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Fitness Business

The Definitive Guide to Being a Fitness Entrepreneur

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By Pat Rigsby
With Contributions from the FCG Team

Fitness Consulting Group Elizabethtown, KY

Copyright 2012 by Pat Rigsby. All Rights Reserved.


No portion of this book may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, fax, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system by anyone but the purchaser or reviewer for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Pat Rigsby except in the case of a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages for the sake of a review written for inclusion in a magazine, paper, journal, or website- and these cases require written approval from Pat Rigsby prior to publication. Disclaimer The information in this book is for educational purposes only. There is an inherent risk assumed by any participant with any type of business activity. Those wishing or planning to partake in business activities should research their markets and understand the risks before doing so. The author of this book assumes no liability for any adverse outcomes. This is purely an educational book to educate those who are ready to take on such risks. While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, the author does not assume any responsibility for errors or changes that occur after publication. Furthermore, the author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

Contents
Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6 The Most Valuable FREE Gift Ever!!! ....................................................................................... 7 Building a Personal Training Business: The 10X Factor................................................................ 8 Simple Solutions for the Fitness Entrepreneur ............................................................................. 12 7 Things Being a Baseball Coach Taught Me about Fitness Businesses ...................................... 17 Grow Your Fitness Business in 5 Simple Steps............................................................................ 20 Running Your Fitness Business Like Disney ............................................................................... 23 Deliver Education or Experience in Your Fitness Business ......................................................... 26 Generating Instant Income for Your Fitness Business ................................................................. 29 Act Small to Grow Big ................................................................................................................. 35 When to Hire the First Employee for Your Personal Training Business ...................................... 37 My Best Fitness Business Building Tip ........................................................................................ 39 Why Fitness Business Mastermind Groups Are So Valuable ...................................................... 42 The Easiest Profit Center to Add On to Any Personal Training Business.................................... 49 Large Group Personal Training vs. BootcampsWhats The Difference? ................................. 52 Ask Yourself These 7 Questions................................................................................................... 55 Delivering an Excellent Experience through Customer Service................................................... 56 101 Fitness Business Tips ............................................................................................................. 59 Value: The Key to Fitness Business Success ................................................................................ 67 5 Minute Fitness Business Fixes ................................................................................................... 69 Starting a Personal Training Business Successfully ..................................................................... 72 The Difficult Customer ................................................................................................................. 76 3 Immediate Ways to Grow Your Fitness Business ..................................................................... 78 Hiring Personal Trainers & Other Staff Members ........................................................................ 80 29 Tips to Make You a Productivity Machine .............................................................................. 83 10 Secrets of an Elite Fitness Business ......................................................................................... 85 Epilogue ........................................................................................................................................ 88 Whats Next? ............................................................................................................................. 88

About the Author....................................................................................................................... 89

Foreword
Throughout this book, youre going to read a lot about the sizzle and the steak. In the business coaching world, much like the rest of the world, its not difficult to find the sizzle. Those who prefer the sizzle will happily seek you out so they can do what they do sizzle and not a great deal more. Every once in a while though, you run into someone, and you recognize immediately that theres more to what they have to offer than just the sizzle they deliver the steak as well. Pat is one of the rare people who happens to have some sizzle but also has a whole lot more of the steak. The proof of what Pat brings is right there and easy to find. Wherever hes been, he has brought success, and he has brought it pretty quickly. As a college coach, he managed to take a program with the tiniest of budgets from an annual losing record to a national power in only a few years. He was the youngest college coach at any level to ever win 100 games. After coaching, he went into the fitness industry, and in a matter of months his region became a routine top-producer for one of the largest personal training companies in the world. His success as a business owner in both the personal training and health club industries led him to the business coaching world and the birth of Fitness Consulting Group. Since its founding, FCG has exploded into multiple other ventures, including the franchises Athletic Revolution and Fitness Revolution, and the end result of all these ventures has been consistently the same: success. Ive been fortunate enough to have known and to have partnered with Pat since hes been in the fitness industry, so I have perspective on what he can accomplish like no one else can possibly have. There is an abundance of success stories and testimonials out there from individuals who can tell you of their results and experiences while working directly with him. However, Ive been able to witness his impact over and over instance after instance year after year. That just doesnt happen by accident. Success doesnt repeatedly materialize without the substance and formula behind it. Thats the thing about Pat, and that's what youll find in this book; he knows what is needed to be successful, and he can teach you to blend those ingredients. Whether its mastering your service, marketing, staffing, etc., he knows how to transform your business into a successful operation. He has proven it time and time again, and I trust that he will continue to do so to the benefit of thousands and thousands of fitness professionals as well as to our own companies. -Nick Berry

Introduction
During my time in the fitness industry, I have watched many people aspire to success. I am one of those people, and while Im certainly a work in progress, my business partner Nick Berry and I have had our fair share of success already and also have helped thousands of fitness pros just like you achieve great successes of their own. Because of this, Im often asked what my secrets to success are. I dont think theyre secrets, but every one of us needs to have his or her own personal formula. This book is a collection of essays that share the strategies, tactics, and the mindset secrets that have led us and the fitness professionals we have worked with to the successes that weve achieved and that will undoubtedly be the foundation for our future successes. In addition, some chapters were contributed by members of the FCG Team, specifically Ryan Ketchum, Tim Ward, Lee Ann Salsman, and Melissa Brady. Steve Long and his colleagues in the Fitness Mastermind Group have also added important content. Needless to say, Im absolutely thrilled to be including work from our tremendous team and know you will find value in their varied insights. Here are my suggestions on how to use this book: Ive written each chapter so that it can stand on its own as a lesson that you can take immediate action on. Dont feel that you have to read the entire book before you can start deriving benefit from it. Read a chapter, and apply what youve learned. Take action. If you approach the book in this fashion, I can guarantee that you will benefit greatly from this resource. The lessons in Fitness Business: The Definitive Guide to Being a Fitness Entrepreneur have helped personal trainers and coaches open their own facilities, grow six- and seven-figurea-year businesses, gain more freedom, and enjoy the types of careers and lives theyve always wanted and these lessons can do the same for you, too. Dedicated To Your Success, Pat Rigsby

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Building a Personal Training Business: The 10X Factor


Lets face it: Building a personal training business, or building any business for that matter, isnt easy. How do you separate yourself from the competition? How do you rise above the countless health clubs, bootcamps, and other personal trainers in your area? How do you compete with P90X, fitness magazines, and every infomercial under the sun that all promise incredible results in a hurry and have multi-million dollar marketing budgets behind them? Well, if youre looking for the easy route the magic bullet to building a personal training business this isnt the resource for you. There are plenty of other people out there that will give you the sizzle. Theyll make it sound like you never have to lift a finger and success will fall right into your lap: Work 4 hours a week and earn six figures multiple times over. You dont believe that crap, do you? I hope not. Success isnt easy. Building a training business, or any other business, is hard. But you shouldnt want it to be easy. You shouldnt want everyone to be able to do it. That just makes it ordinary. Average. And I dont want to settle for any part of being average and neither should you. So Im going to give you my Magic Formula for building a personal training business: The 10X Factor If you follow this, I will guarantee you success. But be forewarned: This isnt some black hat, ninja secret. It involves actual work. But if you follow the 10X factor, you will: -Soon have clients referring their friends, family members, and co-workers to your personal training business like crazy. -See your retention rates skyrocket. -Sell more to your current clients than you ever thought was possible. -Make all competitors irrelevant. So what is the 10X Factor? Here it is: The 10X Factor is an entirely different way to think and act about building a fitness business. Its made up of these 5 components: 1. You must commit to delivering 10 times the fee in the value you provide for anything you sell. 2. You must be willing to work 10 times harder and smarter than your competition. 3. You must be willing to set written goals 10 times loftier than you ever have before. 4. You must commit to being 10 times more knowledgeable than the competition. 8

5. You must get 10 times more done than the competition. I know, that sounds challenging, right? Its supposed to. If you want to accomplish something that most people never will, youve got to be willing to do things that most people would never even consider. The foundation of the 10X Factor is the first principle: You must commit to delivering 10 times the fee in the value you provide for anything you sell. If you charge $199 a month for a bootcamp, then you have to do your best to deliver $1990 in monthly value. Sure, I know that most people wouldnt pay you $1990 a month, and most people probably couldnt even if they wanted to. But thats not the point. The point is that you relentlessly work to deliver $10 in value for every $1 you charge. You give more personal attention to your people than anyone else does. You constantly strive to make your workouts more effective and more fun. You send cards on birthdays and you give gifts at Christmas. You give clients DVDs they can take when they travel, and you give them guides or coaching on using anything you sell them. If you spend some time every day looking for ways to deliver just a little more value, to make the experience that you provide just a little better, then youll get to that point where you achieve #1. And you know that the competition isnt doing this. Theyre trying to figure out how little they can get away with giving for the fee they charge. But remember: People either want the cheapest or they want the best, and this is how you become the best. The second component of the 10X Factor is simple, but it will weed out 99% of the people who ever own a business: You must be willing to work 10 times harder and smarter than your competition. If youre building a personal training business and you embrace this, its a competitive advantage that the others in your market wont step up to match. I didnt say that you have to work longer just harder and smarter. When your competition is searching online, trying to find ways to avoid work, you work. When they think they know enough, you study. Youre either getting better or worse every day. Spend most or all of your days getting better. In spite of what some experts will tell you, there is no instant path to success. Heck, even if you win the lottery, you had to get off your butt and go buy a ticket. Take pride in outworking people. The leaders in nearly any field know more about how to be successful than their competition and they work harder. You can do the same. Its a decision. The third component of the 10X Factor is one that every mediocre business owner ignores: 9

You must be willing to set written goals 10 times loftier than you ever have before. Most business owners make every day like the movie Groundhog Day. They get up and do the same thing over and over. They have no real goals that drive them forward. If youre building a training business, you cant make this critical mistake. Why settle for mediocrity? Why be comfortable with being average? John F. Kennedy said, Once you say youre going to settle for second, thats what happens to you in life. So if youre going to build a business, why settle for anything less than great? Building a fitness business is hard work. Ive been there. I remember not having enough money to fill up my gas tank when we were getting started. I remember having to go on Craigslist to try to find discounted tickets to be able to take Tyler to a local amusement park because we couldnt afford them at full price. Nevertheless, having lofty goals was the carrot out in front that kept me motivated, and it keeps me striving to learn and get better every day. Most people wont set those types of goals. You must. Component #4 is something I see with our Elite Mastermind Members all the time: You must commit to being 10 times more knowledgeable than the competition. The best dont get there by accident. I look at some of the people that we work with and are amazed by how much they know. They already know how to get people amazing results, and still theyre the first ones to keep studying. They know more about business than the rest of the industry, but they are the first to register for our events and make being part of the Elite Mastermind a high priority. I got a text the other day from one of our Masterminders asking me how I read three books a week. I have to. Thats how. Thats one of my keys to making sure that Im getting better. I know that I need to keep learning, every day. Anything else is not acceptable. Even though BJ Gaddour is as knowledgeable as anyone in the business about running a bootcamp, he constantly learns more. Even though Ryan Ketchum and Tyler English know more about running a fitness facility the way it needs to be run than just about anyone youll ever meet, theyre constantly learning more. Mike Robertson is a corrective exercise guru, and he never stops getting better. Eric Cressey is always searching out ways to make his athletes better even though hes already at the top his the field. Dave Schmitz knows more about training with bands than anyone else on the planet, but hes always learning more. Being the best means always staying one step ahead, and part of that is being a lifelong learner. The final component of the 10X Formula is simply: You must get 10 times more done than the competition. 10

Because, ultimately, no one cares what you know, how much potential you have, or how smart and talented you are. They dont care about all your good ideas or the countless projects you start. They sure as hell dont care about the promises you make. They care about what you do and what you accomplish. So if youre building a personal training business that you want to be extraordinary one that provides a great experience for all that come in contact with it and personal satisfaction, wealth, and freedom for you dont focus on activity. Focus on achievement. Remember: You only get paid for done. So are you up to the task? Are you one of the rare fitness professionals that wants to be great and wants to build a personal training business that is in that top 1%? Making a quick buck is easy. Just promise people the world, slap some testimonials up, and tell people to act fast or theyll miss out. Every infomercial ever created is proof of that. But building something that stands the test of time, that your kids can be proud of, that the rest of the business world wants to emulate thats different. But then again you dont want to be average, do you?

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Simple Solutions for the Fitness Entrepreneur


When it comes to running a fitness business or any other business, youre getting either better or worse. Dont believe all that the economy is bad so I just dont want to lose ground stuff. Its crap. Ive just never understood that mentality. Its a defeatist attitude and I want zero part of it. If youre reading this, then you shouldnt want any part of it either. Leave that to your competitors. I remember when I was coaching baseball Id look around at these coaches whod been coaching for years and, every season, would lose a couple more games than they won. Every season. I just couldnt have imagined living like that: being below average every year. And in sports, its pretty much black and white. Win as many as you lose, youre average. Win more, and youre above average. Win less, and youre below average. If you went to work every day, year after year, and were below average, Id say that its time to find another profession. Heck, we won about 70% of the games I coached, and I was far from satisfied. Business is the same. You didnt start a fitness business to be average or worse. You started your business to build something youd love and be proud of: a business that would be better than the competition; a business that would give you and your family the financial security and personal freedom you want. You set out for fitness business greatness. (If not, this book probably isnt for you). Well, greatness is a choice. So is mediocrity. Which are you choosing? You choose what you are every day with your actions. Its no different from your clients. If they want great results, they choose every day through the effort of their training, through their eating, and through their recovery. They basically wear their choices. Fitness pros teach this every day, but they sometimes seem to forget it when they are evaluating their business. Its really that simple though. You choose. This is the critical place to start: taking personal responsibility and never blaming other people or outside circumstances. When you take responsibility, you are in control. When you dont, youre a victim. As a fitness business owner, you MUST be in control. If youre playing the victim, quit. Today. Are we clear? So by this point youre either: 1. Offended because you like the whole victim thing and the ability to blame your failures on someone else

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2. You take full responsibility for everything that goes on in your business. You want that on your shoulders. You know that its what makes being a fitness entrepreneur special: the ability to create your own economy, and the ability to have the type of impact that you choose. #1s, please exit to your left. If you fall into category #2, read on. Look, taking responsibility doesnt mean that there wont be bumps in the road. Speaking from my own experiences, we face them every week. But I dont believe in failure. At all. When you face a problem, you dont dwell on it. You find a solution. Heck, when I coached, I never really believed we lost. We just ran out of innings to stage our comeback! Business isnt easy. But thats to your advantage. Look around at all the businesses in your community. Now think back one year. Think back two. How many of them have evolved and improved? Some that were around 1-2 years ago went out of business. 95% of the rest look the same and probably would be thrilled to have not lost any ground in that span. Youre better than that. You should expect growth every year. Yes, every year. What if youre not getting the growth that you want? First, you need to identify why youre not getting the growth that you want. And thats one of the challenges to owning your own fitness business. Sometimes, you feel like youre on an island. You dont know exactly what you need to work on, and you dont have anyone to ask. Well, youre welcome to lean on us. In fact, if you want to set up a free Fitness Business Assessment Call with one of our consultants to see what you need to work on, just go here: www.fitbusinessinsider.com/kindle Were happy to help. If you do know what is holding you back, here are some suggestions on fixes. Youre Not Getting Enough Leads You need to have lead sources in place that are effective enough that they provide you a minimum of twice as many leads per month as you need to need to convert into clients to reach your financial goals. My recommendations are that you need a minimum of two external lead sources and two internal lead sources going each month as the basis of your fitness marketing plan. Once you have your 4, determine how many leads each of those strategies are producing each month and how many of those leads are being converted into paying clients. If any of your 4 are not producing at the level you want, then you either: -Replace them -Improve them My favorite lead sources are:

