The Secrets To Their Fitness Business Success

A Post on Fitness Business Success By Pat Rigsby

As I’ve mentioned a couple times this week, I spent the weekend in Wisconsin and got to hang out with three very successful fitness business owners, Dave Schmitz, B.J. Gaddour and Ken Grall.

I thought it would be cool to share some of the things these guys are doing that are allowing each of their fitness business to thrive, so here are some of my takeaways:

• Groups, Groups, Groups – these guys are all killing it with group training.  Nothing new there since we talk about it all the time, but they are 3 different guys with 3 different personalities all making group training work and work well.  If you’re not doing groups – don’t wait any longer.

• Bootcamps But Not - These guys all call their group training Bootcamps, but it’s pretty different from the typical bootcamp – and I think that’s where you’re going to have to go to be successful.
  
  The word ‘Bootcamp’ will get you more searches online and it’s probably entrenched enough that there is a lot of merit to calling your group program a bootcamp, but these guys all treat what they do like group personal training.  Integrating assessments, Beginner Bootcamp, tons of personal attention and progressions and regressions in programming – they’ve really separated them from the ‘just get you tired’ style of trainers.

• Cool Tools – If you’ve ever been to a Bootcamp Bootcamp event, you know that BJ can put together a great workout with just bodyweight exercises, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be integrating other tools.All 3 of these guys use Resistance Bandsextensively (big shocker with the Band Man, right?), but you’ll also find them using stuff like TRX, Kettlebells, Ropes and more to mix things up.  I know, seems simple right? But 98% of the gyms out there are not running their classes with this approach so you can use this as one more point of differentiation.Plus it keeps it fun.  And make no mistake – the fun factor matters for retention and referrals.

• Recognition and Attention – One of the first things I noticed when I walked in BJ’s facility and in Ken’s facility was that each of them had a Client of the Month recognized on the wall. Another seemingly simple one – but you’d be amazed at how many people overlook it.Client of the Month, Camper of the Day, personal emails and calls – all of it matters… a LOT.

• Deal of the Day – BJ has generated over 500 paying leads with Groupon.  Both Ken and Dave will be doing a Deal of the Day soon as well.  You’re not going to convert all of the people you get thought these sites, but one well done offer on a Groupon, Living Social, Try It Local, Tippr or some other local Deal of the Day site can literally transform your business.

• Bring A Friend – These guys all kill it with Bring a Friend promos.  I think BJ said he got something like 74 people with his (he gave away an IPad as a prize) and Ken said it’s been one of his most powerful lead sources.You should be doing some sort of Bring a Friend promotion pretty much every month and just tweaking it or how you incentivize clients and campers to keep them motivated to keep people coming in.

• 21 Day Drop a Dress Size – Not only these guys, but almost all of our Mastermind Members are killing it with our 21 Day Drop a Dress Size offer.  They typically run it for $97 dollars – though some offer it for less – and get a big surge of new qualified, paying leads.  It’s a great way to break things up if you’ve been using Free Trials for a while and you need something new.

• Youth Fitness – The Band Man kills it training athletes – in fact he has over 300 kids go through his programs during the Summer alone. Ken is an Athletic Revolution franchisee and has found the perfect mix between his adult business – Edge Fitness – and AR. The 2 are a perfect combination – that’s why so many of our most successful fitness pros are integrating AR into their businesses.

• Multiple Streams – I know, it sounds like a broken record but all 3 of these guys have 2 or more core revenue streams – and several other secondary revenue streams.  In addition to the youth fitness component I just mentioned, they each have retail offerings – everything from Prograde to bands to apparel.BJ & Dave both also sell online – Workout Muse and Resistance Band Training are both tremendously successful businesses.

• Great Coaching – These 3 are perfect examples of great coaching being the true foundation of great businesses.   Sure, all 3 are passionate about building their businesses – and have done what it took to become experts on the business side – but their passion about coaching and helping people is what has set the stage for their success.

There you go – a number of takeways that you can immediately apply in your own fitness business that are proven to work.

If you want to learn more about building an awesome Bootcamp or Group Training Business, I also have a really cool announcement:

Next week B.J. Gaddour and I will be launching B3: The Bootcamp Business Builder.  We’re going to give you EVERYTHING you need to build an awesome business… and we’re going to launch it at a price that is less than you’ll make in a single session.

Stay tuned.

Also – if you want to learn more about Athletic Revolution, you can grab a Special Report right here:

http://www.myathleticrevolution.com/free-report/

Dedicated to your success,

Pat

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