role in your strategy, you need to empower them to do their part. This means giving them the tools and training needed to execute the plan.

For example: If you were going to include photos or videos in this, then directions for your staff or any outline for the specifics / format would also be necessary.

If you are asking your clients to refer people – you need to not only incentivize your clients, but you also need to educate them on what a good referral looks like, provide them with marketing materials and tell them what steps to take to get a referral into your pipeline.

Scripts, tools, specifics about the plan and it’s execution are all necessary if you’re getting others involved.

Step Five: Launch!

This is the day you put everything into action.

Review your plan, make sure all systems are go and start bringing in new clients, getting testimonials or generating revenue.

Be sure that the fulfillment of anything you sell is in place. Refine your scripts and emails based on the feedback that comes in. Offer extra thanks or post-purchase reassurance for anyone that purchases or responds.

Be sure to track your plan and the results so you can improve on the plan and roll the strategy out again in the future or use the intelligence you gain to improve other strategies you implement.

That’s it – Plan it, do it, track it. Reap the benefits and move to the next strategy.

If you want to grow your fitness business, being proactive and regularly taking actions like these are a must. Use this plan to get you started and use the momentum and cash you generate to take your business to the next level.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

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:

1. You’ve separated yourself from everyone else because you’re playing to your unique talents, assets, passions and skills.
2. 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.
3. 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.

A Fitness Business Building Post By Pat Rigsby

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!

Your Training Business Plan For Success

In this post I share your Championship plan for building a successful business. Consider it your cheat sheet for success.

101 Fitness Business Tips

It doesn’t matter what area of your business you want to improve, in this post I address it.  I’ve shared my most valuable 101 tips – and any one of them can dramatically improve your business.

Building A Personal Training Franchise: Lessons You Can Apply

As you know, we’ve built the fastest growing personal training franchise in the world – with over 105 locations in our 1st 11 Months.  Well, we learned a lot along the way – and those lessons can apply to your business too.  If you want to see dramatic growth, check this post out.

Fixes For Your Fitness Business

We all face points in our businesses where areas aren’t performing at the levels we want them to.  I put this post together to give you specific fixes to address the most common areas that get bogged down.

21 Days To A Better Fitness Business

We all work better off of deadlines, so in this post I’ve shared a 21 day action pan you can follow that will dramatically improve your business.

Building A Personal Training Business: The 10X Factor

One of my favorite posts ever – it’s basically the roadmap we’ve followed to build our own businesses.  If you want to build a business the right way – this is a must read.

The Best Fitness Business Blog Post Ever

The most popular blog post in the history of this blog and probably the most comprehensive fitness business building post anyone has ever produced. Over 6500 words of business and marketing gold.

So review these posts, pick out some strategies and tactics that you can use – and put them into action.

Also – if there is anything you want me to share more insight on or see more of on the blog this year, please share it below.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat

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

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?

The Right Toolbox

I love hearing coaches use the cliche, “a tool is just a tool.” Tools represent your philosophy and some tools work better than other tools. We can make a hole in the wall a variety of ways, we can use a sledgehammer or a drill. Both tools have the potential to make holes, however, the type of hole is going to be distinctly different. Training tools can be thought in similar terms.

Any training tool can have the POTENTIAL to increase the fitness of your clients. However, some can be difficult to use in the group format. They don’t offer optimal versatility to work with a wide array of ability levels at once, they can be time intensive to set-up, awkward, and take excessive space that a facility owner can never replace having. Having the RIGHT tools to accomplish these goals can give us a better opportunity to provide clients with a great experience, something often overlooked in many programs.

That is why the tools in many facilities are changing just as fast as the models themselves. However, the tools are only part of the equation. I remember back in 2002 bringing kettlebells into the gym I was renting from, it was cool and unique and people definitely took notice. In many ways having different tools that most people were unfamiliar with provided me a unique marketing opportunity and encouraged people to speak with me about the difference in my training programs.

However, as the years have passed, what use to be “underground” or “old school” are now tools that we see on popular television fitness shows, retail stores such as Target, Wal-mart, heck, even Best Buy! We can’t rely purely on “being different” in a visual context, the market has caught up too much. We need to do more!

The Experience

Training tools can be “just tools” if we don’t have a system of how we are going to implement them into a proper system. Many coaches and facilities have fallen into the trap of allowing the training tool to dictate the training rather discovering and developing ways the tools can help the training experience.

The experience our client has is vital, make them feel successful during their training and you may have a client for life. Make them feel inadequate, frustrated, and alienated from the group and you will lose them. It is far too easy to forget that clients generally come to us when things are not going well and their confidence and self-esteem can be at all time lows. Instead of reinforcing their fears they are too de-conditioned, not coordinated enough, and not capable of getting fit in our program, we need to establish means in which to empower them.