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-Networking -Public Speaking -Groupon or Living Social -Facebook Ads -Business of the Month Promotions -Fundraisers -Joint Ventures -Referrals And you have to have goals. Otherwise, youre like a ship without a rudder. You dont know where youre going. Set a goal of 20 or 30 or 40 leads (or more) per month and get there. You Dont Have a Good Front End Offer or Offers How are you turning your leads into paying clients? Maybe its a free trial, a paid trial, an assessment, or a Transformation Contest. Maybe its several of those or different front-end offerings like clinics or workshops. No matter what, you need some way for a person to try out what you do while incurring minimal risk as part of your fitness marketing plan. My suggestion is to have several ways throughout the year. So how can you fix front end offers? Here are a few tips: 1. Determine what strategy or strategies you will be using. Once that is decided, determine who each of those offers will be made to. Deal of the Day buyers might be presented with one offer while Business of the Month leads might get another. 2. Figure out how often youll rotate offers to your main networking/email list and what those offers are. Offers get stale after a while, so one month you might present a 2-week trial and the next month a 21 Day Drop a Dress Size promo. 3. Determine how you will build value and sell your core offerings during the front end offers. Remember: The primary reason for having a front-end offer is to convert leads into long-term clients. Some of my favorite front-end offers are: -Free Special Report -Free 1- or 2-Week Trial -Body Transformation Audit (i.e. Assessment). -21 Days for $21 -Tighter Tummy in 10 Days for $10 -$100 Plastic Gift Cards -Groupon-like Offers One Month for $29-39 -Transformation Contests 4-8 Weeks from $20-99. -Camps -Workshops 14

-Clinics Your Core Offering(s) Arent Solid Your Core Offerings are the foundation of your business, so everything else centers on them. The Core Offerings we see having the most success are: -Semi-Private -Small Group -Large Group / Bootcamp How can you fix them or improve them? 1. Are you the best in your market at what you do? If not, do the work to become the best. 2. Determine what is the most effective use of your time as a professional: what offerings to deliver based on your space, schedule, and the client base you want to serve. 3. Look at your pricing and margins. 4. Are you doing everything you can to maximize results, retention, and referrals? You Dont Have (Strong Enough) Backend Offerings Most fitness pros drop the ball on the Back End. The Back End is basically comprised of: 1. The problems created by your Core Offerings 2. The opportunities your clients potentially create So when it comes to optimizing your Back End Offerings, heres where to start: 1. Determine what problems your Core Offerings create. Because a client participates in your Core Programs, they want certain results. So what can you provide that isnt addressed in your Core Programs but which will help them achieve their goals faster? 2. What is addressed in your Core Programs but which your clients want more of? Once youve figured that out, determine what opportunities your Core Clients create. Your clients can potentially: -Be your primary source of new leads through referrals -Open doors in the community for everything from Corporate Programs to public speaking engagements Youre Not Getting Leads To Take Advantage Of Your Front End Offers If thats the case then: -Decide if your Front End Offer is strong enough. -Determine if youre building enough value in it. -Look for ways to remove the more of the risk/fear associated with taking advantage of your offer. If Youre Not Converting Trials To Clients then you need to:

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-Look at the points where you are presenting your Core Programs; are you presenting them early enough during the Front End Programs? -Determine how youre building value in your Core Programs and see if there are ways that you can build more personal value for the prospect. -Work on your fitness sales presentation. -Look at different pricing strategies. If Youre Not Generating Back End Revenue then here are a few ideas: -Look at when and how you are presenting Back End Programs. -Do you build strong enough relationships that your clients trust your recommendations? -Determine if the ways that youre asking for referrals are the most effective approaches for your business model. If Youre Not Making Enough Money in Spite of Having a Solid Number of Clients This happens more than youd ever imagine. Here are some solutions: -You dont manage your expenses well enough. Take inventory of them and reduce them. -You have outsourced too much of the training too fast so youre not netting enough of what you generate. -You dont use a billing/CMS system so you lose track of money. -Your prices are too low, or you discount too much. -You dont do enough on the back end to maximize the monetary value of a client to your business. If Youre Overwhelmed Ill close with this one. All fitness business owners run into this at some point. Here are the fixes: 1. Plan your day the evening before. I live by this. 2. Set daily and weekly goals to keep you on track. 3. Make sure to do 3 things every day to improve your business no matter what. Dont get caught up trying to do EVERYTHING every day, but you MUST do something every day.

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7 Things Being a Baseball Coach Taught Me about Fitness Businesses


Before I moved full-time into the fitness industry, I was a college baseball coach and strength coach (not to mention personal trainer, assistant sports information director, admissions representative, sports sciences instructor and PA announcer what can I say I had to pay the bills!). I took over a baseball program that had never had a winning season, and to make matters worse, the University had just decided to eliminate athletic scholarships and wouldnt reinstate them until my fifth season as a head coach (when we got a whopping 1.7 scholarships for a team that generally carried over 35 players). My first year, we won 2 more games than we lost. My second year we went 27-16 and advanced to the post-season. The next 4 years, we combined to win 152 games while losing only 57. We were nationally ranked each of those years and finished 5th at the World Series in 2000. I enjoyed my time as a Baseball Coach. Our team had its share of success, but I also made a ton of mistakes. Since Ive moved on to becoming a fitness entrepreneur, I can identify dozens of things I learned while coaching that directly relate to business. Here are the top 7: 1. If You Cant Sell, You Cant Succeed. I dont care how good a coach you are if you cant recruit talented players, youre not going to win. A couple of the best tactical coaches I know often struggled to compete against teams that were not as well coached but had better players. And recruiting is selling, plain and simple. Same thing applies to training if you cant get clients, it doesnt really matter how good a trainer or coach you are 2. Be Different in Areas Where Its Tough to Be Better. I knew that I wasnt going to beat the coaches I was competing against by being a better tactician. They had 5, 10, sometimes 20 years more experience than me. I also knew that I couldnt recruit in the same way as my competitors that all offered scholarships while we didnt. I had to find ways to do things differently. I had to approach our game strategy, practice strategy and training strategy differently. I had to approach recruiting differently. In business you should look for ways to be different, too. Dont look for ways to outspend your competition on marketing; look for ways to do things differently. You cant always better your competition when its apples to apples. Sometimes you need to make the comparison apples to oranges. 3. Hustle Can Make Up For a Lot. We had awful resources and a pathetic budget. Heck, when we went to the World Series, the sites local paper did an article making light of the fact that we didnt even have home and road uniforms. But it didnt matter. In fact, it played to our advantage. We practiced harder because 17

we had a chip on our shoulder. I worked harder at recruiting because I knew we didnt have the scholarships our competitors did. If you want something bad enough, you can find a way. You can outhustle, outwork, and outthink your competition. You just have to be willing to do the work. 4. The Program Is More Important Than the Individual. My budget to pay assistant coaches was $2000 per year. Needless to say, such a low budget leads to frequent turnover and inexperienced coaches. Thats when I embraced the importance of having a system. We couldnt change things every year to accommodate new people, and we couldnt spend months trying to get people acclimated to how we did things. So we created a very detailed playbook, thoroughly outlined every practice, and had systems for everything. If you want your business to grow, youve got to have systems for all of your core tasks. Without them, you dont own a business; it owns you. 5. Recruit the Intangibles. Early on when I was recruiting, I didnt have much to sell potential recruits on: no scholarships, no winning tradition, not even a University-owned home field. Without the resources, I was forced to recruit players that often werent on everyone elses radar, which meant trying to find diamonds in the rough. What I found was that if I recruited the intangibles hard work, desire, passion the players could often eventually outperform those players that might have been a little faster or thrown a little harder. In business, its often the same. You have your system so you dont necessarily need the trainer with the best resume. You need the person that is willing to learn, has good people skills, works hard, and is dependable. You can teach them or direct them to the right educational resources when it comes to what they need to know. 6. Its Easy to Be Average. Being Successful Takes a Lot of Work. I remember being really frustrated most of my final season as a head coach. We won over 70% of our games that year. But I never could grasp how coaches could be happy winning half their games or less. But thats what most people do. Both of the coaches that preceded me at the University had losing records and the coach that followed me won half his games. All of them had better circumstances more scholarship money, better budgets, etc. but didnt have much, if any, success. Why? Because being average is easier. Recruiting takes time, and lots of it. Player development, practice planning, improving your system its all a lot of work. Business is no different. Its easier to say Ill do it tomorrow. Its easier settling for doing just enough to get by instead of doing those extra little detail things. If you want to be a success, youve got to be willing to go the extra mile. 7. Youre Getting Better or Getting Worse Every Day. Coaching college baseball was great because there are clear deadlines to measure how well we did our job. We couldnt waste one day in recruiting, because that might be the day someone else got the player I was trying to sign. We couldnt waste a day in practice because that first game 18

was going to be one day closer tomorrow, and we couldnt get the wasted day back. Every day was important because the games the way we measured success werent going anywhere. If we werent at our best, wed suffer for it. If we missed a day of preparation, our competition gained a slight edge on us. Every day mattered. Like it or not, business is the same. With every passing day, youre moving closer to where you want to be, or youre moving farther from your goals. Dont forget it.

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Grow Your Fitness Business in 5 Simple Steps


There are hundreds of ways to grow your fitness business, and Im trying to touch on enough of them here to help out the aspiring fitness entrepreneur. 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. However, I dont want to overcomplicate this, so were going to limit the list to things that you can do that wont 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 its time to decide which strategy youll 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 dont care what specifically it is. 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. 20

Step Two: Create Your Plan Once youve decided which strategy youre 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 youve done your preparation. Heres 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 Peoples 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. Thats about it. You can certainly get more detailed, but that would be enough to build on. Step Three: Produce the Materials Whether its simple email broadcasts to your list, a form that clients can use to give you testimonials, or new price sheets reflecting your increased rates, youll need to produce the emails, scripts, flyers, forms, content, and whatever else is needed to execute your strategy. For a Testimonial Request Campaign, heres 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.

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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 its execution are all necessary if youre 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. Thats 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.

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Running Your Fitness Business Like Disney


I just returned from our annual trip to Disney World and, as usual, Im enamored with how well they do everything. While I obviously am focused on family and fun during these trips, I cant help but notice how well they operate their business, and I take away a number of lessons any fitness business, big or small, could apply to what they do. Ill share some of the biggest insights now, ones that you should keep in mind when running your fitness business. You Sell Experience and Experience Sells You Disney World isnt known for the tallest or fastest roller coasters, but the theme and the experience they wrap around the coasters they have are what separates them from the rest. Its really that way with everything they do, from having popular characters in many of the restaurants for visits and pictures to offering Fast Passes so you can circumvent long lines to enjoy your favorite rides. Disney works tirelessly to maximize the guests experience, and its easily their best selling tool. From what Ive read, over 80% of guests return, and thats at a pretty steep price tag. Outside of return visitors, their best source of traffic is referrals again, based on the experience they provide. Your Fitness Business Takeaway: Focus on making the experience your clients have with your business stand above the rest. Remember, they probably arent experts in your craft, so differentiating you solely by your skill as a professional isnt enough. You need to find ways to make certain that they have a more enjoyable time with you than they could with any other trainer. Your rewards will be better retention and many more referrals. Make It Easy for People to Get What They Want One of my favorite things about trips to Disney World is how easy they make it. From bundling in all the meals into the package and providing transportation to the parks from our resort to picking up our bags from the airline and letting you check in and check bags at our resort for our trip home. I travel a lot, and by eliminating many of the hassles that go along with travel, Disney has really made it seem like a longer vacation for me rather than me having to deal with a bunch of hassles to eventually get to the resort or get home. To me, this is a huge added value because we want to get to the resort and enjoy the parks. We tolerate the travel, and they make it much, much easier to tolerate. Your Fitness Business Takeaway: What are the hassles your clients have to deal with to do business with you? They have to make that first visit where they feel overwhelmed and a little intimidated. Can you make it more comfortable? Can you make sure they know exactly what to expect? Can they fill out their paperwork at home and bring it with them to save time? Have you given them confirmation calls with directions? Your clients want to get great results and will be fine once they get acclimated; make it as comfortable as you can for them to get started. 23

Provide Complete Solutions For us to go to a theme park like Disney World, its not as simple as just showing up at the park. We have to worry about lodging, meals, and travel. Disney has grown their business by allowing you to bundle all of it together and stay at their hotels, eat at their restaurants, and lean on them for travel. They even offer guides that can go with you around the parks, behind the scenes opportunities, and even babysitters if parents want to go out for an evening. Basically, anything that can potentially help you have the type of experience you want to have, they will provide (at a price.) Your Fitness Business Takeaway: Your clients want a certain result. Outside of workouts, what can you provide that will help them get that result? Supplements? Nutrition Coaching? Meals delivered to their home? A Kitchen Makeover? A Grocery Store Tour? Foam rollers? Personal equipment like their own bands or kettlebells? A percentage of your clients will want the upgrades and some will even want everything you have to offer. Give it to them. Pay Attention to the Details Disney is all about the details. Every resort, park area, and attraction has a theme, and the theme permeates throughout every aspect of that Disney experience. From the cast members clothes to the dcor, everything is detailed and consistent. They also pay attention to every detail from making the time spent waiting in lines tolerable to having photographers and designated photo spots throughout the parks to make capturing memories easier. Your Fitness Business Takeaway: What little things can you do to make your clients experience better? Sweating the details will go a long way. Is your staff all speaking the same language and on the same page? Is your facility clean? Are you giving your clients handouts and sending them personal cards to let them know theyre valued? All the little things that you can do to help clients get results a little quicker and make their experience a little better will go a long way. Never Stop Improving Walt Disney called it plussing the act of continually improving something and thats what Disney does. Theyre always evolving, from adding things like airline check ins or Fast Passes to make things a little easier on guests to new marquee attractions and even new venues (what started as 1 park now encompasses 4 theme parks, a water park, and a shopping area). Even though we go yearly, there are still noticeable changes on each visit. Your Fitness Business Takeaway: This should be a no brainer, but you should always be improving at employing your craft, delivering the experience, and running your business. Dont just focus on the big things either. Every little improvement will separate you farther from the competition. There are plenty of other lessons that both you and I can take away from Disney World that will help us improve our businesses, but well focus on these for now. Now you may be wondering why I didnt talk specifically about money even though Disney makes a mint off every guest. Its because without the experience and the details, the money isnt 24

there. Without all this, Disney is just another theme park. But by focusing on delivering an extraordinary experience and sweating every detail, Disney can charge a premium, they can have far more stores in their parks than they do attractions, and they can get people to happily pay more to them than they would to any other vacation theme park. So take these lessons and use them in your fitness business. Theyve helped Disney build a global empire and can help you build a fitness empire of your own.

