What Is Your Personal Training Business Missing?

September 7, 2010 By admin 7 Comments

When I evaluate a personal training business, the first thing I look for is the bottlenecks that prevent the business from jumping from one level to the next.

In golf, they talk about fixing one aspect of your game and shaving a handful of strokes off of your score all at once. If you get better at putting, all of the sudden those 90′s that you’re shooting become 85′s. If you get better at pitching and chipping those 85′s become 80′s.

I think that same approach will work for improving your business numbers too. I’m going to use bootcamps as an example, but this approach works for any fitness business. Here are some areas for improvement and some simple steps to make that happen.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Personal Training Success – Part 2

July 22, 2010 By admin 13 Comments

By: Eric Cressey
In Part 1, I talked about the importance of having an extensive set of effective cues to use with clients to get the ball rolling on a great Semi-Private Personal Training experience. However, cueing was just one piece of the coaching puzzle. It’s these other pieces that, in my eyes, make or break someone in the semi-private fitness business model.

Here are a few of the factors you need to be successful as a semi-private personal training coach:

1. Knowledge and Programming – As the adage goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” You need to have done your homework in order to not only write effective programming, but also know how to modify it based on individual needs. For this reason, I think that a lot of up-and-comers are actually smart to start off with some one-on-one training because it allows them to program specifically for a small number of clients and meticulously monitor the responses to those programs. And, it forces them to think through any modifications they need to make on those programs.

Cueing: Just One Piece of Semi-Private Personal Training Success – Part 1

July 20, 2010 By admin 22 Comments

Semi-Private Personal Training Success. A post By: Eric Cressey

With the boom of semi-private personal training in recent years, there has also been a boom of questions from fitness professionals on how on Earth it is logistically possible to train several people when they may all come from different backgrounds and have different needs. Back in 2006, I was one of those people – so I can certainly speak from perspective.

I did almost all one-on-one personal training for about a year from the summer of ’05 to the summer of ’06, when I moved to Boston and went out on my own as an independent contractor. When I arrived in Boston, all these questions on how to make it work with the semi-private personal training model were rattling around my head. Admittedly, I entered this model cautiously, doing 50/50 private and semi-private personal training as I got my feet wet with it.

The Right Way To Run A Fitness Business

July 13, 2010 By admin 8 Comments

How To Run A Fitness Business

First off, I have to tell you – I didn’t know when I started writing this post that Mike Robertson would heavily reference Perform Better in his guest post the other day. Sounds like we’re big PB fans over here at Fit Business Insider, huh? We are – but that wasn’t the main point of my post. Instead – I wanted you to see an example of a business you are (or should be) familiar with – and take some lessons from them.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Perform Better Functional Training Summit in Chicago. It was the 2nd of three Functional Training Summits they hold throughout the summer, with the 1st being in Providence, RI and the third still to come this August 6th-8th in Long Beach, CA. While I was at the event I thought about how much fitness professionals could learn from Perform Better the company – so I decided to share some lessons I’ve taken away from doing business with them which could benefit you to Run A Fitness Business:

Deliver Value To Grow Your Fitness Business- I’ve attended about 10 Perform Better events and made numerous purchases from them and every time I’ve felt like I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth. In fact, to this point I’ve yet to come across someone who didn’t feel like they’ve received their money’s worth (or more) at any of the Perform Better events.This kind of consistent value that they deliver is the foundation of their success and should be the foundation of any businesses success. It’s as simple as this: In every transaction you have with a customer or client provide them with an experience that makes them want to do business with you again.

Personal Training Profits: Done For You

June 14, 2010 By admin 8 Comments

Personal Training Profits. A post by Pat Rigsby.

In general, people are willing to pay more for anything just to give in to their convenience.

The old Chinese Proverb goes like this:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

But most people don’t want to learn to fish.

They want you to catch the fish, clean it, cook it and serve it.

The more you do for them – the happier they are.

They don’t want to make decisions. They are busy. They’re bombarded with information and choices, so the simpler you make it and the more you do for them – the better your business will be.