How do we accomplish such a lofty goal? It comes back to programming and systems. When I began in the industry over 15 years ago, tools were far less a point of discussion than they are today. Your business was successful based upon your ability to provide both a terrific experience and results, novel I know! Now we are re-entering an era where we will not be judged by the novelty of the workouts, but rather the impact of them.

In order to create successful programs we have to possess systems that dictate how we are are going to work with the variety of people that we are targeting in our marketing. Some in the industry have come to believe the idea of “systems” is the enemy of successive porgams. They believe systems will make their training stagnant and unappealing to their clientele. However, the opposite is true.

How many Fortune 500 companies are built on the random business practices?

How many building are built off some random architecture plans?

How many military units decide to “wing it” when they embark on a mission?

All these situations have systems and philosophies. Systems are not stale, rather they are fluid and adaptable. Possessing a system provides us direction and a means for both our clients to be accountable to our program and vice versa. As Strength Coach, Charles Staley, states, “you can’t deviate from a system you don’t have.” Having systems allows us to problem solve with our client when things are not working optimally and identify what methods and techniques do result in maximal gains.

As a business owner, having a system allows the facility to run in a unified manner where all staff can interact and work with the clients in a similar manner.

This means that YOU, the personal training business owner, have more flexibility in who works with your clients, not having to be the primary practitioner all the time, and ultimately growing your business.

What Makes for a Good System

At the heart of a system has to be your philosophy and values as a coach and trainer. If your belief is in the philosophy of “functional training” then your system should be built on how to progressively work people through various levels of achieving the movement patterns that are valued in your system. Developing problem-solving strategies allows everyone in a group to perform the same movements as the group and not being “different” in a group setting is important in developing a long-term client. Establishing levels and goals of phases and levels will help give your personal training business staff and clients direction and measurable goals outside of the cosmetic.

Developing a system doesn’t have to be overwhelming or intimidating. Rather, having a system allows your facility to operate at a higher rate of efficiency and improve communication amongst staff and clients. Challenge yourself to answer the question “what is your system?”, can you outline your programs into a format that is adaptable, effective, fun, challenging, and being capable of having your staff to work within this framework? This is the future of fitness, challenging ourselves to be better professionals is the answer to personal training business long-term success!

Josh Henkin, CSCS is the creator of the Ultimate Sandbag™ and Dynamic Variable Resistance Training™(DVRT™) System. Josh has taught his unique an innovative training system to fitness professionals in over 15 countries worldwide. His DVRT™ Certifications and programs are quickly becoming a standard in the fitness and sports performance industry. Find out more at http://DVRTFitness.com

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.

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.

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?

In each of their cases, it’s a pretty good blueprint for starting a personal training business successfully.  Here are some of the factors that have played into their respective success and factors that will help you whether you’re starting a personal training business or you’ve got 20 years under your belt.

Factor #1 – They Provide The Best Coaching In Their Area.  Both Dave & Tyler are true masters of their craft.  I’ve been around a lot of coaches and I’ve never seen anyone communicate better with young athletes than Dave.  He’s such a good coach that we’ve leaned on him to be s subject matter expert for both Athletic Revolution and the IYCA.

The programming and coaching at Tyler’s facility is unbelievable too.  The detail covered in their programming for bootcamps makes 99% of the other camps out there seem like aerobics class from the mid-80′s.  The energy and passion the coaches at his facility provide is second to none.

If you want to be the best training business in your area you must provide the best coaching.

Factor #2 – Passion.   If you’re starting a personal training business to get rich and it’s not what you’re passionate about – get a new plan.  Does that mean that you can’t get rich doing this – of course not.  And both of these guys probably will… but it’s founded on the passion that they have about what they do.  They are both very driven and relentlessly working to be the best at their craft.

Here’s a good test for you: who would you train or what would you do and never watch the clock?  What would you do that would make you excited to get to work in the morning and already excited for the next day when you are wrapping up.

For these guys – they’re living it.  You should follow that path too.

Factor #3 – They Were / Are Smart Enough To Get Help. I mentioned that only 20% of small businesses succeed.  Well, 82% of franchises do.  Both of these guys recognized that they were great coaches that wanted to run great businesses and needed help to get there without having to re-invent the wheel or take forever to make it happen.

Tyler was working with us before he ever left his job to open his own business.  Dave started working with us before he ever found a space to open his training facility.  Honesty, it takes some humility to say that you can benefit from some help and both of these guys had it.  Could they have gotten there on their own… probably so.  Would it have happened so quickly and without a lot more bumps along the way… probably not.