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Deliver Education or Experience in Your Fitness Business


Fitness Consulting Group Vice President of Business Development and co-founder of Force Fitness and Performance Ryan Ketchum shares his thoughts on obtaining high quality clients to explode your fitness business. Education and experience are two words that are often talked about in our circle when it comes to clients. Often because we are different in a good way from the rest of the industry, it takes a little of both for our prospects to understand what we do and understand the value of our programs. My question is: Which one comes first? It is a little bit like the old chicken and egg question. The answer hit me after a few weeks of handling questions from several of our franchisees, mastermind members, and peers. I took a step back from my position as a facility owner, coach, and business coach to look at the fitness business, or more specifically training business, as a whole. I looked to see what I would want as a prospective customer of my boot camp, my personal training, or any other of my services. It didnt take long for me to figure out that we have to provide the experience before we attempt to educate. It was very obvious to me once I started looking at nearly every marketing plan we had in place and for nearly every successful fitness marketing plan that has been used by a large number of quality trainers, coaches, and facility owners across the country. Every single marketing plan is geared toward getting someone in to experience the program before asking them to make a big commitment or hand over a credit card for a $199 monthly charge. If you can provide an incredible experience for your potential customers and show them that you are different than your run of the mill big-box trainer or boot camp, you will have earned their trust. Once they trust you the education becomes much easier. Knowing that the goal is to provide an incredible experience to our prospective clients, we must ask the question: What defines incredible experience? There are 3 things that will deliver an experience that leaves the prospect begging to become a member. 1. Get Results! This can be tough, especially in the case of a short term experience. If you are running a short term trial, one day workshop or clinic, or another lead generation program, there are definitely ways to get them to feel like they got results. You must be a good enough coach to provide a safe workout that will cause them to sweat and possibly be a little sore. They have to feel like they accomplished something without being beaten into the ground. This takes some time to learn and comes with experience. The workout should not be unsafe, but you must be skilled enough to make the person understand there are better ways to get great results. 26

If you have a longer term 14+ days to create the experience, you can get tangible results with the client. You should be able to obtain some weight loss and strength gain, as well as improving how they feel overall. 2. Its All about the Relationship. Developing a relationship with the client will not only set you apart from the run of the mill trainers and boot camp programs, but it will encourage the client to stay loyal to you and your program. If you had a relationship with a restaurant owner and the prices were a bit higher than a similar restaurant down the road with the same quality food, which place would you go to? My best guess is the place where you felt like you had a relationship with either the owner or staff. Creating a connection, developing the connection into a relationship and then continuing to grow that relationship is what creates long term clients and a successful fitness business. Show the prospect that they are more than just a number! Get to know them, genuinely care about their well-being, and put in the extra effort to ensure they are getting the most out of their trial. 3. More Value. Give away more in your trial period than most people give in their entire program. In my business, we give away our entire online resources section, nutrition manual, access to our coaches, and more from the very start of any trial period. I want them to already feel as if they belong to the group. They shouldnt feel like they are getting less because they arent a full time member. I promise you that if you give them everything you have got in a trial period, they will wonder how much more they get as a member. They will never be disappointed. The more you give them upfront, the more favors that they think you are doing for them and the higher likelihood that they will sign up. It is a simple persuasive tool that can be used to both your and the prospects advantage. I can promise you that if I were attempting to build a business from scratch in an area in which I had very little influence, I would be doing free trials, clinics, workshops, and every other experience-delivering tool that I had in my tool box on a weekly basis! While not everyone is a buyer that comes through on a low-cost or free trial or experience, they do have an opinion of your business. If they are going to have an opinion, it might as well be a positive one! My top three experience builders for our programs are as follows: A. Bring-a-Friend Days or Weeks We have utilized these bring-a-friend days or weeks off and on for two years. We always get a great turnout and are never disappointed with the conversion rates. This one is probably the easiest to run because you dont have to do anything other than have your current campers or clients bring a friend or two. Simply let them know the dates and the process for registering their friend and they do all the dirty work.

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Once that friend is in the door, you go over the top to deliver a great experience, and the program will sell itself. Make each friend an amazing offer to start the program, and you will convert a large number of new prospects. B. 21-28 Day Rapid Results Programs We have used these at every point throughout the year to boost business. If we are approaching a time of year where leads are hard to come by, we will run a short term, low-cost rapid results program to get some buyers in the door. The Drop a Dress Size program is a great example of these sorts of programs. Plan these out in advance around times when people are trying to get in great shape quickly (spring break, summer, holidays, etc), and you will get an influx of leads. You can also upsell current campers/clients into this program for a low cost to give them a boost. The price range we have found that works well is $59-79 for a boot camp and $99-149 for semiprivate sessions. Have two offers ready for the new prospects with deadlines attached, and you will be able to convert a lot of the participants. The offers should be made at the end of the first week and the start of the final week. C. Contests People love challenges and being recognized. Anytime you can do a weight loss, transformation, or other contest, you will pick up a ton of new leads. We recently ran a group transformation contest in our fitness business that brought in 125 new campers and clients. We converted over 50 of them into memberships because of the amazing experience and results they achieved. These are just a few of the hundreds of experience-builders that you can use to entice new prospects to try your camp or training programs and, most importantly, get them to continue as members. If you deliver an incredible service and experience in your fitness business, you should have no problem boosting your memberships and bottom line in a matter of a couple months. -Ryan Ketchum

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Generating Instant Income for Your Fitness Business


Since Ive been on the business coaching and franchising side of things for fitness business owners, nothing has surprised me more than the number of business owners who fail to maximize the value of their personal network and their client base. This is amazing to me because those same fitness business owners will spend piles of money to market to people that they have no prior relationship with. The truth is that the biggest opportunity for an influx of income into your fitness business is right in your own database. When you make an offer to members of your personal network or existing and past clients, its not only easier to sell them something (versus new prospects off the street), but your business actually becomes more profitable because you dont have nearly the cost of client acquisition. The other benefit to this is that it really is providing a better, more complete solution for your existing clients, and its helping those people in your network achieve their health and fitness goals. A true win-win. Your Fitness Business Database What do you need to get started generating a surge of income for your business? First, you need to create your Master Networking List. This is a database of everyone in your area that you know. You can start developing it by creating a spreadsheet and list the following people: -Everyone in your cell phone that is local -Everyone in your email address book that is local -Everyone on Facebook that you actually know and lives locally -All your clients, former clients, and prospects List everything you know about them. If you have any of the following, list it: -Email -Phone -Occupation -Birthday -Address -Hobbies/Organizations/Interests Once you have this list started and understand now that its never finished as youll be adding people each and every week (wont you?) heres the next step: Fitness Business Income Booster #1 The Master Network Push 29

For all the members of your network friends, family members, neighbors, and more you need to start reaching out and personally inviting them in to experience what you have to offer. This is an easy one, but Id bet it gets overlooked 98% of the time by fitness pros trying to grow their business. Send a personal email or make a personal call and let them know what you offer, then invite them in for 2 weeks worth of free training. Heres what will happen. -Some wont respond. -Some will be polite, but they wont be interested. -Some will take you up on your offer and come in to try out your programs. -A few will really be excited about your offer and become your biggest advocates. Assuming that this list is a minimum of 150 people (except in rare circumstances, if the list is less than 150 people, youre not trying), then you should be able to get through it in about 6-8 weeks if youre contacting at least 3 people per day. The added bonus to all this is that youll find doors opening for you based on this outreach. Your friends will know people that can get you public speaking opportunities, PR opportunities, and any number of other things. Treat your Master Network like gold and focus on growing it; you may find that along with the referrals from your existing clients, thats all you need to get the number of leads you want for your business. Fitness Business Income Booster #2 The Reactivation Campaign Youd be surprised by how many past clients have no idea why they stopped using your services. Or maybe they do know but their reason for leaving was temporary. All they need is a reminder of why they liked working with youand perhaps a special incentive to come back. What could you do to reactivate past clients? You could start with a simple email or personal card with copy something like this: (Name), I Miss You! Im very concerned. You were a valued client of mine, and I havent seen you for a while. I would genuinely like to know the reason why. I hope that you werent unhappy in any way with my service or your results. Or maybe you were concerned about the cost of training and didnt think you could afford to continue.

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I can only guess at why you havent continued to be a client, but Im concerned that the goals you had when joining us are going to go unfulfilled. I want you to know that if there is anything Ive done that has kept you from continuing, I want to make it right. So I want to invite you back to train with me for 2 weeks for free. No strings attached. Its truly important to me that you reach your health and fitness goals and the best way for me help you is to have you here as a client. I hope to hear from you in the next few days, and I look forward to seeing you very soon. Sincerely, (Your Name) (phone) (email) What else works well for reactivating past clients? -A phone call from you, the owner. People want to be treated like VIPs. Make them feel appreciated, and give them a special offer to come back. -Invite them back to special client-appreciation events. Make them feel like theyre still part of the community. -Invite them to enroll in one of your Transformation Contests or attend a Charity Workout. These are relatively small commitments compared to a longer term membership and might be just what they need to come back on board. Fitness Business Income Booster #3 The Triple Threat The next Income Booster is a favorite of mine called the Triple Threat Money Maker. Its something weve used in our businesses both training businesses and online businesses, actually and through it weve always enjoyed great success. And the best part is that the Triple Threat Money Maker is super simple to execute, so you have no excuse not to put it into action ASAP. Step 1: The foundation of the Triple Threat Money Maker is raising your program rates. You should be raising your rates periodically, and there is no better time to do this than now as most fitness pros dont raise their rates often enough. A rate increase of 5% is very reasonable and might even be conservative for group training or bootcamps. For 1-on-1 or semi-private, adding $3-5 per session is easy and will virtually never be met with even a hint of a complaint. Step 2: Notify your current clients that the rates will be increasing on the first of next month by whatever amount you determined was right however, they can lock in at their current rate by committing to a 12 month membership (6 months is fine, too, if youre only selling month-tomonth memberships now). 31

Step 3: Contact all your former clients in your fitness business and your prospects, and tell them about the upcoming rate increase. Let them know that they can lock in at the current rates if they enroll in a 12 month program before the years end. Thats it. Well, thats not exactly ithere are some details that weve used to make this work like crazy: -Use a variety of means to contact your clients. For our clients, weve sent letters and emails as well as making personal calls and in-person notifications. We wanted to make sure that all of their questions were answered and that they were not only willing to make the long term commitment but were excited about it as they felt like they were getting a great deal. -We used the same type of approach for former clients and unconverted prospects. We sent letters and emails and made phone calls. Weve also even used voice broadcasts to remind people on the final day of the offer. -Its always worked best when weve intensified the push during the final days of the offer leading up to the deadline. People are procrastinators so we always make sure that we hit everyone with a call during the final 48 hours and at least one email the last day. With this approach, your personal training business is going to make more money in 3 different ways, with none of them being a short term boost: 1. Youre going to get current clients to commit for 12 more months, which is longer than the membership lifespan of the average bootcamper. 2. Youre going to get a surge of former clients and unconverted leads who dont want to miss out on the deal, and theyre all committing for a 12 month term, too. 3. All your new clients, and the current ones that dont want to commit, will be paying you more each month. Not to mention that when you get the new surge of business, youll have more people to get referrals from and make back-end offers to. So there you go the Tripe Threat Money Maker Income Booster #3. Fitness Business Income Booster #4 The Complete Solution Offering upsells and back-end sales to your current clients is simply trying to provide a more complete solution for the people you serve. Whether that is giving them an opportunity to buy bands so they can work out on the road or offering them supplements (we recommend Prograde to address some of their nutritional needs), youre simply better assisting them to achieve the goals that led them to you in the first place. Nutrition is an easy solution to add on as its usually the biggest challenge you face when trying to keep your clients compliant. The best solution weve found that you can add into your business to address making eating supportively easy for your clients is Personal Trainer Foods.

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For you, its great because it doesnt require a significant investment of time or money and it doesnt require any inventory. For your clients, its equally great as it addresses portion control and convenience two big nutritional challenges to getting clients achieve their goals. So with that, heres how you can integrate Personal Trainer Foods as an upsell and a back-end offer into your business. Step 1: Enroll in the Program To start offering this solution to your clients, you need to enroll in the program so you can start selling products to your clients and receiving a commission for those sales. If you want to enroll in Personal Trainer Foods program at no charge, you can do that here: https://www.personaltrainerfood.com/signup.html Step 2: Decide How You Will Promote the Products We set up a few different systems to promote products to our clients. We had structured offers at: -The initial point-of-sale -Periodic assessments or meetings -Special events If youre going to follow the same approach, at the point-of-sale you might educate them about the importance of eating supportively and introduce the solution. During your assessments, you can educate the client on what they might do to accelerate their progress and support what they were doing during their training. You can use a simple script like this: Ms. Jones, youd like to accelerate your progress, correct? We both know that when youre training with me, youre working hard, youre getting stronger, and youre steadily improving. What that tells me is that its what youre doing outside the (gym/camp) that seems to be holding you back. I know that youve told me that you seem to struggle with eating supportively on a consistent basis, so what I suggest is that you try a nutrition program that a number of our clients have had great success with called Personal Trainer Foods. This will ensure that you are getting the right portions of protein and produce in a convenient fashion and youre getting even better results from all the hard work youre putting in. Hows that sound? Step 3: Executing the Plan Every Time This is the one that most people miss. So many trainers say that theyre going to make back-end sales to their clients, but most never do. You have to build these processes into your business. If you can build foam rolling into your training sessions, you can build a simple sales script into a meeting or assessment. 33

Step 4: Making It Part of the Culture For our Wall of Fame and Testimonial books, we not only posted the successes of the client (Ms. Jones lost 27 lbs and dropped 2 dress sizes), but we also shared how frequently they were meeting with their trainer or what program they were in, and we shared what ancillary offerings they were using. You can do things like that when you highlight your client or camper of the week/month, providing the solutions they are using as handouts or in newsletters and having links to your store in every newsletter, on your website and anywhere else youre sharing online information. A Few Other Tips for More Back-End Sales: -Make it easy to buy. Keep your laptop around so you can help the client make their initial order, or, if you cant do that, keep initial order forms handy and process the initial order for your clients. -Educate your clients. Provide them with articles, offer good content in newsletters, and educate them on the benefits of everything you do or endorse. -Practice what you preach. Its much easier to endorse something you believe in enough to use yourself. -Only sell what you really believe in. Id never tell you to sell something that youre not 100% behind, so do your homework and pick the products you truly believe will help your clients. Now you have 4 solid Income Boosters for your Fitness Business. Start down the list and start generating more cash for your fitness business today.

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Act Small to Grow Big


Remember where you came from. Its something that you hear almost all self-made success stories recite, and its something you need to embrace if you want to build a truly successful fitness business. When we initially started our business, Nick and I had another business partner. He was a nice guy, but he wanted to act big while we were just beginning. He wanted fancy fitness business cards, cool stationery, and a bunch of other stuff that had little if any bearing on our success. Nick and I resisted it and we started the business on a shoestring less than $2000, which included the purchase of a computer to handle our billing. Within a year we had a business that was churning out $30,000 a month and were opening our second business, a health club. About this time, Nick and I bought a house that we shared. Holly, Tyler, and I lived in the basement, and Nick got a roommate and lived upstairs so we could save money and reinvest it in our growing businesses. At the same time, our partner was building a brand new house even though we hadnt opened our club and were on the hook for some pretty hefty expenses. This kind of mentality the spend beyond your means mindset almost brought that business down in the beginning. Our partner was the manager of the club, and his belief was that the best way to grow was to add staff and spend money on expensive media marketing. As embarrassing as it is to admit, Nick and I got sloppy and didnt stay on top of this location like we should have. Needless to say, it was soon buried in debt. We had gotten focused on a couple other opportunities and took our eye off the ball, and it almost bankrupted that location. We bought out that partner, got that business back on track with our bootstrapping approach, and before long it was right back where it needed to be. Every business that weve started or acquired ownership in since then was founded with that same mentality: Decide whether something is a want or a need. If its a need, we find a way to make it happen. If its a want, it goes under the microscope. That mentality is easy when you dont have any money. You can only afford needs, if you can even afford those. Once you start generating a little income, it becomes more about discipline. Weve grown quite a bit since those days: tripling our staff and doubling the size of our office. But we didnt do any of that until we determined that it was necessary and not just a want. 35

In fact, every month Nick reviews our expenses to determine if there are things we need to trim. We look for ROI on marketing expenses. We look for better ways to compensate people based on productivity. He asks me if Im still using the membership sites that we belong to or any of the other subscriptions we have. At this point, we invest tens of thousands each year in education, maybe even $100,000 a year. But theres no sense in continuing to spend on something we dont need. Now, before you take this the wrong way, dont think Im telling you to eat Ramen noodles and bury all your money in a coffee can in the back yard. Nick and I live in beautiful homes, own other investment properties, and really dont want for much of anything, but weve certainly had to pay our dues to get here. This isnt about not spending money on yourself. Being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor is a big part of why you do this. No its about treating your fitness business like its smalleven when youre not small anymore. Its about continuing to do what works instead of thinking you need to spend more money to market or grow. Its about viewing each potential purchase as an investment and deciding if youre going to get a solid return. Its about never forgetting that each client is critical and about treating them like family instead of losing that personal touch. Its about understanding the difference between wants and needs. Maybe you can build a successful fitness business a different way. Were not interested in trying to. Weve worked with a few people in the past including that former partner that all wanted to act big while they were still small businesses. In truth, thats as far as any of them ever got. Some of them have even gone under or jumped back to being an employee. All the while, we were while quietly building a multiple seven-figure organization by acting small.