Done For You can be as small as Lunchables at the grocery store or as big as a franchise like Athletic Revolution.

But the one thing in common is that it’s designed to make things easier for the customer or client.

So how can you integrate Done For You into your personal training business for more profits?

Here are a few ideas:

Personal Training Business: 3 Things You Need To Know

May 27, 2010 By admin 14 Comments

Personal Training Business Success. A Post By Pat Rigsby.

By now you may know that Nick and I, along with Brian Grasso and Sara Nylander, launched a youth fitness & athletic development franchise called Athletic Revolution.

Personal Training Business: 3 Things You Need To Know

We’ve been very deliberate with our expansion (we have 7 locations so far) because we are committed to building the premier youth fitness & athletic development franchise in the world – and we can’t do that haphazardly

Because we spend a lot of time focusing on building Athletic Revolution the right way, we put a lot of thought into what goes into a successful fitness and personal training businesses. While I can’t share the details of everything we’ve uncovered as some of it is proprietary and exclusive to AR franchisees – I can share the key components that go into any successful personal training business.

To build a successful personal training business, you need:

Fitness Business Mistakes: 12 You Don’t Want To Make

May 25, 2010 By admin 18 Comments

There are a lot of mistakes fitness business owners and trainers make that hold them back from reaching their business goals. Here are 12 of the most common:

salesman Fitness Business Mistakes: 12 You Don’t Want To Make

Mistake #1 – Thinking that aggressive marketing will make up for a mediocre service. The bottom line is this: you can generate a lot of leads with a strong marketing push – but you won’t keep those clients if you’re all sizzle and no steak. You have to deliver great results and you have to create an environment that your clients love being in.

I don’t know of any great personal training business that doesn’t get a lot of their clients from referrals. Obviously, you can’t generate referrals with a run of the mill service.

Personal Training Business Success Made Easy

May 24, 2010 By admin 14 Comments

Personal Training Business Success. A post by Pat Rigsby

Just the other day I was on the phone with one of our best students taking about several things that he wanted to work on his personal training business.

Honestly, he sounded overwhelmed.

overwhelmed 32694180 Personal Training Business Success Made Easy

Now this isn’t some guy just trying to get a business off the ground – his business has gone from zero to over $25,000 every month (more than $30,000 in some months) in less than 18 months.

But still – he sounded like a guy that was beaten down.

And really it all boiled down to this: he wanted to improve about 6 or 7 things in his business and he wants them all done now.

The word perfectionist comes to mind;)

So I shared a simple exercise that Nick and I used to do religiously with him – and I’ll share it with you now.

Understanding The Difference Between Activity and Achievement For Fitness Professionals

May 19, 2010 By admin 9 Comments

Achievement For Fitness Professionals. A post by Pat Rigsby

If you’re like most trainers or coaches – between training clients and managing your personal training business you are likely working 50, 60 maybe even 70 hours a week or more.

The problem with most fitness professionals is not a lack of willingness to put in long hours and work hard.

It’s the way they are spending their time.

Most are training clients for the bulk of their work day – which is totally fine. But they are also the bookkeeper, janitor (if they own a facility), marketer and veritable jack-of-all-trades when it comes to running their business. So let’s put some math to the way most trainers spend their time.

If I ask most trainers or coaches what they earn per hour the typical answer is $50-75 per hour.

Unfortunately, this is usually not the case for most fitness professionals.

21 Tips For A Better Personal Training Business

May 12, 2010 By admin 7 Comments

Personal Training Business Tips

We have one of our Mastermind Groups in town today and tomorrow so I’m dialed in on uncovering opportunities for our Mastermind Members to grow their personal training businesses.

With that in mind I wanted to share 21 different ways you can grow your personal training business – all you need to do is pick one or two of them and apply them to your business. So get to picking…

1. Offer strong guarantees. The stronger the better.

2. Have an upsell for everything. A minimum of 20% will take it.

3. Make it easy to buy.