Factor #4 – They’re Action Takers.  You don’t meet a lot of people who don’t say they want to be successful.  Or at least I don’t.  But far, far fewer actually are willing to do what it takes to get there.

Most fitness pros aren’t willing to do free clinics or workshop.  They’re not willing to write press releases month after month.  Dave has used those two strategies as two of his best lead generators.  When I watched Dave leave an opportunity for a sale on the table and mentioned it to him – he instantly put a new approach into place.

Tyler is incredible about this type of thing.  Every time he comes to Louisville for a live event or Mastermind meeting he goes away with a couple new ideas – like most attendees.  But what sets him apart is that he always has his ideas implemented within his first week home.  And sometimes he has them in place before he ever leaves the event.

Factor #5 – They Keep Growing.  Both of them are continually adding to their education.  Whether it’s training or business based, they’re always learning something new that will make them better.  We see them both at our live events throughout the year (they’re both presenters for us now) and always at the forefront of what’s new in the industry.

Factor #6 – They Stepped Out Of Their Comfort Zone.  Starting a new business is scary.  You need to find money – usually when you don’t have much of your own. You have to start worrying about leases and business entities and merchant accounts and a bunch of other things that don’t seem like they’re what you got into this for.  Fortunately we were able to help these guys with this stuff – but it’s still uncomfortable.

Plus, starting a new training business meant that there was no security.  If they didn’t get clients, they couldn’t pay their bills.  Dave has a wife and 2 young children.  That’s uncomfortable.  But they both did what it took.  They both became good at the business side to compliment what they did with they already do well with the training side.

You need to accept this if you’re starting a personal training business.  It’s not easy.  Holly, Tyler and I lived in a basement the first year we were in business.  But with because you’re willing to sacrifice some opportunity and strive for something big – you’ve separated yourself from the pack and there of far more opportunity available for you.

Factor #7 – Experience & Relationships – Both Dave and Tyler deliver great experiences for everyone that walks through their doors and they both develop extraordinary relationships with their clients. These are things that the people they serve can’t get at the local health club or really anywhere else.

Most fitness pros don’t recognize the importance of these two things.  But think about it – most consumers aren’t experts in training so even if you are the best coach – they may not recognize it immediately.  But they will recognize an extraordinary experience.  They will notice that the relationship they have with you is different than the one they have with any other business owner.  Tyler has been able to close about 5X more Groupon leads into long-term clients than the average trainer does.   Dave closes 92% of his leads due to this.  Both enjoy far more referrals than the average fitness business – and these two components are key to that.

Sure – marketing and selling played into these guys success.  But I believe that these 7 Factors laid the foundation.  If you’re starting a personal training business, keep that in mind.  In fact, I’d tell you this… unless you have most of these in place, any marketing or selling that I teach you is a waste.

But the great thing is that if you do have this stuff dialed in – you can build an extraordinary business.  Just like these guys.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

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.

Really, running a personal training business not based on systems is the same as training clients without designed programs. Sure, you could probably wing it yourself and deliver an ‘ok’ outcome, but you probably wouldn’t be as effective as you could if you had done an assessment and designed a program – and you certainly couldn’t depend on having someone else train the client at the level of service that you’d want to deliver.

But if you design a program for a client and put that program in the hands of a qualified coach, you stand a good chance of them actually delivering the service as you would expect it to be provided.

Who Can Personal Training Systems Help?

The short answer is every fitness business owner. Imagine having the freedom to take a week vacation or deal with a major life event and having the peace of mind that your fitness business will be able to run smoothly in your absence.

Too often, you are your business – you wear all the hats. If you don’t do it, it can’t or won’t get done. Personal training systems allow you to easily teach others to do many of your daily tasks so you don’t have to worry about them.

If any of these scenarios sound like you, personal training systems are a must:

• You have too many projects and not enough time.It seems like you’re always working and never making much progress. You’re not able to do all the things that you want to do for your business or your family. Eventually you start feeling burned out.Personal training systems will allow you to focus on high return activities and delegate the rest, freeing up more of your time and allowing you to put your best effort forth on the tasks you perform.

• You aren’t getting consistently successful outcomes. Maybe your closing percentage is down.  Maybe your disappointed with the number of people that actually come in versus the volume of calls that you receive.  If you create fitness business systems you can make each time you perform a task your best effort.

• You’re fitness business is growing too fast. It’s a good problem to have – but it’s still a problem.  Maybe you just had a Groupon hit and you’re overwhelmed with leads or you’ve just really gained traction in your market.  Getting an influx of new business is good, but it means that you run out of time to do everything you need to do and you need to hire help. Personal training systems can make that hiring and staffing process a lot faster and smoother.