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When to Hire the First Employee for Your Personal Training Business
FCG Vice President of Operations Tim Ward addresses a very important matter to fitness entrepreneurs: Making the first hire. One of the earliest and most difficult challenges faced by young fitness business owners is knowing when to hire their first employee. Of course, the challenge of hiring is a good problem to have; at the very least, it means the business is growing! What makes this so hard? Take a look at all the objections Ive heard when suggesting it is time for someone to make his or her first hire. -Im too busy to train an employee right now -I have a very personal relationship with my clients; they wont work with anybody else -I can barely afford to pay myself let alone pay someone else -I like things done a certain way, and if I hire someone, things wont get done that way -I dont know my legal responsibilities -I dont know how to manage an employee Regardless of the actual objection, what it usually boils down to is uncertainty, and the best way to combat uncertainty is to establish some definitive guidelines on when you absolutely MUST hire. You see, when something is an absolute necessity, personal reservations have a way of resolving themselves very quickly. Of course, must is relative when it comes to being an entrepreneur. Here are the actual must hire situations that fitness professionals end up facing: 1. You must hire or your life will make you miserable 2. You must hire or your business will fall apart 3. You must hire or your business will be unable to grow Im pretty confident nobody wants to be miserable, and Im also pretty sure that nobody wants their hard work to be for naught. It wouldnt surprise you to learn that those two situations often go hand in hand as well. Finally, for those of you who actually want to grow a bigger business, youll eventually need to hire simply because you only have a finite number of hours in a day and cant work all of them. So objectively, how can you identify if you are approaching those situations? Here are the two most important guidelines. First, look at your administrative workload things like talking on the phone, reading and answering emails, bookkeeping, filling out documentation, handling customer service issues, etc. In other words, look at all the things that have nothing to do with marketing, sales, or training. How many hours a week are you spending filling those roles? Odds are that if you are spending 10 or more hours each week on those things, you need to hire an administrative assistant. 37

Why? Think of it this way. If you only have 1 client, there wouldnt be that much administrative work to do every day. If you had 10, there would be significantly more. Now, what if you had 50? At 50 clients, it isnt a stretch to think that you would have to spend 10 hours a week on administrative duties. By itself, 10 hours doesnt seem like a lot, but you have to keep in mind that at 50 clients, you will be spending significantly more time on the training floor. Also, to have reached 50 clients (and to maintain 50 clients), you must have been constantly devoting time to marketing. All that time adds up! So, unless you want to work 60, 70, or even 80 hours a week for the rest of your life (and not have any time off for vacation or illness) just to make a living, you must hire an administrative assistant when you are spending 10+ hours per week filling administrative duties. Second, look at your client load. If the demand for your training services outgrows your ability to provide a quality training experience, you need to hire another coach! For example, if the client to coach ratio in a group personal training class is too great, the personal attention (and therefore, the experience) you can deliver to clients is going to suffer and negatively impact your business. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if your business uses a one-on-one or semi-private training model, having more clients means more hours spent on the training floor, and then it becomes a matter of simply not having enough hours to take on more clients and also fulfill other responsibilities. The only way to grow in that model would be to hire another coach. Regardless of whether the first hire is an assistant coach or an administrative assistant, the purpose of making that first hire is simply because there is not enough of the fitness business owner to go around. As a new personal training business grows, so do the responsibilities of the owner. He or she has to shoulder every responsibility that comes up, and that requires an everincreasing time commitment. Bringing on additional help frees up the owners time so that it can be re-devoted to activities that will grow the business rather than just maintain the status quo. For example, if an administrative assistant could take on 10 hours of administrative work each week, that is 10 more hours that the owner has available to devote to marketing or training duties (or catching up on sleep, seriously!). When done at the right time, hiring is almost always worth the investment. -Tim Ward

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My Best Fitness Business Building Tip


One of my most memorable coaching calls came with a fitness pro who was seeking some specific advice on growing his business. I gave him what I consider to be the best advice that I can give someone, but it comes with a disclaimer. You see, this is also advice that Im hesitant to give because it could potentially give someone the idea that they dont have to do the work, which obviously goes against everything that we teach. So the advice that I gave him and that Im going to give you now is this: Determine your strengths then build your fitness business around them. 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 hadnt 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 which he would clearly enjoy more it was obvious that the best solution for him wasnt 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? 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 hes already proven that it is successful for him. However, put that same advice in the wrong hands, and you get a situation where someone whos never proven that they can write worth a damn and hasnt had any success with social media now thinks they dont 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 hed written 3 articles and submitted them to article directories, put up a couple blog posts, and he didnt 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 butt and go where they are. 39

Needless to say, he didnt post anymore. But thats my fear when dispensing this advice: people mistaking their strengths for whats just easiest. But Ive 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, weve built two entire franchises around this approach. Fitness Revolution and Athletic Revolution allow fitness professionals to play to their own individual strengths instead of forcing them to churn out cookie cutter businesses. Now, you may not think that this advice is anything special, but heres why it is: Once you determine your strengths, by going all-in and leveraging them to the maximum, youve done 3 things: 1. Youve separated yourself from everyone else because youre 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 youre best at and feel confident that its 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, Do more of whats working. Seems simple, right? Well, most people dont do it. They jump from one thing theyve 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 theyve had. To use our business as an example, one of our strengths is relationships. Really, everything that weve 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 once 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 were providing the best possible service to the people who trust us to help them grow their business 40

-Build franchises so we could have a family-like relationship with a select group of fitness pros who share the same values we do and want 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 youre 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 youre great at writing, make sure youve 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 thats 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 youve proven that youre better than the rest at, the things youve done well to grow your business, the things that you not only enjoy doing but that produce results. Once youve 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. This philosophy will give you the resources to build a great fitness business that youll love owning.

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Why Fitness Business Mastermind Groups Are So Valuable


Mastermind groups are one of the most powerful resources for entrepreneurs and work particularly well in the fitness industry. Everyones fitness business is unique and operates in a distinct community in a specific part of the country. As much as wed like to think there is only one path to follow, there are really many ways to run a successful training business. Sharing ideas with a group of peers that are in the same situation as you helps to troubleshoot and improve your business on any number of levels. Besides, the motivational kick you get out of being held accountable for development by itself is well worth the price of admission. This chapter shares the insights and opinions of some of our most dedicated Mastermind members, highlighting their biggest business takeaways from being a part of their group. Below each testimonial is a paragraph about them and links to find out more. PAMELA MACELREE When you spend 15 hours in a good mastermind meeting, choosing just one thing that influences me the most is like trying to edit a 15,000 word article down to 1,500 words. I have at least 10 pages of notes to go through and make plans to implement. The biggest reason I continue to be a part of high-level masterminds is because, every time I attend one, I walk away with solid plans to improve my business. Im not talking about having mints out on the check-in desk either (which I do). Im talking about proven methods that have been used by other people with similar businesses proven methods that not only make my business better, but that increase the business of my business. No one can complain about increasing the bottom line. There is no doubt in my mind that the investments I make in building my business have paid off many times over. Pamela MacElree holds a Bachelor of Science from The Pennsylvania State University and a Masters of Science in Exercise Science from California University of Pennsylvania. Pamela is owner of Urban Athlete, which operates a strength and conditioning studio and Brazilian JiuJitsu academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Recognizing the value in quality programs and their applications, Pamela has also collaborated on developing and delivering the most comprehensive Kettlebell training certification for Fitness Professionals in the United States and Germany. Follow Pamela at her blog: http://PMacStrong.com STEVE LONG My biggest takeaway or tip from our latest mastermind meeting isnt something that you can buy, track, test, or promote. Its something that we all know, but Im not sure if we all realize how powerful this is. My biggest takeaway is that you become the people you affiliate with. Ive heard you are the sum of the 5 people you are around the most, and its true. Good people bring you up, and bad people bring you down. Its that simple. Since meeting Pat and Nick and being 42

around the top professionals in the industry Ive come to realize this, but it really sunk into my head this past weekend. So my advice is to take inventory of who you spend most of your time with. If there isnt anyone in your life to inspire and challenge you, its time to start doing a little networking. Steve Long is the owner and program design specialist at Complete Fitness Results. Steve has assisted clients in many aspects of health, fitness, weight loss, muscle building, corrective exercise, sports performance, nutrition, and more. Steve is known for his practical approach to training and blending the many benefits of corrective exercise into highly metabolic conditioning and fat loss programs. Steve has been mentored by, and continues to learn from, the best professionals in the industry, bringing the most cutting-edge programs to Complete Fitness Results. JARED WOOLEVER The biggest takeaway from our recent Mastermind meeting has got to be leveraging your network. Its hard to pin-point ONE idea or concept after such an amazing meeting. However, this issue seemed to come up during each and every presentation. Nearly all of the problems that businesses face can be solved by someone within their network. Maybe its a current client warming up an introduction to someone who can help you or your business out. Maybe its looking over your 250 list to find potential gold mines within your current business. Maybe its leveraging your network to save you time on creating programs, ideas, or templates. The list goes on, and on, and on. Work on leveraging your current network, and the opportunities are endless. Jared Woolever is Co-owner of Accelerate: Health and Fitness Consulting, located in Edwardsville, IL. Woolever has established himself as one of the top trainers in St. Louis with his passion and determination for success. Utilizing his formal education, current experiences within the health and fitness industry, and evidence-based research, Jared has designed and implemented an improved social support system that smoothes and cements the transition to healthy lifestyle choices. With a diversity of goals, from weight management; cardiovascular fitness; improved agility, strength, and flexibility; to lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels, Jareds clients have seen superior results with his methods. JUSTIN YULE Bottom line: If you want to fly with the eagles, dont hang out with the turkeys. Every time I go to a mastermind meeting or live event with my fitness business owner friends and colleagues, I learn something new, get recharged to take my business to the next level, and cant wait to get back to work. Ive also come to realize that my closest friends are in my mastermind group, and, ironically, theyre spread all over the country. These are the people in my life who I can most relate to, seek advice from, and count on to keep me on task. I also love returning the favor. They say, Youre a reflection of the 5-10 people you associate with most. Well, knowing the folks in my mastermind group, I feel pretty damn good about that prediction.

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If you want to take your fitness business to new heights you must surround yourself with likeminded people and be sure to STUDY the Fit Business Insider blog every day. For even more coaching and accountability, join us in the Fit Business Insider Inner Circle. Justin Yule, BS, CPT is the owner of Fitness Revolution in Chanhassen, MN as well as the Director of Franchisee Support for Fitness Revolution International. To contact him for training, education, or to have him speak at an event, please email justin@justinyule.com. SEAN MILLHOUSE The best tip I can offer to explode your fitness business is to do the small personal touches better than everyone else in your area. Whether its a greeting card, a personal phone call, an encouraging Facebook comment, or a sample menu plan it doesnt matter, you just have to do it! You have to outwork your competitors on these little things! I have been guilty of getting caught up in the next big promotion or checking our numbers to the point where I forget to ensure the small personal touches are getting done consistently. This played right into the hands of my big box gym competitors. They dont do the personal touches well or even at all, and clients know and feel it. So, I put systems into place to make sure these important tasks dont slip through the cracks. If you do them well and consistently, your business will grow by leaps and bounds! Sean Millhouse is the owner and head trainer of Fitness 101, located on the north side of Houston, TX. With over a decade of experience in the fitness industry, he and his business have spread the health and fitness bug to his clients and community. Sean received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston Downtown, and he holds numerous Personal Training and Corrective Exercise certifications. KIM CHASE The most important thing that I took from the Mastermind group would have to be customer service. No matter how much you think youre doing for your clients, you are soon to be proven that its not enough. I realized that I got a great big fail on customer service. I thought I was doing great and keeping in touch with everyone until I had a great discussion with another member about what extra stuff they did, which made me realize that I am a league under what I should be doing. There are a ton of small things that I once thought were insignificant, but now Ive realized that it is typically the small things that people remember and keep them loyal to you. I refer to this as the contact and care system: Make lots of contact and care about what you say and do with your clients. Kim Chase is the owner of Chase Fitness in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. With a past passion of competitive gymnastics and body building, Kim currently studies Tae Kwon Do and will receive her black belt this year. She is ex-military with experience as an F-18 aircraft mechanic and a military pilot, and she spends her off hours as a firefighter. Kim has been personal training for 4 years now and specializes in weight loss, strength, and mobility through her boot camps and personal/semi-private training. I love my work and cant find enough hours in the 44

day to keep on top of the studying and reading to improve my skill. Shes an avid supporter of cancer research, with an annual 6 hour boot camp relay to make people aware of fitness as a preventative measure. Having been through cancer twice, she advocates that by staying healthy and fit, the risk of cancer can be greatly reduced and you can expedite the recovery process. The mind leads the body, so just tell it to move! DAMON MOSCHETTO Accountability One of the hardest things for us to do is get our clients to stick to a supportive eating plan. Regardless of what method you prescribe, getting clients to follow it and not keep losing and gaining the same 20 pounds requires someone holding them accountable. Just as we as business owners need support and accountability to grow our business, our clients need this support big time. Sometimes we are the only support they have. That is why we added an offering to do just that. It is our version of a Mastermind but for reaching and maintaining their fitness goals. We call it our Accountability Group. Our clients get 1-2 group meetings per month and have their own check-in on a private Facebook page. Depending on how much time you need to put in, you can charge between $39-99 per month. It is a great way to increase results and your monthly draft with minimal time on your part. Damon Moschetto has been in the fitness industry for over 15 years and operates as a consultant for the Florida Fitness Coaches. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a degree in Exercise Science. He is a certified personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In 2001, Damon began working as an account manager and presenter for the Apex Fitness Group and traveled across the US training trainers and consulting with club owners regarding their fitness programs. SHELTON MATSEY For my biggest takeaway from the Mastermind weekend, I have to channel my inner Michael Jackson, so I am singing, You are not alone. I really learned that your problems are never just your own. Many times, we as business owners or people in general think that we are the only ones that see the issues that we have, whether it is with not generating enough leads, sales issues, problems with hiring, etc. It is similar to our clients who often believe they are the only ones that cant control their cravings or who struggle with weight loss. The best way to overcome your problems is to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, as well as people that have been there before. Once you are in the group you have to take action and leverage the great ideas that will form as part of your group. Then last but not least remember to pay it forward! Shelton has a Masters in Business Administration from Webster University, and Bachelors in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Shelton is also a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the American Council on 45

Exercise. He has been working in the fitness industry since 1998 and is co-owner of Fit Code Bootcamps, the most comprehensive bootcamp program in the South Chicagoland area. Throughout the years, Shelton helped hundreds of clients get in the best shape of their lives through the utilization of the latest and best fitness and nutrition techniques. He has worked with a wide range of clients from weight loss, sports training, diabetics, heart conditions, back problems and a variety of other conditions. His specialization though is in fat loss and functional training. TREVOR BUCCIERI Besides receiving great feedback on and making the final decision about my expansion, I think one of the bigger tips I picked up was with the Deal of the Day sites. My bootcamps are getting pretty maxed out, and I was going to be running a deal in the near future. I was then advised that I cant afford the headache and to focus on a new way to hit the daily deal sites. Now I am going to be focusing on semi-private and specialty offerings! When thinking about your next marketing move, it is so easy to get caught up in your own thoughts. There is no one else around to bounce ideas off who truly understand where you are and what your situation is. With our Mastermind group, we have access to likeminded professionals that help put it all in perspective, which is just awesome! Trevor Buccieri is the owner of Body & Soul Boot Camp in Buffalo, New York, and has been an exercise physiologist and ACSM certified trainer for over 12 years. His experience in the fitness industry provided many opportunities, including the chance to work with and train multiple professional athletes as well as ALL other levels from individualized injury rehabilitation, clients looking to crush body fat, bodybuilders, high school athletes, expectant mothers, youths suffering weight issues, senior citizens, and truly everything in between. Trevor takes pride in using the most diverse, current, and effective advanced training techniques available in the marketplace today and providing his clients with unparalleled service and commitment. Trevor also owns a Fitness Revolution in New Berlin, is a Mastermind and Bootcamp Automator member, and is certified by ISSA and Kettlebell Athletics. JEREMY BELTER The best business-building tip I can give is the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. This means becoming your best to serve others and then keep getting better at business, coaching, and life in general. Jeremy Belter is the owner of Express Fitness Camps and Fitness Revolution and has more than 7 years of experience as a fitness professional with more than 10,000 training sessions. JOE CARABASE My biggest business tip would be to focus on your client clich, right? As it sounds simplistic, most trainers out there ignore a lot of the small things they should be focusing on. At this point, you should note the difference between a trainer and a coach. A coach is someone who 46

trains, motivates, educates, entertains, and teaches, whereas a trainer, well, is anyone who does not do all of that. Use the following as a checklist for each of your clients: -Develop a relationship day one and grow it every opportunity you get: Strive to make connections, say their names 3x each session, give a sweaty hand hung after every workout, send pump up texts/emails, connect on social media, hold client socials, just to name a few -Teach form and corrective exercise: Youre a coach right? Dont just work people out, form is number one. Then help them fix some of their compensations and mobility/flexibility issues. If you are new to this, check out Mike Roberson or Eric Cressey -Deliver Results: After form, you have to be delivering on what you sold them. Earn your living, dont just collect money. We have the best job in the world! -Maintain the relationship using the tips stated in the first bullet Joe has been in fitness for over 9 years, and through extensive trial and error he has created a workout system driven by functional movement, cross training, and intensity that shreds body fat while building a lean and toned physique. Joe is a nationally certified personal trainer and Nutrition Specialist as well as a contributing author to the International Best-Selling book Total Body Breakthroughs. Joe worked as the Director of Professional Fitness Training at Branford Hall Career Institute. He earned a degree in Business Administration from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts of Amherst. Joe founded M.E.L.T. Fitness Studio (More Energy, Less Time), specializing in 30 minute rapid fat loss solutions for busy people as well as youth fitness. Find out more about Joe on his personal blog and about his company at www.meltfitnessstudio.com. BEN WARSTLER There are always so many big takeaways from Mastermind meetings. Im always excited about these meetings because countless ideas come out and tons of snags and obstacles are overcome by working closely with the top professionals. But my number one most valuable lesson is to cultivate your business. The obvious way to grow your business often is to add more services to it. But what I discovered being more effective is to find new ways to provide different services to the people you already service. As an example, consider how we have expanded on our nutrition services: weve added accountability programs, short term nutrition coaching, and 1-on-1 coaching as additional options to our Maximize your Metabolism program. Taking what you already have and expanding upon that is a better practice then adding an entirely new service. Making sure you maximize what you already offer rather than starting something completely new makes the service you provide more well-rounded. At the same time, you become very efficient at running the few programs you offer better than anyone else rather offering a hundred half assed programs.

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Ben Warstler, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, KBA is the Owner of Fortitude Fitness Systems, Inc, in Northeast Vermont. Operating Bens Bootcamps, one of the most successful bootcamps on the planet, Ben has helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat. Ben, an International Best Selling Author, has helped hundreds of fitness business owners grow their fitness bootcamp businesses. Ben can be contacted at www.vermontbootcamps.com or on his blog at http://benwarstler.com

Some shared the big picture value of being in a group, while others shared a specific area to work on. Part of the beauty of being in a Mastermind Group or attending an event is that everyone sees the same thing, but they each get something different from it that propels them to the next level. And thats what I want to pass along to you: Each of these extremely successful fitness pros reap their own rewards from being in the group as theres no "one size fits all formula for success. On a different note: I know that every time I mention our Mastermind Groups, I get inquiries about joining. Our groups are invite-only, and we only draw from people we know that have already been in our programs and attended our events. Weve been part of and seen dozens of groups, and Im quite confident our groups are the strongest MM groups out there. Actually, I think thats a big reason why. Theyve all qualified by being great at their craft, being good people, and being action takers, and weve gotten to witness this about them for a while. Once theyre in, we feel theyre like part of our family. And thats why most groups arent very good. With them, the only qualifier is having a credit card. Thats just a money grab. Tough to build a great team that way! So if youre interested in joining one of our groups, my best suggestion is to be part of the Fit Business Inner Circle, attend our live events, and actually get to know me, Nick, and the rest of our awesome team. Were always looking to work with more great ambassadors for the fitness industry, and thats where we start.

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The Easiest Profit Center to Add On to Any Personal Training Business


Everyone wants multiple streams of income. The good news is that adding on revenue streams to your business is easier than you think. If you have a handful of clients or a few people in your database, you can add another revenue stream to your business almost right away. But instead of just telling you what that additional profit center is, Im going to show you stepby-step how to implement it in your business. The Weight Management Program As a fitness professional, youre well versed in the role nutrition plays in client success, so a weight management program is a natural fit. We began running weight management programs in our own business about 4 months after we opened, not fully knowing what to expect, and the results were incredible. The first month we sold over $5000 worth of weight management programs, not to mention the additional sales of meal replacement and other supplements that it led to and a bonus of additional training sales. For us, adding a weight management program easily increased our monthly revenue by 25%, and it can do the same for you. So here is your step-by-step plan: Step 1: Decide Your Format We started our program offering 1-on-1 sessions that were 30 minutes long where one of our coaches met with the client once a week for 10 weeks. Over time, we tested 4, 8, 10, 12, and 16 week programs both delivered 1-on-1 and in groups. We eventually found that for us, 12-week group programs or 4-week 1-on-1 programs were best. The 12 week group format allowed us to break the program fee up into 3 monthly payments and let us better leverage our best weight management coach (Holly). The 4-week 1-on-1 program was an alternative we could sell at a higher per-session price point to those people who couldnt make our group classes. Step 2: Figure Out the Logistics You need to decide where you will deliver the program, what you will include, how much you will charge, and when you will offer it. If you have your own facility, the where is easy. If not, you may have to get creative. In most communities, you can get a small conference room inexpensively at a variety of places. Ask the local library, community center, and members of your personal network first. The program could also be delivered using a service like Go To Webinar or Instant Teleseminar if you cant find a suitable space or simply choose not to. As far as pricing, the easiest way to set the price is to match or slightly exceed what youd charge for the same time commitment for group training or bootcamps (if you are delivering it in a group format). Or you can match your 1-on-1 training rates if youre delivering it individually. So if you normally would charge someone $199 for 12 sessions of bootcamp, then at minimum, you should be charging that for your weight management program. However, because its a 49

onetime program, you can charge more if you like. We typically charged $297 for our programs, but we occasionally offered them for $199 as special offers to our clients. What you will provide is relatively simple. We used a handbook that contained all 12 lessons plus weekly homework, a few one page handouts, and weekly emails to keep the students on track. You can find and download for free the exact resources we used at www.nutritionmoneymachine.com. It really is as easy and free as it sounds. When you will offer the program depends on a few variables: 1. Where will you be offering the classes? 2. What else are you doing? 3. What time of year is it? My suggestion is to pick times that fall right after sessions or camps if you can. For us, some of the best time slots were: -Monday-Thursday at 7 PM -Any weekday at 10 AM -Saturday morning at 10 AM Remember, finding the perfect time isnt as important with this as it is with something like a bootcamp since its only 1 day/week. As far as what time of year, the season we found challenging was the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. During the summer, there was the occasional vacation, but a personal 15 minute call with the student to cover what theyd miss was more than enough to overcome that. Step 3: Marketing the Program The easiest people to market the program to are your current clients. Tell them that youre launching a new program, and youll be limiting the first class to 12 people. Also tell them that you want to make it available first to your current clients before you open it to the public. Odds are that youll fill up all 12 slots only presenting it to them. If you dont fill up the program through personal offers to your current clients or if you choose to go beyond one class to start, individually contact former clients and unconverted leads. Outside of those groups, you can market this program virtually the same way youd market your training business. A couple of things to remember: 1. Most/all of your students will be women, so focus your marketing efforts there. 2. This type of program will allow you to reach the Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystems, and Curves audiences that may not necessarily be interested in your training offerings. This means that weight management programs can often be good front-end programs to get people into your training programs. Step 4: Delivering the Program I wont spend too much time on this since you can get all the materials and the course outline free from the website I provided you with. 50

1. Group sessions should last about an hour, while 1-on-1 will be less than 30 minutes. 2. Begin each session with a recap of the previous session, go over the homework from the previous session, and address any questions the students may have over the material previously covered. 3. Next, cover the lesson for the week. Deliver the content and answer questions the students have to provide clarity. 4. Finish with a homework assignment related to the material covered. Tips for Success Here are a few tips to make the most of the program: -Take before and after photos of all participants. This will be your most powerful marketing tool moving forward. -Take the following measurements every 4 weeks: percent body fat, circumference, and weight. It is important to have accountability. -Provide at least some sort of general exercise programming for the people who arent currently training clients, and get them involved in a free trial of what you offer. -In addition to the lesson-related homework, have your students hold themselves accountable for a couple weekly goals like, I will take my VGF consistently between now and next class, or, I will drink 64 ounces of water daily between now and the next class. By saying this publicly in front of the group, they are more likely to follow through. -Be a problem solver. If a student struggles with eating a supportive breakfast, provide a solution. If they eat out too often, provide a solution. If you give them simple solutions, youll be amazed at the progress they can make in 12 weeks. Thats it: a simple program that you can use to add 10, 20, or even 30% to your monthly revenue. Plus, if you sell supplements, youll see your sales go up significantly, as these people will become your best customers. And best of all, youll find these clients have the highest lifetime value of anyone you work with because they get the best results, learn the most, and are the most connected to you.

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Large Group Personal Training vs. BootcampsWhats The Difference?


Mastermind Member and Fitness Revolution/Athletic Revolution franchisee Steve Long shares his insights on the differences between bootcamp and group personal training. 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. Ive never actually attended a bootcamp before I started my bootcamp, but Ive 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, as Im used to it. Although I would have rather done an afternoon workout, I can understand that many 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 couldve just slept in an extra 15 minutes because the instructor didnt 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 Id 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 a pile along with the other new peoples sheets. He didnt even look at it. I asked myself, What was the point of the health history if you arent going to look at it, but oh well; Im healthy, so lets move on. By this time, Im already a little skeptical, but willing to put it aside to get a good workout on. Ugh, Ill 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. 52

Even better yet, I had a non-certified trainer who was a drill sergeant wannabe, 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 didnt get hurt, but thats a no-go in this bootcamp. Work hard and do what everyone else is doing in bad form, maggot! Thats what it takes to get results, if the results you are looking for include bad posture and injury. This guy either didnt know what good form was or just didnt care. To give the bootcamp some credit, however, everyone was working his or her butt off, and it was really cheap. Leaving that bootcamp made me realize that I had to write this piece. I had to let people know there is a better way to train large groups while still getting people to work hard and work smart at the same time. Ive 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? The difference is huge. Lets begin.

Group Personal Training


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 whats going on with my clients bodies. I will also go over the clients health history and goals with them to make sure we know exactly what they want and exactly what they need. Typically Inside: Workouts dont 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 wellrounded training program. Exercise Progressions: Everyone is different, and everyone has different needs. If you arent 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. Its about working as hard as you can at the appropriate level for your body. Certified Personal Trainers: If someone who cant 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 53

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 cant 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 many 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 the Negatives: Outdoor bootcamps can be fun and 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 chapter has been a long time coming. Anyone who knows me understands my strong dislike for generic crap training like the bootcamp I attended. Its my mission in life to increase the quality of group training in America. I hope this chapter will make a small splash in that happening. I know the readers of this book will understand the importance, so if you know anyone that may like this chapter, 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 Ive begun to make the difference Im trying so hard to make. Thank you for reading and for going the extra mile to do what is right. -Steve Long

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Ask Yourself These 7 Questions


Right now were embarking on several new fitness business ventures, some of which are existing businesses that were getting involved with to take them to the next level. Here are a few thoughts I use to develop the plan to grow our businesses: 1. What attracted our clients in the first place? Sometimes you start with a really good marketing strategy but change it over time. You might have abandoned something that really worked without realizing it. Sometimes businesses plateau often comes down to the business stopping to provide the value they once did. 2. What is the primary process for generating revenue that this business is built on? Identify where most of your clients are coming from. You should direct the bulk of your efforts on that answer. 3. What do the clients really want? Understand what benefit the client is seeking and give them more of it. 4. Where do the clients comes from? Know the demographics of your clientele so you can go after more of them. 5. Who else serves these clients? Clients have lives outside your business. Who else do they buy from? What will they be more likely to buy after working with you? 6. How can we reduce the risk of transaction and reduce the hurdle to make is easier to do business with us? The simpler you make it to do business with you, the more people will do so. Free trials, payments and downsells work wonders. Lower the barrier of entry whenever you can. 7. What is your vision for your fitness business over 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years? You need to have a clear picture of your goal. You need to be able to explain where you want your business to be in the future, what its clients look like, how big of a staff you have, etc. Without a goal to shoot for and a structure to guide your growth, you will find it harder to change from where you currently are. These are just a few of the questions I ask while I work through a fitness business looking for opportunities to grow. Of course, you could think of more, but these should get you started in your path to growth and development.