If you ever plan to grow your fitness business beyond just yourself, you must document the steps you take to serve your clients and run your business.

How To Create Personal Training Systems

Creating your personal training systems doesn’t have to be complicated. Using my “Do-Document-Refine” approach you can start with whatever you have to accomplish today or this week and document the steps you take to get things done and before you know it you’ll have effective systems in place.

Do – Allocate a few minutes after every key task that you have to perform today.  Opening the gym, answering the phone, performing an assessment, delivering a session… all the key tasks.

Then do those tasks.

Document – In that time that you’ve allocated after performing the task, document what you did and the outcome that you got. You can document it in a simple step-by-step checklist, on a camtasia video or with a flip cam if you want.  You can have an employee or an intern follow you through the task and document what you did.

The key is documenting every detail of every step that you took to complete the task to get the desired outcome.

Refine – Now clean up your checklist.  Make sure that everything is explained in a clear fashion that someone other than you can understand so that they could complete the same task and get the same outcome.

You can test this by asking someone to follow your system and evaluate them and the outcome they get.

Once you have your basic system created – understand that it should always be evolving.  If you find a better way to do a task, update your personal training system.  Test certain steps in the system and see if they produce a better result.

You can then compile all your systems into a hard copy or online operations manual that can serve as the foundation of your staff training. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to start documenting your step-by-step systems for all your personal training business operations.

Personal training systems are great for saving you time and money. When you stop to think about how many hours each year you spend hunting down missing information or important documents, performing $9.00 an hour tasks, doing things that you don’t really enjoy doing, you realize how much wasted time is costing you. With personal training systems in place, you’ll start immediately making your time more valuable and enjoying more freedom.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

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:

Personal Training Business Plan Step #1 – Identify Your Lead Sources.

You can generate leads from a variety of sources.  Here are just a few:

• Public Speaking
• Groupon or Living Social
• Facebook Ads
• Business of the Month Promotions
• Fundraisers
• Direct Mail
• Joint Ventures
• Lead Boxes
• Door Hangers
• Referrals

You should choose a couple that you like doing and that you’re good at…then put most of your external marketing efforts into those.  Don’t try to do everything.  Be great at a couple things instead.  Find ways to extend what you already do well.  If you are good at speaking, find more venues to speak.  If lead boxes convert, place more boxes.  It’s simple but it works.

Personal Training Business Plan Step #2 – Develop Your Front End Offer(s).

Once you have lead sources, how do you get them into your business funnel?  Here are some ideas:

• 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

You can run these until they burn out, then rotate them.  You can also repackage them…for example a 21 Day Drop a Dress Size Promo in January can easily be repackaged as Swimsuit Ready in 21 Days leading up to Summer.  Plus you can run different offers to different markets at the same time. These offerings lead people into…

Personal Training Business Plan Step #3 – Develop Your Core Offering(s).

These are your flagship offerings.  Maybe you want to push everyone into bootcamps or semi-private training.  Maybe it’s some of both.  Perhaps you want to move people into small group classes like we offer in Athletic Revolution.

These should be your membership based programs that are either 3, 6 or 12 month commitments or at least autorenewing month-to-month memberships.  Once you know what these are, you spend your time optimizing them to maximize the Client Experience, the retention, your margins and the ability to move people into…

Personal Training Business Plan Step #4 – Your Backend Offering(s).

You need to offer things on the backend that compliment what you provide in the core offerings or things that are relevant to the buyers. Examples could be:

• Nutrition Coaching
• Prograde Supplements
• Workshops
• Grocery Store Tours
• Equipment Sales – Bands, Foam Rollers, Kettlebells, etc.
• Drop Shipped Healthy Meals
• Accountability Programs
• Add On Classes – Metabolic Classes, Yoga, Walk / Run Classes, etc.
• Youth Fitness or Sports Performance for their kids

These not only help get your average monthly revenue per client up, but they also provide a more complete solution for the people you work with.  They get better results and in turn refer more and stay longer.

Then you start looking for bottlenecks.  What are you missing?

Do you not have enough leads coming into the funnel?

Do you not have a front end offer that people take and that builds value in your core offering(s)?

Do people buy your core offering?  How long do they stay?

Do you have backend offers in place?  Do your clients take them?

Do your clients have a good enough experience to refer other people to you?

Find out where you’re week and start tightening it up.  The consultant we’ve been working with suggested working on two things every two weeks.  Don’t feel like you’ve got to fix them all at once.

So there you have it – a workable personal training business plan.  Something that will keep prospects coming to you, convert them into clients and maximize the value of those clients.

Now the next step is to map out your business using this approach and find out what you want to improve on first.

Tell me what you think below…

Dedicated to your fitness business success,

Pat