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Delivering an Excellent Experience through Customer Service


Fitness Consulting Group Customer Experience Director Lee Ann Nelson Salsman discusses the extreme value in delivering exceptional customer service and reveals how to do it. A company goal of delivering any sort of experience to their customers is bold and a game changer in any industry. Too many times we see this ambitious goal swept to the wayside, replaced by a focus on products and the bottom line. However, if our customers can stay in the spot light of our company, the products and bottom line will fall into place. Focusing on just three areas will go a long way towards delivering an excellent experience for customers: reaching out, solving problems, and following up. All three of these categories have some of the same essential elements that will make the experience genuine for your customers. If you dont feel that delivering a great experience to your customers is essential to your business, then youll have mediocre customer service (at best). If you can gain the trust and respect of your customers through genuinely caring about how they feel about your product and how it has helped them benefit their lives, then you have delivered exceptional customer experience. First, you must reach out to each of your customers. This opens the lines of communication and ensures that your customers have the needed contact information for any additional questions that may arise. Opening these doors for your customers gives them more than an 800 number and takes the first step for them. By calling and not waiting to be called, you will set your product apart based on more than its functionality in your customers lives. A phone call is better in most cases then an email. However, if you dont conduct that phone call in the correct manner, it can be more harmful than good. Im not a fan of a scripted phone call, but there has to be an agenda to the call, an overall reason that you are calling. These calls need to run smoothly and be as genuine as possible. While on your call, you need to speak clearly and confidently. Dont overwhelm the customer with too much information, but have enough to keep a conversation going. Once you have relayed the intended information, make sure you give the customer all the contact information they would need if future problems or question arise. Most of these customers will appreciate the effort of reaching out to them. Even if you get a negative response, its still good information to make your product or business better. Take the good with the bad and be appreciative of the information no matter how severely it gets thrown at you. Your attitude and how you choose to handle those situations will dictate how future follow ups will go with your customers. Second, problem solving is a huge key to delivering the best Customer Experience that you can. A phone call or email going out to your customers doesnt mean much if you arent willing to fix problems that your customers have. Policies are great to have in place but they arent going 56

to cover all of the issues that come up. Some of those gray areas force you to think on your feet and create solutions. Your solutions need to be a good compromise between whats best for your company and whats best for your customer. Once a problem has been presented on a call, you should repeat the question back to your customer to make sure you heard them correctly and that you both are on the same page. This also helps your customer feel confident that you are listening to them as they are speaking. Whether or not you have the answer to this question or problem, I suggest that you tell your customer your plan of action on how you are going to get them the information or answer that they are looking for. Most of the time if you cant give an answer or solution the customer is OK with knowing the next steps and knowing that you have a plan of action for them that is a good alternative while they wait. Ending your phone call with a brief recap of your call is always a nice way to tie it up in a neat little bow. For example, I hope you have a great day and Ill get back to you with an answer to your question as soon as I have more information for you. Please feel free to let me know if anything else comes up that I can help with in the mean time. Third, following up is as important as the initial call. Once you have made that first contact with a customer, you have taken on the responsibility of being the voice of your company for these customers. You have to make sure to follow through with anything you say you will do. Otherwise, you are setting up your company to look unreliable and untrustworthy. This slip will have undone completely all the trust and respect that you worked to gain during your earlier efforts. Relaying the information that you wanted to gather for your customer can be done again through email or a call. This depends on what you and your customer agreed to during the call. This information needs to be gathered and relayed in a timely fashion to the customer that is waiting on it. You may have twenty people to get back to, but each one is only waiting on you. Once you have solved your customers problem, make sure they feel confident that, for the moment, all their questions have been answered. Always assume that they will want to contact you in the future with another issue or question. Make them feel like you are more than happy to help them out whenever they may need. Making another call at a specific time down the road is a great idea. This tells your customers that you are still thinking about them and hoping to help with anything they need. It also keeps your product or service relevant in their lives. If they havent used it in awhile, it reminds them to get back to it. Your company name will again be thought about even if you simply need to leave a message: The more they hear your company name, the better. All your contacts with customers need to be friendly, genuine, and sincere. If your customers feel like you are only going through the motions, gaining their trust and respect is almost impossible. Delivering an excellent experience through customer service is essential for any company that wants to set itself apart. Showing our customers that we care is never a bad thing and is well 57

worth the time and effort. Make the customer experience an integral part of the product or service that you offer, and your business will benefit. -Lee Ann Nelson Salsman

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101 Fitness Business Tips


Sometimes the best solution to business problems is to brainstorm ways to fix them. In that vein, Ive come up with some killer fitness business tips that I think not only will you enjoy but will dramatically improve your business if you apply them. So read the list through. Then read it again. Print it and post it in your office, because if you put these into action I can guarantee youll enjoy the results. 1. You get paid for done. 2. Handling adversity often is the difference between success and failure. You will get knocked down. You will get humbled. What you do after that happens will determine how high you climb. 3. An idea by itself is almost always worthless. Its how you execute the idea that matters. Focus on execution. 4. Sell people what they want. Then give them what they need. 5. Use surveys to learn who your clients and prospects really are and what they really want. 6. Dont put all your eggs in one basket. Have more than one profit center and more than one lead source. If you rely too heavily on something, such as Deal of the Day sites for leads, when it dries up your business dries up with it. 7. Best beats first. You may not have been the first bootcamp in your market or the first sports training facility. It doesnt matter as long as you commit to being the best. 8. Success without work is a lie and doesnt happen EVER. If youre starting out, assume that the path to beating the competition requires you to work harder and be better if you want to win. 9. Define your goals. Be clear on what you want. From big picture goals like earning $250,000 per year to daily goals like getting two new leads or one new client the more specific, the better. 10. If its important, track it: leads, trials, closed sales, lifetime value. If you dont track it, you cant improve it. 11. Make it easy to experience what you have to offer. Use free trials, low cost trials, and special events and promotions. If you are committed to being better than the competition, your best selling tool is the actual experience of what you have to offer. 12.I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Ive gotten a follow-up letter or card or call from anybody Ive spent money with over the past year. It just never happens. And this was the best kind: thank you + sales pitch. Theres a very simple formula for you. Send thank you cards and make an offer or ask for a referral.

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13. At whatever point(s) you have 1-on-1 contact with clients in your business, there ought to be an upsell or a request for a referral unless you already make too much money. 14. Know who you are and who youre really trying to serve. Sam Adams beer has a fascinating story. They tell people right out of the gate, Were not a beginners beer. Perfect. Theyre not for the masses. People aspire to get beyond being a beginner, just like the trainers we work with vs. health clubs. Not that our people wont help beginners, but theyre not for tire kickers or gimmick seekers. Theyre for people who are serious about getting results and willing to do the work. Big box health clubs couldnt care less. 15. You want better clients that refer more? Educate them. Hold workshops like crazy. The ones who buy in will become your biggest advocates. 16. If I were starting out, Id be sure to narrow what Im known for or at least build a businesswithin-my-business that is very specialized. Its the easiest way to become a market leader. 17. Time is life. We all have less of it today that we did yesterday. So quit wasting days doing things that arent getting you closer to where you want to be. Otherwise, youll look up and a decade will have passed, making it even harder to make big changes. 18. At least weekly I get asked variations of this question: How do I get to 100 campers/$10,000 a month/50 semi-private clients? The answer is this: Get one today. Get another tomorrow. Get another the day after that. That is the best answer no one wants to hear. Theyd rather spend the next 3 months looking for a magic way to get 100 campers than simply get one a day for those same 3 months. Which do you think will work better? 19. On that same note: You have two jobs and two jobs only: 1. Deliver a GREAT experience. 2. Make sure that EVERY DAY more people try your experience. Do those 2 things daily and youll be all set. 20. One of the biggest reasons people fail is poor follow-through. They dont get things done. It doesnt take much to be an idea guy or start something. But only what you finish matters. 21. Another reason people dont reach their goals is that there is an absence of value in what they offer in their fitness business. They get so caught up in the marketing or selling of their services or product that they forget that long-term relationships come by delivering extraordinary value. These are the people we often call slime balls. 22. Dont worry about the market being saturated. There is always room for someone to come in and be great, but the market never needs more average providers. 23. Along those same lines, I only had a couple great college professors, and one of them really stood out. He told me that you can become a millionaire by doing anything, as long as youre willing to be better than everyone else at it. I agree 100%, but most people wont do what it takes to be better than everyone else. Thats your opportunity.

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24. Set deadlines for everything. If you treat every work day like youre going on vacation tomorrow, imagine how productive youd be. 25. You should always remember: You are not just getting paid for the workout you provide. You are getting paid for the relationship the client has with you or feels they have with you and your business. Of course, with that relationship comes responsibility. You need to remember whos signing your paycheck, and what they are really paying you for. 26. Success isnt hard; you just have to find ways to organize, discipline, and motivate yourself to get more done, faster not more started, more done. 27. Remember this Dan Kennedy phrase: Why should your prospect choose to do business with you vs. any and every other option available to them? 28. Break out of the fitness industry norms the majority is almost always wrong and is always behind. 29. Recycle what you do. Deliver the same content in different formats. Fitness coaching programs, infoproducts, Bootcamps to Go theyre all the same stuff packaged in different formats. 30. Small hinges swing big doors. A few small but strategic changes can make big differences to the bottom line. 31. A different way to look at your market is to find price gaps instead of pricing the way everyone else does. If you can get a health club membership for $39, a bootcamp membership for $199, and 1-on-1 personal training for $500, the gaps are $99 and $299-399. What can you offer there? 32. Joining the Chamber of Commerce is like joining a gym: Most will do nothing with their membership, but if you take advantage of everything they offer, it can be a huge difference maker. 33. If you have no money, knock on doors, hustle, network, and make something happen every day. Roll up your sleeves and go to work. You can overcome a lack of money with an abundance of hustle in most areas. 34. Successful people have a sense of urgency. Procrastination is not acceptable. 35. If you accept mediocrity you will get more of it. Mediocrity only exists if you tolerate it. 36. People mess up JVs and referrals by not making it easy for others to help us. Help them help you. Do as much as possible of the work for them and youll get 10X the results. 37. Are you the first person in your market that people think of when it comes to what you do? If not, get better, re-define what you do, or tighten down your niche.

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38. The quickest way to make more money is to sell more to your current clients. Supplements, workshops, weight management, higher-priced coaching, and the like are all great examples of back-end revenue streams. 39. You decide. You decide how people view you and your fitness business, along with what hours youll work and how you live your life. If you dont decide, theyll decide for you. 40. There is hidden opportunity in every business. Three easy ones are upsells from your basic programs, downsells for people who dont buy, and reactivation of previous clients. Its money thats just sitting there waiting for you to grab it. 41. Associate with like-minded, successful people. Its often said that your income is the average of the 5 peoples income youre around most, so dont hang out with slackers. 42. If most people realized that they had all the same skills (often better) as the top earning trainers in the field there would be a LOT more six-figure earners in our industry. 43. A big obstacle to success is distraction. Turn off the email and TV and work on your business. 44. Always have a higher priced option. There are a certain percentage of people in every market who will pay top price. 45. You need to work on you as much as you work on your business. 46. Its not what you make, its what you keep. Focus on improving your net profits, not just your gross revenues. 47. Organize your day the night before and make sure you block time for everything that is important to you. Working on your business gets time. Networking gets time. Family gets time. Self improvement gets time. If you dont schedule it, youll find yourself putting it off. 48. A lot of success is born out of a hatred of losing. As a coach I enjoyed winning, but I HATED losing. 49. Recognition and rewards are great motivators. Use them often. 50. Successful people are always growing. Success is never stagnant. 51. Business should be fun. What dont I like about what I do? Being away from family when were on the road, but other than that: nothing. Why do something that sucks? Enjoy your work, if you dont, find new work. 52. People are pretty predictable in what theyll buy. Watch infomercials about fitness or fat loss. They want results fast. They buy based on emotion. Testimonials are more powerful than almost anything else you can share. You have to meet people where they are, and once you have them, you can educate them on what they really need. 53. You cant be afraid to reinvent yourself. Dont be afraid to transform your business model to better serve the market, to better position yourself against the competition, or to better apply 62

what youve learned along the way to take advantage of a new or different opportunity. Just think about Dominos Pizza as an example: Theyve built their entire business on fast, inexpensive pizza until recently. Now theyve made a new commitment to delivering a higher quality pizza and have spent a lot of time and money trying to reposition themselves as a higher quality provider. So far the results have been good for them with sales up 12% over last year. 54. Theres power in creating a community. If you can create a community, it will improve retention, generate referrals, and provide opportunities. Plus, its just a more enjoyable environment to work in. 55. Nothing beats being around a group of like-minded, motivated fellow entrepreneurs. Do it at least a couple times per year. 56. Not every offer needs to be accepted. You dont have to answer the door just because someone knocks. You dont need to answer the phone whenever it rings, and you dont need to respond to every email the minute it hits your inbox. 57. Taking that a step further, not every opportunity presented to you needs to be accepted. Just because it has some potential upside doesnt mean its a good fit for you right now. There will always be people knocking, calling, emailing, and offering, and all of them will be asking you for your time. Just because they ask doesnt mean you need to accept. 58. Plan ahead. The most important time management strategy I employ is planning out every day the evening prior. If you dont plan out what you need to accomplish, youre leaving the day to chance, and youll likely be allowing everyone else to decide how you spend your time. Not good. 59. Get help. Every day there are low return activities that you do and there are high return activities. Heres how Id quantify each: Low Return Activities: -Activities that could be outsourced for significantly less than your hourly worth. If you can make $75 per hour training or can generate $1200 worth of new business public speaking, then you can certainly delegate $8 an hour work to free up your time. -Activities you dont enjoy at all. If you really dont enjoy some facet of your personal training business, find someone who can do it effectively. -Activities you are bad at. If youre bad on the phone, outsource Business of the Month calls & confirmation calls. High Return Activities: -Activities that generate significant revenue, close to or exceeding your hourly worth. Most marketing activities, sales, delivering service, program design, retention work, etc., falls in this category. -Activities you enjoy. If you enjoy mowing your lawn, mow it. It doesnt really matter if you could earn more doing something else if it really makes you happy. 63

-Activities youre best suited for. If youre the best person at program design in your business or the best salesperson, those should be among the last things you delegate. Delegate the lower skill activities first. You dont have to spend a lot to start delegating. Offer a few hours to a client or a camper that would like to earn some extra money or train for free. Then your job is simple: You need to more than make up for the money youre spending delegating with the new time youve freed up. 60. Finish projects. One of the biggest timewasters of all is not bearing down and finishing stuff. As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, you get paid for done, so until somethings finished, it seems like time wasted. Luckily, the solution is simple: when you start a project, put the blinders on and finish it. 61. Use Transformation Challenges, Walls of Fame, Referral Contests, Bring-a-Friend Days, Point-of-Sale Referral Systems, Referral Request Mailings, and a variety of other means to keep the referral mindset prominent in your business. 62. Offer a powerful guarantee. At a minimum, 100% Money Back. 63. Have a powerful USP that appeals to your niche market. If it doesnt make your target prospects jump up and say, Thats exactly what I want, then strengthen it. 64. Have more than one type of offering. Semi-private, bootcamps, and group weight management all can help you convert more prospects, as can different tiers within the same offering. 65. Make it easy to buy. Use EFT billing. Offer different options at varied price points. Help people become clients. 66. Have plenty of testimonials handy. Social proof is crucial if you want to make selling easy. 67. Try before you buy. As opposed to what some people think, free sessions are a great idea. If your average package is $1000, wouldnt you expect someone to want to know what theyre spending a thousand bucks on before they commit? 68. Use a sales script. If something works, stick with it. 69. Along those same lines, test different sales presentations. We changed one step and increased our average transaction value by $400. 70. Target better prospects. That doesnt always mean more affluent prospects; target prospects that are a better fit for you and your business. 71. Give better service, all the time. Every day you need to be on. 72. Underpromise and Overdeliver. 73. Stay in regular contact outside of normal sessions with phone calls, emails, etc. Use an assistant to make calls if you need to so you can get more objective feedback. 64

74. Keep a lot of client data birthdays, anniversaries, kids names, hobbies, etc. 75. Sell consumables. Supplements need to be re-purchased again, but DVDs and foam rollers dont. 76. Raise your prices. You can do it in small increments, too. A $2 or $3 increase per session will get no resistance from clients but will add a lot to your bottom line over the year. 77. Suggest your most expensive program first. 78. Treat everyone like you want to be treated. 79. Get on the phone and reactivate former clients & campers. They will probably be going somewhere in January; why not back with you? 80. Do at least 2 public speaking engagements per month. 81. Start networking on a weekly basis. Add at least 1 person to your network each day. 82. Ask for referrals at the point of sale. 83. Sell 3, 6 and 12 month programs instead of packages or 1 month at a time. 84. Build relationships face-to-face. Prospects are everywhere talk to them. Perfect your 15 second elevator speech and commit to meeting at least 1 new person a day. 85. Role play your sales presentation. Practice it over and over. Get comfortable asking for the sale. 86. Use an A/B or alternate choice close. Finish your sales presentation by asking, Which program would you like to get started with today? Having only one option means yes or no. Having 2 options means yes or yes. 87. Build a Fitness Sales Army. My fundraising days as a coach taught me that you can let groups sell memberships to your camp for a healthy fundraiser. Give them membership cards and a form to track sales. Offer the camps at a big discount and let the group keep all the proceeds. You will get dozens of new people that you can turn into long term clients and will have helped a good cause. 88. Offer a Fitness Coaching Program as a downsell or as an offer to former clients and campers. 89. Start holding Transformation Contests at least 3 per year. 90. Hustle. You cant grow a camp sitting behind a desk all day. Get out and network, speak, and build JV relationships. 91. Run a buzz-worthy business. If you run a great business, get clients incredible results, and have tons of energy, people will spread the word. 92. Do the most important thing first. Nothing sets the tone for a productive day like knocking out a big task early. 65

93. Dont leave email sitting in your inbox. Once you decide to open an email, act on it. Either delete it, reply to it, or read it. You dont want to deal with the same email 3-4 times. 94. Admit multitasking is bad. Focus on something and finish it. 95. Know when you work best. For me early mornings, late evenings, and Sundays are best for writing. 96. Make it easy to get started. Prep the night before, keep what you need handy, and eliminate distractions. 97. Dare to be slow. Dont mistake activity for achievement. Only go as quickly as you can while still delivering quality work. 98. Use your time wisely. We all have the same 24 hours each day, so why is there such a disparity in what high achievers accomplish versus what the average person does? The answer lies in how they use those hours. Use yours wisely. 99. Avoid disruptions. If youre working on something, dont let other stuff interfere. Youll lose your momentum and reduce your productivity. 100. Block out time. Youd be amazed at what you can get done with one uninterrupted 30-50 minute block of time. Have a couple of those each day to work on your business or projects and watch your productivity and income soar. 101. And lastly Enjoy It! If you dont like your work, fix it. It may not happen overnight, but if you systematically start getting more of the clients you like and ridding yourself of the ones you dont and doing more of the tasks you enjoy and delegating more of the ones you loathe, youll be more successful. Your clients will be happier because youll be happier. Im guessing thats why you went into business: to build something where you could help people, enjoy financial and personal freedom, and do what you love, right? Then dont settle for less than that.

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Value: The Key to Fitness Business Success


One day, Ryan Ketchum and I were having breakfast with Todd Durkin, and virtually the entire conversation focused on how to deliver more value to the people we serve. Think about that: Todd is one of the faces of huge companies like Gatorade, Under Armour, and TRX. Hes a Best Selling Author. He trains some of the top players in the NFL, and he runs an ultra-successful fitness business of his own Fitness Quest 10. And his focus is how he can add more value for the people he works with. For our businesses, its the exact same thing. Were constantly asking ourselves, How can we deliver even more value? The reason is simple: The more value you provide, the greater the likelihood youll enjoy success. People come to you as a fitness professional because they want to achieve some desired outcome. Maybe they want to lose weight. Maybe they want to increase their strength or performance. They could even want to improve their health or simply feel better about themselves. The quicker that you can make that happen and the better the experience you can provide during their journey, the happier they will be. The truly great professionals get that. Guys like Todd have made that their mission. Theyre in a never-ending quest to deliver more value. You should be, too. If you want to enjoy true fitness business success, you can never get complacent. You should always be looking for ways to become a better coach, to provide a better experience, to make your systems more efficient. Its all a means to providing more value. In fact, we have a goal in our businesses that I talked about in an earlier chapter. Essentially, we strive to consistently deliver 10X the value for the price of anything we offer. For example, if its a product like Fitness Sales Formula that sells for $197, then we need to make sure that the customer gets $1970 worth of value. Sure, its hard to quantify this concept, but thats not the point. The point is that we want to constantly be finding more ways to improve our products, improve our services, and improve our experiences so that the fitness professionals we serve always feel like what they received for their investment was a bargain. So how can you make this approach work for you? Here are a few ideas: Treat Everyone Like Family One of the things that Ive often said is that you should treat clients like family and treat prospects like clients. If you want to set yourself apart and deliver more value, this is one of the easiest ways. 67

Youd never call lunch with a loved one My 11:30 appointment, but trainers do that with clients all the time. Focus on making each session or each class the best experience of the day for the people youre working with. Call them by name, pat them on the back, and make sure they know you appreciate every day they choose to work with you. Bring Your Best - Todd Durkin is a great probably the best example of this. Hes always on when you see him. You always know youre getting high energy and his best effort. That energy and passion is contagious. So make sure youre always prepared and always in the moment when youre with clients or prospects. Avoid cruise control at all costs. Youll be amazed it will be the difference between mediocre retention and people never wanting to leave. Youll push your referrals through the roof just by bringing your best each and every day. Focus on Continual Improvement Great professionals in any field are always getting better. Theyre studying to improve at their craft so they can always be sure theyre providing the best possible service for their clients. That means you should be continually investing in education like books, DVDs, courses, and events. But it also means you should be testing new things and tracking the results. You should be training your staff to make sure theyre continually improving. Youre either getting better or youre falling behind. Think Experience Great businesses like Disney and Zappos have made the Experience their #1 marketing tool, so you should think about it too. How can you make the experience better for your clients and prospects? Consider: -The way you answer the phone -The way that people are greeted when they walk in the door -The cleanliness of your location -The energy and passion that you and your staff display All these and more are part of the Experience, and they are something you should be continually working on. It really is simple: Value is the difference between the anticipated price or worth and the actual price. Once you set that actual price, you should be on a never-ending quest to improve that anticipated price or worth. If you do that, fitness business success will be a given.

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5 Minute Fitness Business Fixes


I dont have time. I hear that from fitness business owners all too often. They dont have time to work on their business. They dont have time to market. They dont have time to grow. Well, I have news for you: Were all busy. So we need to make time to be successful. And what most people dont realize is that it doesnt take hours and hours to do things that will grow your business. As a matter of fact , here are 19 things that will take 5 minutes or less that will help you network, generate referrals, become more organized, and build a more systematic and profitable business. 1. Ask for a Referral At the end of a session, ask for a referral. During a conversation with a friend or a client, ask for a referral. At the end of a sales presentation, ask for a referral. Asking for referrals is the best marketing strategy there is, and it only takes a minute or two. 2. Send a Personal Email to a Client A simple How are things going? Is there anything I can do to help you achieve your goals even more quickly? goes a long way. It shows you care and will separate you from the competition. 3. Document One Business Process Do you want to finally develop systems for your business? Heres the easy way to start: As soon as you complete a task, write down the exact steps you took to accomplish that task. It will take less than 5 minutes, and within a couple of weeks youll have simple processes for nearly every task in your business. Systems are the biggest obstacle for trainers to develop into entrepreneurs and get the most out of their business. Businesses without systems are inherently limited in how big they can grow. Fitness Revolution and Athletic Revolution are two franchises we offer that give the complete systems solution to the fitness business professional. With FR and AR, they are together in one place with the support needed to implement them smoothly. 4. Make a Call to a Prospect or Client There are 2 things that really set you apart from the Group Exercise class at the Y: the quality of your service and your personal attention. A quick call to congratulate someone for reaching a goal or to check up on them is a great example of how you can address the second part of that equation. 5. Offer an Upsell Maybe the easiest way to increase your revenue is, immediately after making an initial sale, to offer a second complimentary product or program at a discount. At least 20% of the clients will take you up on it, and it takes only a minute or two. Plus, it introduces them to your role as the complete fitness/health solution, and they will begin to come to you for all their health/fitness needs.

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6. Send a Card In a world that has gone entirely electronic, a personal card to a client or friend goes a long way. 7. Offer a Renewal Dont wait until the end of someones contract to ask them to renew. Subscribe to a magazine and theyll try to renew you just a few months in. You should do the same, trying to eventually move everyone into 12 month memberships. 8. Send a Gift A simple way to say thanks for a referral or for being a client, or to congratulate someone on reaching a goal is to send any kind of gift. It doesnt have to be large or individualized something like a gift card to a JV partner or some free supplements works well. A bonus is that gifts will set you apart from 99% of the other businesses your clients interact with. 9. Map Out Your Day Before you go to bed, map out your next day. This 5 minute exercise will easily double your productivity. 10. Hand Out a Gift Card Give these to clients to give to their friends. Give them to people you meet when youre out and about. Bring them to networking events. Any time you can spread the word about your fitness business, do it. 11. Make a Facebook Post Congratulate a client on reaching a goal. Post a photo of the days workout, tagging all the clients in the picture. Post a link to your free Prograde report. Keep your business front and center in peoples minds. 12. Make a Craigslist Post Its free, quick, and pretty simple; why not? 13. Practice a Sales Presentation If you want to sell more, you need to get better at getting more leads and converting a higher percentage of those leads. Practicing your sales presentation preferably with someone else will take you just a few minutes and will dramatically improve your results. 14. Talk with a Client Especially if you focus on group training, take any and every opportunity to stay personally connected with clients. 15. Study Study Bootcamp Blueprint modules or B3 Videos. Read a blog post or a few pages in a book. Commit to getting better every day. Personally, I try to read a chapter of a book if I get 5 minutes free between scheduled phone calls, and it helps me get through over 75 books a year. 16. Drop In a Business Take an extra 5 minutes if youre out and drop in a business to introduce yourself. Ask how you can help them. Build a relationship and hand out some gift cards. 17. Make a Call to a Local Business or Organization A phone call to set up a Business of the Month program or to get a speaking engagement takes just a few minutes and can yield big results. 18. Get Motivated Read, listen, or watch something motivational. It will make everything else you do a little better. 70

19. Fix a Detail Coach a trainer on something. Pick something up in the gym. Organize your office. You can always be doing something. There are a lot of fitness business growth activities that take an hour or more, and a bunch of others that take a half an hour or so, which you can read about elsewhere in this book. But dont ever let a lack of time stop you from reaching your goals. There is always something you can do.

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Starting a Personal Training Business Successfully


One busy week in 2012, I traveled to Boston to run an Athletic Revolution franchise training and Connecticut for an amazing Elite Training Workshop. Along with the great opportunity to spend time with our new franchisees and the 80+ motivated fitness pros that attended the Elite Training Workshop, I got the pleasure of seeing firsthand 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 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 Andreas business as the pre-eminent youth fitness and sports performance business in the Pembroke, MA, market. Just a couple years later, Dave is close to opening his second location and is seeing his dream take shape daily. Not long before 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 at its launch and soon after left the club to launch his own 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. Tyler now has 2 locations and is moving his main location into a brand new 8100 sq. ft. building. 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, its 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 youre starting a personal training business or youve got 20 years under your belt. Factor #1: They Provide the Best Coaching in Their Area Both Dave and Tyler are true masters of their craft. Ive been around a lot of coaches, and Ive never seen anyone communicate better with young athletes than Dave. Hes such a good coach that weve leaned on him to be a subject matter expert for both Athletic Revolution and the IYCA. The programming and coaching at Tylers facility is unbelievable, too. The detail covered in their programming for bootcamps makes 99% of the other camps out there seem like aerobics 72

classes from the mid-80s. 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 youre starting a personal training business to get rich and its not what youre passionate about, get a new plan. Does that mean that you cant get rich doing this? Of course not, and both of these guys probably will. But their financial success is founded on the passion that they have about what they do. They both are very driven and relentlessly working to be the best at their craft. Heres a good test for you: who would you train or what would you do that would never make you watch the clock? What would you do that would make you excited to get to work in the morning and even excited for the next day when you are wrapping up? These guys are 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 to where they are now on their own? Probably so. Would it have happened so quickly and without a lot more bumps along the way? Probably not. Factor #4: Theyre Action Takers You dont meet a lot of people who dont say they want to be successful. Or at least I dont. But far, far fewer actually are willing to do what it takes to get there. Most fitness pros arent willing to do free clinics or workshops. Theyre 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 its training or business based, theyre always learning something new that will make them better. We see them both at our live events throughout the year (theyre both presenters for us now), and theyre always at the forefront of whats new in the industry.

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Factor #6: They Stepped Out of Their Comfort Zone Starting a new business is scary. You need to find money, usually when you dont 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 dont seem like theyre what you got into this for. Fortunately, we were there to help with this stuff, but they were still the ones that stepped out and acted. Plus, starting a new training business meant that there was no security. If they didnt get clients, they couldnt pay their bills. Dave has a wife and 2 young children. Thats uncomfortable. But they both did what it took. They both became good at the business side to complement what they already did well with the training side. You need to accept this if youre starting a personal training business: Its not easy. Holly, Tyler, and I lived in a basement the first year we were in business. But because youre willing to sacrifice some opportunity and strive for something big, youve already separated yourself from the pack. Risk takers are privy to the greatest opportunities. Factor #7: Experience and 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 cant get at the local health club or really anywhere else. Most fitness pros dont recognize the importance of these two things. But think about it: Most consumers arent 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 total leads. Both enjoy far more referrals than the average fitness business, and the experience and the relationship are largely the reason. Sure, marketing and selling played into the success of these two. But I believe that these 7 Factors laid the foundation. If youre starting a personal training business, keep that in mind. In fact, Id 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.

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75

The Difficult Customer


Fitness Consulting Group Customer Service Manager Melissa A. Brady touches on a difficult part of running a fitness business or any business, for that matter. Find out how to deal with and overcome difficult customers. Every business has them, but not every business knows how to deal with them. Knowing how to communicate with a high maintenance customer can make the difference between average customer service and exceptional customer care. The old adage the customer is always right is not necessarily true. While the customer has a right to their opinion and feelings, particularly when an exchange of their money for your service is in play, its never right to have to take abuse from a customer or be manipulated into giving them their way when your companys policies and procedures are at stake. Here are some tips to help you take care of a difficult customer: -Hear them out. Listen to what they have to say let them go on their rant and pay attention to it (as best as you can) to find out what it is they really want. You may have to sort through a lot of hot air in the process, but many times customers will cool off on their own once theyve had a chance to vent. And they might even apologize to you for the way they initially acted! -Always offer an apology. Even if its just apologizing for how the customer feels about the situation at hand, or apologizing for the obvious inconvenience it has caused them, show that you care. Maybe they are having an off day, or maybe they really are just being difficult; regardless, treat them the way that you would want to be treated in the situation with kindness and a listening ear. -Get Outside Perspective. Let them know that you appreciate their feelings, their feedback, and their suggestions, and that you will pass them along through the proper channels of authority within the business and will get back to them (if you are not the head authority). Then follow up with that authority to be sure the customers needs are taken into account. -Create a Win-Win. If something can be done to remedy the situation, do it. The goal is a winwin the company wins and the customer wins. But it should be within the guidelines of the companys policies and the customer or clients contract. If its not an easy fix, find a workaround. Say a customer wants to cancel a personal training contract well before the contract has been fulfilled and receive a full refund. Your policy may be against refunds, but if they were ill or had extenuating circumstances that prevented them from fulfilling their training sessions, perhaps a compromise could be made. Maybe they could receive a credit to be used toward other products that you sell. Or, they can postpone their training sessions for a better time in their life when it would be more convenient for them. Note: If a customer is exceptionally difficult and refuses to accept anything other than their money back, sometimes a refund and permanent parting of ways is the best solution. In extreme cases, that really is the only win-win for both parties. 76

-Never accept abuse. If the customers venting turns abusive, you have the right as a human being to not have to take it. A response such as the following could be used in such a situation: Mr. Jones, I understand that you are upset, but the way you are speaking to me is inappropriate, and I will ask that you call back (or come back) at another time when you have cooled off. Its important to show the customer that you CARE. Even if they are being extremely high maintenance, just letting them know that you genuinely want to help and support them will ultimately be rewarded in the end whether that be turning a difficult customer into a workable one, or permanently parting ways with the difficult customer altogether. -Melissa A. Brady

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3 Immediate Ways to Grow Your Fitness Business


If youre reading this, youre different. Youre not the run of the mill trainer, coach, or fitness business owner thats cool with settling for mediocrity. So embrace the 3 tips below and make sure they play a big part in what you do on a daily basis. 1. Be Somewhere To quote marketing guru Dan Kennedy, You Cant Do Business Sitting on Your Ass. You need to be out in front of people where opportunities can happen. Be visible by -Doing public speaking -Going to networking events -Sending media releases -Writing for local publications You cant just sit in your bedroom office, post on Craigslist, and expect to wake up one day with a Six Figure fitness business. You have to get out there. 2. Do Something Everyone has ideas. Everyone has talents. Few act on them. Many of the successful fitness entrepreneurs I know are there primarily because they took action, not because they were more talented or had a better idea. They just made something happen. In fact, more often than not a bad decision is better than no decision because it leads to action. It is easier to correct the course once youre actually started than it is to get started in the first place. A good rule of thumb is to do at least one thing a day to bring in new business, even if you dont need any new business. 3. Ask If you want something, you have to ask. If you want more clients, you have to ask for the sale. If you want more leads, you have to ask for referrals. When you meet someone that can help your business ask for something. Successful people like to be asked for their ideas, opinions, advice, help, and influence.

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There are three simple things you need to be doing every day: being somewhere, doing something, and asking. Do those and youre almost assured of business growth.

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Hiring Personal Trainers & Other Staff Members


In our live meetings, we get a lot of questions about hiring personal trainers and other staff members. Clearly, its a hot topic among fitness professionals. And Id say its a big issue if youre looking to grow your business. Without a doubt, hiring is tough. Ive been hiring people for almost 17 years now and also spent about 8 years recruiting college athletes, which Ive found is almost exactly the same. The first person I ever hired was a guy that Id be comfortable calling my boyhood idol. I fired him 3 months later. Ive also fired one of the guys that Id consider among my 5-6 closest friends. Ive probably recruited over 1000 athletes and actually brought about 200 on to my teams. Ive personally hired roughly 100 employees. I couldnt tell you how many I fired (a lot), but in every case, I agonized about it. But what I have found is that the strategy that helped me enjoy success as a college baseball coach in large part through recruiting has the same type of success when hiring employees. When I coached, we were the most poorly funded program of all the schools we competed against, so I was often forced to recruit players who werent the marquee prospects. I quickly found out that if I recruited what I call intangibles, I did a lot better than the coaches who recruited the people they perceived to have a lot of potential. Intangibles meant recruiting work ethic, passion, determination, drive. If I could get players with moderate talent and those things, we would usually beat the teams who got the more highly touted prospects who often had poor work ethic, bad attitudes, and a sense of entitlement. In fact, once we started to enjoy some real success and a few of the highly touted prospects started wanting to come our way, I deviated from the plan that wed built our success on and added a few of them to the team. It was a terrible mistake that I quickly recognized and rectified as promptly as I could. See, you cant teach work ethic. You cant instill drive and determination. Sometimes, as coaches our egos get the best of us and we think we can coach those things into people, but we cant. Sure, in some cases, people can change, but that ultimately comes from them rather than us. But if you hire people who are on time, have great work ethic and a passion for fitness, and love being around people and helping them, you can teach them the rest. You can teach them your systems. You can steer them to the right education on exercise science and nutrition. You can give them the pieces to the puzzle that theyre missing.

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Every time Ive deviated from this plan and hired potential instead of those intangibles, its backfired on me. Back when Nick and I started our first training company, I hired our first handful of employees. One applicant who came in had a great resume: He had a Masters degree in Exercise Physiology, had run his own gym at one point, and had about everything youd ever want to see on a resume. He came on board and it was almost like we (more me than Nick) kept trying to rationalize his (many) flaws and mistakes that were detrimental to our business. We kept thinking that he had the potential to be a key player in the growth we wanted to have even though he hadnt really ever shown anything tangible to suggest that. Over time it became clear that Id hired a person who was not ever going to achieve much and had values that werent consistent with the business values we had. At the end of his employment with us, he was trying to do all those little things that we all worry about with employees, such as trying to falsify sessions on his time sheet and trying to take our proprietary information to set up a business across town. Id looked at the potential a glowing resume instead of the facts. It wasnt that guys fault; he was who he was. I just wasnt smart enough to recognize it at the time. On the other hand, not too long after that fiasco, we hired Melissa Brady to work part time at our Smoothie Bar. My expectations werent anything big. She was working in a medical office and wanted to do something else part time. She had a degree in music no background in fitness. But over time, her work ethic and dependability became obvious. Her passion for fitness grew, and she got certified to become a personal trainer. She soon moved to a point where she was training and serving as our part-time office manager. Though shed never sold before, she soon had the best closing percentage for new sales on our staff. Fast forward to now. Melissa has been a tremendously important person in the success and growth of our business a true key player. While you wouldnt have known that by looking at her resume when she first walked in the door, she had the intangibles that everything else could build on. So when youre hiring, look for people who have the character traits that you want represented in your business, not necessarily the credentials. Remember: The employees are only necessary because there is too much demand for what you currently do, so they need to learn your way of doing things anyhow. There is nothing wrong with having credentials (I am co-owner of a certification-issuing organization), but if they come attached to someone set in their ways and unwilling to adapt to your systems, or if they come with a sense of entitlement, pass. Get the right people on your team, then make sure they get the knowledge they need to be successful. This is the only true recipe for success that I know.

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29 Tips to Make You a Productivity Machine


Eight businesses. Tons of travel. More projects than I can count. Not to mention trying to do my part as a husband and father. So I, like you, have a LOT going on. Here are some tips Ive had great success with on how to be an efficient fitness entrepreneur and how to get stuff done. 1. Plan your day the evening before. This has been the foundation of my time management system for 15 years. 2. Prioritize, and always do the most important task first. Nothing sets the tone for a productive day like knocking out a big task early. 3. Dont leave email sitting in your in box. Once you decide to open an email, act on it. Either delete, reply, or read. Rereading emails and failing to act is a huge time waster. 4. Admit multitasking is bad. Focus on something and finish it. 5. Know when you work best. For me early mornings, late evenings, and Sundays are best for writing. 6. Make it easy to get started. Prep the night before, keep what you need handy, and eliminate distractions. 7. Organize the To-Do List for your fitness business every day. Your To-Do list is your productivity road map for the day. Treat it with respect. 8. Dare to be slow. Dont mistake activity for achievement. Only go as quickly as you can while still delivering quality work. It might sound counter-intuitive for productivity, but, ultimately, quality trumps quantity. Doing it right the first time is always better than having to redo it later. 9. Set and respect deadlines. If you dont have deadlines, you dont get things done. Period. 10. Set goals. Why bother doing something if you dont have a goal for the outcome of that activity? 11. Allocate your time. Know how much time something should take and plan accordingly. 12. Use your time wisely. We all have the same 24 hours each day, so why is there such a disparity in what high achievers accomplish versus what they average person does? How they use those hours. Use yours wisely. 13. Avoid disruptions. If youre working on something, dont let other stuff interfere. Youll lose your momentum and reduce your productivity. 83

14. Time Block. Youd be amazed at what you can get done with one uninterrupted 30-50 minute block of time. Have a couple of those each day to work on your business or projects, and watch your productivity and income soar. 15. Get a kitchen timer. Use it to time block. 16. Delegate. 20% of your stuff needs to get 80% of your attention. Delegate as much of the rest as you can. 17. Outsource wisely. This means outsourcing the right things and setting up for success whoever youre outsourcing to. 18. Schedule effectively: Group phone calls or group training sessions are more efficient. Look for ways to minimize wasted time. 19. Prioritize ruthlessly. Focus your time on high ROI activities. This doesnt happen by accident. Track the return on the things you spend time on and prioritize accordingly. 20. Stop doing research. I couldve said stop reading crap on the internet instead, because thats what most people do when they say theyre doing research. 21. Say NO more often. Refuse low ROI projects or activities. Not everything merits your time or attention. 22. Neglect stuff. Some things can sort themselves out without you spending time on them. Hard to believe, but sometimes people can figure things out for themselves. 23. Beat procrastination. Just start. All you have to do is get going, and more often than not, youll get on a roll and accomplish a lot. 24. Avoid being a perfectionist. It will never be perfect. Never. Good enough is good enough. 25. Keep a notebook/PDA with you and write down your thoughts. I use a small Moleskin I keep in my pocket all day. 26. Consider a paper planner. Ive used a Franklin Covey planner since 1994, which is simple and effective for To-Do lists, and it goes everywhere with me. 27. Use Google Calendar. Its simple, can be shared with colleagues and VAs, and best of all is free. 28. Use Google Docs. It can be accessed anywhere and shared just like Google Calendar. 29. Only use one email account. Have all of your emails funneled to one account. I couldve gone on for days, but the keys to productivity and being the best fitness entrepreneur you can be are Getting Started and Getting Done. So this should get you started getting more done!

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10 Secrets of an Elite Fitness Business


We have the good fortune to work with many of the top fitness business owners in the world today. Weve got 3 of the most successful mastermind groups in the industry. We have 2 of the fastest growing fitness franchises in the world (Fitness Revolution & Athletic Revolution). Weve had the top coaching program for fitness bootcamp owners (Bootcamp Blueprint) for almost 3 years. Im not telling you that to brag; Im telling you that because those facts also mean we see whats working to separate the really Elite Fitness Businesses from the average ones. So Ive compiled a list of 10 Secrets of the Elite Fitness Business the things that really make them different. The things you should make sure are happening in your business, too. 1. They work to be the best trainer or coach in their community. Guys like Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Ryan Ketchum, Tyler English, Vince Gabrielle, and all the other people we work with take great pride in being better at their craft than the other fitness businesses in their community. Honestly, in their community is selling them short. Elite business owners want to be the best in the country or even in the world at what they do. Theyre constantly studying, learning, and testing new things to stay one step ahead of the competition. This is far bigger than you might think. The phrase good enough is good enough can work for a lot of things, but if youre talking about the quality of your service, it doesnt work at all. Good enough doesnt inspire raving fans, and thats something that elite fitness businesses focus on. 2. They deliver an extraordinary experience. Ryan Ketchum contributed a chapter to this book on The Experience, which, if youve missed it, you can see here. The experience goes well beyond the workout or the execution of the program. The experience is the complete relationship between the business and the client. From the beginning of the relationship, elite fitness business owners set out to provide a completely different experience than other gyms or studios. They give more personal attention. They create a family atmosphere. They make people feel connected. The ways they do this range from personal phone calls and handwritten notes to client appreciation events being coupled with daily relationship building every time someone walks in their facility. Great businesses provide a great experience, and this is a hallmark of the elite. 3. Theyve positioned themselves differently. 85

Each of the elite fitness business owners has carved out some territory in the marketplace they can own. Just like Subway taking a fast food business and making it a weight loss business, each of the elite has taken a stand to be different. Some, like Eric Cressey, have decided to own the baseball market. Most have simply taken a position as the facility that actually gets clients results and focuses on coaching instead of just renting people access to equipment. By the way, the best way to position yourself differently is by actually being better at something. 4. Theyve turned an ordinary fitness business into an extraordinary fitness business. Theres no shortage of health clubs, gyms or bootcamps. Yet the elite fitness business owners find a way to separate themselves completely through great coaching, an incredible experience, better business systems, and top-notch marketing. What can you do that the rest of the crowd is unwilling to do? 5. They defy fitness industry norms. Approaching things in the normal way yields average results. You could make a list of everything that the typical gym or bootcamp does, and youd find that the elite really defy those norms. The average gym herds people in with no personal relationship. The elite do the opposite. The average bootcamp looks a LOT like the Group X that health clubs have been giving away with memberships for years. The elites version looks a LOT like personal training just in a group setting (see Steve Longs excellent chapter on the differences between bootcamps and group personal training here). Look at what everyone else in your market does and identify how you can be different. Youll likely end up with far more success. 6. They have continuity income. The elite fitness business owners sell their programs with a membership model. They dont do 1 month at a time or 12-packs of sessions. They give their all to their clients, so they expect a commitment on the part of the client. 3-, 6- and 12-month memberships are the norm, and thats usually just the start of a much longer relationship with the client. 7. They have multiple streams of income. 100% of the elite have multiple streams of income. They may have bootcamp and semi-private. They may offer weight management programs. They may run corporate programs. They may run youth programs or even have an Athletic Revolution. But they all have at least 3 income streams, and so should you. Identify your income streams and look to add new ones. Dont hesitate to ask us if you need help. 8. They market consistently. 86

Every one of the elite fitness business owners has a couple marketing systems running at all times. The marketing systems may vary: Ben Warstler might be running transformation contests, and Steve Krebs might be focusing on fundraisers. Jared Woolever might using Business of the Month as his #1 strategy. They may all use different marketing systems based on their personal preferences and their strengths, but theyre all marketing consistently. 9. Referrals are #1. Over the years, weve asked all of our Mastermind Members what their #1 ongoing marketing strategy was (to omit one-time things like Groupon), and all but one member answered, Referrals. And that member immediately set up a call with me to ramp up his referral systems. Once a quality business has some traction, referrals should be #1. But this doesnt happen by accident. You have to have referral systems in place. From bring-afriend days and charity bootcamps to referral contests and referral rewards programs, the elite has a system for earning, asking for, and rewarding referrals. You should, too. 10. Their personal behavior is different. The elite are all action takers. Theyre notorious for launching new promos before theyre even home from our meetings. But in a bigger sense, they recognize that their success is driven by them and their behaviors. They expect to win and are willing to do what most people are unwilling to do to get there. They surround themselves with people that behave in the same way and get the same types of results. Theyre committed to getting better. Thats why so many of the best in the industry are in our Mastermind Groups and part of our franchises. Theyre already great at what they do, but theyre still working to improve, to learn, and to better leverage their time and efforts. They know that if they consistently do the things that yield success, theyll get the success they want. You do the work and you get the results. That seems simple, but most fitness professionals still dont get it. Theyre unwilling to do the daily work to get better to make the investment of time and money to rise above the rest. And thats why theyll always be average at best. So there you go: 10 Secrets of Elite Fitness Business Owners that you can apply in your own business. Put them into action and watch your own business reach that elite level as well.

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Epilogue

Whats Next?
Ive covered a lot of territory in this book, and you probably have a lot of ideas to get started. But you may also have a pretty long list of question marks like, How do I do that? When Nick and I first started out, we asked that same question many times. Over the years, we have built a huge arsenal of tools, resources, experts, and vendors. All of these make it much, much easier to do what you do. As a reader, you can see all of these at our hub site, Fit Business Insider. Just visit: www.FitBusinessInsider.com to find a knowledge base of everything you need to take your business to the next level. And as a Kindle reader, dont miss our fantastic gift to you: $597.89 worth of fitness businessbuilding material, all for FREE. Just head over to: www.fitbusinessinsider.com/kindle

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About the Author


Pat Rigsby is an author, consultant, and fitness entrepreneur and is the co-owner of over a dozen businesses within the fitness industry. He, along with Nick Berry, has positioned Fitness Consulting Group as the leading business development organization in the fitness industry. FCG provides resources, coaching programs, and consulting to give you everything you need to start or grow your personal training or fitness related business. In addition to his business coaching and consulting work, Pat is also the co-owner of two of the leading fitness franchises in the world, Athletic Revolution and Fitness Revolution. Athletic Revolution, the fastest growing youth fitness and sports performance franchise in the world, was founded in order to provide passionate youth fitness professionals with a system for developing a successful business that could provide them with a fulfilling career and a chance to have a profound impact in their communities serving the youth market. You can learn more about the Athletic Revolution opportunity by visiting: www.MyAthleticRevolution.com Fitness Revolution, launched in January, 2011, is already the fastest growing personal training franchise in the world. It was developed to allow the fitness industrys best trainers and coaches to have access to the systems, tools, and support necessary to reach their professional potential. You can learn more about the Fitness Revolution opportunity by going to: www.FitnessRevolutionFranchise.com Pat also hosts a number of conferences and webinars and writes a blog and newsletter that reach over 65,000 fitness professionals on the topics of fitness business development, fitness marketing, and other business topics. He has been seen on NBC, ABC, CBS, and in industry publications like Personal Fitness Professional, Club Industry and Club Business International. You can learn more about Pats coaching programs and products or download his collection of free business building gifts by going to: www.FitBusinessInsider.com

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